Category: visual

Restoration of old artworks has long been a refined science. But saving new artworks is getting to be a bigger headache. “Modern works crumble, get moldy or disintegrate as restorers try to keep them from falling apart. Thoughtlessness, new materials and unusual ways to work with them make sculptures, paintings and installations appear old or cause them to decay even before their creators have suffered the same fate.”

A spokesman for the hotel from which three Munch artworks were stolen last weekend says they are eager to get the work back and We will continue to hang art on the walls. “We haven’t considered changing our product.” The Refsnes Gods is an exclusive hotel, dating from the 1770s and known for its art, its gourmet kitchen and wine tasting seminars, and its location on the Oslo Fjord.

Nine arrests have been made in Oslo in the weekend theft of three Edvard Munch artworks. “A car chase ended when a police vehicle smashed into a vehicle in which the suspects were fleeing. The artworks were apparently found in a building in Oslo’s Kampen neighborhood, less than a mile from the Munch Museum, from which armed robbers took one of the two painted versions of “The Scream” – the other is in the National Gallery of Norway – and another Munch masterpiece, “Madonna,” on Aug. 22.”

The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation is in major disarray. “An Arizona Republic examination over the past year revealed that the foundation is beset with legal and financial mayhem, clashes over its mission and revolving-door leadership. The situation is so dire that the foundation’s board of directors recently endorsed an emergency proposal to raise $100 million as part of the solution, a considerable challenge given that it has raised less than $2 million in donations over the past five years.”

Norwegian police have recovered three Edvard Munch artworks stolen over the weekend from a hotel restaurant. “It seems to be a fashion among criminals to steal Munch. How professional is it to steal art? Great value, big risk and hard to sell. They would have to be very slow in the head to do it.”

Taiwan is now officially home to the world’s tallest building. “The official opening of the Taipei 101 Tower in December 2004, makes it — for now — the world’s tallest building. In the 20th century, competition for this title was largely waged in Chicago and New York, but it has recently migrated to Asia.”

“What draws people to this, the world’s largest art fair, is the expectation of seeing the best the market has to offer in every collecting category from old master paintings and sculptures to antique furniture, antiquities, silver and decorative objects. This year there were no $40 million paintings by Rembrandt or $15 million sculptures by Bernini as there have been in years past. Some dealers grumbled about the scarcity of objects coming to the market; others said they didn’t bring any blockbusters, fearing that if they didn’t sell they might be overexposed and therefore less desirable. Still, there was an impressive array of about 30,000 works being offered for sale by some 200 dealers from 14 countries.”

Thieves have stolen three more works by Edvard Munch, this time from a hotel in Norway. “Thieves took a 1915 watercolor, “Blue Dress,” and two lithographs — a self-portrait and a portrait of Swedish playwright and novelist August Strindberg.”

“Whether it’s a simple, hastily scrawled tag on a laundromat’s exterior wall or an extravagant, “wild style” mural of cartoon figures and gigantic bubble letters sprawled across a factory facade near the freeway, spray-can and paint-stick imagery is a constant presence. At the low end of our attention meter, it teases, nettles and tingles. At the other, it blares out and demands to be consciously seen, whether in loathing, admiration, perplexity or some confounding amalgam of the three.”

Critics have attacked the Thai Government’s plans for a tsunami museum. Particularly insensitive, they say, are plans to create the simulated tsunami attraction as part of a memorial museum.