Category: visual

The former premier of New Brunswick weighs in on the claim by descendents of Lord Beaverbrook that paintings in possession of the Beaverbrook Art Gallery were loans and should be returned. “I knew the man very well, and when he gave something he didn’t lend it, he gave it. Lord Beaverbrook gave the building and its contents in perpetuity to the province and its people. It’s not a loan that he made.”

“On Saturday, Forum Barcelona 2004 opened. It is a kind of four-month-long Expo with ambitious geopolitical themes, or, as it bills itself, a vast “meeting point for citizens of the world”. At its heart is the Forum building, a cinematic tour de force designed by the Swiss architects Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron. The building is also the fulcrum of an entirely new quarter of Barcelona on the coast north-east of Barceloneta and Port Olympic, the first remodelled, the second created, to coincide with the 1992 Olympics. When Forum Barcelona 2004 closes at the end of September, the city will inherit impressive new parks, yet another cleaned-up port and beach, concert and congress halls, public walkways, a new railway station dedicated to high-speed trains, clusters of new apartment blocks, an “e-city” of shiny office buildings dedicated to dotcoms and other forms of electronic enterprise, and yet another boost to its international prestige.”

The director of Britain’s Museum of Natural History says his institutions is threatened by the lack of students studying natural history. “Few university syllabuses cover systematics, the naming and classification of plants and organisms in which the museum excels. Potential recruits were further deterred by comparatively low salaries.”

Pittsburgh’s Warhol Museum opened 10 years ago. The museum is still trying to settle on what it’s trying to be. “People in New York resent the fact this museum is in Pittsburgh. But what the museum does for Pittsburgh is of far greater value than it would have in New York City.”

New York dealer Larry Gagosian is building the biggest gallery in London. “The sheer scale of the new space – 1,400 sq metres of it – is a significant statement, and, crucially, will allow the exposure of a raft of monumental work never before exhibited in London.Charles Saatchi says it is ‘magnificent and beautiful’, and it could change the way the London art world operates for ever.”

The Chicago art fair used to be one of the premiere art events of the year. “But in the last five years, Art Chicago, which continues through Monday at Navy Pier, has been in what several observers describe as a steady decline. Many high-profile dealers, along with the art-savvy (and deep-pocketed) collectors they serve, have abandoned Art Chicago for newer, flashier fairs in Miami, New York, London and Basel, Switzerland, that are widely perceived as fresher and more innovative.”

Spanish police have raided a winery in southern Spain and seized more than 5,000 stolen archaeological artefacts which were on display in a clandestine museum in the cellars of the building. “The raid followed a three-month investigation dubbed “Operación Toro.”
The objects, which filled several rooms, were carefully arranged in glass cabinets and bookcases, and organised into chronological order with labels and other documentation.”

The name of the person who bought a picasso painting for a record $104 million hasn’t been revealed. “Buyers identities do trickle out, however, as there are only a handful of very rich people in the world who consistently spend this kind of money and get approaches from galleries to display their wares. Unless you believe in Dr No keeping his pictures in a cave, it’s going to be very hard to hide this picture. It’s always secret if only because the world’s very richest people are hiding from two kinds of character – thieves and burglars, and they are also hiding from the taxman.”

Michelangelo’s David is being unwrapped this month after his first bath in 130 years. “The cleaning has left David’s complexion a little pearlier than it has been in a very long time. It has also highlighted some of the colossal nude’s less obvious imperfections, nicks and discolorations. “David” is showing his age.”

Leonardo da Vinci’s 500-year-old Mona Lisa is heading for X-ray and a microscope for the first time in a half-century to determine what’s causing it to warp.