Category: visual

It is obvious now that the Iraq Museum was not looted of all its art. So what accounts for the reports that it had been, and statements made by t6he museum’s director, Donny George? Says George: “There was a mistake. Someone asked us what is the number of pieces in the whole collection. We said over 170,000, and they took that as the number lost. Reporters came in and saw empty shelves and reached the conclusion that all was gone. But before the war we evacuated all of the small pieces and emptied the showcases except for fragile or heavy material that was difficult to move.” This indictment of world journalism has caused some surprise to those who listened to George and others speak at the British Museum meeting. “Donny George himself had ample opportunity to clarify to the best of [his] knowledge the extent of the looting and the likely number of missing objects. Is it not a little strange that quite so many journalists went away with the wrong impression, while Mr George made little or not attempt to clarify the context of the figure of 170,000 which he repeated with such regularity and gusto before, during, and after that meeting.”

Two paintings by Prince Harry shown as part of a TV piece on him as he graduates from Eton, have drawn a purchase offer of £10,000 from a gallery in Portugal. Sky News approached St James’s Palace with the request. Half an hour later, a spokeswoman came back with the official reply: ‘They aren’t for sale’.”

Herbert Muschamp is unequivocal about Zaha Hadid’s first American building, the Lois and Richard Rosenthal Center for Contemporary Art in Cincinnati: “It is an amazing building, a work of international stature that confidently meets the high expectations aroused by this prodigiously gifted architect for nearly two decades. Might as well blurt it out: the Rosenthal Center is the most important American building to be completed since the end of the cold war.”

Seven thousand Spaniards strip for photographer Spencer Tunick in Barcelona, the most people he’s used for one of his photos. “There was a festival-like atmosphere among the crowd even though many of the models became quite cold from standing around naked for 90 minutes in temperatures of 15 degrees Celsius.”

US officials say that estimates of Iraqi artifacts stolen from the Iraq Museum were grossly overestimated and that most of the art has been recovered. “Initial estimates after the war ended in April suggested that as many as 170,000 pieces, including the Nimrud treasures, were lost or stolen during the sacking of the museum, according to U.S. officials. They now say 3,000 pieces remain unaccounted for and may have disappeared into the shadowy world of black market antiquities trading.”

“Italy’s art world is in a flap as experts quarrel over how to preserve the priceless cultural icon. In 2004, it will be 500 years since the 4-metre-high statue depicting the courageous, naked young biblical hero was unveiled in Piazza della Signoria, the square that remains Florence’s lifeblood. The block of marble itself is even older. Now, one of Italy’s leading restorers has thrown down her tools — chamois cloth, silky soft brush, cotton swabs and an eraser — in a spat with other experts over how to clean David.”

In its more recent history, the British Museum has been beset with problems, not the least of which being a lack of money to keep the place running as it ought to be. But the weekend, the BMA turned 250 years old, and a party was held to celebrate one of the world’s great museums.

There’s always much interest in which artist gets to represent the US at the Vinnice Biennale. The Guggenheim owns the US pavilion, and it appears Guggenheim director Thomas Krnes tried to steer this choice to Matthew Barney (who wasn’t chosen). “The Art Newspaper has discovered recently that the entrepreneurial director proposed a deal to the State Department, suggesting that his museum have periodic control of the US participation in the Biennale.”

“ ‘It has become clear in recent months that the Board and I have a different sense of the Whitney’s future, in both the scale of its ambitions and the balance of its programming.’ In March the board had cancelled a long-planned expansion by architect Rem Koolhaas, which a disappointed Mr Anderson says, ‘Signals a pace of growth that is different from what I envisioned’.”

Many cities are anxious to have some sort of iconic defining piece of architecture to add to add to their skyline. “This sense of a great city with a vast meeting place at its heart is important. Los Angeles has failed as a place for public spaces, but civic connectedness is something L.A. needs to be a truly great city.” So will Frank Gehry’s new Disney Hall be that building?