Category: visual

The city of Venice has a new logo, a “rather severe-looking winged lion superimposed over a V. Winged lions, dating to Assyrian times, have been a symbol of Venice for hundreds of years.” But the city wants merchants to pay for the logo. “We don’t want to raise money just by selling T-shirts. Anyone who now uses Venice for private reasons to make private money, we’re asking them to add our logo and pay a fee. This way they will state that they are participating in a worldwide campaign to save Venice — and to preserve its heritage.”

The Potamkin collection of American art, “one of the best of its kind in private hands,” is being split up after the death of Vivian and Meyer “Pat” Potamkin’s collection. The collection includes an “estimated several hundred paintings, sculptures, and works on paper” and most will be sold at auction by the couple’s heirs. “The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, which was widely expected to be the major recipient, gets just a small portion, but it is the choicest and most valuable – eight paintings, one pastel drawing and a sculpture, which are estimated to be worth from $18 million to $22 million.”

“The Detroit Institute of Arts could announce staff layoffs as early as Thursday as the economic shock waves rippling through Michigan arrive at the doorstep of the state’s premier cultural museum… Though the museum – with an annual $40-million budget – reported no deficit for last year and projected none for the ongoing fiscal period, some employees were reminded of the dire cuts in 1991.That was the year state arts funds were eliminated, resulting in 84 layoffs and a reduction of hours.”

The Van Dyck painting that hung in Scotland’s National Gallery for more than 100 years, was keeping a secret. “After a year of restoration and investigation, staff at the Edinburgh gallery have been able to shed light on a work Van Dyck wanted no one to see. Underneath the canvas of St Sebastian Bound for Martyrdom is a previous work, also of St Sebastian and almost an exact copy of a Van Dyck that hangs in the Louvre.”

Paris museums have begun moving about 100,000 works of art from underground storage rooms. “The decision to move this art to an undisclosed location north of Paris followed the floods that swept Central Europe last summer, damaging museums and other cultural institutions, notably in Dresden, Germany, and in Prague. Although French art collections were not seriously affected by the 1910 floods, the French government concluded that Paris museums were more vulnerable today.”

This season’s art auction sales held up. But there are ominous signs. “The law of diminishing returns suggests we are coming to the end of the back-toback, buy-to-sell cycle. The best of the “turning” and profit-taking has gone, and the contemporary collectors have stocked up on the prizes they missed first time round. This does not produce the growth the market needs. Not only are we looking for a new generation of artists, we’re desperate for a new wave of collectors.”

Detroit’s Museum of New Art (MONA) has never had an easy road to follow. The very definition of a grassroots arts organization, MONA was founded in an abandoned suburban storefront in 1996, and moved to downtown Detroit in 2001. But the museum has had its share of recent turmoil at the top, and now, it faces eviction from its home in Detroit’s Book Building, amid bizarre charges of vandalism from the landlord, and accusations of mismanagement from several resigned directors.

A company in Southern California has developed a system of satellites and high-tech sensors to catch graffiti taggers. “TaggerTrap, a graffiti eradication system being tested in several California cities, uses global positioning system technology, cell phones and sensors that recognize the ultrasonic pitch of spray cans to alert police when vandals begin their work.”

The family of Eugene Gutman has recently recovered 233 works of art worth about £2 million .from the Dutch government, and will sell 90 of them at auction. The art was looted by the Nazis 60 years ago, and includes silver, Old Master paintings, furniture and other antiques. The sale will be one of the biggest of war-looted art ever.

“Six months after the dramatic rescue of Dresden’s art treasures from incalculable flood damage, the mood in this city’s leading museums is sour. Heralded for their heroic salvage effort, museum administrators and curators are now complaining that Saxony’s regional government has refused to provide them with a safe place to store their art.”