Category: visual

“Under the sweeping guidelines, which were approved last month by the American Association of Museums and the Association of Art Museum Directors, museums must research and disclose on their Web sites the backgrounds of all art works acquired after 1933, when the Nazis took power in Germany, and produced before the conclusion of World War II in 1945.” – New York Times

Wolfgang Tillmans, who this week won the Turner Prize, “is on the fashionable cusp between photography, art, and fashion, and was a safe choice.” – Financial Times

China plans to spend $60 million on a new museum to house a treasure trove of relics being saved from the giant Three Gorges Dam.” – New Jersey Online (AP)

The Austrian government recommends returning paintings by Gustav Klimt stolen during the Nazi era. One of the paintings is worth $9 million “The artworks to be returned include ‘Lady with Hat and Feather Boa’, a showpiece of the Austrian State Belvedere Museum in Vienna. – BBC

A long-lost statue of Christ made by Michelangelo has been discovered in a small church outside of Rome. “It is well known that Michelangelo worked on an earlier version which he had to discard because of a black line in the marble which appeared on the face of Christ. But its whereabouts were never known.” – The Telegraph (UK)

A neuroscientist believes the enigma of the Mona Lisa’s smile might be due to an optical trick. “If you look at the painting so that your gaze falls on the background or on Mona Lisa’s hands … it would appear much more cheerful than when you look directly at her mouth.” – Discovery

So how’s the art market doing so far this season? “While the secondary market is looking sluggish, serious collectors are showing increased enthusiasm for major works by major artists. The result, according to many, is a feeding frenzy for top material.” – Forbes

This year’s Turner Prize goes to a photographer for the first time. The £20,000 prize, which has specialized in controversy in recent years, was awarded to Wolfgang Tillmans, a “German whose special line is taking pornographic homosexual pictures.” – The Telegraph (UK)

For the first time in memory, collectively the major museum shows in Manhattan are a flaccid, uninspired disappointment. “Perhaps it’s an anomaly. Certainly it’s the first time in memory that not a single big fall show will be remembered as being of more than cursory artistic significance. Tourism is one of Manhattan’s biggest industries, and cultural tourism is a linchpin to the city’s economy. For art museums, the urge is strong to court a huge and churning general public that’s more willing than ever to sample their offerings. While a single art season does not a watershed make, the fall 2000 season in the four big art museums certainly reflects an unmistakable long-term change. They’ve been aggressive in wooing the crowd.” – Los Angeles Times

• Why did New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani (not a politician particularly known for his love of visual art) go out of his way to get $67 million to the Guggenheim Museum for a new downtown museum? “Civic leaders have a responsibility to leave cities far greater and more beautiful than [they] were transmitted to us.” – Financial Times