The chairman of Britain’s Council for Museums, Archives and Libraries says British museums need to loosen up. “Pointing out that museums across the country have an average of 75 per cent of objects in store, he advised them to be ‘less precious’ about deaccessioning. Lord Evans congratulated the Museum of London, which has given boxes of Roman artifacts to primary schools. In answer to a query about his earlier suggestion that museums should lend to pubs, he argued that this might sometimes be appropriate for sturdy objects, such as agricultural equipment (“but not Canalettos”, he quickly added).” – The Art Newspaper
Category: visual
HERE FOR THE TINTORETTO
A Tintoretto painting is discovered in small town Pennsylvania. “From an art-historical standpoint, the discovery of the Tintoretto in Wernersville is not quite as significant as the discovery of Caravaggio’s “Taking of Christ” in a Jesuit residence in Dublin in 1990. Yet the story of the Tintoretto painting is intriguing and involves several figures of ecclesiastical and historical prominence.” – New York Times
VISITING DANIEL LIBESKIND
Libeskind’s proposal of a crumpled spiral addition between the thoroughly Victorian buildings of London’s Victoria and Albert Museum was something of a scandal when it was unveiled in 1996. Now it looks like it may compete with the Bilbao Guggenheim for attention.” – The Telegraph (UK)
A NEW KIND OF LIBRARY
Rem Koolhaas’s design for a new Seattle Public Library has people talking. “The library is an audacious reworking of the conventional library, that archaic monument to civic glory.” – Los Angeles Times
ALL ROADS LEAD TO THE BLOB?
“Computer technology is rapidly changing the environment for architects as well as for businesses and nations. How are they adapting to it? In what form will architecture survive?” – New York Times
GOING FOR VAN GOGH
“In the last decade, according to an ARTnews survey of scholars, museum curators, and art dealers in Europe and the United States, suspicions about fake van Goghs have tainted some of the most expensive paintings in the world, including the Yasuda ‘Sunflowers’, purchased in 1987 by the Yasuda Fire and Marine Insurance Company of Japan for $39.9 million, at the time the highest sum ever paid for a work of art.” – ARTnews
THE ANNUAL ARTNEWS LIST —
— of the world’s biggest collectors of art is out. “The market is very much dominated by Americans. What’s especially healthy is that the whole speculative element of the ’80s is gone. Now the buyers want to keep the works. They’re not going into bank vaults.” – ARTnews
DON’T BE DISSING GRANDPA
Turns out Stalin’s 28-year-old grandson is an artist – a painter – and judged a good one by those who have seen his work in London and Glasgow. Just one problem – what about those views of history he’s all too happy to share? “Stalin was a truly great man,” he says. “He was a great ruler like Napoleon, Genghis Khan, Julius Caesar. He cannot be erased as if he did not exist. I do not like it when people pretend he did not really happen in history.” – The Times (UK)
SERIOUS ABOUT STOLEN ART
The World Jewish Congress says it will step up its efforts to recover artwork stolen by the Nazis and never returned to rightful owners. “The WJC says it plans to claim thousands of works of art from American museums using lists that were made by the U.S. Army after the Second World War.” – CBC
SOME FUTURE
Venice’s Architecture Biennale is imagining the future. “The theme of this year’s exposition is the deep sense of disorder affecting a society in rapid transformation, where the architect’s reference points have been changed completely.” – Wired