Category: visual

Small blessings in this tale of workers gone a bit too careless (and in the debate of whether great art should be lent out or moved): “‘At least it didn’t pulverize; it came off in one piece,’ the Rev. Augusto Frateschi, the parish priest, said.”

The National Gallery announced on Thursday it will not pay a penalty itself for withdrawing the 1929 work The Eiffel Tower from auction, the proceeds of which it had planned to use to buy a Jacques-Louis David painting from a Quebec church. The gallery said an unidentified donor had agreed to pay an undisclosed amount to Christie’s auction house to release the work.

It is hard to believe that a well-oiled machine like the Cuban Ministry of Culture would feel so threatened by its artists that it would stomp out what essentially amounts to a 10-day art party. But that is precisely what is happening.

Well, okay, if he does it himself, it’s not exactly a forgery. But here’s the story of a couple who rushed to buy Duchamp’s then-reviled Nude Descending a Staircase (No. 2) from the 1913 Armory Show, only to find that someone else had beaten them to it, and how they ultimately convinced Duchamp to make them another one.

Not only do these worldwide sites offer unique art experiences, but they are also being credited with pushing the international contemporary art scene in new directions.

“A new body dedicated exclusively to resolving art disputes, the Court of Arbitration for Art (CAA), will be formally launched 7 June in the Hague by the Netherlands Arbitration Institute (NAI) and the nonprofit Authentication in Art. Instead of being decided by judges and juries, cases will be heard by arbitrators who are seasoned lawyers familiar with industry practice and issues specific to art disputes. Scientific and provenance experts, who are often essential to proving authenticity and title to an artwork, will be appointed by the court rather than hired by the disputing parties.”

“Al-Ula [province] is home to Al-Hijr, a Unesco World Heritage Site since 2008, currently closed to tourists and visited only by a privileged few. Located in north-west Saudi Arabia, it consists of spectacular canyons and rock-carved tombs around Mada’in Salih, once known as Hegra. The oasis was a trading outpost of the Nabataean kingdom, 550km south of its capital, Petra, in modern-day Jordan. It includes remains of the Lihyanite culture and the Roman occupation. … The ten-year deal [to develop the area for international tourism] gives France an exclusive role in a project potentially worth tens of billions of euros in an area almost the size of Belgium.”

The Rockefellers entered the Modern art market in its earliest days, and the manner in which they collected reflects, perhaps influenced, its dramatic growth through the 20th century.

“The new curatorial activism builds on the heritage of critical museology, but also reflects its failure. Rather than adapting museums to serve a wider audience, they argue that museums should actively shape their audiences by impressing on them the gospel of social justice. It devalues collections and condescends to visitors.”

“The Los Angeles County Museum of Art is teaming up with the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts at Arizona State University to establish a three-year program that combines academic training and work experience to develop a new generation of diverse curators, directors and other museum professionals.”