One unexpected sight at the London museum’s new Switch House extension is a view straight into the glass-walled condos of the Neo Bankside complex, just 20 meters across the street. And visitors have been taking full advantage of that view, sharing photos of it all over social media, much to the residents’ chagrin. (The Tate has not been sympathetic.) Now five plaintiffs “claim their high-rise homes have been turned into ‘goldfish bowls’ while they have become ‘public exhibits'” – a violation of their human rights, they say.
Category: visual
Why Are London’s Museums Royally Overhung?
“Here’s an exhausting irony: Tate Modern’s room dedicated to Minimalism is so packed with works that it looks more like an industrial warehouse than a museum … [It] is just one of the countless London exhibitions stuffed full of art like a trussed turkey.”
How Construction Workers Accidently Found The Coffins Of Four Archbishops Of Canterbury
“Last year, during the refurbishment of the Garden Museum, which is housed in a deconsecrated medieval parish church next to Lambeth Palace, the Archbishop of Canterbury’s official London residence, builders made the discovery of a lifetime: a cache of 30 lead coffins that had lain undisturbed for centuries.”
Getty Museum Evacuated Because Of Bomb Threat
“LAPD Officer Tony Im told LAist that someone called the museum at 2:51 p.m. and stated that there was a bomb and to get out.”
Three Of Peggy Guggenheim’s Great-Grandchildren Protest Guggenheim Museum Exhibition
“Three of Peggy Guggenheim’s great-grandchildren say that when she donated her Venetian palace and Modern art collection to the foundation set up by her uncle in New York, she stipulated that none of the works on show in Venice should be removed for display elsewhere between Easter and 1 November.”
I.M. Pei At 100 (Give-Or-Take A Week)
Justin Davidson reviews a long, strange, brilliant career.
At Pompeii, ‘There Will Be Regular Maintenance At Last’
In 2010 and 2014, a series of collapses and crumbled ruins at the site had many people worried for the survival of what’s left of the ancient Roman resort town. Now EU officials hail the turnaround and restoration there – called the Great Pompeii Project – as “a model for Europe.” Here’s a Q&A with Massimo Osanna, the archaeologist who oversees the entire site.
Russian Authorities Raid Hermitage, Seize Documents On Soviets’ Sale Of Confiscated Art
“A curator at the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg has claimed that government authorities have seized archives and books at the institution’s shops related to the Soviets’ sale of art nationalised after the Bolshevik Revolution to Western collectors, sparking fears of an attempt to rewrite the country’s history.”
Museum Struggle To Conserve “New” Media Art That’s No Longer So New
Conservation of art that was made with technology like old TVs, VCR tapes and floppy disks is breaking down and getting more and more difficult to conserve. How do you “restore” a cassette tape when it has started to decay? Museum conservators are resorting to buying up old technology on services like EBay to repair the materials.
Claim: London’s Planned Garden Bridge Across The Thames Is A “Post-Truth” Project
The garden bridge, proposed to cross the Thames from the South Bank to Temple, is nothing if not a landmark of the post-truth era. It has wrung tens of millions out of the public purse on the basis of deceptions, distortions and facts that proved to be fake. First sold as “a gift to the people of London”, entirely paid for by private sector donations, it is now due to cost a minimum of £60m in public money. Its estimated total cost has gone from £60m to “north of £200 million”. Its claims to fundraising prowess are exaggerated, its promised transport benefits minimal.