“This year’s attendance – the fifth in a row exceeding six million – was 400,000 higher than that of the previous year. The Met attributed this to an increase of about 200,000 visitors at its Fifth Avenue flagship and the Met Cloisters combined and to 185,000 people taking in the Met Breuer during its first four months.”
Category: visual
Luxury-Goods Billionaire Sets Plans For Private Museum In Paris
“Last month, the Paris City Council approved the project, which calls for transforming the building into ‘The Pinault Collection, Bourse de Commerce’ and filling it with art from Mr. Pinault’s collection of more than 3,000 works by contemporary artists like Andy Warhol, Damien Hirst, Gerhard Richter, Jeff Koons, Cindy Sherman, Agnes Martin and Cy Twombly. The interior is to get a makeover by the Japanese architect Tadao Ando.”
Do We Want Bots Determining Ownership Of Art?
“It seems outrageous to demand a photographer be asked to pay for the use of her own work, particularly when she has gifted that work to the public. It seems like another example of corporate bullying. But the suit will undoubtedly be complicated, as everything to do with posting images on the Web is. If, for example, an image is free, does it mean anyone else is free to charge for cataloguing it and giving access to it? If you put your old dresser on the curb and I pick it up, can’t I sell it myself?”
Russian Prude Complains About Replica Of Michelangelo’s ‘David’, Show Organizers Respond With Public ‘Dress David!’ Competition
A St. Petersburg woman complained to city officials that the statue, erected outside a local exhibition on Michelangelo, “spoils the city’s historic appearance and warps children’s souls.” In response, the public has been invited to submit sartorial suggestions, with online voting to select the best idea.
Big 1,900-Year-Old Mosaic Of Hercules’s Labors Uncovered In Cyprus
“Measuring a whopping 62 by 23 feet, the mosaic’s faded tiles appear to be part of what was once a baths complex … The mosaic has suffered some damage, but you can still make out hints of the challenging tasks Hercules had to perform as a kind of penance after murdering his wife and children.”
Public Art At Rio Olympics Cut Because There’s No Money
“The arts programme ahead of the 2016 Rio Olympics has suffered another loss due to budget cuts … A public work by the Italian artist Giancarlo Neri is among the installations recently cancelled by the country’s new culture minister Marcelo Calero.”
Miami Beach’s Bass Museum Announces Plans For Reopening Following Expansion
“The museum’s historic Art Deco building has been under construction since 2013, when it first announced the $12 million expansion. … Without expanding the exterior of the building, Isozaki and Gauld’s redesign” – which opens December 1 – “will increase the size of the museum’s exhibition space by 50 percent, adding four new galleries.”
Restitution Advocate Ronald Lauder Says His Museum Has A Work WIth Uncertain Provenance
“Mr. Lauder, 72, would not identify the piece or its creator during an interview, saying that negotiations on its return were being finalized. He did say he was surprised that a work with a disputed provenance had made it into the museum, which focuses on art created in Austria and Germany from 1890 to 1940.”
Auction Houses Have Found Themselves Becoming Shadow Banks (Making Loans To Shadowy Characters)
“As prices for art skyrocketed, Sotheby’s and other firms have become shadow banks, making millions of dollars of legal loans outside the regulated financial system and raising concerns that such financing could facilitate money laundering.”
Why Are People Piling On Dede Wilsey? She’s Been A Bay Area Arts Powerhouse
“This is a woman who had donated more than $10 million to the city-owned museums over the years. Even more important, she guided the institution through a $190 million capital campaign that gave San Francisco the de Young Museum’s award-winning building in 2005, and she led numerous smaller fund drives for the Fine Arts Museums as well as for several other cultural and social service organizations in town.”