Category: visual

“‘The Department of Justice will take no further legal action with respect to the mask of Ka-Nefer-Nefer,’ U.S. Attorney Richard Callahan said [Monday].” Authorities are unable to produce any evidence that the item, which disappeared from Egypt sometime between 1966 and 1973 and was purchased by the museum from a U.S. dealer 25 years later, was stolen.

“The Met’s first female president managed some 1,500 workers. Working with Met director Thomas Campbell, she oversaw renovations of its Islamic galleries and American wing, new digital initiatives and an increase in attendance fueled by blockbuster shows.”

“To the extent that anyone can articulate a sense of aesthetics for this new landscape, it’s all very superficial: It should twinkle at night, bustle by day, have some nice green things here and there, and mainly not impose very much on our eyes or mind. The new Silver Line stations do all of that, and they do it well.”

“Seeing masterpieces may be a soul-nourishing cultural rite of passage, but soaring attendance has turned many museums into crowded, sauna-like spaces, forcing institutions to debate how to balance accessibility with art preservation.”

“The new appraisal, conducted by Victor Wiener Associates, a New York firm, was commissioned by the Financial Guaranty Insurance Company, a bond insurer that stands to lose hundred of millions of dollars in the bankruptcy. The insurer has called for the masterpieces from the museum to be sold or monetized in some other way, such as being used as collateral for a loan.”

“According to a museum spokesman, MOCA hopes to make some relevant announcements by the end of summer. But plainly, there’s a problem. The empty exhibition schedule, which is going to be very difficult to fill, threatens to interrupt the museum’s momentum.”

These four buildings “come after a few notable setbacks for Mr. Foster, including the New York Public Library’s recent decision to rethink its planned conversion of part of its research flagship into a circulating library using a Foster design.”

“The first world war occured at one of the most creative moments in the history of art.”

“If the proposals go ahead – there is a chance that they will be watered down — 20 museums and archaeological sites deemed of ‘major national interest’ will become self-governing institutions, no longer run by civil servants in the culture ministry.”

“The idea is that this will be something special. There are so many messages that people, particularly children, get from their environment. There can be a certain bleakness.”