Category: visual

“Art world deal making typically doesn’t involve Congress, so elite auction houses have not had much cause to spend time — or money — lobbying Capitol Hill. And in this case, the effort might seem outsize.”

“Before 1800, few people went to exhibitions. Now hundreds of millions of people visit them every year. It’s a mass medium and a ritual. The curator sets it up.”

“The debate has roiled Unesco and many of its donors, which years ago appointed an Expert Working Group that has been meeting annually for a decade on the fate of the site, and that so far has been able to agree only to preserve the niches where the statues stood and stabilize them against further damage.”

“Taking a cue from mission-driven, for-profit companies such as Toms Shoes and Ben & Jerry’s, some museums are getting entrepreneurial about delivering services.”

“It was stolen on 14 July 1999, when the local Bastille Day parade served as a diversion, and the theives gained access to the museum through the municipal library next door. Though the alarm went off, the police arrived too late to catch the burglars.”

The team of managers and curators at Hong Kong’s M+, part of the long-delayed West Kowloon Cultural District, “is faced with two daunting tasks: It has to assemble a major collection and has to engage the public through temporary offerings, years before the museum building is completed.”

“Generational change is always occurring as new blood takes the place of the old. But as the boomers’ children take over, there is concern among administrators and trustees that millennials are not poised to meet the financial and leadership demands of increasingly complex — and expensive — museums.”

“Asymmetrical designs may grab people’s attention. But if your goal is to get people intrigued, inspired, or involved, proportionality is your pal.

“Ukrainian museum officials and campaigners had complained for years that works were being taken from museums by government officials and not returned, or were being replaced by copies.”