Category: visual

The Field Museum assesses (and reassesses) the 1893 World Columbian Exposition.

“It was announced last week that Gehry will be joining Norman Foster in the next phase of the £8bn Malaysian-backed plan to transform south London’s derelict cathedral of power into a gleaming wonder-world of 3,500 flats, shops and offices.”

“And virtually no one bought them. People couldn’t believe that it was a Banksy. That’s a wonderful commentary on money and art, and the fact that you need dealers around you and the confidence to think that a Banksy is worth $60,000, when you could’ve bought one for $60.”

“There’s a serious love affair going on between Hollywood and the art world. Suddenly, everyone in town seems to have gone collecting mad.”

“These auctions also underscore the disparity between the more modest market for Impressionist and modern art, where fewer blockbusters remain in private hands, and the seemingly endless supply of top-notch contemporary art.”

“For a long time the Leopold Museum has been under these dark clouds [the Nazi looted art debate], we were the looted art museum par excellence. But in the last few years we have done much to improve this public perception and it is therefore our responsibility to be extremely thoughtful and considerate in these matters.”

“The staggering price tags and a perception (possibly fanciful) that the universe of global billionaires is big enough to support a few hundred more units have developers rushing to erect super-slims. The competition for the best views is fierce.”

“A New York State Supreme Court judge has ruled in favor of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in two lawsuits contending that the museum, under a 19th-century state law and the museum’s original 1878 lease with the city, has no legal authority to charge a suggested admission fee, as it has done for more than four decades.”

“Eik Kahng, curator at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, believes she has identified a previously unknown painting by Eugène Delacroix (1798-1863). Given the stature of the French Romantic innovator, that’s no small thing.”

The hedge fund mogul, a very high-profile collector, “is now parting with about $80 million worth of blue-chip art … [including works] by Brice Marden, Rudolf Stingel and Cy Twombly, along with previously reported Warhols and a Gerhard Richter.”