Category: visual

“Museums don’t often go out of business. They cut back, they pare down, but they tend to persevere as cultural anchors of their communities.”

“LA never took to him. His powerful business sense, the very things the museum needed, scared everyone. It was thought that Deitch would show his own artists in the museum and continue dealing art on the down-low; he was too crass for LA. He was savaged from the start.”

“Deitch, who made history as the first commercial art dealer to head a major U.S. museum, has told the museum’s board members that he plans to leave with two years left on his five-year contract, according to two board members.”

“It’s hard enough to be the new attraction in town when you’re up against some of the world’s most famous ancient Roman, Renaissance and Baroque monuments. But Italy’s national museum for art of the 21st century, known as the Maxxi, faces even bigger challenges: attracting a Roman audience, so far largely indifferent, and establishing a reputation on the international scene while the government is sharply cutting financing for the arts.”

“Was he pushed out, or did he get fed up with being a lightning rod at an institution that became hipper under his watch — but that also seemed to face increasing economic woes?”

“Now that the city is laid bare, artists have come from around the country to roost and flourish in cheap city living. Traditionally, artist communities thrive in impoverished areas turning their surroundings into funky ghettos.”

“Romanian experts believe that three out of seven paintings stolen last year from a Dutch museum, a haul that included works by Picasso and Monet, have been destroyed by fire.” The team examined ashes from the stove of the mother of one of the accused thieves.

Those jaw-dropping priices we’ve seen over the past few years? $70 million for a Rothko and $250 million for a Cézanne? “It has become increasingly clear that those masterpieces and many more have been purchased by Qatar, a tiny Persian Gulf country with enormous wealth and cultural ambitions to match: it is buying art at a level never seen before.”

“Rogers has spent a lifetime attempting to make cities more liveable and equitable but, after the Pompidou, what are the landmarks?”