Category: visual

“Viktor Vekselberg, 56, an oil tycoon and art collector, is arguing that the painting, Odalisque, bought [for £1.7 million] through his Aurora Fine Arts fund in 2005, could not possibly be by the prominent Russian artist Boris Kustodiev as it was signed several years after his death.”

The opposition leader described Piano’s plan for the area around City Gate in Valletta – which includes a new Parliament building already under construction – as a “narcissistic” pet project of the Prime Minister and criticized the €80m venture’s financing.

The administrators of the museum said last year’s losses were in part due to a 43% cut in government funding and had, in any case, been covered by profits carried over from the previous year. They expressed “surprise and concern” at the minister’s decision which “damaged the international credibility” of the museum.

“Dropping in to Tate Modern’s new underground oil tank spaces this summer might mean seeing a performance of minimalist dance, taking part in a debate on what it is to be an immigrant or experiencing work by an artist who most recently filmed naked men playing five-a-side football.”

“Even if a painting (or drawing or photograph) has been sold to a collector or a museum, in general, the artist or his heirs retain control of the original image for 70 years after the artist’s death. … If someone wants to reproduce the painting – on a Web site, a calendar, a T-shirt, or in a film – it is the estate that must give its permission, not the museum.” Issues arise everywhere from Google Art Project to the 3-D re-release of Titanic.

“Far less graphic and edgy than the works that made Schiele’s reputation, the painting is nevertheless destined for iconhood because of its history as Nazi loot and the 13-year legal battle waged for it.”

“It’s quite extraordinary the way the ‘Klimt factor’ has taken off. He’s one of those artists – and there aren’t many – who gets his repros everywhere. It’s like an extraordinary contagion but of course it’s more positive than that, it’s a whirlwind. Everywhere you look, there’s a Klimt. You can’t escape him.”

“The boom in museum construction, which some Chinese art experts liken to the expansion of museums in the United States at the end of the 19th century, has much to do with national pride. It comes with the full support of the national government as part of a cultural strategy known as ‘Going Out, Inviting In’.”

“Artist Georgia O’Keefe gave the 101-piece Stieglitz Collection to Fisk [University] in 1946 with the stipulation that it could not be sold. At issue for the last several years has been whether Fisk can accept 30 million dollars to share the art with Crystal Bridges museum in Arkansas.” The Tennessee Supreme Court has rejected the state’s attempt to block that arrangement.

“We’ve decided to present our own version of performance art: a tongue-in-cheek rulebook for how to make it in the art world now–as artist, gallerist, collector, hanger-on. Many of the case studies demonstrate this period’s impish contradictions. And many of them show how to walk a line that has become particularly well trod of late.”