“U.S. officials this week turned over a nearly 500-year-old Italian painting that had been stolen during World War II to the descendants of its Jewish owner. The painting, titled Christ Carrying the Cross Dragged By A Rascal, was created by Italian artist Girolamo Romani around 1538.”
Category: visual
Canada’s National Gallery Attendance Up (Just Not Enough)
“The gallery, which received a parliamentary appropriation of more than $45-million last year, recorded 346,890 visitors for the 2011-12 fiscal year ending March 31. While representing a 10 per cent increase in attendance from the last fiscal year, it’s known the NGC was anticipating a higher total, in the expectation that its summer show, Caravaggio and His Followers in Rome, would do well during its exclusive-to-Canada three-month run.”
Are Museums Trying To Overwhelm Visitors?
Julián Zugazagoitia describes visiting museums “where you walk into a room and there’s one little painting surround by all these cards in different languages. And the video. And X-rays of the painting. And the only thing you can’t see is the work of art itself.”
Artist Whose Painting Was Burned By Museum As Protest: It Was Painful To See
“Seeing my work go up in flames was extremely painful and I am in mourning. But in some way it did not belong to me any more. I never thought of its commercial value and it is a political act to destroy it. It is something quite beyond me.”
Report: What The Cleveland Museum Contributes To The Local Economy
“By spending $40 million a year on its operations, the museum triggers a total of $60 million in economic impact. The other $80 million in impact comes from spending by 109,000 visitors a year who come to the museum from outside Ohio, or roughly one-third of the audience.”
Has Art Exhausted Its Ability To Offend?
“The larger question is whether bad taste is even a consideration anymore. And if so, what might it mean?”
An Artistic Response: Destroy A Mexican Museum?
“Eduardo Abaroa imagines that the only response to the Mexican government’s failure to improve the lot of its indigenous peoples in the past half-century is to raze one of the regime’s most significant symbols, the Museo Nacional de AntropologÃa.”
Is Abu Dhabi Ready For A Contemporary Art Museum?
With all the delays in the construction of the planned museums on the emirate’s Saadiyat Island – including a Guggenheim branch – some observers are wondering if the whole idea was a good one. After all, both the government and the population are very conservative, and the Gulf already has Qatar pouring big money into museums and the art market.
Italian Government To Sack National Contemporary Art Museum’s Board
“Less than two years after the opening of Maxxi, Italy’s national museum of contemporary art, the Italian Culture Ministry last Friday initiated procedures to replace the board of directors of the foundation that manages the museum with a government-appointed administrator.”
Barnes Foundation’s General Counsel Brett Miller Found Dead
“Just weeks before the opening of the Barnes Foundation’s new museum in downtown Philadelphia, the institution’s general counsel Brett Miller has died. His body was found this weekend at his home, a spokesman for the museum has confirmed.”