Tag: 02.21.00

Public statues are a guarantee to oblivion. Who pays any attention to them? “Who could have named any of the occupants of Trafalgar Square – apart from Nelson – before the Royal Society of Arts launched its campaign to fill the fourth plinth, which has remained empty since Charles Barry laid out the square in 1829?” – New Statesman

A Lyon opera house, built in 1993 by leading architect Jean Nouvel, had to close its doors and the company cancel its season after a rash of structural and mechanical failures in the building. This is the latest mishap in a pattern of failure afflicting celebrated modern French buildings. The Opéra Bastille, the Grande Arche de la Défense, the Bibliothèque Nationale de France and the Conservatoire of music have all suffered collapses and dysfunctions costing millions to repair. – The Times (UK)

Revelations that some US museums have asked for commissions on sales of work they exhibit leave other museums scrambling to deny they engage in the ethically questionable practice.  – New York Times

A symposium on art in digital media concluded Saturday with a roundtable of critics, historians and artists at the Berkeley Art Museum. While the internet may have buzz, here – just miles from the i-epicenter of Silicon Valley – the symposium’s 15 panelists almost threatened to outnumber their audience. And though David Ross, director of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, likened the artistic impact of the internet to that of the advent of photography, the panel could hardly even agree on how to define internet art. – San Francisco Chronicle

British opponents of an EU plan to give artists a cut on the resale of their work say the plan will gut the English market and drive art-sellers to Switzerland or New York where the tax won’t be collected. Is that any reason not to let artists share in profits on their work? – The Telegraph (UK)

A wave of lawsuits against Christie’s and Sotheby’s for price fixing amidst a pattern of seemingly lockstep behavior. – New York Times