Study: Most UK Art Is Unaccessible

A new study of art in Britain’s public institutions says that “over 80 percent (120,000 pictures) are probably held in storage or in buildings without access. What is publicly owned is not publicly accessible. Of the 150 collections which have so far been recorded by the foundation, only one (a hospital) was able to provide a complete set of data on the first attempt.”

Picking Hits (Scientifically)

“Every year, a handful of songs do much, much better than all the others, and nobody has much idea why. If the hits only did a little better than the non-hits, this unpredictability wouldn’t matter. But that’s not how it works. Only about one-fifth of artists end up making money for the label, and a few make so much that they subsidise everyone else, but you can’t tell in advance which ones will do well.” But new software hopes to have cracked the hit code.

College Sells American Masterpiece To Museums

Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia is selling its prized 1875 painting by Thomas Eakins “for $68 million to the National Gallery of Art in Washington and the new Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, founded by the Wal-Mart heiress Alice L. Walton and under construction in Bentonville, Ark. That sum is a record for an artwork created in the United States before World War II.”

Critics Denounce Portrait Museum’s “Appalling” Acquisition

London’s National Portrait Gallery has bought a picture of Lady Jane Grey for £100,000. But critics are deriding the purchase. “It’s an appallingly bad picture and there’s absolutely no reason to suppose it’s got anything to do with Lady Jane Grey. But if the National Portrait Gallery has public money to burn, then so be it.”

Why Are Agents Shut Out Of Oscar Voting?

Sometimes it seems, like they let anyone vote for the Oscars. Besides actors, directors and producers, casting directors and makeup, design and other technical teams all get votes. Even publicists. But not agents. “As they prepare to argue their case yet another time, agents note that their role has changed from the days when they simply got actors to sign on the dotted line.”

Back From The Dead

New recordings are expensive. And better technology make it easier and easier to bring old historic recordings back to life, making them sound, in some cases, like new. “It really is amazing, after all, to put on a recording by Enrico Caruso that was made in 1920 and have it sound as though the tenor, dead 85 years now, is in the next room.”