Newly-released documents reveal some details of the internal turmoil behind the scenes at the BBC after a critical report of the public broadcaster. Then-director Greg “Dyke tried to cling onto his job and later wrote to the board asking to be reinstated – but this was turned down.”
Tag: 01.11.07
Wynn Sues Over Damaged Picasso
Casino mogul Steve Wynn poked a hole in a Picasso he was selling for $139 million. He sought $54 million in damages, but the insurer demurs. Now Wynn is “seeking documents related to the insurer’s appraisal of the work, worth $139 million before it was damaged Sept. 30. A restorer said the repaired painting is worth $85 million, a complaint filed yesterday in Manhattan federal court said.”
Art Gallery Of Ontario Gets A Bernini Bronze
“Given to the Toronto gallery by the family of real estate developer and AGO board member Murray Frum, the bronze masterwork is entitled Corpus and is said to be worth $50 million.”
Another Acquisition For LACMA
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art has unveiled a newly acquired sculpture – “‘Saint John Capistran,’ a 450-year-old work in glazed terra cotta by the Italian artist Santi Buglioni – that it purchased last year from a New York art dealer. The unveiling caps a big year of acquisitions for the museum.
Savvy Marketing Or Shutting Out The Little Guy?
“Representatives of a consortium of six medium-sized Canadian-owned publishers are scheduled to meet today in Toronto with members of the Canadian Booksellers Association to try to resolve a dispute over a controversial book-marketing ‘pilot project’ scheduled to start next month and largely targeting Chapters/Indigo stores.”
Combatting Horror With Art
As the trial of one of Canada’s most notorious serial killers gets underway in British Columbia, three artists are attempting to bring some measure of comfort to a stunned populace by memorializing the 26 victims of Robert Pickton in a variety of very public ways.
Will Emoticons And Blog Entries Be Accepted?
“Touchstone, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, has promised to publish a book by a first-time author who wins a contest on Gather.com, a social-networking site that might be described as MySpace for grown-ups… Unpublished writers can enter free by submitting a manuscript for a full-length work of fiction.”
Toscanini’s Art (The Kind You Can See)
“He was the maestro di maestri of music, but few people knew of Arturo Toscanini’s passion for collecting art. Now, as the 50th anniversary of Toscanini’s death approaches, part of his private collection is going on display for the first time.”
Reviews Aside, Embracing The New
“The Metropolitan Opera has to be discouraged by the mostly negative critical reactions to The First Emperor, Tan Dun’s ambitious opera, which had its world premiere at the house on Dec. 21.” But the very fact that the Met is embracing newly commissioned work at all, and the further fact that the entire run of Tan’s opera is sold out, shows that old notions of opera lovers’ conservative nature are overblown, says Anthony Tommasini.
Where New Music Is The Rule, Not The Exception
For all too many symphony orchestras, forays into contemporary music are short-lived and occasional, reflecting programmers’ fears that the public just won’t buy into anything more daring than Mahler. But in Los Angeles, the L.A. Philharmonic’s “Green Umbrella” new music series is turning 20 and going strong.