In filing for Chapter 11, the museum is “seeking relief from what museum officials characterize as a crushing debt burden [of more than $30 million] incurred by construction of its home on Independence Mall a decade ago.” – The Philadelphia Inquirer
Tag: 03.02.00
THE POLITICS OF TRADITION
A jury has awarded a judgment against the London Times for accusing composer Keith Burstein of disrupting concerts of atonal music. Burstein is on a campaign to bring back traditional harmony to classical music and has made no secret of his disdain for music without tonality, especially that of Harrison Birtwistle. – The Guardian
MUSICAL MID-RANGE
In olden days composers wrote plenty of music for all levels of skill at the piano. Not modern composers. So a new commissioning project aims at helping to fill in the intermediate range. – New York Times
BEFORE HE DIED, …
“Peanuts” creator Charles M. Schultz told his family he didn’t want anyone else drawing his strip, and that animated shows based on the characters should end as well. But when Schultz began the strip in the 1950s cartoonists routinely gave up their copyrights to distributors. United Media owns the “Peanuts” copyright and it got 61 percent of its $84.9 million in 1998 revenues from the comics, TV shows and licensing deals. Think they’ll let the franchise go dark? – San Francisco Examiner (AP)
VERONESE DAMAGE
After inspecting how the Louvre has cleaned a prominent painting by Italian master Veronese, a French conservation expert despairs: “Clothes that were originally red were now green. The whole spatial and wonderful chromatic harmony is distorted. When you look at the painting . . . black, red and blue colors seem to be floating among other colors like pieces of a broken puzzle. The light is now a cold, artificial, modern one.” – The Times (UK)
CAN’T TELL THE PLAYERS WITHOUT A SCORECARD
Who’s who and what’s what in the auction-house scandals. – New York Observer
JERUSALEM’S ISRAEL MUSEUM —
— gets architects’ approval for controversial expansion designed by American James Freed. – Haaretz (Israel)
NOW THAT BRITAIN HAS COME CLEAN…
by publishing a list of art in British museums that might have been stolen by the Nazis, what are American museums waiting for? “How is it possible that in Britain alone there are 350 works that may have been stolen and U.S. museums can’t find any?” asked Elan Steinberg, executive director of the World Jewish Congress. – Seattle Post-Intelligencer (AP)
- An example to the world. – Chicago Tribune
CANADIAN INQUIRY —
— into the business practices of giant bookseller Chapters hears charges of “bullying tactics” used against independent booksellers. – CBC
THE MARCO POLO OF BOOKS
In a pickup truck or car she wanders southern Africa, the lands south of the Zambezi River – Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Angola, Lesotho, Swaziland and, of course, South Africa. She buys books at each stop with cash or through barter, books that are indigenous to the land she’s in, and then sells them to customers throughout the world. Her clientele includes collectors and governments and universities. “I have standing orders from a number of American universities,” she said. “Yale says it will buy everything it can get that is published in Mozambique and Namibia.” – New York Times