Abu Dhabi Deal – Critics Assail Louvre

“The oil-rich emirate will pay 400 million euros ($524m; £272m) just for the Louvre name. The first payment, 150m euros, will be made within a month, according to the French news agency AFP. This, according to critics, amounts to using France’s artistic heritage for basely commercial ends. ‘Our museums are not for sale’, proclaims an online petition signed by 4,700 people – including many curators, art historians, and archaeologists.”

Gabriel Garcia Marquez Turns 80

Nobel Prize winner Gabriel Garcia Marquez is getting parties across the globe. “Aracataca, his hometown, woke up to 80 cannon salvos. Paper and metal yellow butterflies then filled public spaces. Cities and towns across Colombia are holding events – but the author, who now lives in Mexico, is not expected to set foot in the country. Spain has already marked the occasion with a marathon reading of the novel One Hundred Years of Solitude.”

Opera’s “American Idol” System

“In the pop world, talent tournaments are a made-for-TV anomaly, since having a good larynx and knowing how to use it is helpful, but hardly necessary for stardom, particularly for men. (How far would Bob Dylan, 50 Cent or Kurt Cobain have made it on ‘American Idol’?) Opera, though, runs on singing competitions. It’s how the national supply of singers is located, channeled and refined.”

America’s Endangered Book Reviews

“Book publishers in recent years have moved away from buying ads in standalone book-review sections in favor of paying to stack mounds of books in the front of chain bookstores. Some small literary publications, such as the New York Review of Books, are showing growth, but the book review as a separate section is endangered not only at the Los Angeles Times but at other major newspapers like the Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, San Francisco Chronicle and San Diego Union-Tribune.”

Under Mortier, A City Opera With Greater Scope?

Gerard Mortier, incoming director of New York City Opera, “comes from a European tradition in which the opera house is the home for opera and ballet, as well as academies. … His job in Paris has required a broad perspective and the insight to encourage creative thinking about presenting the arts as a whole. What’s exciting about his impending arrival is that his sort of background brings the promise of crossing over, reaching out, collaborating with, and delving into as much as possible from his post at City Opera.”

LACMA’s [Your Corporate Name Here] Entrance

“A $25-million donation from BP has capped phase one of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s three-part expansion and renovation campaign. Solar panels atop a new entry pavilion named for the British oil company will signal BP’s wish to be seen as an environmental innovator. LACMA plans to announce today that the glass-encased structure will be called the BP Grand Entrance.”

Book-Market Bomb Aimed At Iraq’s Intellectuals

“The book market along Mutanabi Street was a throwback to the Baghdad of old…. Somehow it survived the war, until Monday, when a powerful suicide car bomb hit the market, slicing through the heart of the capital’s intellectual scene. It killed at least 20 people and wounded more than 65. … ‘There are no Americans or Iraqi politicians here — there are only Iraqi intellectuals who represent themselves and their homeland, plus stationery and book dealers,’ said Abdul Baqi Faidhullah, 61, a poet who frequently visits the street.”

National Gallery Adding Johns Proofs En Masse

“The National Gallery of Art is planning to become a destination for the study of iconic painter Jasper Johns. The gallery is set to announce today that it will be adding 1,700 proofs of Johns’s lithographs, etchings, relief prints and screen prints to its collection by the end of 2008. The works’ estimated value is in the millions of dollars and, if the fundraising is successful, the gallery will have the largest repository of Johns’s work in the country, the gallery said.”

About That Picasso You Bought On TV …

“A La Cañada Flintridge couple who ran televised art and jewelry auctions have admitted to running a scam that bilked buyers out of more than $20 million by selling bogus artworks and forging the signatures of such notables as Picasso, Chagall and Dali. … The couple admitted their operation involved the television show ‘Fine Arts Treasures Gallery,’ shown Friday and Saturday nights on channels broadcast by Direct TV and the Dish Network.”