“The art trade, the most discontented profession on earth apart from farmers, has been groaning for nine years about lack of buyers. In 1999, as times turned good, it groaned about lack of sellers. For all its moans, it has done well in pulling pictures out for sale.” The Maastricht European Fine Art Fair showcased a stellar body of “hidden treasures” this year. The Fair closed yesterday, but here’s a top-10 list of masterpieces still available for sale. – London Evening Standard
Tag: 03.28.00
SO LONG, FAREWELL
Nathan Leventhal announced he would step down as president of Lincoln Center after nearly 17 at the helm. His departure “comes at a crucial time for the center, which is considering a $1.5 billion campaign to upgrade its 40-year-old 11-acre campus.” – New York Times
CRIME & PUNISHMENT
As part of Eastern Connecticut University’s “Alternative Restitution Program,” students committing infractions on campus may now choose their course of punishment; community service … or an opera performance. It’s hard to predict what results this program will have on its subjects, but it certainly can’t be the best way to send a positive message about the arts to young people. “This business of opera as punishment may be the worst thing to hit classical music since the Stanley Kubrick film A Clockwork Orange, which juxtaposed Beethoven with coldblooded violence.” – Philadelphia Inquirer
END OF AN EDUCATIONAL RESOURCE
The Boston Museum of Art sent out a letter to educators last week saying they would no longer be able to access the museum’s slide library for use in their classes. The slides, which are used in senior and community centers to educate the public about the MFA’s collection, are being stashed while the museum focuses its energies on putting digitized images on its Web site. A discouraged teacher laments, ending “‘rental privileges for slides from the MFA slide collection takes away our most valuable teaching tool, and the loss of this tool will result in the cancellation of many of our courses,”’ and possibly the loss of the 15,000 – 30,000 new MFA customers each year. – Boston Globe