Historian David Irving, who lost his controversial libel trial in London earlier this week and now faces bankruptcy, is planning a lecture tour of the US with other Holocaust deniers. He hopes the trip will replenish his “fighting fund.” – The Independent (UK)
Tag: 04.13.00
CULTURE SWAP
Korean arts groups are hoping the much-anticipated policy summit between North and South Korea in June will give inter-Korean arts exchange some needed momentum. “The excitement is understandable, given that for more than a half century there has been almost no civilian contact.” – Korea Times
ROSES ARE RED…
Why is it that people seem to find poetry difficult to read but easy to write? “The ‘easy to write’ view seems odd. No one believes it is easy to play a musical instrument. Why would anyone think the instrument of language is any easier to master?” – MSNBC
STATE OF THE ART – ER, SORT OF
For the first time this year, the Whitney Biennial includes internet art. But “it’s clear that if 2000 is remembered as a turning point in the history of Internet art, it may be not because of the Biennial but in spite of it. It took the Whitney until five days after the show opened to get a suite of computers operational in the lower level gallery, despite assurances at the press preview that the computers would be available to viewers as soon as the pre-show parties had ended.” – New Republic
FOLLOW THE LEADER
Given the quick success of British and German web lists of artwork of questionable provenance, American museums discover the internet as well. Yesterday the Metropolitan Museum posted a list of 393 paintings whose ownership histories have any gap between 1933 and 1945. Then the Museum of Modern Art followed suit with a list of the known provenance of 15 works acquired after 1933. – New York Times
DITTO CHICAGO’S ART INSTITUTE: 500 works listed by the museum. – Chicago Tribune
WHY NOW? And by the way, the Presidential Advisory Commission on Holocaust Assets asked the heads of four major museums yesterday, just how serious are you about this issue? And why is Boston’s Museum of Fine Art’s list so thin? – Boston Herald
THE MET, MOMA AND THE MFA —
— trooped before the Presidential Advisory Commission on Holocaust Assets Wednesday to declare their intention to resolve provenance issues. The commission acts as a national body examining what stolen war-era assets exist in the United States and oversees the research to identify them. – Newsday
FIRST CLAIMS
Boston’s MFA acknowledges that a family has made a claim for one of the European paintings in the museum’s collection that was stolen and sold in France during the Nazi occupation. The MFA responds: “We have researched the claim and found it to be completely valid and have since been discussing an amicable resolution with the claimant. The claim-ant wishes to keep the painting at the MFA and we are working toward that end.” – Boston Herald