“A man has been charged over the theft of a collection of Lowry paintings worth up to £1m from an art collector’s home in Greater Manchester. Ivan Aird was tied up and his wife and two-year-old daughter threatened during the robbery in Cheadle Hulme last May.”
Tag: 06.04.08
Fund For Slain Cellist Causes Controversy In Georgia
“The Augusta Symphony launched a fund nearly two weeks ago to memorialize slain cellist David Reader, who was killed in the early morning of May 11 on East Boundary Street. But the announcement of the fund… caused a bitter and mean-spirited debate on crime and punishment on one local message board.”
Drunk Driver On Trial For Killing Two Oregon Musicians
A trial has begun for the Oregon woman charged in the deaths of two members of the Eugene Symphony last year. “Fivea Sharipoff, 26, at left, is charged with manslaughter, assault and driving under the influence after a wrong-way crash on Interstate 5 last year.”
The Theatre After The Theatre
“A West End playhouse is to be turned into a “hangout” for actors and audiences with hi-tech seating that disappears after each performance to create an open-plan entertainment area.”
The Reinvention Of NY City Opera
“The recent announcement from the New York City Opera about its plans for the next two seasons suggests that this essential 65-year-old company, called the People’s Opera by Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, is poised for a near-complete makeover. Its very identity could change under its new leader, Gerard Mortier.”
A Financial Model For The Arts That Works
“Here at the very heart of subsidized Europe, the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden is a nonprofit venture, or the German equivalent without American-style tax breaks. It receives not a cent of public money, save for a long-term payoff for the construction of its 2,500-seat hall.” Here is an “example should make everyone, on both sides of the Atlantic, think twice about cultural economics and the costs of achieving true quality in the arts.”
Suspects Sought In Canadian Haida Gold Museum Theft
“Police believe they may be trying to sell the art work through a network of criminal associates in the Vancouver area, according to a news release issued Tuesday morning.”
Remembering Anne d’Harnoncourt
d’Harnoncourt was a natural museum director in perhaps the best, most basic way. She had the kind of star quality that lights up rooms, but also the confidence to let her curators shine, knowing that their achievements reflected well on her and on the museum she loved so deeply.
New Rules For Museums On Antiquities
“The Association of Art Museum Directors, whose 190 members also include leaders of Canadian and Mexican museums, says the new policy will probably make it even more difficult for museums to build antiquities collections through purchases or, as is more often the case, through gifts and bequests from wealthy private collectors. But they assert that the change will help stanch the flow of objects illegally dug up from archaeological sites or other places.”
Museum Under The Gun – LACMA’s Transformative Move
“The armed presence of private rent-a-cops mostly transforms a public art museum into a mid-Wilshire branch of Van Cleef & Arpels. It’s hard to imagine almost any scenario in which an art museum guard might shoot someone, but that bizarre thought keeps bumping around in your brain at BCAM. Needless to say, it has a less than salutary effect on the art experience.”