Supporters of the Dallas Symphony rallied around their band in a year-end fundraising campaign that turned a projected $700,000 deficit into the orchestra’s fourth balanced budget in a row. The DSO worked hard for the money, even making unusual appeals from the stage for donations near the end of the season.
Tag: 06.15.07
MN Opera Still In The Black
Minnesota Opera has announced that it will finish the season with a balanced budget for the fourth year in a row. It was a banner year for the small company, as it garnered national attention for its world premiere of the new operatic version of The Grapes of Wrath, and recorded a live version of the production for release later this year.
Rounding Up The Usual Suspects
“The idea of debonair, highly intelligent, well-connected art thieves” is alluring and makes for good movies, but the reality is far different, experts say. “Most art thieves fall into four categories: political activists who steal to make a point; ransom specialists who say they will destroy a work unless they are paid; small-time crooks who do not realise how hard it is to sell an easily identifiable painting; and – statistically the most likely – the mentally disturbed.”
Burgled Sydney Gallery Lacked Alarm System
The theft of a million-dollar portrait by Frans van Mieris from Sydney’s Art Gallery of New South Wales has pointed up the lack of modern security at the museum. “The absence of electronic surveillance such as alarms or movement detectors means any of the estimated 6000 people there that day could have walked out with the work – insured for $1.4 million – hidden in clothing or in a bag.”
Russia Orders British Council Out
“Russia has renewed its campaign of harassment against the British Council by demanding that the cultural organisation move out of one of its offices in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg.” The move is being seen as a strong-arm move by the Russian government, in response to the UK’s ongoing demands that former spy Andrei Lugovoi – charged with the murder of Alexander Litvinenko – be extradited to Britain.
More Art Records Set To Fall
“Three shimmering paintings by Monet and a portrait by Lucian Freud expected to set a world record for the artist are among the stars of sales predicted to smash European auction records next week. More than £200m-worth of art is for sale over three days at Christie’s, and a further £250m at its rival Sotheby’s.”
Norwegian Wins IMPAC Dublin Prize
“Norwegian author Per Petterson was awarded the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award on Thursday, in competition with writers like Cormac McCarthy, Jonathan Safran Foer and Salman Rushdie… The prize for 100,000 euros ($133,000), the largest and most international prize of its kind for a single work of fiction published in English, was awarded by an international jury.”
Is The Art Market Due For A Correction?
This spring’s art auction boom has been an undeniably wild ride, with records being set seemingly every time an auctioneer’s gavel falls. But “privately, many are saying of the current auction boom that price is not always a reflection of quality. With records being set so frequently, people are also beginning to wonder whether the bubble will burst — as it did in the early ’90s — and whether the current market is sustainable.”
Biting The Hand That Feeds (Or Doesn’t)
An art exhibit in Melbourne is taking direct aim at what the artist sees as the underhanded and duplicitous world of art dealers. “It is a hard-hitting show that raises many bogeys the art establishment would have hoped had been laid to rest.”