“The Beltracchis cleverly exploited the blindness and gullibility that pervades the high-stakes world of art, where connoisseurship and provenance can get lost in the frenzy of excitement over a new find.”
Tag: 10.10.12
Founding Donor Says He Won’t Let Roanoke’s Art Museum Go Broke
“The Taubman Museum of Art’s biggest financial supporter said he and the museum’s new board of directors … have infused the cash-strapped museum with about $1.5 million to help it cover operating costs for the rest of the year … [and promise] that the arrangement will continue as long as it needs to. The museum’s annual budget is about $3.4 million.”
Are We Forcing Musicians Into Extinction?
“The collapse of music education has shrunk the pool of competent amateurs, and low wages will strangle the professionals. At this rate, in twenty years there will be very few people who are able-or want-to read her charts.”
Why Are The Arts So Stodgy With Branding?
“When did you last hear of a nonprofit arts organization acquiring another brand or creating one itself with a different name? It is, at minimum, an interesting idea.”
Iran Develops A Separate, ‘Halal’ Internet
“For years, Iranian officials have talked about creating a ‘halal’ internet – a religiously acceptable internal network isolated from the World Wide Web. Its purpose, they claim, would be to provide national cybersecurity and promote Islamic moral values.”
Remembrance Of Things To Come (Why Human Memory Is Flawed)
Researchers “believe that human memory didn’t evolve so that we could remember but to allow us to imagine what might be … suggesting that every time we think about a possible future, we tear up the pages of our autobiographies and stitch together the fragments into a montage that represents the new scenario” – but corrupting some of those fragments in the process.
Locked-Out Indianapolis Musicians Could Get Poached By Other Orchestras
“Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra musicians are seeking work elsewhere as the lockout by the Indianapolis Symphony Society turns one month old. They’ve also been approached to perform in the orchestras of Chicago, Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Philadelphia, St. Louis and Washington, D.C. (the National Symphony), according to … [the] chairman of the musicians’ negotiating committee.”
A $13 E-Reader? Ja
“At $69, we thought the new Kindle eReader was cheap. … A German electronics company called Txtr has unveiled the Beagle, what is almost certainly the cheapest (if not the tiniest) E-Ink reader in the world. The Beagle weighs just 4.5 ounces; has a small 5-inch Electronic Ink screen; and costs just … 10 Euros, or about $13 U.S.”
US Judge Dismisses Authors’ Suit Against University Book-scanning Project
“U.S. District Judge Harold Baer of New York dismissed an infringement lawsuit brought by the Authors Guild and other writers’ guilds, saying the universities had a fair use defense.”
The Tough Challenges Still Facing The Philadelphia Orchestra
“The long-term artistic ramifications of salary cuts on the Fabulous Philadelphians, now the lowest paid among the top seven U.S. orchestras, remain unknown. The institution must raise $25 million by Aug. 31, 2013, to secure the next two seasons. … [And there remains] a projected shortfall of nearly $10 million on a total operating budget of $44 million for fiscal 2013.”