The Italian government case against the Getty is a warning to all museums. “At the center of the case is the reckless youth of the Getty, which opened in the villa in 1974 to fulfill the oil baron J. Paul Getty’s twin obsessions with art collecting and imperial Rome. But the case also presents a paradox, for curator Marion True had gone to considerable lengths to acknowledge the Getty’s past excesses and to cast the museum as a model citizen of the museum and archaeological worlds.” Nonetheless, “Italian officials say that the evidence they have assembled reaches far beyond the Getty. Whether more prosecutions are planned or such warnings are simply intended to force the return of art and deter illicit purchases remains unclear.”
Tag: 10.15.05
Victorian England – No Blacks Behind The Easel
“The fact that no traces remain of any active black British artist in the 19th century is surprising, given that there were more black people here than is commonly thought. We don’t know how many exactly, because ethnic origin was not recorded in the first in-depth national census of 1841, but it’s clear that our visibility exceeded our numbers (not least because artists welcomed the opportunity black figures provided for contrast, and to use neglected parts of the palette).”
Two Leonardos See Public For The First Time
Two previously-unseen paintings by Leonardo have gone on show in Italy. “One is an alternative version of Da Vinci’s famous painting known as Virgin of the Rocks, with the infant Jesus and the infant John the Baptist. The other shows Mary Magdalene, thought to have been completed by Leonardo with the help of one of his pupils about 1515, shortly before his death.”
Buying Spree – Will China Own The Art Market?
“Facing an acute art shortage, the Chinese government plans to construct 1,000 new museums by 2015, including 32 in Beijing in time for the 2008 Olympics and 100 in Shanghai before the opening of the 2010 World’s Fair, according to reports in China’s government-controlled media. The People’s Liberation Army, or PLA, has so far targeted only Chinese art. Analysts say the army’s strategy over the next five years is to dip further into China’s foreign-currency reserves – about $711 billion, the second biggest after Japan, and growing – to buy and barrack celebrated Western masterpieces, often at prices above their auction-market value.”
An Author’s Festival Begins A New Chapter
“Two years after Greg Gatenby’s resignation as director, Toronto’s International Festival of Authors’ founder is a long way from having been forgotten. But the annual program of readings, author interviews and panel discussions — the 26th edition of which runs Wednesday to Oct. 29 — gives every appearance of continuing to thrive under successor Geoffrey Taylor, contrary to concerns expressed by some at the time of Gatenby’s departure.”