The theatrical version of “The Lion King” finally moves to Hollywood in the newly-restored Pantages Theatre – and it looks every bit as good as it does on Broadway. – Los Angeles Times
Tag: 10.20.00
ARTS FOR LESS
Australian performing arts audiences stand to receive about $2 million in refunds, following the Australian government’s decision to exempt arts organizations from the GST tax it imposed earlier this year, thereby initiating a retroactive refund of all qualifying tickets purchased since July 1. – Sydney Morning Herald 10/20/00
THE END OF THE VEGAS LOUNGE LIZARD?
The Las Vegas lounge lizard is slithering away. More and more of the Vegas lounges are closing, and the lounge singer – as true a symbol of Vegas as any – is being replaced (mostly by magicians and illusionists). – Chicago Tribune (AP) 10/20/00
DONATION WITHDRAWN
The art collector who had promised Canada’s National Gallery $20 million of art – 1600 mostly Chinese antiquities – and then abruptly withdrew the donation last week, may have had some provenance problems, a Chinese art expert says. – The Globe and Mail (Canada)
TATE TURNER DEAL
The Tate Museum has struck a deal with insurers over the 1994 theft of two of its Turner paintings. The insurers had paid out £24 million on the loss. But the museum was afraid to spend the money lest the paintings turn up and the insurance had to be paid back… – The Art Newspaper
CRITICAL MASS
Clement Greenberg’s personal art collection of 152 works has been given to the Portland Art Museum in Oregon. “It wasn’t a consciously assembled collection: All the artworks were gifts to Greenberg. These were all people we knew. These were the people absolutely the closest in our lives. They were family and still are.” – Seattle Times
“ONE LAST BINGE” BEFORE OLD AGE…
The Museum of Modern Art’s temporary home for the years that its main campus will be under construction “will be a radical departure from the tasteful, cosmopolitan feel of MOMA’s 53rd Street home. With a labyrinthine entry leading to gaping, warehouse-like galleries, the project recalls Frank O. Gehry’s Geffen Contemporary, which was originally designed in 1983 as a temporary space for Los Angeles’ Museum of Contemporary Art.” – Los Angeles Times
OPPOSITES ATTRACT
In a bizarre meeting of high and low culture, Russia’s Hermitage Museum is joining forces with New York’s Guggenheim Museum to open a mini-museum in the lobby of the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas. The museum will be designed by Rem Koolhaas and will exhibit two rotating exhibits from each museum’s collection every year. The project marks the first step in a collaboration between the two museums announced last June. – New York Times
THE V&A CONSIDERS OFFLOADING ART
London’s Victoria & Albert Museum is suffering from falling attendance and a confused mission. Now a suggestion that the V&A offload some of its artwork to other museums. “We have marvellous pictures, but people don’t come to see them here and they don’t immediately think of Constables at the V&A. Even when they come for the paintings, it is hard to find them. Either we should rehang the paintings in the galleries where they were originally shown or offer them on long-term loan to other museums.” – The Art Newspaper
APPARENT HEIR
Boston’s Museum of Fine Art has made a deal with the heirs to a painting sold under court order in Nazi-occupied Paris during World War II. “The parties came to a part-purchase, part-donation agreement that will allow the painting to remain in the MFA’s collection, and on display in its European paintings galleries.” – Boston Globe
- The MFA purchased the painting from a London dealer in 1992 and has had it on display since. The museum was notified of the claim in February and first discussed the situation at a federal hearing on Nazi-looted art in New York City in April. – Boston Herald