Tag: 10.27.07

A Milwaukee Museum’s Nazi Problem

Milwaukee’s Man at Work museum at the Milwaukee School of Engineering , which opened to the public Saturday, “seems to have stumbled into a complex, controversial subject that the museum world has been coming to terms with for decades: When is it appropriate to exhibit art produced under the Nazis? How open should a museum be with its visitors about Nazi connections? What are the moral responsibilities of artists working under repressive regimes?”

The Best Art You’ll Never See

There is a museum in Tehran with more than $5 billion worth of art by the masters of the Western world locked away in its vaults, away from public view. “Despite being widely judged as the most important and comprehensive western art collection in Asia, the treasures are squirreled away behind a high-security door that can be opened only using a safe combination number.” The museum claims that it has no responsibility to display the works, and decries what it claims is a Western insistence on its own cultural superiority.

Calatrava’s Folly

“Spain’s premier architect is now embroiled in an ugly row with his home town over the cause of recent flooding to the city’s colossal €332m (£230m) opera house, the Palau de les Arts. Torrential rain last week damaged the palace’s electrical and cooling systems, and left rehearsal areas and a side theatre inundated with mud and water… Valencian officials have pinned their hopes of boosting the city’s cultural profile on the Palau but the ship-like structure has been plagued with problems since it opened in 2005.”

$2.2m For A Fake Rembrandt?

“When taxis began to arrive from the railway station bearing a small flock of art dealers from London, the small country auction rooms suspected something was up. A few hours later, a little painting on copper of a laughing young man, valued at up to £1,500 as in the style of Rembrandt, had been snapped up by an agent for an unidentified bidder for £2.2m.” The buyer believes it’s a genuine Rembrandt. The experts say no way.

Darkness Into Light: Sebold’s Back

Alice Sebold, who burst onto the literary scene with her dark and heart-wrenching debut novel, The Lovely Bones, is back with a second that may be even more grim. But a lot has changed since Sebold became a bona fide star – she learned how brutal the publishing world can be, and developed a thick skin that early reviews of her new book suggest she may need.

Critic Midgette Hired By WaPost

“Anne Midgette, free-lance classical music critic, feature writer and reporter for The New York Times, is to step in for Tim Page as chief classical music critic at The Washington Post, starting in January. Page is taking a leave of absence to be a visiting professor at the University of Southern California.”

Would NY Phil’s North Korea Trip Support Tyranny?

Terry Teachout finds it unconscionable that the New York Philharmonic would even consider playing a concert in North Korea. “What would you have thought if Franklin Roosevelt had encouraged the Philharmonic to accept an official invitation to play in Berlin in the spring of 1939? Do you think such a concert would have softened the hearts of the Nazis, any more than Jesse Owens’s victories in the 1936 Olympics changed their minds about racial equality? Or inspired the German people to rise up and revolt against Adolf Hilter? Or saved a single Jewish life?”

What Would A Writers’ Strike Mean?

If Hollywood’s screenwriters go on strike, as they have said they will in the absence of a new contract, TV viewers will be inconvenienced. But the impact on the industry could be much more severe. “During the last Hollywood writers’ strike in 1988, a five-month impasse over residuals – payment for shows and films that aired in perpetuity – nobody won. Writers were out of work for half a year; production support workers – caterers, gaffers, crew – were, too; networks had to push their fall schedules back to mid-winter; viewership dropped by 10 per cent. Enter a fragmented media universe of cable TV; some say it never recovered.”