“Only 10 days ago, Sotheby’s reported a loss of $15 million in guarantees — the undisclosed amount that the houses promise to sellers regardless of the outcome of a sale — from recent auctions in Hong Kong and London… Since then auction house officials have been busy trying to get sellers to lower their expectations.”
Tag: 10.30.08
Museums Hit Hard By Economic Crunch
“For some time now, most museums have been betting that a golden age of giving was soon to end. But even institutions that braced for a downturn say the stock market’s decline, the bankruptcy or disappearance of major investment banks, and the liquidity crisis have made this one unique.”
CBC Radio Orch Gets A Reprieve Of Sorts
Vancouver’s CBC Radio Orchestra, felled by budget cuts at Canada’s national broadcaster, will apparently live on, after all. “The reformed entity will be independent from the CBC… and will expand beyond conventional broadcasting into webcasting and other types of Internet distribution.”
MIA Returns Nazi-Looted Art To France
“After 10 years of detective work, the Minneapolis Institute of Arts has concluded that a $2.8 million painting it has owned for decades was stolen by the Nazis. The museum has returned the 1911 painting, Fernand Leger’s ‘Smoke Over Rooftops,’ to the French heirs of a Jewish art collector who died in 1948.”
BBC Shock-Jock Quits Over Crank Call Scandal
“The BBC suspended one of its biggest stars yesterday and saw another resign after its Director-General finally responded to an audience revolt over obscene phone calls aired on the nation’s most popular radio station.”
New Orchestra Debuts In Qatar
The Qatar Philharmonic, a professional orchestra of 101 musicians from 31 countries, gives its inaugural concert this week under the baton of Lorin Maazel in Doha, the capital of the small Persian Gulf state.