Museum Minutes

The big news this week is the opening of the Broad Contemporary Art Museum in L.A. Part of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the $56 million Renzo Piano-designed building was paid for by finance and real estate billionaire Eli Broad. Good for them. Except for one small problem -- the BCAM doesn't have much in the way of art and they were counting on a big donation from Mr. Broad. But their benefactor changed his mind, saying there isn't enough room in the museum to show all of it. (Here's a fun fact -- according to his his Wiki page, Eli Broad once paid $2.5 million to Sotheby's for a Lichtenstein painting using his American Express card in order to get the frequent flyer miles.)

Christopher Knight at the Los Angeles Times has another problem -- the museum's over-reliance on a single collector. His fiery article is worth quoting:

In deciding what to exhibit, art museums everywhere now strongly favor wealthy collectors over artists and art professionals, and slashed government spending at every level (except defense) keeps contemporary cultural institutions hostage to private interests. Ours is an era of supply-side aesthetics, trickling down on the public. ... As an exhibition, it's incoherent -- a counterfeit permanent collection that is actually a temporary loan, on view for a year.

[LA Times, NYTimes]

Somewhat apropos, here's another good quote from the New Yorker's Peter Schjeldahl, who visited the Met's revamped European galleries and contemplated the state of museums:

Museology is in moral crisis after a spate of manic construction that has exalted edifices over their contents, and institutional narcissism over the romance of art lovers and art works.

[New Yorker]

On the antiquities issue, the New York Times found that while looting devastates archaeological efforts, the recent West Coast busts could be more about cheating on taxes in a scheme by which stolen items are appraised at inflated values then donated for a write-off. Time Magazine's Richard Lacayo chats with the James Cuno, director of Chicago's Art Institute, about the issue and whether the old practice of partage should be restored. In this system, countries share the loot with sponsoring universities or museums that finance the digs. Another question -- Does a market for antiquities threaten archeology? No, says Cuno, "More is lost to national disaster, economic development and war than is lost to the art market." [NYTimes, Looking Around]

Art theft was all over the news. The Russians revealed a hoard of 46,000 art treasures stolen by the Nazis, a U.S. Army helicopter pilot was charged with selling stolen Egyptian artifacts, Greece returned two stolen marble statues to Albania, and some Picassos were swiped from a Swiss museum. [Bloomberg, Aero-News, Bloomberg, Bloomberg]

According to the New York Times, after hours parties at museums are hip and happening. No better example of this than PS1's summer "Warm Up" series. Speaking of which, the museum just announced the winner of its annual contest to re-imagine its courtyard for the popular festivities. This year we can look forward to an eco-hip urban farm by Dan Wood and Amale Andraosthe, a husband-and-wife duo. And on the subject of food, the Tenement Museum is now showing "a glimpse into America's multi-ethnic pantry." [NYTimes, NYTimes, Newsday]

Finally, the Chicago Trib's Alan G. Artner (nice name) previews the Gordon Matta Clark show, which is coming to the MCA, and takes time to diss "solipsistic" art bloggers. Here's another stinker: the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh is showing "The Scoop on Poop!," a show to inform us about animal feces. Lovely. [Chicago Tribune, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review]