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Subject: ANTIGEN: NEWS: H-Museum News Digest (USA, UK)

[Editor's note: The following articles are published in American and British
newspapers and magazines. The H-MUSEUM NEWS DIGEST service is made
available by the editorial staff of H-Museum <[log in to unmask]>.]

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H-MUSEUM NEWS DIGEST (USA, UK)
March 29 - April 4, 2004

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-- March 29
++ American newspapers
Russia's New Rich Amass Art Collections
The startling acquisition of Malcolm Forbes's Fabergé collection for well
over $90 million by the industrialist Viktor Vekselberg has thrust Russia's
rich new class of art collectors into the spotlight. Not all of them are
chasing imperial splendor
(New York Times)
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/29/arts/design/29RUSS.html

At the Whitney Biennial, the art is overthought and much of it is heavy with
conceptual freight
The dead hand of art school has touched too many things in the 2004 Biennial
Exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/03/29
/DDG3U5S3FQ1.DTL

Russia rules on 'looted' Rubens
A bitter Russo-German dispute over the ownership of a looted Rubens
masterpiece has escalated dramatically after the Russian authorities ruled
it should not be returned to German
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/arts/3579703.stm

Art on auction for warzone children
Sale of work by 32 top British artists expected to raise tens of thousands
for UN Children's Fund trauma counselling scheme
http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/news/story/0,11711,1179964,00.html

Performance art that's defiantly dated
In London's Trafalgar Square, for one week from today, a man and a woman
will sit side by side in a glass box reading to each other
http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/news/story/0,11711,1180151,00.html

Memory of twin towers wins new arts prize
A handful of dust, gathered from the streets of New York in the aftermath of
the September 11 attacks, last night won the first £40,000 Artes Mundi prize
for the Chinese artist Xu Bing.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/news/story/0,11711,1179991,00.html


-- March 30
++ American newspapers
Artist Who Worked With 9/11 Dust Wins the First Artes Mundi Prize
Xu Bing, a Chinese-born New York artist whose works include one featuring
dust he collected in Lower Manhattan after 9/11, has won the first Artes
Mundi prize, a new $75,000 art award created here to stimulate interest in
contemporary art in Wales
(New York Times)
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/30/arts/design/30PRIZ.html

++ British newspapers
Homage to Tintin dishes up a fresh Haddock
An exhibition opening tomorrow at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich
marks the 75th anniversary of Hergé's immortal boy reporter
(The Guardian)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/news/story/0,11711,1180649,00.html

Self-portrait is unsparing
A self-portrait by Lucian Freud will be included in his exhibition of new
works, opening tomorrow at the Wallace Collection museum in London
(The Guardian)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/news/story/0,11711,1180654,00.html

Art treasure confirmed as Vermeer
A valuable painting once dismissed as a fake has been confirmed as the work
of 17th Century Dutch master Vermeer
(BBC News)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/arts/3583889.stm


-- March 31
++ American newspapers
Statue of Liberty to Reopen in August, at Least Partly
Public access to the base of the Statue of Liberty, suspended since Sept.
11, 2001, is expected to resume by August, after safety and security
improvements are completed, federal officials said yesterday
(New York Times)
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/31/nyregion/31liberty.html

Celebrating an Artist Who Wanted to 'Murder Painting'
To most art lovers, a painting by Joan Miró is immediately recognizable as,
well, a Miró. It probably shows cosmic, botanical, geometric or abstract
lines or shapes floating against celestial blue, sandy yellow or earth brown
backgrounds. It also probably exudes a mystical yet reassuring dreamy
quality. The Surrealist André Breton described Miró's paintings as
"childlike" and "innocent."
(New York Times)
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/31/arts/design/31MIRO.html


~ New York Times ART SPECIAL ~

His Job Is to Make Over the Modern
Bells and whistles did not go off in the New York art world when Glenn D.
Lowry arrived in 1995 as director of the Museum of Modern Art. A scholar of
Islamic art, with only a few years of experience as a museum director,
called on to run a great and complex institution? And what's more, to
preside over its massive reconstruction? It did not feel like a perfect
match
(New York Times)
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/31/arts/artsspecial/31XXGLUE.html

Beyond the Gallery Walls, Collections of Hidden Gems
Not all the treasures in museums hang on walls or sit in display cases.
Beyond the galleries are vast resource libraries with hidden gems: rare
books, manuscripts, photographs, sketchbooks and ephemera
(New York Times)
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/31/arts/artsspecial/31WILK.html

Internet Art Survives, but the Boom Is Over
Like most things in the online world, the state of Internet art is subject
to no small amount of exaggeration. During boom times, as art made with ones
and zeroes entered Chelsea galleries and blue-chip museums, the new form was
seen as the wave of the future. But now, ask an artist or a gallery owner or
a blogger about it and you are likely to get a groan
(New York Times)
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/31/arts/artsspecial/31SISA.html

Space Is Tight at the U.N., but Art Gifts Keep Coming
According to its charter, the United Nations was established to maintain
international peace and security, not to act as a curator of art and
antiquities. But since its headquarters was completed in 1953, the spartan
corridors, glassy lobbies and cavernous assembly halls have been augmented
by works of art, donated by member nations and inspired, at least in theory,
by postwar visions of a halcyon world
(New York Times)
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/31/arts/artsspecial/31SCHN.html

British Museum Takes an Enlightened Look Back
Museums usually present art, artifacts and antiquities in ways intended to
heighten the aesthetic pleasure of visitors. Even at the British Museum,
which pioneered the idea of the universal museum, there is the temptation to
look at the Elgin Marbles or the Rosetta Stone as isolated objects
(New York Times)
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/31/arts/artsspecial/31RIDI.html

Heiress's Estate Becomes a Showcase for Fine Art
The Russian icons that are the focus of this year's main show at the
Hillwood Museum and Gardens have been part of its collection for years. But
they will be moving from their usual spots on the opulently decorated walls
of this mansion turned museum, and mounted individually in the spare,
understated space typical of most exhibitions
(New York Times)
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/31/arts/artsspecial/31OLSO.html

A Rescue Center Where the Rehabbing Is on View
Its buildings are homely and its location remote, but the Marine Mammal
Center has created a niche among the natural history museums and aquariums
that draw huge numbers of tourists every year
(New York Times)
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/31/arts/artsspecial/31NOVA.html

For Members, Art Is Only One Perk
Brian Crowley sells memberships at the Norton Museum of Art in West Palm
Beach, Fla., but he spent most of a recent Sunday away from the membership
desk in the lobby. With 960 visitors to the museum that day - more than
twice the usual number - Mr. Crowley seized the moment to work the crowds
and hand out yellow coupons that read "Cash in Your Tickets!" in big bold
letters. The "instant coupon" entitled visitors to apply the cost of their
admission ticket toward a membership at the museum
(New York Times)
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/31/arts/artsspecial/31MORR.html

One College's Long Shadow: Looking Back at the 'Williams Mafia'
A bright chapter in the history of the Art Institute of Chicago will end
when its director, James N. Wood, retires in September. Mr. Wood took over
this renowned American museum in 1980, when it was widely perceived to be
faltering, and by mounting imaginative shows, raising large amounts of money
and hiring outstanding curators, he returned it to its status as a stable
and powerful temple of culture
(New York Times)
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/31/arts/artsspecial/31KINZ.html

Behind Every Acquisition Lies a Story, From 'Star Trek' to St. Francis
Behind every museum acquisition is a human story. The object was created by
one person and possessed over the years by others (who may, in turn, have
been possessed by it). Before finding a home in a collection, the piece has
been touched by many hands, and hearts
(New York Times)
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/31/arts/artsspecial/31IVRY.html

Romancing the Collector: Will There Be a Storybook Ending?
When Eli Broad strides into the boardroom of the Los Angeles County Museum
of Art like he owns the place, he has reason to believe. Like a string of
big museum donors before him, Mr. Broad is enjoying his moment. Last June,
in celebration of his 70th birthday, he announced a gift of $50 million to
the institution to pay for a new building with his name on it, along with
$10 million for art acquisitions. It was the largest single monetary gift in
the museum's 39-year history
(New York Times)
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/31/arts/artsspecial/31FREU.html

Up Above the Galleries, Misfits Await Their Turn
Elliot Bostwick Davis stepped off a cavernous freight elevator and into the
Museum of Fine Art's high attic. Ms. Davis, the chairwoman of the museum's
Art of the Americas department, is not sure why it is called the "high"
attic (being unaware of a lower one), but it is definitely an attic, with
metal rafters overhead, the dim lighting and a haphazardness not seen in the
galleries below
(New York Times)
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/31/arts/artsspecial/31FLAH.html

Once Looted and Forlorn, an Iraqi Symbol Revives
For hours, Enrico Bertassole and Grazia de Cesare, two members of an Italian
restoration team working in the Iraq Museum, rubbed and rubbed at pieces of
the Warka Vase, a 5,000-year-old treasure that was stolen when the museum
was ransacked in the chaos of Saddam Hussein's fall, and returned,
shattered, over the summer
(New York Times)
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/31/arts/artsspecial/31BANE.html

Curators Go to Battle vs. Beetles
Nobody loves natural history museums more than pests. Bones, paper, fur,
feathers - so many of insects' favorite foods
(New York Times)
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/31/arts/artsspecial/31AULT.html

Reopening Monument To Freedom
Lady Liberty to Get A Safety Upgrade
(Washington Post)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A37320-2004Mar30.html

Bureaucratic bureau, unsittable chair in Smithsonian furniture show
This furniture is more funky than functional. A show opening Friday at the
Renwick Gallery, "Right at Home: American Studio Furniture," features 58
thought-provoking pieces, including a desk with little space to write,
bottomless drawers and a rickety chair
(San Francisco Chronicle)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2004/03/31/nati
onal0203EST0428.DTL

++ British newspapers
National Woollen museum re-opens
A flagship mid Wales museum has thrown open its doors after a two year
closure which saw it undergo a multi-million pound makeover
(BBC News)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/mid/3571241.stm

-- April 1
++ American newspapers
Some Museums Own Fine Art, Others Use the Fine Art of Borrowing
In eight years as director of the Contemporary Arts Center, in Cincinnati,
Charles Desmarais never acquired a work of art for the museum
(New York Times)
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/31/arts/31BERN.html

Obituarium: George Heard Hamilton, Museum Director and Author, Dies at 93
George Heard Hamilton, an authority on modern art who trained art historians
and museum curators, died on Monday at a nursing home in Williamstown,
Mass., his son, Richard, said. He was 93
(New York Times)
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/01/arts/design/01HAMI.html

Asia Society Appoints Art Historian as President
The Asia Society, founded in 1956 by John D. Rockefeller III to foster
understanding of Asia, has a new president, Vishakha N. Desai, the first
woman and the first Asian-American to head the organization
(New York Times)
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/01/arts/design/01DESA.html

Man on a Mission: The Early Lane Twitchell
At G Fine Art, a Religious Background in the Foreground
(Washington Post)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A40804-2004Mar31.html

Furniture That's Fine and Fun
Fifty-seven pieces of one-of-a-kind furniture -- some functional, some
sculptural, some just plain "wow!" -- go on display at the Renwick Gallery
tomorrow through Jan. 17
(Washington Post)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A38594-2004Mar31.html

Obituary: Enrique Grau, acclaimed Colombian painter and sculptor, dies at 83
Enrique Grau, an acclaimed Colombian painter and sculptor known for his
depictions of Indian and Afro-Colombian figures, died Thursday. He was 83
(San Francisco Chronicle)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2004/04/01/obit
uary2338EST0861.DTL

New exhibit explores the material world of childhood
The exhibit, titled "kid size: The Material World of Childhood," features
150 children's toys, items of furniture and artifacts that span three
centuries and come from six continents. It opened at the Wadsworth Atheneum
Museum of Art on Thursday and runs through Aug. 1.
(San Francisco Chronicle)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2004/04/01/ente
rtainment1754EST0736.DTL

Quilt museum celebrates fabric of Amish history
A million-dollar collection of antique quilts that once graced the walls of
a clothing company's corporate offices has returned to its native Lancaster
County as the centerpiece of a new museum that showcases the fabric of Amish
history. The Lancaster Quilt & Textile Museum opened to the public
Wednesday. It features a colorful selection of Amish quilts -- some more
than 100 years old -- collected over the past 30 years by Doug Tompkins, who
founded the Esprit casual clothing company in San Francisco in the 1970s
(San Francisco Chronicle)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2004/04/01/ente
rtainment1404EST0608.DTL

-- April 2
++ American newspapers
Through an Activist Lens Entangled in History
It is probably not by chance that the International Center of Photography
does not include the words art or museum in its name. I had never thought
about this before, but the people who founded this institution undoubtedly
did. The center has many of the earmarks of a museum - a large collection
and an exhibition program focused on the photographic arts - but these
things are only part of a broader missio
(New York Times)
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/02/arts/design/02SMIT.html

How Not Much Is a Whole World
Minimal artists in the 1960's claimed to reject the past. Frank Stella,
painting his black canvases with thin white stripes, said: "You can't go
back. It's not a question of destroying anything. If something's used up,
something's done, something's over with, what's the point of getting
involved with it?"
(New York Times)
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/02/arts/design/02KIMM.html

Pictures of the Picturesque, Not Necessarily of the Truth
Before television, Pop Art, Deconstructionist theory and the digital
revolution, it was possible to believe unreservedly in photojournalism. It
was back then, in 1947, that the renowned photojournalists' cooperative
Magnum Photos was founded by the photographers Robert Capa, Henri
Cartier-Bresson, George Rodger and David Seymour
(New York Times)
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/02/arts/design/02JOHN.html

A Gentleman Lucky in War and Collecting
Halsted Billings Vander Poel, a native of Manhattan who died last year at
92, was never a household name, but he sure was a lucky man. A "gentleman of
the old school," he was rich, intellectual and a serious collector of
English antiques. Most of those antiques are being auctioned at Christie's
next week
(New York Times)
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/02/arts/design/02ANTI.html

Saving German Moderns From Their Tortured Past
It is worth remembering that modern art was one of the forms of civilization
that Hitler's Germany set out to destroy. In July 1937, Nazi officials,
cracking down on what they viewed as a decadent misrepresentation of Nordic
culture, seized 148 paintings, 27 sculptures and 319 drawings - declaring
all of them degenerate - from the Kronprinzen Palace, the branch of Berlin's
Nationalgalerie that was Germany's first museum of contemporary art
(New York Times)
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/02/arts/design/02GLUE.html

Antiquities Gallery Will Return Two Limestone Monuments to Egypt
One of the world's leading antiquities galleries has agreed to return two
limestone monuments smuggled out of Egypt in the mid-1990's
(New York Times)
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/02/arts/design/02MONU.html

Buddhas From China's Big Dig
The 12thcentury workers who buried the Buddhist sculptures on display at the
Arthur M. Sackler Gallery surely didn't think they were constructing a time
capsule. Yet "Return of the Buddha: The Qingzhou Discoveries" is not merely
a show of beautiful objects, it's also a snapshot of rapid changes in
sixth-century China. In a 50-year period, the accepted way of depicting the
Buddha and associated figures changed significantly
(Washington Post)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A41990-2004Apr1.html

Utah museum returns painting looted by Nazis to heirs
More than a half century after a Paris art gallery was looted by Nazis, one
of the paintings that was taken has been returned to the owner's daughter
(San Francisco Chronicle)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2004/04/02/nati
onal0648EST0473.DTL

++ American newspapers
BBC's memorial to foreign correspondents
A spire of light reaching about 900 metres (3,000ft) into the London night
sky is to be the BBC's memorial to those journalists who died covering
conflicts
(The Guardian)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/news/story/0,11711,1184102,00.html

Museum saved from closure
A north Wales museum threatened with closure has been saved after what
curators call a difficult year
(BBC News)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/north_east/3590871.stm

Florence Uffizi plans expansion
The Uffizi Gallery in Florence, home to many of the world's greatest
Renaissance paintings, plans to double its size in three years
(BBC News)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3592607.stm

-- April 3
++ American newspapers
National Gallery Shows Ancient Mayan Work
A queen pulls a thorn-studded rope through her tongue. A king who ruled more
than 60 years appears in a handsome bust. Ball players wear heavy padding
for protection from an eight-pound solid rubber ball -- a loss can bring
death
(New York Times)
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/arts/AP-Maya-Art.html

Beholding Byzantium
The galleries of a major exhibition like "Byzantium: Faith and Power
(1261-1557)," at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, are nearly always filled
with formulaic poses. One viewer clasps his hands behind his back, which
allows him to lean in closer to the objects without alarming the guards
(New York Times)
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/03/opinion/03SAT3.html

Treasured Churches in a Cycle of Revenge
"Kishe kaput; very good," said the smiling boy, using an incongruous mix of
Albanian, German and English to describe the remains of St. Nicholas,
Pristina's only working Serbian Orthodox church. Next to him the four walls
of the church were smoldering
(New York Times)
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/03/arts/03CHUR.html

Newton to be buried in Berlin
Acclaimed photographer Helmut Newton, who died earlier this year in a Los
Angeles car crash, will be buried in the same cemetery as Marlene Dietrich
in his native Berlin, his widow said Friday
(Los Angeles Times)
http://www.calendarlive.com/galleriesandmuseums/cl-et-quick3.4apr03,2,309311
9.story?coll=cl-art

Whether painting, dance or film, art can release us from the prison of time
(San Francisco Chronicle)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/04/03
/DDG7S5UV511.DTL

++ British newspapers
Academy to unveil unseen art treasures
A treasure-house of masterpieces of world art will go on show in London at
the Royal Academy this autumn in an event expected to rival the same
gallery's Monet and Aztec exhibitions in popularity
(The Guardian)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/news/story/0,11711,1184792,00.html

Rolf Harris art among raid haul
Dozens of painting prints - half of which were by Australian artist Rolf
Harris - have been stolen from an Oxfordshire gallery
(BBC News)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/oxfordshire/3596489.stm

-- April 4
++ American newspapers
Rubens Revisited: Ah, the Spectacle!
Painter's Status Reaffirmed With A Flourish by Lille Exhibition
(Washington Post)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A45373-2004Apr2.html

Mayan-Made Wonders
Their Civilization Teemed With Life -- And Brutality. Guess What's in Their
Art?
(Washington Post)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A45371-2004Apr2.html

Painted into a corner?
A curated exhibition asks whether Thomas Kinkade, the people's artist, can
find respect in today's art world
(Los Angeles Times)
http://www.calendarlive.com/galleriesandmuseums/cl-ca-hunter4apr04,2,4756885
.story?coll=cl-art

Museum Brings N.Y. Skyscrapers Back to Eye Level
Exhibits reveal there is even more to the Big Apple's skyline than there
might seem
(Los Angeles Times
http://www.calendarlive.com/galleriesandmuseums/cl-na-skyscraper4apr04,2,308
0660.story?coll=cl-art

Getty Trust and World Monuments Fund team up for Iraq conservation
The organisations will survey the condition of the country's historic sites
and then raise money for their restoration
(The Art Newspaper)
http://www.theartnewspaper.com/news/article.asp?idart=11620

Renzo Piano: the world's leading builder of museums
Why museums need a balance of the sacred and the profane
(The Art Newspaper)
http://www.theartnewspaper.com/news/article.asp?idart=11618

Ecuadorean ambassador pulls art from Paris salerooms
Pieces were seized from three salerooms; a lawsuit is pending
(The Art Newspaper)
http://www.theartnewspaper.com/news/article.asp?idart=11617

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