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Subject: 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)
April 18 - Aorul 24, 2005

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-- April 18 
++ American newspapers
An Ancient Masterpiece or a Master's Forgery?
A scholar has suggested that "Laocoön," a fabled sculpture whose unearthing in 1506 has deeply influenced thinking about the ancient Greeks and the nature of the visual arts, may well be a Renaissance forgery - possibly by Michelangelo himself (New York Times) http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/18/arts/design/18laoc.html


-- April 19
++ American newspapers
Strumming the Mystic Chords of Memory
It is not Abraham Lincoln's handwritten copy of the Gettysburg Address that is getting all the attention here, nor is it one of his stovepipe hats, still bearing the marks of his fingers where he regularly reached for its brim. Not even the white gloves found in his pocket after he was shot by John Wilkes Booth lure many viewers. These objects may bear the ghostly traces of Lincoln's touch, but would a $90 million museum have been built to house them?
(New York Times)
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/19/arts/design/19roth.html

Long-Awaited Lincoln Museum to Open
Abraham Lincoln is getting his own state-of-the-art showplace, a museum designed to generate new interest in the 16th president's life through a mix of showmanship and scholarship (Washington Post) http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/04/19/AR2005041900134.html

Bush Helps Open Lincoln Museum in Ill.
Opening the Abraham Lincoln library and museum, President Bush said Tuesday that its mix of showmanship and scholarship should help generations rediscover the 16th president whose commitment to freedom for all embodies "the meaning and promise of America."
(Washington Post)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/04/19/AR2005041903322.html

++ British newspapers
Hussein Chalayan: Cultural dialogues
Can a fashion designer make a stitch of difference to the wider world? The Groninger Museum - a multicolored, post-modern edifice in the northern Netherlands - believes so (International Herald Tribune) http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/04/18/style/fhuss.php

Art museum falls foul of red tape
One of France's richest men is on the brink of ditching plans to build a spectacular contemporary art museum outside Paris because he is fed up with the red tape and inertia of the local authorities (The Guardian) http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/news/story/0,11711,1462982,00.html


-- April 20
++ American newspapers
A Moscow Treasure Reopens One Year After a Deadly Fire Manege, one of Moscow's great architectural treasures and a major exhibition hall, reopened on Tuesday a little more than a year after it was gutted by fire. The first exhibition in the hall is to be several thousand watercolors and is scheduled to open on April 27 (New York Times) http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/20/arts/design/20mane.html

Fit to be Thai
Ayutthaya, legendary capital of ancient Siam, was destroyed centuries ago, but its treasures still have the power to astonish (Los Angeles Times) http://www.calendarlive.com/galleriesandmuseums/cl-et-siam20apr20,2,4617675.story?coll=cl-art

++ British newspapers and magazines
Is 'Laocoon' a Michelangelo forgery?
A scholar has suggested that "Laocoon," a fabled sculpture whose unearthing in 1506 has deeply influenced thinking about the ancient Greeks and the nature of the visual arts, may well be a Renaissance forgery - possibly by Michelangelo himself (International Herald Tribune) http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/04/19/style/forgery.php

Manchester museum 'record visits'
Manchester's Museum of Science and Industry reported on Wednesday that it is one of the most popular museums in the UK (BBC News) http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/manchester/4463683.stm


-- April 21
++ American newspapers
Obituary: Clement Meadmore, Sculptor in Metal, Is Dead at 76 Clement Meadmore, a sculptor who wrestled hulking lengths of steel into abstract artworks of arresting fluidity and lightness, died on Tuesday in New York. He was 76 and lived in Manhattan (New York Times) http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/21/arts/design/21meadmore.html

NEA's 'Masterpieces': A Tour With Less Force Phillips Tapped for Abridged Arts Project The National Endowment for the Arts has scaled back a new initiative to send the best of American culture around the country and is starting with only a tour of visual arts (Washington Post) http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/04/20/AR2005042002871.html

++ British newspapers
Swiss touch revives lively U.S. museum
Even amid all the jostling institutional egos - with one museum after another gushing about ambitious expansion plans - it's hard not to get excited about the Walker Art Center's new home (International Herald Tribune) http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/04/20/features/minn.php

Saatchi sells Britart classic for £1.5m
Charles Saatchi has sold Marc Quinn's Self, a cast of the artist's head in nine pints of his own frozen blood, one of the works most fiercely emblematic of Britart (The Guardian) http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/news/story/0,11711,1464726,00.html

Alert for missing pre-Conquest bowl
The Witham Bowl, an ashtray-sized peice of silverware, was fished out of a river in Lincolnshire in 1816, displayed at an exhibition in Leeds in 1868 - and has never been seen in public since (The Guardian) http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/news/story/0,11711,1464555,00.html


-- April 22
++ British magazines
History lost in dust of war-torn Iraq
It is two years since looters ravaged one of the world's most important museums, in central Baghdad (BBC News) http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4461755.stm

Museums to offer free entry day
Some 1,200 museums across Europe will allow free entry and stay open late on
14 May this year as part of the first "night of the museums"
(BBC News)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/arts/4472145.stm


-- April 23
++ American newspapers
Michael Graves Makes Himself At Home in the Shenandoah An architectural poem in a springtime field. That's what I was looking for as I headed out to the new Michael Graves-designed Museum of the Shenandoah Valley (Washington Post) http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/04/22/AR2005042201515.html

++ British newspapers
Beijing exhibit examines (and decries) French influence on creativity
"Awakening: La France Mandarine" is a prominent part of the high-profile "culture year" exchange between France and China that runs through July (International Herald Tribune) http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/04/22/news/mand.php

Diverse cultures (and sales) at Asian art event If proof were needed that the art market and the broader economy do not function under the same rules, it was spectacularly provided during New York Asia Week, which began on March 28 and lingered on into April (International Herald Tribune) http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/04/22/news/aachin.php

Evidence of the genesis of a culture distinctly French Visual art is often the sole witness to the emergence of a nation's collective identity. "La France Romane" ("Romanesque France"), on view at the Louvre until June 6, puts together the most compelling evidence ever gathered about the birth of a distinctive French culture in the 11th century (International Herald Tribune) http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/04/22/features/melik23.php

Obituary: Paolozzi dies at 81
Artistic giant Sir Eduardo Paolozzi, who made the entire country his gallery, dies at 81 (The Guardian) http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/news/story/0,11711,1468624,00.html


-- April 24
++ British magazines
Mystery of London dealer's inflated invoices for world's biggest collector The Art Newspaper has obtained invoices sent by Oliver Hoare to Sheikh Saud Al-Thani of Qatar, who remains under arrest in Doha as authorities investigate alleged misuse of public funds (The Art Newspaper)
http://www.theartnewspaper.com/news/article.asp?idart=11773

Bought, sold, and bought again by Sheikh Saud Why did the Qatari collector consign 25 antiquities for sale at Bonham's only to later reacquire at least three of them?
(The Art Newspaper)
http://www.theartnewspaper.com/news/article.asp?idart=11772

How Sheikh Saud tried to export national treasures from Britain and France He once said he would never wish to remove a work from a country if it was deemed to be of national importance-but these two cases suggest otherwise (The Art Newspaper)
http://www.theartnewspaper.com/news/article.asp?idart=11771

Holy tabots to be transferred from British Museum to Ethiopian church The works will probably never return to the museum (The Art Newspaper)
http://www.theartnewspaper.com/news/article.asp?idart=11768

Rachel Whiteread is next at The Tate Modern, but where are the other Turbine Hall commissions now?
Most are extremely difficult to redisplay elsewhere (The Art Newspaper)
http://www.theartnewspaper.com/news/article.asp?idart=11767


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