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


Editor's note: The following articles are published in German, Austrian and Swiss newspapers. 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)
December 5 - December 11, 2005

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-- December 5
++ American newspapers
Dressing for Ottoman Success in a Blaze of Silk and Gold
That would be the power look favored in 16th-century Ottoman Turkey. And it's a look that has been transferred, as if by genie express, to the Arthur M. Sackler gallery here in "Style and Status: Imperial Costumes From Ottoman Turkey." (New York Times) http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/05/arts/design/05sack.html

++ British newspapers
The portrait that makes the French mad
This icon has been called the missing link in Britain's national art collection. But now the French are insisting it belongs to them. Anthony Gardner reports on the battle for the art-market find of a lifetime (The Times) http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2099-1891950,00.html

Peru may sue Yale for Inca relics' return
Peru is threatening to sue Yale University for the return of ancient mummies, bones and ceramics taken from the "Lost City of the Incas", Machu Picchu, by an American explorer nearly a century ago (The Guardian) http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/news/story/0,11711,1657956,00.html


-- December 6
++ American newspapers
History Is Slipping Away as Collections Deteriorate, Report Says Slipping on a pair of white gloves, Joshua Fox, a curator at the Soldiers and Sailors National Military Museum and Memorial here, motioned toward a tattered bunch of silk in a musty attic storage room. It was the battle flag of a Pennsylvania regiment dating from the Civil War era, disintegrating after decades of inattention and poor climate controls (New York Times) http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/06/arts/06cons.html

Exhibited in Antiquities Case: The Cracks of a Broken Cup Flashing a succession of PowerPoint images in a darkened courtroom, Italian prosecutors began to make their case on Monday against Marion True, a former antiquities curator at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, and the American dealer Robert Hecht, who are being tried on charges of dealing in looted antiquities (New York Times) http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/06/arts/design/06gett.html

Framing the case against curator
Prosecutors say photos, papers prove a former Getty official knowingly bought looted items (Los Angeles Times) http://www.calendarlive.com/galleriesandmuseums/cl-fg-getty6dec06,0,2199750.story?coll=cl-art

Getty adds four to board
The newcomers hold some strong credentials, but lack of experience in art prompts a board member's objection (Los Angeles Times) http://www.calendarlive.com/galleriesandmuseums/cl-et-getty6dec06,0,4357849.story?coll=cl-art

++ British newspapers
Turner Prize goes to shed dismantling artist
An artist who dismantled a shed then put it back together again has won the £25,000 Turner Prize. Simon Starling is the recipient of the art world's most famous - and most controversial - award (The Times) http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1905431,00.html

£452m of private money has caused a 'sea change' in the arts The arts in Britain are relying more than ever before on money from the private sector. A report released today by the charity Arts & Business reveals that private support for the arts has leapt from £393m to £452m in the last two years (The Guardian) http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/news/story/0,11711,1659049,00.html

Greece's seas: the looters' next destination
New law opens access for traffickers to a hoard of underwater antiquities (The Guardian) http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/news/story/0,11711,1659097,00.html


-- December 7
++ American newspapers
The Depths of Despair, as Plumbed by Artists
An art exhibition called "Depression" might not sound too appealing, even if the word does describe the cyclical angst of some artists. So, instead, the new show at the Grand Palais here through Jan. 16 has been given the more ambiguous - the perhaps more Hamletian - name "Melancholy." (New York Times) http://travel2.nytimes.com/2005/12/07/arts/design/07mela.html

Corcoran names new director
Paul Greenhalgh, a British scholar who heads an art school in Nova Scotia, will take over as director and president of the Corcoran Gallery of Art and its College of Art and Design next year. The appointment is part of a wrenching overhaul at the 136-year-old Corcoran after five years of bold plans and occasional turmoil (Los Angeles Times) http://www.calendarlive.com/galleriesandmuseums/cl-et-corcoran7dec07,0,5354766.story?coll=cl-art

Stolen German paintings found
Federal investigators have recovered three paintings stolen from a German museum near the end of World War II, the FBI announced Tuesday. The works, by 19th century artist Heinrich Burkel, were valued at approximately $125,000 and were among a group of about four-dozen paintings stolen on March 22, 1945, as Allied forces swept through Germany. They eventually were brought to the United States and were acquired by a New Jersey resident about 20 years after the war, federal officials said. They were found when the current owner put them up for auction two months ago (Los Angeles Times) http://www.calendarlive.com/galleriesandmuseums/cl-et-quick7.3dec07,0,1297153.story?coll=cl-art

Hey, what is this doing in here?
With something old and something new, art is borrowed for a different view at two museums. Step off the second-floor elevator of the J. Paul Getty Museum's North Pavilion and your eye travels down a long hallway to focus on the back wall of the Gallery of Northern European Paintings, circa 1400 to 1600. What you see is no 15th or 16th century artwork but instead the bright colors and stark geometric lines of "Composition of Red, Blue, Yellow," a 1939 oil painting by Dutch Modernist Piet Mondrian (Los Angeles Times) http://www.calendarlive.com/galleriesandmuseums/cl-et-interjections7dec07,0,4186674.story?coll=cl-art

++ British newspapers
ICA finds a new vision
The Institute of Contemporary Arts should be a place to "phrase answers to big questions", according to its new director, Ekow Eshun (The Guardian) http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/news/story/0,11711,1660452,00.html

Two million visitors for Baltic
The Baltic art gallery on Tyneside is celebrating after welcoming its two millionth visitor (BBC News) http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/tyne/4507166.stm


-- December 8
++ American newspapers
Stitches in Tim
Jewish immigrants who arrived in the United States in great numbers in the middle of the 19th and 20th centuries did so, by coincidence, at moments of major advancement in apparel manufacturing. As an exhibition that opened at the Yeshiva University Museum in Manhattan this week demonstrates, it was a convergence that shaped both the fashion industry and the Jewish experience for more than a century (New York Times) http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/08/fashion/thursdaystyles/08ROW.html

Regarding Antiquities, Some Changes, Please
In the latest debacle over the looting of antiquities from Italy, there's plenty of hypocrisy to go around. The Metropolitan Museum is now negotiating with the Italian authorities over objects in its ancient Greek and Roman collection, trying to avoid the crisis facing the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, with its former curator of antiquities on trial in Italy (New York Times) http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/08/arts/design/08kimm.html

These walls do talk
Bernard and Shirley Kinsey built their home around a collection of works that speaks to the storied history of African Americans (Los Angeles Times) http://www.calendarlive.com/galleriesandmuseums/cl-hm-kinsey8dec08,0,5503035.story?coll=cl-art

++ British newspapers
Saatchi gallery shows insect art
Art collector Charles Saatchi is to open his new gallery with a work consisting of miniature skeletons and dead insects (BBC News) http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/4511648.stm

Sainsbury Centre plans revealed
The latest refurbishment plans for a visual arts centre at the University of East Anglia (UEA) site in Norwich have been revealed (BBC News) http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/norfolk/4508582.stm

Virtual tour of Africa's heritage
Africans will soon be able to take an online tour of the continent's major world heritage sites like Great Zimbabwe, the rock-hewn St Giyorgis church at Lalibella in Ethiopia and the great mosque of Djenne in Mali (BBC News) http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4507454.stm

-- December 9
++ American newspapers
Sartorial Brilliance Before All Was Black
Talk about an opening salvo. "This is not your usual museum fashion exhibition," claims the first text panel in "Fashion in Colors" at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum. The imperious italicized sneer may grate a bit, but the claim is justified (New York Times) http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/09/arts/design/09colo.html

Russia threatens to end loans to UK
The British government is being asked to guarantee that works of art will not be seized. The future of the Hermitage Rooms at Somerset House is at stake (The Art Newspaper) http://www.theartnewspaper.com/article01.asp?id=104

New Palm Beach fair director named
Michael P. Mezzatesta, former director of the Duke University Museum of Art, has been named as the new director of Palm Beach!, the American international fine art and antique fair (The Art Newspaper) http://www.theartnewspaper.com/article01.asp?id=102

Dealers to send unsold Old Masters to Sotheby's
Critics say plan will undermine confidence in dealers and auction-house experts (The Art Newspaper) http://www.theartnewspaper.com/article01.asp?id=100

++ British newspapers
The poet, the painter and a £100,000 picture
A view of Ullswater, an 1835 watercolour by Turner showing bathers and cattle, has been bought by the Wordsworth Trust for over £100,000, with grants from the Art Fund charity, the National Heritage Memorial Fund, and an anonymous donor (The Guardian) http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/news/story/0,11711,1663153,00.html

Reopening of glass-walled church
A Grade II-listed 1950s church, closed in 2001 for repairs to its stained glass walls costing £500,000, is reopening in time for Christmas (BBC News) http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/essex/4514244.stm


-- December 10
++ American newspapers
Doubts on Donors' Collection Cloud Met Antiquities Project
A decade ago, the Metropolitan Museum of Art embarked on a vastly ambitious
project: the transformation of its dark and crowded Greek and Roman galleries into one of the premier spaces for antiquities in the Western Hemisphere (New York Times) http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/10/arts/design/10coll.html

The Terrorist in the Art Gallery
In New York, the Metropolitan Museum is considering what amounts to a plea bargain with Italian authorities for having acquired antiquities that Italy says were stolen. In California, the longtime curator for ancient art at the J. Paul Getty Museum has resigned to face trial in Rome on charges of conspiracy to receive stolen artifacts. In Iraq, a German archaeologist has been kidnapped by insurgents (New York Times) http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/10/opinion/10bogdanos.html

Hurdles Persist for Whitney's Expansion
Supporters and critics of the Whitney Museum's expansion spoke passionately Thursday night as the museum presented new details about its building plans to an Upper East Side community board (New York Times) http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/10/arts/design/10whit.html

Obituary: Atsuko Tanaka, 73, Artist Who Challenged Convention, Dies Atsuko Tanaka, one of Japan's most important avant-garde artists, died on Dec. 3 at a hospital near her home in Nara, Japan. She was 73 (New York Times) http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/10/arts/design/10tanaka.html


-- December 11
++ American newspapers
Hi, Venice? It's Istanbul. Can You Send a Painter?
The story of Gentile Bellini's nearly two-year sojourn (1479-80) in the Ottoman capital is the subject of "Gentile Bellini and the East," an exhibition opening on Wednesday at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (New York Times) http://travel2.nytimes.com/2005/12/11/arts/design/11unge.html

Bilbao? Please, That Was So Eight Years Ago
The popular success of Mr. Gehry's turbulent titanium-clad museum turned a depressed post-industrial town into a bustling tourist destination (New York Times) http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/11/arts/design/11pogr.html

It's all about the wonder
B.N. Goswamy wouldn't mind losing the didactic labels in the San Diego exhibition he co-curated, letting the Indian works speak for themselves (Los Angeles Times) http://www.calendarlive.com/galleriesandmuseums/cl-ca-domains11dec11,0,7287426.story?coll=cl-art

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