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Subject: NEWS: H-Museum News Digest (US, 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.

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H-MUSEUM NEWS DIGEST (USA, UK)
January 9 - January 15, 2006

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-- January 9
++ American newspapers
Each to her own nature
Complex compositions and wild hybridizations by five female artists speak for themselves at USC, thanks in part to curators' restraint (Los Angeles Times) http://www.calendarlive.com/galleriesandmuseums/cl-et-soliloquies9jan09,0,7733733.story?coll=cl-art

Hungarian centenary
The Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest opened in 1905 and its grand neo-Classical building was a symbol of the city's status as one of the twin capitals of the wealthy Austro-Hungarian empire (The Art Newspaper)
http://www.theartnewspaper.com/article01.asp?id=129

++ British newspapers
Stressed workers enjoy art for heart's sake Visiting an art gallery may be the perfect antidote to stress, according to research. Analysis of 28 City high flyers who spent their lunch break viewing art found their stress levels fell by 45% after 40 minutes at the Guildhall art gallery in London.
(The Guardian)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/news/story/0,11711,1682110,00.html


-- January 10
++ American newspapers
When a Museum Building Competes With Art When Marcel Breuer was planning his brooding Whitney Museum building on Madison Avenue in the early 1960's, he was adamant about creating a space where art could hold its own. His first priority for the interior, he wrote, was the "simplicity and background-character of the gallery spaces, with the visitors' attention reserved to the exhibits."
(New York Times)
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/10/arts/design/10inst.html

Obituary: Armand P. Bartos, 95, Architect and Donor, Is Dead Armand P. Bartos, an architect and philanthropist who, with his wife, Celeste, supported major New York City cultural institutions, died at his home in Manhattan on Dec. 29. He was 95.
(New York Times)
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/10/arts/10bartos.html

Museums snap up private photography collections Last year, when the Metropolitan Museum of Art acquired the more than 8,500 photographs in the Gilman Paper Company Collection - then arguably the most impressive private photography collection in existence - Malcolm Daniel, the museum's curator of photography, declared it "the most important thing" that had happened to his department in the history of the museum. "For at least the last 15 years, the acquisition of the Gilman collection has been our No.
1 priority and goal," he said
(International Herald Tribune)
http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/12/30/features/collectors.php

++ British newspapers
Obituary: John Latham
Conceptual artist whose once shocking works - often involving torn and charred books - came to assume a prophetic force (The Times) http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,60-1977386,00.html


-- January 11
++ British newspapers
Faith exhibition at oldest museum
A new multi-faith exhibition is opening at the oldest public museum in the UK - Oxford University's Ashmolean (BBC News) http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/oxfordshire/4599624.stm


-- January 12
++ American newspapers
Breathing free in America
Skirball's 'From Haven to Home' documents 350 years of Jewish immigration.
In "From Haven to Home: 350 Years of Jewish Life in America" at the Skirball Cultural Center, it's hard not to be immediately taken by the exhibition's marquee artifacts (Los Angeles Times) http://www.calendarlive.com/galleriesandmuseums/cl-wk-museums12jan12,0,7840523.story?coll=cl-art

Getty's constant gardener
Richard Naranjo knows the elaborate Mediterranean flora of J. Paul Getty's villa better than anyone. He planted it, spent his life tending it - and is sprucing it up for a second act (Los Angeles Times) http://www.calendarlive.com/galleriesandmuseums/cl-hm-naranjo12jan12,0,4979893.story?coll=cl-art

British Library to repair Mozart manuscript A Mozart manuscript that was torn in half by his widow will be reconstituted this year as part of celebrations marking the 250th anniversary of the composer's birth, the British Library said Wednesday (Los Angeles Times) http://www.calendarlive.com/galleriesandmuseums/cl-wk-mozart12jan12,0,6119304.story?coll=cl-art


-- January 13
++ American newspapers
Italy Offers the Met a Deal on Disputed Art The Italian government has relayed a formal proposal to the Metropolitan Museum of Art that would grant the museum special access to long-term loans in exchange for the return of 20 works of Greek and Roman art that the Italians say were illegally removed from their country. The proposed accord, a copy of which was provided to The New York Times, would specifically absolve the museum of any knowledge of wrongdoing and avert possible legal steps against the museum by the Italian government (New York Times) http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/13/nyregion/13met.html

Going to Auction: Pieces of History
In the second half of the 19th century, plaster casts of important European artworks were a fashionable teaching tool in museums and schools.
Institutions like the Metropolitan Museum formed collections that included plaster replicas of architectural elements like the pediments of the Temple of Zeus at Olympia, reliefs from the Parthenon and casts of Italian Renaissance art like Della Robbia's relief of a Virgin with saints. The first casts were exhibited at the museum in 1889.
(New York Times)
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/13/arts/design/13voge.html

The Bustling Season of American Art and English Pottery Today marks the beginning of Americana madness in Manhattan, two lively weeks of auctions, fairs, lectures and preview parties dedicated to 17th-,
18th- and 19th-century American furniture, paintings, folk art and decorative arts. Collectors, curators, scholars and dealers are flooding the city (New York Times) http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/13/arts/design/13anti.html

Obituary: Mimmo Rotella, Collagist, Dies at 87 Mimmo Rotella, the Italian artist who was one of the last surviving members of the influential French Nouveaux Réalistes group, died on Sunday in Milan.
He was 87
(New York Times)
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/13/arts/design/13rotella.html

LACMA receives Ruscha prints
Thanks to a donor who loves the work of Edward Ruscha, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art has compiled a nearly complete set of the quintessential L.A. artist's prints (Los Angeles Times) http://www.calendarlive.com/galleriesandmuseums/cl-et-ruscha13jan13,0,1934172.story?coll=cl-art

US colonel to lead antiquities anti-theft unit Bogdanos attacks "cozy cabal of academics, dealers and collectors" who ignore provenance (The Art Newspaper)
http://www.theartnewspaper.com/article01.asp?id=136

Financier starts photo fund
Mehmet Dalman, the star of the German Commerzbank who in just three years as managing board member raised turnover from $25 million to $1.56 billion, now has his own firm, WMG Ltd, which offers wealth management services to its blue-chip investors and boasts Richard Greer, the British art collector, among its partners. Some are likely to be invited to invest in one of its funds of 20th- and 21st-century photography, currently being built up by Mr Dalman (The Art Newspaper)
http://www.theartnewspaper.com/article01.asp?id=133

Reynolds' Portrait of Omai to go to National Gallery of Ireland The British government has granted a temporary export licence for the work to leave the UK (The Art Newspaper) http://www.theartnewspaper.com/article01.asp?id=130

++ British newspapers
Heel 'may hasten Marbles' return'
A German university has backed the return of a fragment of the Parthenon temple to Athens but it wants Greece to give it an artwork in return (BBC News) http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4610826.stm


-- January 14
++ American newspapers
Defendant in Antiquities Case Speaks Up, Angrily Robert Hecht, an American art dealer charged in Italy with trafficking in illegally excavated antiquities, spoke out indignantly in his defense here on Friday, saying he had been unjustly accused (New York Times) http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/14/arts/design/14gett.html

Art Dealer Appears at Trial
The American whom Italy accuses of selling looted antiquities to the Getty tells the media that he is a scapegoat. Robert E. Hecht Jr., 87, was dismissive of the court and confident of prevailing in the trial, in which his co-defendant is Marion True, former antiquities curator at the Getty (Los Angeles Times) http://www.calendarlive.com/galleriesandmuseums/cl-fg-getty14jan14,0,7356392.story?coll=cl-art

Ruscha joins MOCA's board
In keeping with its practice of enlisting artists as advisors and decision makers, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles has elected Edward Ruscha to its board of trustees. A world-renowned figure who has 33 works in MOCA's permanent collection, Ruscha is also well represented at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, which recently announced its acquisition of
156 of his prints
(Los Angeles Times)
http://www.calendarlive.com/galleriesandmuseums/cl-et-quick14.1jan14,0,2975782.story?coll=cl-art

New San Francisco Museum Celebrates Beats The opening of "The Beat Museum" coincides with the arrival of the original scroll manuscript of "On the Road" at the San Francisco Public Library and the naming of renegade poet Jack Hirschman as the city's poet laureate.
Shortly after receiving the honor Thursday, Hirschman read at an anti-death penalty rally at City Hall (Los Angeles Times)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2006/01/14/entertainment/e140329S42.DTL&hw=Museum&sn=016&sc=312

Round 2 of 'Traditions' show sheds more light on individualism of 18th century Japanese painters The Asian Art Museum has just opened the second rotation in its two-part exhibition "Traditions Unbound: Groundbreaking Painters of 18th Century Japan." In quality and variety, Part 2 exceeds even the high expectations the first installment stirred (Los Angeles Times)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/01/14/DDG79GMHGP1.DTL&hw=Museum&sn=018&sc=329

++ British newspapers
Obituary: John Hayes
Leading authority on Gainsborough who was director of the National Portrait Gallery for two decades. A quietly innovative scholar, John Hayes will be remembered for his directorship of the London Museum and then of the National Portrait Gallery, and as the leading expert of his day on Thomas Gainsborough (The Times) http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,60-1984276,00.html

Art of making a pile of cash from a stack of paintings As the only investment vehicle of its kind in the world, Fine Art Fund manages to join up the dots (The Times) http://business.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,9556-1984377,00.html

Going Dutch
Log on and explore the life and work of Rembrandt in this anniversary year (The Times) http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,22872-1978705,00.html

Painter scoops 25,000 euros prize
Painter Susan Gunn has beaten 30 shortlisted competitors from 22 countries to win 25,000 euros (£17,000) in the inaugural Sovereign Art Prize (BBC News) http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/4612086.stm


-- January 15
++ American newspapers
N.Y. Gallery to Exhibit Iraqi Artworks
Tattered book covers salvaged from the Iraqi Academy of Fine Arts and wax sketches of U.S. bombs blowing up Baghdad are going on exhibit in New York this month in a rare U.S. exhibition of Iraqi artists. ''Ashes to Art: The Iraqi Phoenix'' reflects the turbulence in the nation since the March 2003 bombing of Baghdad (New York Times) http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/arts/AP-Iraqi-Art-Exhibit.html

The Yoruban Equivalent of a Power Tie and Pinstriped Suit A show at the Newark Museum makes the point with objects from more than a dozen cultures across the continent, from intricate South African beadwork to outsize Moroccan woolen cloaks to elaborately embroidered tunics from Mali. In both the spiritual realm and the political one, such regalia marks a man as a force to be reckoned with. (African women, the catalog observes, tend to occupy far fewer "visual spaces of power.") (New York Times) http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/15/arts/design/15bier.html

Just think of it as practice
When the exhibition "Ashes and Snow" went up in New York last year, there was a lot of talk about its being a new way to put on an art show. A multimillion-dollar project in which large photographs by Gregory Colbert are displayed in a structure designed by esteemed Tokyo architect Shigeru Ban out of shipping containers and used teabags, the exhibit was billed as a recyclable, sustainable effort that would serve as a model for exhibits to come (Los Angeles Times) http://www.calendarlive.com/galleriesandmuseums/cl-ca-artsnotes15.1jan15,0,6167616.story?coll=cl-art

A maverick in focus
Paris retrospective puts the street-fueled intensity of provocative photographer William Klein in career-spanning context (Los Angeles Times) http://www.calendarlive.com/galleriesandmuseums/cl-ca-klein15jan15,0,1467321.story?coll=cl-art

LA woman should get art looted by Nazis, Austrian court rules Five paintings by famed Jugenstil artist Gustav Klimt should be returned by the Austrian government to a Los Angeles woman, an arbitration court said Monday, in a ruling indirectly backing the family's claims that the pictures were stolen by the Nazis (San Francisco Chronicle)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2006/01/16/state/n043936S39.DTL&hw=Museum&sn=001&sc=164

Getty Villa reopening as classics center The original J. Paul Getty Museum in Malibu, closed since 1997 when the Getty Center opened in Brentwood, will reopen Jan. 28 as the Getty Villa. It houses Greek, Roman and Etruscan antiquities and will be a center for the study classical arts, archaeology and culture (San Francisco Chronicle)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/01/15/TRGOHGLOJ91.DTL&hw=Museum&sn=006&sc=113

++ British newspapers
Last-gasp increase for Scotland's arts falls short of £100m target Government funding for the arts in Scotland will be increased, it will be announced this week, although the figure looks set to fall significantly short of the extra £100m recommended by the Cultural Commission (The Guardian) http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/news/story/0,11711,1686849,00.html

Many hands make light work at gallery
How many Hayward Gallery staff does it take to change a light bulb? It's a pressing question for organisers of the Dan Flavin: A Retrospective exhibition which opens on Thursday. Fourteen electricians have worked since last Monday to install more than 50 of Flavin's light sculptures, created from 450 fluorescent tubes (The Guardian) http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/news/story/0,11711,1686806,00.html

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