A 13-year-old forgery ring busted in France, a ten-year restitution debate resolved, and the 400-year-old mystery of the Medicis’ death solved. This week in art news: It’s about time.
1. Brits Fight for Arts Funding
British art-world heavyweights have begun a letter-writing campaign to the government protesting proposed budget cuts Read More
On July 20, 1938, an Austrian art historian working for the new Nazi government appraised the collection of the popular Jewish cabaret singer and comedian Fritz Grünbaum at a worth of 5,791 Reichsmark.
A month earlier, the Nazis had deported Grünbaum to Dachau.
In his absence, Grünbaum’s wife Lilly kept watch over the Read More
Standing in the Neue Galerie in front of Klimt’s Adele Bloch-Bauer I, I couldn’t help thinking of one my favorite Donald Trump anecdotes:
Once upon a time, a fellow billionaire asked Mr. Trump why he’d never amassed a collection of art. Why, in fact, wasn’t he interested in art at all? “You know what a Read More
Standing in the Neue Galerie in front of Klimt’s Adele Bloch-Bauer I, I couldn’t help thinking of one my favorite Donald Trump anecdotes:
Once upon a time, a fellow billionaire asked Mr. Trump why he’d never amassed a collection of art. Why, in fact, wasn’t he interested in art at all? “You know what Read More
Egon Schiele and Paul Klee are both crowd pleasers, but how radically different are the pleasures they offer. Last fall, the Neue Galerie exhibited drawings, paintings and prints by the angst-ridden Austrian Expressionist. This spring, Klee’s affectionately cultivated whimsies adorn the museum’s pristine walls. The swing from masturbatory psychodramas to teetering, childlike enigmas is dramatic. Read More
The New Ride
“If it wasn’t for this snowstorm, we’d probably have more of the Beverly Hills crowd flying in, and it’d be even sicker. But it’s always pretty wild,” said Matt—he didn’t give a last name—the men’s-room attendant at the nightclub Marquee. He was dressed in a white three-piece suit for work, and his Read More
Tracey Emin’s Return
Last week Monday, which was Halloween, Tracey Emin’s new drawings were already in place in her gallery, Lehmann Maupin. But her new neon work was still being manufactured, though the exhibition would open on Saturday night. One piece, Sleeping with You, was being modeled from a long, jagged line that she had Read More
First it was Weimar, then Vienna. There is something bizarre about the way certain periods of modern cultural history are suddenly transformed into objects of contemporary yearning and nostalgia. Think of the romance that has been made of Weimar Germany in recent decades. Weimar was the prelude and handmaiden of the greatest disasters of the Read More
