We all know about the Met’s new director, but it seems director jobs are in flux throughout the museum world.  Richard Armstrong, longtime director of a museum close to my heart and home, the Carnegie Museum of Art, has just recently been appointed director of the Guggenheim Foundation.  The Carnegie has been a leader in contemporary and modern art for a long time (see my review on this year’s Carnegie International), so Armstrong is a logical next choice.  I’ll be interested to see what the Guggenheim does under his direction — congratulations to him.

News from Artforum.com

Front and Side views of Ancient Persian Golden Cup, Ca. 4th Century BCE. (Credit)

I found this interesting yet slightly ridiculous article today on Yahoo! News. It discusses how a 70 year-old man recently found out that an old mug given to him by his grandfather in 1945 is actually an ancient Persian golden cup from around the third or fourth century bce. This relic from the Achaemenid Empire (present-day Iran) is valued by an English auction house to be worth around a million dollars, and will go up for auction on June 5th. This beautiful cup was made from a single sheet of gold and was hammered out to depict the faces of two women facing in opposite directions, complete with detailed garlands on their heads in the forms of knotted snakes. While the current owner has no idea where his grandfather purchased the relic, he admits to using it as a target for his air gun as a child.

Moral of the story: think before you start shooting works of art.

Full story: “Childhood ‘Toy’ Revealed as Ancient Persian Relic” at Yahoo! News

Brief post, since it’s finals week! But I owe many more posts during winter break, before I go off to Italy (!)– it’s been quite an exciting semester, full of awesome art seen, tours given, and people I’ve met (Arthur Wheelock! Possibly the coolest art-historian-AND-museum-person ever born? Yes, I’d say that’s no exagerration). So all that to come, but for now…

I just found this interesting article about the links between phsyical ailments and/or psychological disorders and artists and their output. I think that a lot of this information has been floating around the edges of art historical research for a while, but it’s interesting that this doctor takes the study to a distinctly scientific level, discussing Cassat’s cataracts, Degas’ arthritis, and van Gogh’s many issues, as they relate to the artists’ work. Cool study!

Three very different but equally interesting NY Times article you should probably read:

‘One Person’s Trash is Another Person’s Lost Masterpiece’ One very lucky woman finds a $1 million Mexican masterpiece… in the trash outside her apartment building. This is a great story—even greater because it’s true.

‘Seurat, Drawing His Way to the Grande Jatte’ Yet another reason to visit MoMA this fall.

‘Where Gods Yearn for Long-Lost Treasures’ Because everyone and their mother (or even grandmother, in my case!) is talking about the new Acropolis museum—and the NY Times’ reviewer absolutely loves it. Goodness, to see the Acropolis… maybe I’ll have to add Greece to the list of places I need to visit when abroad in Europe next semester.

Gustav Klimt, Adele Bloch-Bauer I, 1907, Neue Galerie New York (Image via NYTimes)

That’s it. I NEED to go to the Neue Galerie. Actually, I’m glad I waited, because they’ve just opened a new exhibit devoted entirely to one of my favorite artists, Gustav Klimt. Anyway, the NY Times has an interesting article on the controversial decision of Ronald Lauder, one of the museum’s founders, to withhold much of the provenance information about his private collection. Though many American collectors prefer not to release any information about the artwork in their collection, it’s considered good museum manners to do so– and with Mr. Lauder in such a prominent museum-related role, many are surprised as to why he won’t just release it, especially because many of the works were jostled around in Nazi-era Europe, which makes his refusal seem the slightest bit suspicious. Personally, I think his argument is a little weak (”It’s my private collection… Would it be O.K. for people to see what dresses you have in your closet?”), but nonetheless it’s high time I get down to the Neue and see some Klimt. Review to come!

NYTimes: ‘Lauder’s Openness is Sought on Artwork.’ 10.18.07.
‘Gustav Klimt: The Ronald S. Lauder and Serge Sabarsky Collections’ from 10.18.07-06.30.08 @ the Neue Galerie, Fifth Ave. & 86th St.