Musings on Recent Events
As it would happen, in one of my busiest weeks of the year so far, a fair amount of important and interesting events have taken place just when I'm inundated with other priorities and unable to post frequently.
1. The Mona Lisa has moved to a new location in the Louvre. I thought this was a great excerpt and excellent first paragraph to the article (thank goodness for British journalism):
Seeing the Mona Lisa is a very intimate experience. Not intimate with the painting, which is six feet away behind a wooden barrier inside a vitrine, set into a raw sandy wall newly constructed in the Louvre's reopened Salle des Etats. No, the intimacy is with the complete strangers who press against your buttocks, yell in your face and, with a delightful lack of self-consciousness, shove you firmly aside so they can get the perfect photograph.
The nearly unbareable crowds around the Mona Lisa are nothing new, but the new space apparently does accommodate them much better than previous arrangements and is more environmentally friendly to the work itself (which is particularly important given the decline in the work's condition over the course of the last few years). Kudos for the Louvre for finally finding a solution to that problem.
2. The New York Public Library will be selling 19 works from its art collection in order to purchase more books, manuscripts, etc. as well as increase the library's endowment. There are a few points of interest here. First, the Library is just that, a library, not a museum. The works probably would be better suited in a private collection or public/private institution that is better able to care for works of art. Also, the process of selling the works is also quite a bit less complicated and controversial given its status of "library" rather than "museum." In museum terms, the process of removing a work from a permanent collection for purposes of sale or otherwise is called deaccessioning and only under very specific circumstances and for particular reasons may museums deaccession works from their collections. Any revenue generated from the sale of a deaccessioned work must be earmarked by the museum specifically for the acquisition of new works or for the direct conservation of works already existing in the museum's collection. I think the rather quiet reception of this news by the media and public is, in part, because the New York Public Library need not worry about all of these things. It is their property and they may do with it whatever they please. While the sale of these works are likely to result in many of them relocating to collections throughout the country, the Library is at least making an effort to work with other institutions in New York specifically in terms of flexible payment options if a museum were to consider acquiring one of the works for sale. What is sad about this whole thing is the lack of federal and state funding received by the Library in order to appropriately expand its collection of books, manuscripts, etc. According to the article, the Library receives 70% of its funding from private sources (not surprising), but for an institution that has no real income from the public, the exception being the probably insignificant amount of money earned from late fees, it clearly lacks the additional support that museums and other nonprofit institutions receive.
3. David Rockefeller to give MoMA $100 million donation to bolster its endowment. Rockefeller's recent promise is the largest, single cash donation in MoMA's history. Each year MoMA will receive $5 million towards its endowment until his death, at which point the Museum will receive the remainder of the money promised. Although David Rockefeller is a relatively unique case where one individual has an actual personal investment with such an organization like the Museum of Modern Art (he is the son of Abbey Aldrich Rockefeller, co-founder of the museum) and his philanthropic giving is not solely a function of his status as trustee, one can't help but wonder exactly how deep his pockets really are. I just heard that recently he's funded the creation of an aquaduct somewhere in Africa in order to bring healthy water to areas in need. David Rockefeller will probably be remembered best as a banker (the man damn-near built Chase Manhattan from the ground up), but it's his philanthropy that people will really miss when he's gone.
1. The Mona Lisa has moved to a new location in the Louvre. I thought this was a great excerpt and excellent first paragraph to the article (thank goodness for British journalism):
Seeing the Mona Lisa is a very intimate experience. Not intimate with the painting, which is six feet away behind a wooden barrier inside a vitrine, set into a raw sandy wall newly constructed in the Louvre's reopened Salle des Etats. No, the intimacy is with the complete strangers who press against your buttocks, yell in your face and, with a delightful lack of self-consciousness, shove you firmly aside so they can get the perfect photograph.
The nearly unbareable crowds around the Mona Lisa are nothing new, but the new space apparently does accommodate them much better than previous arrangements and is more environmentally friendly to the work itself (which is particularly important given the decline in the work's condition over the course of the last few years). Kudos for the Louvre for finally finding a solution to that problem.
2. The New York Public Library will be selling 19 works from its art collection in order to purchase more books, manuscripts, etc. as well as increase the library's endowment. There are a few points of interest here. First, the Library is just that, a library, not a museum. The works probably would be better suited in a private collection or public/private institution that is better able to care for works of art. Also, the process of selling the works is also quite a bit less complicated and controversial given its status of "library" rather than "museum." In museum terms, the process of removing a work from a permanent collection for purposes of sale or otherwise is called deaccessioning and only under very specific circumstances and for particular reasons may museums deaccession works from their collections. Any revenue generated from the sale of a deaccessioned work must be earmarked by the museum specifically for the acquisition of new works or for the direct conservation of works already existing in the museum's collection. I think the rather quiet reception of this news by the media and public is, in part, because the New York Public Library need not worry about all of these things. It is their property and they may do with it whatever they please. While the sale of these works are likely to result in many of them relocating to collections throughout the country, the Library is at least making an effort to work with other institutions in New York specifically in terms of flexible payment options if a museum were to consider acquiring one of the works for sale. What is sad about this whole thing is the lack of federal and state funding received by the Library in order to appropriately expand its collection of books, manuscripts, etc. According to the article, the Library receives 70% of its funding from private sources (not surprising), but for an institution that has no real income from the public, the exception being the probably insignificant amount of money earned from late fees, it clearly lacks the additional support that museums and other nonprofit institutions receive.
3. David Rockefeller to give MoMA $100 million donation to bolster its endowment. Rockefeller's recent promise is the largest, single cash donation in MoMA's history. Each year MoMA will receive $5 million towards its endowment until his death, at which point the Museum will receive the remainder of the money promised. Although David Rockefeller is a relatively unique case where one individual has an actual personal investment with such an organization like the Museum of Modern Art (he is the son of Abbey Aldrich Rockefeller, co-founder of the museum) and his philanthropic giving is not solely a function of his status as trustee, one can't help but wonder exactly how deep his pockets really are. I just heard that recently he's funded the creation of an aquaduct somewhere in Africa in order to bring healthy water to areas in need. David Rockefeller will probably be remembered best as a banker (the man damn-near built Chase Manhattan from the ground up), but it's his philanthropy that people will really miss when he's gone.
posted by Corey Wyckoff at 11:49 AM
1 Comments:
Thanks for reading. I think the lack of comments is a combination of both the small number of people visiting and those who do tend to simply read and move on. There were a number of earlier posts concerning vandalism, religion and controversy that I was hoping would spark some conversation but it never really developed. In the upcoming weeks I intend to post more frequently. Unfortunately I've been inundated with work these days and my blog has been somewhat neglected. I always respond to comments posted by visitors so continue to provide your thoughts on any posts you find interesting. Keep visiting and enjoying Elective Affinities--there will be new posts soon and hopefully some discussion as well.
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