Weekly news round-up
Orla O'Brien, Friday, 11th September 2009
1) Several restitution cases in the news this week:
A court in San Diego, California, has ruled that a Holocaust survivor can continue his legal battle against the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum in Madrid, Spain, for the return of a painting by Pissarro that he claims was taken from his grandmother by the Nazis. The painting has been on display in the museum since 1993.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2009/sep/09/holocaust-survivor-pissarro-painting
The heirs of a prestigious Austrian family are seeking the return of a painting which they claim was sold, under duress, to Hitler in 1940. The family's lawyer stated that Count Jaromir Czernin sold The Art of Painting, which Vermeer painted in 1665, 'to protect the life of his family'. The painting has been on display in Vienna's Kunsthistorisches Museum since 1946.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hnCbbnXJ6MLfU8u4JKC22dH37zjA
Emil Nolde’s Blumengarten (Flower Garden), housed in Sweden’s Moderna Museet, has been at the centre of a seven-year dispute between the museum and the heirs of a Jewish businessman, Otto Nathan Deutsch, who was forced to flee Nazi Germany. A settlement between the family and Museum was reached last week.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601088&sid=aAIFSo2DjLX4
2) Moves at the Met
Thomas P. Campbell of the Metropolitan Museum has announced new appointments for the first time since he became director of the museum. Sheila Canby, curator of Islamic art and antiquities at London's British Museum, will become curator in charge fo the Met's Islamic Art department. Peggy Fogelman, director of Education and interpretation at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, US, will take over as chairman of the Met's education department.
http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/08/building-a-new-team-at-the-met/
Also in the news this week was the Metropolitan's reattribution of a painting in their collection to the 17th-century Spanish master Velazquez. 'Portrait of a Man' (above) was previously attributed to the workshop of the artist.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5i3HxN1ES1QJ5de-g-qcgf4vkgzigD9AKJ2U80
3) Canada's Portrait Gallery facing closure
After years of attempts to find a permanent home, the Portrait Gallery of Canada is to be subsumed by the Library and Archives Canada.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/canadas-portrait-gallery-is-no-more/article1281388/
4) Database of stolen art goes online
Interpol has launched an online database that enables free access to a catalogue of stolen art. The database features 34,000 items.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2009/sep/06/interpol-online-art-database
5) Bowes Museum granted award for facelift
The main Picture Galleries at the Bowes Museum in Barnard Castle, UK, are to receive a facelift after a £300,000 grant was awarded from the DCMS/Wolfson Museums and Galleries Improvement Fund. The refurbishment project, entitled Staging the Spectacle, will involve fresh displays of the museum's collection of European art from the Renaissance to the 19th century.
http://www.thebowesmuseum.org.uk/
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