links from last week

A few things I didn't get to last week:

- Greg Cook takes in Abelardo Morell's current gallery show at Danzinger Projects, apparently his first in New York.  I like Morell's photographs a great deal as well (as I've written before, I've even got the book), so I envy Greg his trip to New York and agree with him when he writes that "Morell’s best camera obscura photos always seem to be about the walls speaking about what they’ve witnessed, whispering about their long, patient looking."  That was pretty much my take when I wrote about them as well.  The photograph that Greg singles out of “Santa Maria della Salute in Palazzo Bedroom, Venice, Italy” is indeed a stunner, though I disagree with him about the sunrise one--I find its spareness a welcome change of pace from Morell's more baroque creations (though granted, I haven't seen that one in person.)  My favorite will probably always be this one of the Custom House and Central Artery in Boston, which used to hang near the elevator at the DeCordova.  Ghostly.

- Ed Winkleman takes note of the Met's new galleries and a New York Times article on an Umbrian village's attempt to press a claim for the museum's Etruscan chariot, which it acquired over a hundred years ago.  Ed notes that the claim is a long shot not even backed by the Italian government, but adds "there are moral considerations to be weighed, and the village demanding the Met return the piece (that even they confess has been exquisitely restored) has convinced a New Jersey mayor to aid them in their quest, so it's not an open-and-shut case by any means."  Unfortunately, it is an open-and-shut case, or at the very least it should be.  With apologies to the Umbrians, if there's any degree of success in bringing a claim on something a museum acquired over 100 years ago--not only prior to the 1970 UNESCO regulations, but before Italy's own cultural heritage law, as the article points out--then nothing in a museum collection can be considered safe.  It will provide encouragement for lawyers to try and chip, chip, chip away at museum ownership, in the hopes that a dubious claim might still yield a windfall to the lucky or clever.  The cost to museums could be enormous, and is hardly worth disturbing what is a settled issue.  On a related note, anyone who has WSJ access should check out this article from last week on the growth, some of it opportunistic, in Nazi-era provenance legal claims.  For the rest of us, it's worth tracking down a copy of the Journal from that day if you have an interest in the topic.

- I totally agree that this is outrageous.  If you want to support the Hermitage, fine, it's a free country.  If you want a tax deduction for doing so, move to Russia, commie.

Comments

[martin]

this isn't a blog, but it's interesting -

http://19thc-artworldwide.org/