Sting Rocks Indian Art Auction, Teen Arrested for Dutch Kunsthal Heist, and More

Published: March 5, 2013

— Sting Will Open Landmark Indian Auction: A rare sale of antiquities and artworks — including an orientalist masterpiece by J.M.W. Turner, a painting by M.F. Husain, and design objects by Étienne Drian, René Lalique, and others — staged by Bangalore-based auctioneer Bid & Hammer will feature an even more improbable opening act. The three-day sale kicks off on Thursday with a performance by rock legend Sting. "Auctions in India are moving away from gallery spaces to luxury venues to fit into the lifestyle segments of the upend buyers who make up the bulk of the collectors of rare art and antiquities in the country," Bid & Hammer chairman and managing director Maher Dadha explained. [South Asia News Service]

— Teenager Arrested in Dutch Art Heist: A 19-year-old Romanian woman was arrested by the Dutch police yesterday in connection with the theft of works by Picasso, Monet, Matisse, and more from Kunsthal Rotterdam last October; she is said to be the girlfriend of one of the two men arrested in Romania in January, and would have stashed the paintings in her apartment until they were removed from their frames and taken to Romania. The investigation, which is proceeding with help from the Romanian police, has yet to turn up the missing masterpieces. [Reuters]

— Google Launches "Art Talks" Video Series: Not to be outdone by the Met's "82nd & 5th" and PBS's "art21," the tech giant has launched the video project "Art Talks," a new online series in which curators and staff from major museums including MoMA, the London's National Gallery, L.A. MOCA, and Qatar's Museum of Islamic Art discuss important artworks, issues like art education, or themes like the history of the female nude. "We hope that Art Talks is the next step in bringing art to your armchair, wherever you are in the world, with just a click of a button," said Lucy Schwartz of the Google Cultural Institute. [Google Blog]

— Keystone Cossacks Disrupt Pussy Riot Play: The plight of art rockers Pussy Riot remains too hot to touch in Russia without controversy. Swiss theater director Milo Rau says that his project to re-enact the trial of jailed group at Moscow's Sakharov Center — done with the participation of Yekaterina Samutsevich, a band member who was later released on appeal — was disrupted when immigration officials, Cossacks (that is, "people who claim to be descended from a once-feared Tsarist-era paramilitary group"), and several police officers barged into the theater on Sunday. They were thwarted, however, when Rau’s visa turned out to be in order, and it turned out that their warrant had the wrong address on it. "My impression was that they had absolutely no plan – they just wanted to interrupt it and helplessly searched for a reason," Rau said Monday. "It was more Kafka than Stalin." [AP]

— Major Gift Guarantees Free Entry at Bronx Museum: Last night, during the Bronx Museum of the Arts's annual gala, the museum's executive director Holly Block announced that a $500,000 gift from Donald and Shelley Rubin has ensured that the museum will be able to continue offering free admission for the next three years. "The number of people who came into the Museum and the increased community engagement that emerged from the free admission and school adoption programs we began last year was inspiring," Block said. "The Rubins’ generous gift will enable us to expand these programs and give hundreds of young people and members of underserved communities in every corner of the Bronx new opportunities to experience and participate in the arts." [Press Release]

— Indy Museum Slashes Staff by 11 Percent: The Indianapolis Museum of Art (IMA) expects to save some $1.7 million per year thanks to an 11 percent reduction in its staff that the musuem's director and CEO Charles Venable announced this week, which will see 29 jobs cut in almost every department, from curatorial development, conservation, and education to security and grounds maintenance. Venable also wants to shift the IMA away from what he characterized as an over-reliance on its $326-million endowment. "These are difficult changes, but it is imperative that we reduce our reliance on the endowment so future generations can benefit from it," Venable said. "In my opinion, endowments ideally should not be used to support more than 50 percent of operations as a rule with the other half being supported through donations and earned revenue." [Indy Star]

— Met Buys Bargain David Drawing: Eagle-eyed curators for the Metropolitan Museum made off with a steal of a deal at the Swann Galleries's January 29 auction of Old Master drawings, recognizing an ink and wash rendition of Jacques-Louis David's "The Death of Socrates" (which the Met owns) that was described in the sale's catalogue as being from the "French school, early 19th century" as an actual David drawing, and snapping it up for $840 — well above its $700 high estimate. "Several curators in the department — Perrin Stein and Stijn Allsteens — noticed this," said Met drawings curator George Goldner. "The drawing style is typical of David. It was obvious we had to have it." [TAN]

— Wallinger Hopes to Spread the Horse Love: UK artist Mark Wallinger has unveiled his latest work, "The White Horse," on a plinth outside the British Council’s London headquarters. The life-size marble and resin replica of a real racehorse is not merely his latest work, however — he also hopes that it will serve a demonstration piece, inspiring confidence in an even larger project, a 50-meter-high horse he had planned for a commission in Kent back in 2008, but that is lamentably in limbo due to lack of funds. "There's only so much the imagination can do," Wallinger explained. "Seeing [the White Horse] is like a very large proof to what the larger one could look like." [Independent]

— Portlanders Perplexed by Art Tax They Voted For: The city of Portland has mailed flyers to tens of thousands of its citizens to remind them that it's time to pay the art tax they approved in November — which is expected to raise $12 million every year, half of which will go toward hiring arts teachers in k-5 schools with the other half earmarked for specific art groups and projects — though the initiative left many of the 350,000 residents effected by the tax confused. "No, it’s not junk mail," said the city's revenue director Thomas Lannom. "We want to make sure everybody knows there’s a tax that was voted for by Portland voters on November 6th of last year." [KGW]

— "Virgin and Child" Returned: The Staatsgalerie Stuttgart in Germany has agreed to give up a 15th-century painting in its collection after researchers were able to trace it back to Max Stern (1904-87), a Jewish dealer who escaped Nazi Germany and later became an art dealer in Montreal. The work in question, "Virgin and Child," is attributed to the Master of Flémalle. Three universities are beneficiaries of Stern’s estate: Concordia and McGill universities in Montreal, and the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Willi Korte, a researcher who works for the estate, emphasized that there was more work to be done: "We know that a few other paintings from Stern are in German museums." [TAN]

VIDEO OF THE DAY

Cossacks storm Pussy Riot reconstruction