MOSCOW ? Concern over the security of Russia's museum collections mounted after officials revealed yet another theft ? the disappearance of a famous late architect's drawings, worth millions of dollars, from a Russian state archive.

The crime, blamed by the archive's director on unscrupulous staff, came just more than a week after Russia's most famous museum ? the Hermitage ? announced the theft over a period of years of more than 220 artworks valued at $5 million.

Detalii Comments(0) 11.08.

Director of the Arts - Missouri School of Journalism The Missouri School of Journalism is searching for a multi-talented faculty member to serve as coordinator of a program designed to develop an increased appreciation of the arts among prospective journalists. The program was recently awarded a curriculum-enrichment grant from the Carnegie Corporation of New York. The Missouri School of Journalism is searching for a coordinator of a program designed to develop an increased appreciation of th...

Detalii Comments(0) 11.08.

Legendary Sports Prints announces the release of "Donnie Baseball", a 623 piece Limited Edition Lithograph based on an original painting by renowned sports artist, Bill Purdom. Mr. Purdom has painted many sports themed images, and is recognized as one of the leading artists is the sports art genre. His latest piece is available directly from Legendary Sports Prints at http://www.sportslithographs.com, or from Mr. Don Mattingly's representatives at http://www.ironcladauthentics.com.

Comments(0) 11.08.

Museum Leaders: The Next Generation, November 6-10, 2006, Los Angeles, CA. A Getty Leadership Institute program dedicated to developing the potential of professionals identified by others as individuals who may someday lead museums. The program stresses the importance of realistic self-assessment, learning from all assignments, combining energy with focus, and securing appropriate mentors. Admission is competitive; individuals must be nominated by a senior museum professional. For nomination ...

Detalii 09.08.

A religious icon included on a list of more than 220 items stolen from Russia's State Hermitage Museum has been discovered in a trash bin, according to local police.

An anonymous caller reportedly alerted officers on Thursday to where the wooden icon could be found: a garbage container in a yard near the St. Petersburg police station spearheading the investigation.

A police spokesperson told Russian media that the icon appeared in good condition but had been "slightly ...

Detalii Comments(0) 04.08.

Precious silver and enamelware at St Petersburg's Hermitage Museum worth nearly ?2.7m has disappeared and probably been stolen with the connivance of staff, its director confirmed yesterday.

Some 221 icons, religious objects and pieces of jewellery studded with precious stones were found missing after a stocktake was completed at the end of last month. "There is no doubt this could not have happened without the participation of museum staff," the director, Mikhail Piotrovsky, sa...

Detalii Comments(0) 02.08.

Hermitage hit by mystery thieves

Thieves have stolen more than 200 items - with an estimated value of $5m (?2.67m) - from Russia's prestigious Hermitage art museum in St Petersburg.

The thefts are thought to have been carried out over a number of years - police believe as many as 30 years.

Jewellery and precious enamels were amongst items stolen from the museum.

The museum said staff had been involved in the theft. The curator in charge of most of the...

Detalii Comments(0) 02.08.

Sumerian statue looted from Iraq found by U.S. investigators

Three years after Iraq's National Museum was looted during the U.S. invasion, the U.S. has returned a significant artifact to Iraqi authorities.

The headless stone statue of the Sumerian king Entemena of Lagash was turned over to the Iraqi government when Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki visited Washington on Wednesday.

The statue, which weighs hundreds of pounds, was taken by looters who slid or roll...

Detalii Comments(0) 28.07.

Design unveiled of huge extension to Europe's most popular but crowded art gallery
Boxing clever ... An illustration of the planned Tate Modern extension

You thought you had seen enough contemporary art to last you a lifetime. You thought that modern art galleries could never be as big again. But you were wrong. It's back, bigger, bolder, brasher than before. Tate Modern 2. The sequel.

Yesterday, the director of the Tate, Sir Nicholas Serota, unveiled ...

Detalii Comments(0) 26.07.

Museum Collections: Curatorial Privilege and the Public Interest

This is an overly long post, but a serious subject deserves serious treatment. The following are my promised comments responding to comments made to me last week by Metropolitan Museum curator Gary Tinterow.

One of the prime movers in founding the Association of Art Museum Curators in 2001, Tinterow appears more focused on curator-power than on public accountability, as evidenced by his recent remarks to me on ...

Detalii Comments(0) 25.07.

AMERICAN ABSTRACT - Real Jackson Pollock.

by PETER SCHJELDAHL

Half a century ago, on August 11, 1956, an Oldsmobile convertible driven by Jackson Pollock, who was drunk, hit a tree in the Springs, killing the artist and a passenger. It?s a dismal enough anniversary?marked with scant attention by the finest art show in New York this summer, ?No Limits, Just Edges: Jackson Pollock Paintings on Paper,? at the Guggenheim?but glamorous, in its way. Pollock, like other doomed arti...

Detalii Comments(0) 25.07.

With Thomson gone, will art market stay bullish?

GUY DIXON

Kenneth Thomson had a simple system for bidding on major works of art.

He and his advisers gave a number from 1 to 10 to a particular work, making it clear how adamantly his bidder should go after the piece, particularly if it was destined to become part of his collection at the new, renovated Art Gallery of Ontario, said Dennis Reid, senior curator of Canadian art at the AGO. Thomson was continuing to acquir...

Detalii Comments(0) 15.06.

Character studies

Portraits are about more than just capturing a face. They are about capturing a life. That's why they are such an invaluable aid to the biographer, says Margaret Forster. Click here to see highlights from the National Portrait Gallery's collection.

During the whole of the last two years, I've sat down at my desk each morning and stared hard at a copy of a self-portrait by Gwen John. I've had it propped up, centre stage as it were, so that ...

Detalii Comments(0) 13.06.

Picasso in Madrid.
by PETER SCHJELDAHL

Pablo Picasso is having a tough summer in Madrid. He can handle it, though with nothing like his usual insolent panache?you can feel him sweat. The occasion??Picasso: Tradition and Avant-Garde,? a double exhibition at the glorious Prado and at the Reina Sof?a, the desultory national modern-art museum?is purely celebratory in intent, marking the twenty-fifth anniversary of the patriation of ?Guernica,? after, at the artist?s behest, it had ...

Detalii Comments(0) 13.06.

It's the stuff of dreams
Tom Dyckhoff

Mark Miodownik got a box from Nasa the other day. It contained aerogel, the lightest solid on earth. You can barely feel it, save for a slight warmth on your palm. It?s an insulator, but was mainly used by Nasa for collecting space dust ? it?s so light that even the tiniest coating is detectable.

Dr Miodownik likes it, though, for its aesthetics. It?s like bath foam, he explains, ?but imagine the bubbles are a nanometre wide?,...

Detalii Comments(0) 07.06.