Displaying items by tag: art historian

In a decision that should bring some relief to art experts, the German art historian and the former director of the Centre Pompidou, Werner Spies, no longer has to pay a fee for mistakenly authenticating a painting as a genuine work by Max Ernst. On 3 December, the Versailles Court of Appeal overturned a 2013 ruling against Spies that ordered him to reimburse the collector Louis Reijtenbagh for a work that turned out to be a fake produced by the forger Wolfgang Beltracchi.

Dia Art Foundation has named art historian and curator James Meyer to fill two leadership posts as the New York-based nonprofit known for its cavernous exhibition space in Beacon, N.Y., works to reassert its presence in Chelsea.

In January Mr. Meyer, now an associate curator of modern art at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., will become Dia’s deputy director. He will also be chief curator, a newly created role that Dia’s director, Jessica Morgan, said reflected the foundation’s expanded scope.

The reporters staked her out. The investigators said she conspired with crooked dealers. And her museum colleagues seemed content to watch her disappear, as if one of the world’s most powerful, respected and sought-after art historians deserved to be the only American curator brought to trial.

Ten years ago, Marion True, then curator of antiquities for the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles — the wealthiest museum in the world — was formally accused by the Italian government of taking part in a stolen-art ring. Within months, she would lose her job, her career and leave the country.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the largest U.S. art institution, named Daniel H. Weiss president as the museum embarks on new initiatives and a long-term capital campaign.

Weiss, 57, an art historian and president of Haverford College, will oversee 1,500 of the 2,200 full and part-time employees in areas including finance, legal affairs and development, the museum said Tuesday in a statement.

He was formally elected by the Met’s board on Tuesday and will assume his new post this summer, after the semester ends at Haverford.

The Board of Trustees of the Barnes Foundation today announced that they have named Thomas “Thom” Collins as the new Executive Director and President of the Barnes Foundation. An innovative educator, accomplished art historian, administrator and author, Mr. Collins, a Philadelphia native, has more than 20 years of experience at some of America’s top arts institutions. He comes to the Barnes after serving for five years as director of the Pérez Art Museum Miami, Florida (PAMM).

“Thom is a national leader in the visual arts and is recognized for his expertise and breadth of knowledge in education and art history. His track record in museum leadership, community outreach, and development makes him the right choice to lead the Barnes Foundation at this time,” said Joseph Neubauer, Chairman of the Board of Trustees at the Barnes Foundation, who led the search committee.

On Sunday, December 7, a fire swept through the Galerie Canesso, on the rue Laffitte in central Paris, destroying part of its library, documents, and offices. The gallery specializes in Italian Old Master paintings from the Renaissance to the Baroque. The fire was caused by an electrical fault, said Véronique Damian, an art historian who works with the gallery’s founder Maurizio Canesso.

“This was a great loss for us but fortunately no paintings were damaged,” Damian said in a telephone interview.

Are there suddenly dozens more genuine Rembrandts in the world?

There are if art authorities accept the findings of Ernst van de Wetering, the Dutch art historian and longtime head of the Netherlands-based Rembrandt Research Project. In its sixth and final volume, published Wednesday, Mr. van de Wetering reattributes 70 paintings—often discounted by previous scholars as well as the institutions that own them—to the Dutch master. They include four at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. Of those, Mr. van de Wetering is quick to emphasize “Portrait of a Man,” also known as “The Auctioneer,” dated 1658 by the researcher.

Thirty-eight paintings by Sir Winston Churchill are being offered to the nation, following the death of the politician's youngest daughter in May. Most of the pictures are currently on loan to the family home, Chartwell.

In her will, Lady Mary Soames expressed the wish that the paintings remain there. They have been on display since the home in Kent opened to the public in 1966, a year after the wartime prime minister died. The art historian David Coombs described the paintings as "a national treasure of major historical and artistic importance".

Filling vacancies in two of the Getty Museum's most important jobs, museum director Timothy Potts has picked Jeffrey Spier, an American scholar with whom he's had a long professional connection, as its new senior curator of antiquities — the top post at the Getty Villa in Pacific Palisades — and an Italian museum director, Davide Gasparotto, as senior curator of paintings based at the Getty Center in Brentwood.

Gasparotto has been director of the Galleria Estense museum in Modena, Italy, for the last two years, and spent 12 years as a curator and art historian at the National Gallery of Parma.

Ever walk into a museum and think, “Why’d they choose THAT?,” or, “Why did they take down my favorite cat portrait? Nobody leaves until the cat comes back.”

The Frye Art Museum staff feels your pain/strong feelings about art/need to free your inner art historian. So the Frye has launched “You Be the Curator.” Here’s how it works: Images of all 232 of the Seattle museum’s paintings are now on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and Tumblr.