The Week That Was (Feb. 8 – 15, 2008)

NEW YORK—To paraphrase Henry James, there seemed to be no pattern in the carpet this week, newswise. And yet, we managed to find some.

A 76-year-old artist was charged with gross negligence manslaughter after one of his sculptures killed two people. A 76-year-old statue of Jesus was hit by lightning. Three Islamic extremists were arrested for allegedly plotting to murder a Danish cartoonist who made drawings of Muhammad. Four suspects were arrested in Ecuador for stealing religious treasures. An Israeli man was charged with theft of more than $1 million worth of objects, including Napoleonic-era pistols. A geneticist was sentenced to a year of unsupervised release and fined $500 for mailing an artist with bacteria for use in an artwork.

The Denver Art Museum acquired 875 psychedelic posters from the 1960s and '70s that, according to the museum, “capture the free love, drugs, and hard-edged rock music that symbolized…the radical social change of the era.” A nude painted by Lucas Cranach the Elder in 1532 is too racy for the London Underground. Tim Knox, director of Sir John Soane’s Museum, has launched a campaign against England’s “epidemic of … Frankenstein monster memorials,” that is, ugly public art.

Critic Roberta Smith called L.A. real estate developer Eli Broad’s art collection “pricey trophies” and “greatest hits.” The Guerrilla Girls sent Broad some “e-males” complaining that his art is “a lesson in discrimination and exclusion” (i.e., too many white guys). Architecture critic Nicolai Ouroussoff called Renzo Piano’s Broad Contemporary Art Museum building “remarkably uninspired.”

A German museum is down one Monet painting after discovering that one of the works in its collection is a forgery. A Swiss museum is down one Monet painting (and a Van Gogh, a Cézanne, and a Degas) after masked gunmen made off with them. Art theft "is the most banal of crimes,” wrote critic Jonathan Jones in the Guardian. “Art thieves are not gentleman cat burglars who work for Bond villains amassing hidden collections. They are not interested in art, and it shows.” The U.S. government could determine that a whole class of Thai antiquities now in the U.S. is stolen property. A Basquiat painting that authorities think was smuggled out of Brazil was discovered in a Manhattan warehouse.

MoMA director Glenn Lowry, whose 2006 salary was reported at $1.3 million annually, extended his tenure to 2013. Hammer Museum curator James Elaine and Brazilian artist Cildo Meireles and each took home $100,000 when they were awarded the Ordway Prize. Australian artist Gareth Sansom won the $100,000 John McCaughey Memorial Prize, and, upon receiving it, he wondered aloud whether Australia has too many prizes.

Economists shuddered (“Bleaker Outlook,” moaned the Times). Art fairs were shuttered (Photo-London, Duesseldorf, artDC, Majorca). Christie’s mid-season Impressionist and Modern Art sale totaled $1.3 million above estimate. Economic factors were blamed for the cancellation of Zaha Hadid’s first permanent building in London. New British tax laws may discourage art donations from non-domiciles. The Tate faced concerns over trustee conflicts of interest. A study found that including artworks in advertisements can cause consumers to evaluate products more positively. British artist Cornelia Parker interviewed Noam Chomsky. “What was the most important thing I learned from Chomsky?" she wrote. "That capitalism compels us to work ourselves to death in order to stuff our houses with things we don't need. Perhaps this is one thing art can do: create a new aesthetic, one of austerity.”