Europe

Art dealer returns Hopi sacred artifacts


In our recent issue of Museum Anthropology journal, a number of people commented on the April 2013 auction of Zuni and Hopi items in Paris.  Below is a new development regarding one of the art dealers who purchased items at that sale.

 Arizona Daily Sun, October 06, 2013, By Larry Hendricks
 
New York art dealer Monroe Warshaw was in Paris in April in search of drawings on paper. He regularly visits London, or Paris, in search of art.

While there, he attended an auction and purchased two ceremonial artifacts of the Hopi Tribe. After doing so, he was immediately vilified in the press. He had no idea of the controversy he stumbled into.

“I spoke with my normal lack of tact,” he said during an August visit to Flagstaff, remembering the interviews by the press after the auction.

From far and wide, he was accused of having no morals, of exploiting the Hopi culture. He insists his intentions were honorable.

Regardless, Warshaw made good on a promise he made in August to the Hopi Tribe. On Monday, the two sacred objects he purchased for nearly $40,000 at the auction were repatriated without cost to the tribe.

“Just happy I did the right thing,” Warshaw said via email this week...
More here.

Egypt: Art at Villa Borghese's Egyptian Museum back in Cairo


ROME - Anyone calling the museum inside the Egyptian Academy in Rome to learn about its opening hours will receive the same answer: 'We are sorry, the Egyptian museum has closed'. Employees also explained that 'the artifacts have gone back. It was a temporary exhibit'. The museum's artwork has been packed and taken back to Egypt, though it is still unclear where, in a without any clamour. This means that, for now, 200 original pieces of art mostly coming from the Egyptian museum in Tahrir square in the capital, are gone. They were brought to the Italian capital by ex-culture Minister Farouk Hosni after the renovation of the historic Egyptian cultural institution founded in 1929.

Back in 2010, the first Egyptian Museum in the capital was inaugurated with a lot of publicity by then-premier Silvio Berlusconi and former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

It is difficult to know why the unique art from the Pharaonic, Greek-Roman, Coptic and Islamic eras of which Rome was so proud has been shipped off to Egypt. According to Egyptian media, the decision was taken directly by the culture ministry with the objective of helping save Egypt's debt-ridden public finances. The new minister Alaa Abdel Aziz, according to the local Mena news agency, ordered the artifacts back in his efforts to raise money. Abdel Aziz was quoted as saying that since its inauguration 'the ministry has paid for all maintenance costs of the museum without benefiting from ticket sale revenues'. Access to the museum, however, has always been free not only to students and scholars but to all visitors. The Academy's director, Gihane Zaki, said that 'the exhibit of findings was temporary. Ever since its inception, the project provided for the art on show in Rome to return to Egypt after three years'.

 More here.

Science Museum Group outlines "real threat" to three science museums in the north of England


The Director of the Science Museum Group, the London-based body responsible for Manchester's Museum of Science and Industry, the National Railway Museum in York and Bradford’s National Media Museum, has confirmed that closing one of the three northern sites is a "real threat" ahead of another painful round of government spending cuts.

An initial budget reduction of 25% was imposed after the Coalition government’s election in 2010. But the next spending review, which will be announced at the end of the month, is expected to tighten funding by a further 10%.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s The World at One programme, Ian Blatchford said leaders were contemplating closing the doors to one of the venues “with a very heavy heart”.
 
More here.

Mediterranean museum designed to give makeover to crime-hit Marseille

A new flagship museum dedicated to Mediterranean civilization in Marseille is hoping to shake off the southern metropolis’ reputation as France’s deadliest city with a drastic cultural makeover.

The Museum of European and Mediterranean Civilizations, which is being inaugurated by French President Francois Hollande on Tuesday, is the centerpiece of Marseille’s turn as the European Capital of Culture for 2013, which aims to attract 10 million visitors to the city this year.

More here.

Auction of Hopi Masks Proceeds After Judge’s Ruling

The Hopi artifacts auction makes the New York Times.

A contested auction of sacred Hopi Indian artifacts went forward on Friday in Paris and generated more than $1 million in sales, despite the presence of protesters inside and outside the auction house who urged patrons not to take part.

One featured item, a headdress known as the Crow Mother, drew intense interest. Bidding on this 1880s artifact, which had a high estimate of $80,000, soared to $210,000, drawing applause from a crowd of some 200 people in the sales room and protest from a woman who stood up and shouted: “Don’t purchase that. It is a sacred being.”

Click here to read the entire article.

The National Museum of the American Indian also recently posted a blog article related to the auction on "Respecting Non-Western Sacred Objects."

"Jew in the Box" Berlin Exhibit Causes a Stir

An ongoing exhibit in Germany reminds us of James Luna's "Artifact Piece" from 1987.

Nearly 70 years after the Holocaust, there is no more sensitive an issue in German life as the role of Jews. With fewer than 200,000 Jews among Germany's 82 million people, few Germans born after World War II know any Jews or much about them.

To help educate postwar generations, an exhibit at the Jewish Museum features a Jewish man or woman seated inside a glass box for two hours a day through August to answer visitors' questions about Jews and Jewish life. The base of the box asks: "Are there still Jews in Germany?"

Read the entire article here.

Vandalism as Art?


A Russian man who claims responsibility for defacing a painting by Mark Rothko at the Tate Modern has told the BBC: "I'm not a vandal."
The painting, Black on Maroon, one of Rothko's Seagram murals, was written on with black paint on Sunday.
Vladimir Umanets, founder of a movement he calls Yellowism, claims to be responsible but denies criminal damage.
Read more here from the BBC.

Turkey's Efforts to Repatriate Art Alarm Museums

An aggressive campaign by Turkey to reclaim antiquities it says were looted has led in recent months to the return of an ancient sphinx and many golden treasures from the region’s rich past. But it has also drawn condemnation from some of the world’s largest museums, which call the campaign cultural blackmail.

In their latest salvo, Turkish officials this summer filed a criminal complaint in the Turkish court system seeking an investigation into what they say was the illegal excavation of 18 objects that are now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Norbert Schimmel collection.

Last year, Turkish officials recalled, Turkey’s director-general of cultural heritage and museums, Murat Suslu, presented Met officials with a stunning ultimatum: prove the provenance of ancient figurines and golden bowls in the collection, or Turkey could halt lending treasures. Turkey says that threat has now gone into effect.

Read the entire article from the New York Times here.

Louvre's Islamic Art Wing Opens At A Tense Time

In its boldest development in a generation, the Louvre Museum has a new wing dedicated to Islamic art, a nearly (EURO)100 million ($130 million) project that comes at a tense time between the West and the Muslim world.

Louvre curators tout their new Islamic Art department, which took 11 years to build and opens to the public on Saturday, as a way to help bridge cultural divides. They say it offers a highbrow and respectful counterpart to the recent unflattering depictions of the Prophet Muhammad in Western media that have sparked protests by many Muslims.

Still, one of the Louvre's own consultants acknowledged that some Muslims could be "shocked" by three images of Muhammad with his face exposed in the new wing. Many Muslims believe the prophet should not be depicted at all – even in a flattering way – because it might encourage idolatry.

Read more of the Huffington Post article or watch the BBC news report.

Museum’s £2m Shopping List

An update on renovations at the iconic Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology:

More than £2 million could be spent on improvements to a landmark museum in Cambridge, including a stylish new entrance.

Cambridge University’s Grade II-listed Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology is working on plans for a new entrance in Downing Street in a “restrained classical language”, in keeping with the Edwardian building. [Read more here]