Brazil: In the run up to the 2016 Olympics, a wave of new museums is to be unveiled in Brazil. Two have recently opened in Rio de Janeiro, including the Museu de Arte do Rio in the city’s port area. Meanwhile, the Zurich-based organisation Daros Latinamerica has launched the Casa Daros gallery in the Botafogo district.
France: The Louvre in Paris has appointed Jean-Luc Martinez as director. Martinez, who succeeds Henri Loyrette, has been head of the museum’s Greco-Roman antiquities department since 2007. Among the challenges facing the 49-year-old is steering the institution through new austerity measures.
Japan: The most visited museum exhibition of 2012 was a show of Dutch Old Masters at Tokyo’s Metropolitan Art Museum, according to The Art Newspaper’s visitor figures survey of worldwide shows. Masterpieces from the Mauritshuis attracted 10,500 visitors a day. The Louvre was the world’s most popular museum, welcoming 9.7 million visitors.
Palestine: The Palestinian Museum, a new institution backed by London-based charity the Welfare Association, broke ground last month in Birzeit, north of Ramallah. The museum, which is scheduled to open late next year, aims to build a collection of objects and historical documents dating from the 19th century.
US: The cosmetics tycoon Leonard Lauder has donated 78 Cubist works to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The gift includes 33 pieces by Pablo Picasso, 17 works by Georges Braque and 14 works by Fernand Léger. The donation is valued at more than $1bn. Museum director Thomas Campbell said: “In one fell swoop, this puts the Met at the forefront of early-20th-century art.”
US: Colin Bailey, deputy director and chief curator at the Frick Collection in New York, has been appointed director of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. The beleaguered institution has been without a director for 15 months. Museum professionals recently voiced concerns over the dismissal of Lynn Orr, curator of European art, who had been at the museum for 29 years.
Seen in the New York Times, BBC, Art Newspaper and Artforum.com
France: The Louvre in Paris has appointed Jean-Luc Martinez as director. Martinez, who succeeds Henri Loyrette, has been head of the museum’s Greco-Roman antiquities department since 2007. Among the challenges facing the 49-year-old is steering the institution through new austerity measures.
Japan: The most visited museum exhibition of 2012 was a show of Dutch Old Masters at Tokyo’s Metropolitan Art Museum, according to The Art Newspaper’s visitor figures survey of worldwide shows. Masterpieces from the Mauritshuis attracted 10,500 visitors a day. The Louvre was the world’s most popular museum, welcoming 9.7 million visitors.
Palestine: The Palestinian Museum, a new institution backed by London-based charity the Welfare Association, broke ground last month in Birzeit, north of Ramallah. The museum, which is scheduled to open late next year, aims to build a collection of objects and historical documents dating from the 19th century.
US: The cosmetics tycoon Leonard Lauder has donated 78 Cubist works to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The gift includes 33 pieces by Pablo Picasso, 17 works by Georges Braque and 14 works by Fernand Léger. The donation is valued at more than $1bn. Museum director Thomas Campbell said: “In one fell swoop, this puts the Met at the forefront of early-20th-century art.”
US: Colin Bailey, deputy director and chief curator at the Frick Collection in New York, has been appointed director of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. The beleaguered institution has been without a director for 15 months. Museum professionals recently voiced concerns over the dismissal of Lynn Orr, curator of European art, who had been at the museum for 29 years.
Seen in the New York Times, BBC, Art Newspaper and Artforum.com
