New York Galleries Closing

Tuesday, 3^rd February 2009

Exodus From L.A. MOCA's Board (Los Angeles, LA Times)
L.A.'s Museum of Contemporary Art, which last week eliminated 20% of its paid staff to cut costs, is now faced with finding replacements for some of its highest-profile board members. Nine of the 35 trustees who were on the board last fall before the museum's near-collapse have since resigned.

Los Angeles Times

Settlement Reached, MoMA & Guggenheim Keep Picassos (New York, Bloomberg)
New York's Museum of Modern Art and the foundation that runs the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum can keep two Picassos, after heirs of the paintings' Weimar-era owner settled a suit to repossess them. The settlement was reached yesterday and announced as jury selection was set to begin in the suit that the three heirs filed against the museums.

Bloomberg

The Art Just Isn't Moving, So NY Galleries Are Closing (New York, Bloomberg)
Since September, four [Manhattan] galleries have shut their doors: Roebling Hall and Cohan and Leslie in Chelsea; Rivington Arms in the East Village and 31 Grand on the Lower East Side. More established galleries are hurting, too. They're firing staff, dropping out of art fairs and extending their shows for months in an attempt to cut expenses.

Bloomberg

MOCA Detroit Gets Its First Full-Time Director (Detroit, US, Detroit Free Press)

Luis Croquer was in his mid-20s and studying anthropology and communications in London when a part-time job changed his life. He worked as an art adviser's assistant, scouting galleries, auction houses and private collections in search of treasure. Croquer, the new director of the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, was unwittingly training himself as a curator.
Detroit Free Press

Turners Go To China On Tate Loan (China, BBC)
China is to get its first major exhibition of JMW Turner's work after Tate Britain agreed to lend the country 80 paintings from its collection. The loan, announced by UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown, includes key works The Decline of the Carthaginian Empire and Norham Castle, Sunrise.

BBC