Art Industry News: Cooper Hewitt Trustees Resign After the Museum’s Director Is Pushed Out Over Her Fancy Wedding + Other Stories

Art Industry News is a daily digest of the most
consequential developments coming out of the art world and art
market. Here’s what you need to know on this Tuesday, February
18.

NEED-TO-READ

Arts Groups Could Lose Funding for Lack of Diversity
– England’s
arts organizations and museums risk
losing public funding if they do not make real progress in
diversifying their workforce. The chair of Arts Council England,
Nicholas Serota, described some organizations as “treading water”
on the issue. To encourage progress, ACE will publicly name the
organizations that must do better. Just 11 percent of the workforce
of organizations receiving its funding employ people from minority
ethnic backgrounds. (For comparison, England’s working-age
population is 16 percent nonwhite.) Further details on the tougher
new targets are due to be announced in
April. (Guardian)

Kusama’s Infinity Room Violates Museum’s Building Code –
The Aspen Art Museum has been
forced to shutter the Japanese artist’s exhibition earlier than
scheduled because one of her signature “Infinity Rooms” blocked
access to an elevator. The one-work exhibition will have to close
11 weeks early, on February 23, due to the violation of municipal
building codes. The museum had hoped that opening up a freight
elevator would successfully address the issue, but the City of
Aspen decided otherwise. The Aspen Art Museum, which was not fined
for the violation, originally planned to install the work on its
roof, but had second thoughts because of Colorado’s harsh winters.
(The Art
Newspaper)

Cooper Hewitt Trustees Resign in Protest of Director’s Ouster
– Six trustees of the Cooper
Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum have resigned in support of its
former director, Caroline Baumann. Baumann was abruptly forced to resign
after a Smithsonian investigation into possible conflict of
interest arising from her wedding (specifically, the cost of her
designer dress and venue). The resigning trustees,
including Judy Francis Zankel, Avi N. Reichental, and
Kurt Anderson, said they felt the punishment was disproportionate
and that they should have been consulted about the Smithsonian’s
investigation. Meanwhile, another donor, design journalist Arlene
Hirst, said she would remove the museum from her will over the
“trumped-up charges.” The Smithsonian has declined to reveal
details of the allegations or its findings, but is standing by its
decision. (New York
Times)

Bulgaria Boycotts the Louvre’s Religious Art Show –
Bulgaria has pulled out of an
exhibition of religious art at the Louvre following a disagreement
over its curatorial approach. The country’s minister of culture
objected to the Paris museum’s plan to show the links between
Christian and Islamic art. The ruling body of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church
would not give its blessing for the loan of the 60 religious
artifacts, many of which were created when the region was part of
the Ottoman Empire. The art historian Clemena Antonova said the
idea for the exhibition, which was due to open in June, showed “a
total misunderstanding on the part of the Louvre of Bulgarian
history and culture.” She added, however, that Bulgarians are
easily upset. (Balkan
Insight)

ART MARKET

Perrotin Announces a New Paris Gallery – The tireless gallerist Emmanuel Perrotin is
expanding in Paris (again). He plans to open a new space in the 8th
arrondissement, not far from the Champs-Elysées and the Grand
Palais, this spring. “The general atmosphere of this venue will be
that of a salon,” he said of the space on Avenue Matignon. The
international dealer’s other Paris spaces are in the Marais.
(Press
release)

A Picture Framer’s Collection Heads to Auction – Framer
extraordinaire Eli Wilner
is selling a replica of
perhaps his most famous frame, the one he made for Emanuel Leutze’s
Washington Crossing the Delaware at the Metropolitan
Museum of Art, at auction. (The successful bidder can choose the
size.) It is one of 416 replica historic frames from Wilner’s New
York workshop on offer in an online
sale at Guernsey’s starting tomorrow. (Architectural
Digest)

COMINGS & GOINGS

Art Fund Names New Director – Jenny Waldman, who led the UK’s World War I
centenary program, 14-18 NOW, has been named the new director of
the Art Fund. Waldman will replace Stephen Deuchar at the helm of
the national art charity, which raises funds for the
acquisition of artworks in the UK, in April. (Museums
Association)

Los Angeles Times Critic Wins Achievement
Award – Christopher Knight has
won the Dorothea and Leo Rabkin Foundation’s second-ever lifetime
achievement award for his “forthright, honest, informed, and
embedded” criticism. The inaugural edition of the prize, which
comes with $50,000, went to New York Times co-chief
art critic Roberta Smith. (LAT)

Pirelli HangarBicocca Names New Manager – Alessandro Bianchi has been appointed the next
general manager of the contemporary art space and nonprofit in
Milan, Pirelli HangarBicocca. Bianchi will take over from Marco
Lanata, who will stay on as the Pirelli Group’s real estate
management director, on March 2. (Artforum)

FOR ART’S SAKE

South Korea May Be Getting a Bong Joon Ho Museum –
After Bong Joon Ho’s sweep at the
Oscars for Parasite, South Korean politicians are
proposing to monumentalize the director with a statue and museum.
The move is an about-face for the conservative politicians, who
have been staunchly critical of Bong’s “commie flicks” in the past.
(IndieWire)

India Asks the Ashmolean Museum to Return Bronze –
The Indian government is asking
Oxford’s prestigious Ashmolean Museum to repatriate a 15th-century
bronze idol that was stolen from a temple in the 1960s. The state
made the formal request after the Ashmolean raised concerns about
the provenance of the idol of Saint Thirumangai Alwar following an
inquiry by an independent scholar. (The Art
Newspaper)

V&A Will Close the Museum of Childhood for Renovations
– The V&A Museum of
Childhood in London is closing in May for a £13 million ($16.9
million) renovation project. The museum is slated to reopen in 2022
with a new, less nostalgic, and more forward-looking ethos.
(Guardian)

See Doug Aitken’s Mirage in the Snow – The artist has composed a new musical
piece that will be performed live at his hilltop
installation Mirage Gstaad on February 29 at
noon. Six vocalists from the Los Angeles Master Chorale will sing a
hypnotic, layered song reflecting “everyday language and phrases
that have been abstracted into beautiful and transcendent music
that surrounds and envelops the listener.” (Instagram)

The post Art Industry News: Cooper Hewitt Trustees Resign
After the Museum’s Director Is Pushed Out Over Her Fancy Wedding +
Other Stories appeared first on artnet News.