“It was a year of “museum defeats”” – Kommersant FM
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Kommersant FM columnist Dmitry Butkevich talks about the most scandalous stories in the art world.
The artistic world is summing up the year 2023. According to the influential portal ARTnews, if the situation in the art world could be defined in one word, it would be “scandal.” From numerous crises that literally shake such a serious institution as the British Museum, to the accusations and arrest of the former director of the Louvre, Jean-Luc Martinez. From investigations involving human remains involving the Smithsonian Institution and the American Museum of Natural History, to ongoing institutional seizures and repatriations. Experts believe that this was a year of “museum defeats.”
2023 was the year that the pandemic boom, marked by big debuts, rampant speculation and a flurry of new gallery openings, finally ended. The key auctions in May and November were mediocre at best. The mood of most major figures in the arts seems fairly uniform: they’re just glad it’s all over.
Among the most important events, experts note the re-exposition of the largest museum, Tate Britain. Main reference points: increased attention to women artists and a new emphasis on the transatlantic slave trade. Many accuse the museum’s management of pandering to liberal ideas at the expense of the quality of the collection. The bankruptcy closure of the San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI), where Annie Leibovitz, among others, graduated, has threatened the existence of a 20-meter mural of Diego Rivera on the institute’s campus. It could be sold for $50 million.
We have observed a new round of dispute between Great Britain and Greece over the ownership of the Parthenon marbles. The most ambitious exhibition of Vermeer at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, where 28 of the 37 works attributed to the great Dutchman of the 17th century were shown. And the British Museum discovered that one of its senior curators stole a total of 2 thousand art objects from the collection. In general, it’s probably good that this art year is in the past.
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