Art Market Monitor

Instead of her regular Saturday column, Georgina Adam writes a tour d’horizon in the issue of self-interested museum shows, why they happen, how they happen and how hard it is to know whether they’re ever merited or not. The story is too comprehensive to synopsize and any single instance would not do justice to the value of the entire piece. So, here’s a quick description of the forces held in opposition:

The two worlds have opposed objectives. Publicly funded museums and galleries have a mission to display and conserve works of art for aesthetic, art historical and educational reasons. The market, on the other hand, seeks to maximise commercial value, and is only too aware that exhibition in a well-known institution brings recognition, validation and a potential boost in prices for the artist’s work.

Click through to the FT to read the entire piece. It’s well worth the modest effort.

Art for Whose Sake? (Financial Times)

Also of Interest:

• Rose Period Picasso Damaged by Museum Goer
  It’s surprising this doesn’t happen more often: On Friday afternoon a woman taking an adult education class at the Metropolitan...
  
• The Authority of the New Museum
  The New York Times explores the fight over the New Museum’s decision to allow Dakis Joannou to show parts of...
  
• London Longs for Paid Museum Entry
  The Times of London stirs the museum pot with Boris Johnson’s musings on whether creating stronger social pressure to contribute...
  
• The War of Spanish (Museum) Succession
  The Independent reports on the battle of wills between two art savvy women–mother and step-daughter–as they maneuver over the use...
  
• A History of the New York Art Market (Contemporary Edition)
  The New York Times’s Holland Cotter chronicles the New York Art market’s ups, downs and regenerations in this celebration of...