The Wall Street Journal has a front page story on a couple hurt badly by Madoff’s fraud:
The couple met in 1962 as students at the Brooklyn Museum Art School. She was a native New Yorker; he was already a successful Japanese artist. They later married. In the 1960s and ’70s they played a role in the conceptual art movement, based on the philosophy that the artist’s idea or concept behind a piece of art is more important than the physical object itself. The Guggenheim Museum SoHo in Manhattan showcased 30 years of their work in 1997, including paintings and architectural models.
Of all the dreams that were crushed by Mr. Madoff’s alleged crimes, perhaps none was more ambitious–or unusual–than Arakawa and Madeline Gins’s quest to achieve everlasting life through architecture. Akiko Fujita reports from Tokyo.
“Their research is a milestone in the history of conceptual art,” says Alexandra Munroe, senior curator at the main Guggenheim Museum, on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, where the couple’s work is currently on display. She says many of their supporters don’t literally accept the couple’s message on immortality but appreciate it in a “metaphorical” way.
To the artists, eternal life is a real possibility. “This is a great chance for the human race,” says Ms. Gins.
Things appeared to be going well for the couple before Mr. Madoff’s arrest in December. They completed a park, an office building and nine “reversible destiny” lofts in Japan. The lofts, finished in 2005, cost about $6 million to build. Five of the nine lofts, which rent for $1,700 to $2,300 a month, have tenants.
Couple’s Dreams of Immortality at Death’s Door, Thanks to Madoff (Wall Street Journal)
