ArtInfo.com has a whopper of an item which is either an extraordinarily bold move or the result of some folks with too much time on their hands. It involves a secret plan to be discussed with the Whitney’s board next week to move the museum to the meat-packing district while still fulfilling an obligation to Leonard Lauder who doesn’t want the museum to sell the current Joseph Breuer-designed home on Madison Ave.:
the Whitney, which has long chafed under the cramped dimensions of its magnificent Brutalist building on 75th Street, would relocate entirely to its planned Renzo Piano satellite downtown — but instead of selling the flagship location, it would lease it to the august Metropolitan Museum of Art. […]
Tensions have reportedly been mounting between the billionaire cosmetics magnate, who as chairman emeritus of the Whitney’s board has been dead-set against the new satellite, and curators at the museum who are strongly in favor of the project. Even so, no one disputes the fact that the Whitney has run out of space and the Breuer building is woefully inadequate for the current taste for large-scale works and installations. With its current footprint, it can only exhibit approximately 150 pieces of art at any given time, a minuscule percentage of its 18,000-work-strong collection.
Whitney in Talks to Lease Breuer Building to Met (ArtInfo.com)
