Loans to El Paso Museum Not in Guggenheim’s Financial Interest

LA Times’s Christopher Knight, criticized the Guggenheim museum for loaning works to the El Paso Museum of Art for a fee. The Guggenheim’s crime, according to Knight was rent-seeking. Now the program that allowed El Paso to show works from the New York collection has ended early because, the museum says, the $200,000 fee wasn’t generating enough for the museum. (The El Paso Times story doesn’t give enough details to indicate whether the program was simply costing the Guggenheim too much or not generating enough income.)

Next up were supposed to be of works by Kandinsky (“In the Black Square” and “Blue Painting”), followed by Picasso (“Pitcher and Bowl of Fruit”). They won’t be coming.

“The Guggenheim Series is officially over,” Jeff Romney, director of development for the El Paso Museum of Art, said by email.

“EPMA was notified by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum that the final two cycles of the loan would not be possible in late 2015,” Romney said. “The Guggenheim Board made a unilateral decision that continuing the collaboration was not in their financial interest. Though EPMA staff made every effort to find an alternative solution to this issue, the Guggenheim confirmed that their decision was final.”

Guggenheim series cut short at El Paso museum (El Paso Times)