Ruth Osborne Earlier this month, news of the destruction of the ancient Temple of Bel at Palmyra by ISIS militants was confirmed. Satellite imagery showed the area had been laid completely to rubble, only a few months after satellite footage recorded the Temple of Baal Shamin as the first architectural casualty under ISIS at Palmyra. […]
Ruth Osborne I recently attended a lecture on the survival of one of New York City’s landmarked sites (now a professionally-staffed museum), and the speaker was very reluctant to answer mine and others’ questions about the politics behind historic preservation and the Landmarks Preservation Commission’s authority. He did, however, acknowledge that public opinion and […]
Ruth Osborne An important Thomas Cole painting (valued recently at appr. $20 million) owned by the Seward House Historic Museum in Auburn, NY is still under risk at being sold against the donor’s bequest. The culprit is the Emerson Foundation, a private family charitable trust whose philanthropy focuses on education, arts cultural institutions, health and […]
Ruth Osborne ArtWatch spoke out concerning the fundraising schemes at the Vatican back in November 2013. But now it seems they have gone beyond their annual five-day VIP tour of the Vatican’s historic buildings and collection to appeal to donors for big conservation projects, and have thought up an enterprising new way to generate support via social media. The Vatican just came […]
Ruth Osborne Last Wednesday evening, I had the opportunity to present on past, present, and future wrongs done to art, before an engaged and impassioned audience at The Coffee House Club in midtown Manhattan. Historic preservation and issues of transparency and careful stewardship of the arts are inherently linked with the original aims of ArtWatch International, an […]
Ruth Osborne Just last week, the Trustees of the Delaware Art Museum announced the private sales of two paintings from its permanent collection as they closed “one of the most difficult chapters in the story of the Delaware Art Museum,” according to its CEO Mike Miller. He asserted in the Press Statement that the goal […]
Ruth Osborne The New York Landmarks Conservancy recently hosted a panel with a title that posed the question: “Preservation and Development: Is there room in this town for both?” The discussion that followed was informative about the current opinions towards the importance of historic preservation and the hope to strike an understanding balance with new development in New […]
Ruth Osborne It appears the Board of The Frick Collection in New York has decided against its 2014 proposed expansion plans to build the equivalent of a ten-story tower atop their original 1911 landmarked museum building on 5th Avenue. Culture reporter at The New York Times, Robin Pogrebin, has reported that the Board decided it […]
Ruth Osborne This week we are saddened to announce the recent passing of writer and painter Alexander Eliot, whose effort in the battle against the controversial Sistine ceiling cleaning had a major impact on the founding of ArtWatch and our continuing efforts to provide a voice for artistic heritage where it is all too often overshadowed […]
Ruth Osborne As the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission celebrates fifty years this month, it seems a pertinent time to consider the impact of this organization on the city’s landscape and its effectiveness in preserving the many histories of New York. In response to the devastating destruction of Penn Station in 1963, the LPC and Landmarks […]