Copy sent to: Il Ministro On.le Giuliano Urbani Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali Via del Collegio Romano, 27 00186 Roma 29 June 2003 Professor Antonio Paolucci Soprintendente al polo museale fiorentina Soprintendenza per i Beni Artistici e Storici per le Provincie di Firenze, Pistoia e Prato via Ninna, 5 50122 Firenze Dear […]
“This would be the most prestigious of renovations, so getting money would be no problem. But we couldn’t bear to commercialize David,” Falletti said. [Director of the Accademia Museum that houses Michelangelo’s David] (Washington Post, 2 December 2002)
“For already many years now, some Florence churches have maintained separate entrances with admission fees for areas over burdened by tourist traffic. Among them are San Lorenzo’s New Sacristy and Laurentian Library, both by Michelangelo, the Cathedral’s cupola by Brunelleschi and its campanile, and Santa Maria del Carmine’s Brancacci Chapel by Masaccio, Masolino and Filippino […]
Montgomery County Judge Stanley Ott wrote in his decision Thursday to delay any decision regarding the move of the Barnes collection to a new location in Philadelphia, pending further evidence. Read more in the news links below. One can argue that there are moral rights as well as legal ones, but how far can they […]
Exhibitions held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art are rarely, not to say never, subjected to serious evaluation by independent critics of art and of culture, and certainly not in the press. The fact is that the institution is virtually impervious to any sort of criticism. Needless to say the Met has a brilliant collection […]
“Giorgio Vasari. Le vite de più eccellenti architetti, pittori, et scultori italiani, da Cimabue insino a’ tempi nostri: Descritte in lingua Toscana, da Giorgio Vasari pittore aretino. Con una sua utile & necessaria introduzzione a le arti loro. Torrentino, Firenze, 1550 [La vita di Michelangelo]: “”La onde egli n’acquistò grandissima fama. Et se bene alcuni […]
Quite unexpectedly, the hitherto carefully maintained defences of the National Gallery’s picture cleaning policies are in disarray. Their hollowness has been painfully exposed by glaring disparities of colour and tonality between four paintings assembled for the current Titian exhibition. The four pictures, commissioned from Titian by the Duke of Ferrara for his study or “Camerino” […]
Effective measures should be taken immediately to protect the museums of Iraq which house objects of extreme artistic rarity and historical significance. The governments involved are urged to take action at once to protect the cultural heritage of Iraq and also to seek to recover the objects which have already been looted. ArtWatch supports efforts […]
With a sinking heart I read in The Independent of 19 February a story about a new research project on Leonardo da Vinci. “Some of the world’s most eminent art historians, led by the Oxford academic Martin Kemp, are about to conduct the first comprehensive scientific study of the great man’s [painted] oeuvre, putting such […]