Link to Radio New Zealand's Interview with Penny Jackson, director of the Tauranga Art Gallery and a NZ art crime expert
Here's a link to Radio New Zealand's interview last summer with Penny Jackson, director of the Tauranga Art Gallery and a New Zealand art crime expert. Ms. Jackson was kind enough to provide a list of some of the names of artists and institutions she mentions in this podcast:
Edward Bullmore
James Jacques Joseph Tissot
Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa
Arrowtown
Rotorua Museum
Waiouru Museum
Kermadec exhibition/John Reynolds
Dowse Art Museum
C F Goldie
University of Auckland
Karl Sim
Urewera Mural by Colin McCahon and borrowed by Tama Iti
Sarah Hillary
Dame Jenny Gibbs
Gottfried Lindauer
Waikato Trust
Tainui
Whanau
Robert McDougall Art Gallery
Heather Straka
Ms. Jackson plans to attend the 2014 ARCA conference.
The State of the Arts 2013, Tampa.
Thankfully, Tampa was 2nd in American Styles magazine's art destination web poll, so no one bothered to trumpet that BS over the grim economic wasteland of the arts in 2013.
This was a year of surprises in Tampa. The PODs show at Gasparilla was beset by several problems and flopped, but I am told these are being corrected. I am looking forward to the 2014 version. This satellite show may not seem relevant at this time but I think it could lead to much bigger things.
Danny Olda launched an arts magazine titled Art at Bay. This is a welcome and daring venture, and I wish him luck.
Tracy Midulla Reller took the leap and relocated Tempus up on Florida Ave. Reller remains one of Tampa's best gallerists. Her shows are innovative, beautifully curated and a who's who of academic artists in this city.
The two HCC galleries, Ybor and Dale Mabry, surged as others retreated or hunkered down, rightfully assuming positions of prominence earned via first-rate hard-hitting shows. Directors Carolyn Kossar and Katherine Gibson get Art Taco laurels for getting going when the going got rough, and doing so elegantly. Bravo! I should add that each of these galleries has its own distinct personality. The
Hoffman-Porges gallery, the finest (architecturally speaking) arts space in the area limped along half-heartedly in 2013. A real shame, because with the right curator, this gallery could be a contender. Please do it in 2014.
David Audet, one of Tampa's cultural treasures, put together solid, down to earth shows with minimal resources this year. David remains a little underground and underrated. His cultural contributions to this city have been live-wire and influential. He (along with many others) was responsible for the revitalization of Ybor before the City "fathers" ruined it by cowing to the real powers that be, issuing two dozen liquor licenses. David Audet holds one of the keys to Tampa's future, and he comes with a turnkey crew of some of the best and brightest in Tampa.
Beth Kokol is someone I had overlooked much too long. An influential art teacher and gallerist in South Tampa, Kokol impresses with talent, teaching, curating and marketing abilities. I will be covering more of her gallery's activities in 2014.
Mishou Sanchez converted two trailer/containers into an art gallery out by the Winthrop Center. A self-funded effort, this served notice to anyone who is listening out there that Ms. Sanchez is one of our top visionaries when it comes to urban spaces. If the City resourced its human capital with the slightest bit of wisdom, they would snap up Mishou before someone else does.
The Santaella/West Tampa Center for the Arts seems to be in a state of suspended animation. It has dissipated through the year for a multitude of reasons. Sad to see this grand arts space become a shadow of its former self. It has considerable potential.
Bleu Acier, the gallery of Master Printer Erika Greenberg-Schneider and internationally renowned Dominique Labauvie, has been an unflinching bastion of the arts in Tampa and the Bay area, producing high quality shows, mentoring people, and teaching as well. Recently, Bleu Acier raised the bar with its "First There is a Mountain" show by Greg Perkins, bringing a series of great lecturers to accompany the exhibition.
The Ybor Artists Association, under fresh leadership from Princess Simpson Rashid, opened the Wandering Eye Gallery next to King Corona Cigar Bar, showing members and rotating a featured artist of the month. The artists studios never looked better, and the co-op gallery is finding its identity and providing much higher visibility at street level.
I want to see Tampa government more involved with the arts, apparently conscious of their value culturally and economically, and cognizant of the people we have here who can put Tampa on the map in a way nothing else can.
--- Luis
Bunnies to Bridges, Closing of eve-N-odd gallery
[It is with a deep sadness that I post this press release received from eve N odd gallery about its last show and closing at the end of January 2014. Its director, Jennifer Kosharek, was the Art Taco Person of the Year for her consistently strong first-rate shows at this small but significant gallery in the Crislip Arcade. I count Ms. Kosharek as one of the great gallerists in the Bay Area, and I was not alone. Thank you, eve N odd and Jennifer Kosharek, for your efforts.]
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Bunnies to Bridges, Closing of eve-N-odd gallery
The eve-N-odd will enjoy it's last month on the 600 Block of Central Avenue. We have enjoyed three years of memorable shows with artists from all over the world and those who are your neighbors. I painted murals in the alley, organized the yarn bombing of the block, invited a traveling letter press to visit us, had an international show of cancer survivor women, had group shows such as the one that produced a coloring book!--just to name a few. I don't think I could have tried any harder to put St. Petersburg, FL on the art map of the world. Sometimes I think my international followers valued this gallery more than the city of St Pete. No matter, I will continue to make my own art!
Our last show will be a traditional mail art show with the theme of: Ray Johnson, the father of mail art. "Bunnies to Bridges" will open January11th from 6-10 pm and will be the last show in the gallery.
eve-N-odd gallery, 645 Central Ave. #11, St. Petersburg, FL 33701
Show will be up through the end of January
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Show will be up through the end of January
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Thank you!!!!
Jennifer Kosharek
727 433 4981 "Selling Russia's Treasures" writes about the collecting history of Lucas Cranach the Elder's "Adam and Eve" now at The Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena
by Catherine Schofield Sezgin, ARCAblog Editor-in-Chief
Santa left a tantalizing art book under my Christmas tree, Selling Russia's Treasures: The Soviet Trade in Nationalized Art 1917-1938 edited by Natalya Semyonova and Nicolas V. Iljine, (MTA Publishing, November 2013), which is of particular interest to me as one of the artworks mentioned is the "Adam" and "Eve" diptych by Lucas Cranach the Elder that resides within a 15-minute walk of my home. This work is the subject of litigation in Marei Von Saher vs. The Norton Simon Museum of Art in Pasadena, which can be heard here from a court hearing in August 2013. These two paintings, purchased by the Jewish art dealer Jacques Goudstikker at an Lepke auction in 1931 and 'purchased' by Herman Göring in 1940 were returned to an heir of the Stroganoff family after World War II and subsequently sold to Norton Simon in 1971. Did Cranach's "Adam" and "Eve" ever belong to the well-documented Stroganov Collection? According to Selling Russia's Treasures:
In addition to paintings from the Stroganov collection, the Lepke auction of May 12-13, 1931, featured two Lucas Cranach paired canvases, Adam and Eve, from the Art Museum of the Ukraine Academy of Sciences in Kiev.
Here are previous ARCA posts about the painting; the Goudstikker collection's 'sale' to the Nazis; the Stroganoff Collection; and the lawsuit.Cranach paintings often included Adam and Eve, but the existence of the canvases put up for the 1931 auction was unknown well into the late 1920s. The paintings had been found under a staircase in the Church of the Holy Trinity in Kiev in 1927, then moved to the museum of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra (monastery); in 1928, on the initiative of Prof. S. O. Gilyarov, the paintings were given to the Academy museum in Kiev (in 1929 Gilyarov published an article in Ukrainian about the paintings; it included a brief synopsis in French). The newly discovered Adam and Eve were sold in 1931 to Dutch collector Jacques Goudstikker, whose remarkable personal collection numbered more than a thousand old master paintings and about a hundred old master sculptures.
A flaming Swedish Christmas tradition – the annual burning of the Gävle-Goat
by A. M. C. Knutsson
On Saturday the 21st of December the Gävle-Goat was again found in flames after unknown men engaged in a 4 a.m. torching session of this enormous straw creation. The men have yet to be found but the police are searching vigorously for the culprits. If found they would be charged with inflicting gross damage to property.
The burning of the Gävle-goat is a ritual reaching back to 1966, the year when Stig Galvén prompted the first straw goat to be erected in Slottstorget in Gävle, central Sweden. The Yule time straw goat has a long tradition in the Scandinavian culture. It reaches back to pre-Christian days when the god of War, Thor, was said to have a carriage pulled by two goats; Tanngnjost and Tanngrisner.[1] The goat has long been associated with fertility and farming, as such the last wheat sheaf of the year was thought to embody the harvest spirit. As such it could be formed into a goat to boost next year’s crops.[2] As the Nordic countries were converted to Christianity, the goat became increasingly associated with darker powers. None-the-less the Yule goat maintained a prominent role in the Swedish Christmas celebrations. Long before Santa Clause’s arrival at the Swedish shore it was the Yule-Goat who was in charge of distributing gifts to children during the yuletide. He, however, was not quite as jovial as the present day Santa, and parents often threatened unruly children with the Yule-Goat.[3] As late as the end of the 19th Century when Santa Clause finally managed to navigate to the northern countries, it was the Yule-Goat who pulled his sledge. Nowadays there is little left to remind us of the goat but the straw Yule-Goats found in most Swedish homes.
When the Gävle-Goat first appeared in 1966, it was then a symbol recognisable to all Swedes, however its scale was something quite new. The goat was 13 meters (42.6 feet) high and 7 meters (23 feet) long, weighing an impressive 3 tonnes. Since then every year a gigantic straw goat has been installed on Slottstorget around the first of advent. On New Years Eve of 1966, Galvén’s goat was the first of many to feel the power of the flame.[4] As opposed to most other vandals, the first one was caught and charged with inflicting gross damage to property. This was followed by two years of peace for the goat after which it again was torched on New Years Eve 1969. Whilst many forms of vandalism have afflicted the Goat throughout the years the most common by far is arson. When the goat burnt on the 21st of Dec 2013, it was the 27th time the poor beast has met its end by the torch.
In 1985 the goat met with a new level of fame when it was included in The Guinness Book of World Records for its impressive 12.5 meter height, which was later beaten by the 1993 goat, which towered 16 meters above ground. Since 1986 two Yule-Goats have been found in Gävle, as two competing associations have been building them: the Southern Merchants (constructing the Gävle-Goat, the bigger goat, usually targeted by arsonists) and Natural Science Club of the School of Vasa (Constructing the Yule-Goat). Only two years later, the goat had met such repute that English bookmakers took up the challenge of the goat burning and ever since it has been possible to bet on whether or not the goat will burn. As the renown of the goat rose so did the police efforts to secure it. Whilst in 1990 volunteers had guarded the goat, by 1996 the first web cameras had been installed and it was now possible to follow the destiny of the goat online. The fame of the goat was such that in 2001, an American from New Orleans, having taken the burnings of the goat as a permitted tradition decided to torch it. A civilian caught him almost immediately and the police had to rescue him from the wrath of the people of Gävle.[5] The man later received a fine of 100 000 Swedish crowns (approx. $15,000) and a month in jail.[6]
Apart from the attempts at destruction by fire the most notable attack on the goat came in 2010, when two unknown men offered the goat’s guard 50 000 Swedish crowns (approx. $7,500) to leave the goat for a few minutes. The plan was to kidnap the goat and by helicopter bring it to Stureplan in Stockholm.[7]
Whilst flame-retardants have been used for some years, including this year, the goat has burnt to the ground for the last three years. In the Facebook group ‘Vi som vill bränna Gävle-bocken’ ('We who want to burn the Gävle-goat'), a comment appeared just a day before its destruction. “All who have guessed that the goat would burn today, maybe it is time to take matters into your own hands?”[8] A few hours later the goat was in flames. From its twitter account the Gävle-Goat announced “I'm so sad my friends that I have to leave you now! Thank you for this year! Take care and have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!”[9]
[1] "Mytologi (Nordisk)". Nordisk familjebok, 1913. Read 23 December 2013
[2] Karin Schager, Julbocken i folktro och jultradition, (1989)
[3] Caroline Lagercrantz, http://www.popularhistoria.se/artiklar/julbocken-i-maskopi-med-morka-makter/, (26 Jan 2007), Read 23 December 2013
[4] http://www2.visitgavle.se/sv/se-gora/a548364/gavlebockens-historia/detaljer
[5] Dennis Larsson, http://www.aftonbladet.se/nyheter/article10249963.ab (24 Dec 2001), Read 23 December 2013
[6] Josefin Karlsson & Niklas Eriksson, http://www.aftonbladet.se/nyheter/article18065246.ab (21 Dec 2013), Read 23 December 2013
[7] http://www.svd.se/nyheter/inrikes/gavlebocken-skulle-kidnappas_5814757.svd (17 Dec 2010), Read 23 December 2013
[8] https://www.facebook.com/pages/Vi-som-vill-br%C3%A4nna-G%C3%A4vle-bocken/207011407840, Read 23 December 2013
[9] https://twitter.com/Gavlebocken, Read 23 December 2013
Further Reading:
"Mytologi (Nordisk)". Nordisk familjebok, 1913. Karin Schager, Julbocken i folktro och jultradition, (1989)
Karlsson, Josefin & Niklas Eriksson, http://www.aftonbladet.se/nyheter/article18065246.ab (21 Dec 2013)
Lagercrantz, Caroline, http://www.popularhistoria.se/artiklar/julbocken-i-maskopi-med-morka-makter/, (26 Jan 2007)
Larsson, Dennis, http://www.aftonbladet.se/nyheter/article10249963.ab (24 Dec 2001)
The YouTube video above is from Gävlebocken 2012.
Christos Tsirogiannis Interviews Marc Balcells in the Fall 2013 issue of The Journal of Art Crime
Dear Reader,
I would like to introduce you to my colleague at ARCA, the new co-editor the Journal of Art Crime, Marc Balcells.
Marc started paying attention to art and cultural heritage crimes in 2009, when he moved to New York City, thanks to a Fulbright Scholarship. Never, in his wildest dreams, he would have imagined that, as a criminologist, his research interests would have led him there. However, the more Marc reflects about how things unfolded in his career, the more he realizes it were meant to happen.
First of all, Marc studied Law in his city, Barcelona. In the several Criminal Law courses he took there was no mention to art crimes whatsoever, even though the Spanish Criminal Code punishes this form of crime in several of its articles. By 2001, after four years of law school, and being twenty one, he specialized in Criminal Law, but again, there was no mention of cultural heritage crimes in that Masters program. No art thieves in his list of prosecutions, either.Christos Tsirogiannis is a Greek forensic archaeologist. He studied archaeology and history of art in the University of Athens, then worked for the Greek Ministry of Culture from 1994 to 2008, excavating throughout Greece and recording antiquities in private hands. He voluntarily cooperated with the Greek police Art Squad on a daily basis (August 2004 - December 2008) and was a member of the Greek Task Force Team that repatriated looted, smuggled and stolen antiquities from the Getty Museum, the Shelby White/Leon Levy collection, the Jean-David Cahn AG galleries, and others. Since 2007, Tsirogiannis has been identifying antiquities in museums, galleries, auction houses, private collections and museums, depicted in the confiscated Medici, Becchina and Symes-Michaelides archives, notifying public prosecutor Dr. Paolo Giorgio Ferri and the Greek authorities. He received his Ph.D. last October at the University of Cambridge, on the international illicit antiquities network viewed through the Robin Symes-Christos Michaelides archive.
You may finish reading this interview in the Fall 2013 issue of The Journal of Art Crime. Design for this issue and all issues of The Journal of Art Crime is the work of Urška Charney. Here's a link to ARCA's website on The Journal of Art Crime (includes Table of Contents for previous issues).