July-August 2010

Explore the Apollo archive

Look back over two vibrant years of Apollo: browse every issue from January 2006 to the present day.

1) The British Museum has announced that two-thirds of the funds required for its proposed new wing have been raised. The UK government has pledged £22.5 million of the £220 million needed, and a private donor has pledged £37.5 million.
Bloomberg article

2) The Chicago Children’s Museum is tussling with severe financial difficulties, just one year after it was granted permission to move to the city’s Grant Park. It is claimed that there is a 50-50 chance of the project being completed as the economy continues to struggle. The news is likely to be welcomed by local park activists and other neighbouring opponents of the project.
The Chicago Business

3) The National Portrait Gallery, London, is embroiled in a dispute over the copyright of some its images that were used without consent on Wikipedia. The images in question are part of a £1m digitisation project undertaken by the gallery over recent years. US-based Derrick Coetzee uploaded the images to the site, unaware of the legal implications. He then received a solicitor’s letter from London lawyers Farrar and Co. The NPG owns copyright of the images in the UK, but not in the US. This has raised a number of issues for the NPG regarding revenues received for copyrights.
The Guardian

4) The largest art market fraud investigation to take place in the US claimed another high-profile victim this week. Leigh Morse was arrested for her role as Lawrence B. Salander's right-hand woman. Morse was charged with scheming to defraud clients of the now defunct Salander-O'Reilly Galleries. After pleading not guilty, Morse was released on a $75,000 bond.
Bloomberg

5) Proving that the ‘Old Masters’ really are a winning choice for investors and collectors, two recent sales at London’s most prestigious auction houses have shocked experts and managed to break six world records. The auctions at Sotheby’s and Christie's raised a combined total of £53.54 million after just 101 paintings were sold. Christie's managed to raise £20.2 million out of 48 lots.
New York Times

6) David and Lee Ann Lestor, the Floridian couple responsible for organising Art Palm Beach and other art fairs, have entered into a partnership with UK-based Clarion Event to rebrand the Olympia International Art & Antiques Fair, now in its 37th year. The event will be renamed the ‘London International Fine Art Fair at Olympia’ (LIFAF) and the new organisers are keen to attract new collectors from Russia, India, the Middle East, Europe and North and South America.
Art Newspaper

7) A wave of mass resignations has rocked the Kunsthalle Berlin. One member of the four-strong advisory board, Julian Heynan (Artistic Director of K21), has blamed the lack of organisation at the Kunsthalle as a key factor for the walk out, which saw the museum lose its advisory board.
Art Newspaper

8) The Director of London's National Gallery, Nicholas Penny, has expressed outrage at the 'bloody awful' state of London’s Trafalgar Square. Penny was commenting on the changes that have come about since the £25 million development of the square in 2003. As part of the scheme, a road that separated the museum from Trafalgar Square was removed and the area pedestrianised. The redevelopment has enabled a range of events to be held in the location with a resulting increase in noise pollution.
Times article

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