The latest is that the Brooklyn Museum is suing the Mayor on First Amendment
grounds.  Also, in this weeks New Yorker magazine, Damien Hirst (the first
YBA that I've heard weigh in on this subject) says, essentially:

1) This is old work, and it has nothing to do with what I'm up to now.
2) The Mayor is not being very savvy, or at least not as savvy as he (Hirst)
is.
3) Hirst is crying about Artistic Freedom all the way to the bank.

The level of cynicism  around this exhibition just escalates.  For example,
the Times reports that the Museum of Modern Art, along with many (most?)
other museums will not accept a show provided by one lender, unless the
lender formally agrees to donate the work eventually to the museum.  The
purpose of this is to avoid the very obvious benefit to an individual
collector of having his work shown in a major museum.     The Brooklyn
Museum ignored this reasonable guideline for the sake of attracting visitors
and media attention.

This mistake is just multiplied by the fact that Christies, which has
handled Saatchi sales in the past, is the sponsor of the exhibition.

I have no doubt that the Mayor's stance is politically motivated, but there
is nothing intrinsically wrong with that.  But I do think that he will be
found to be acting unconstitutionally, as this is currently defined by the
Supreme Court.

And finally, he really is jeopardizing NYC's fragile image as a flourishing
center for the arts, tarring us with the same philistine (you should pardon
the religious reference) brush as colors the international view of the US in
general.

I have to emphasize that these are my personal views, and do not reflect
those of my institution.

Eric Siegel



Eric Siegel
Director, Planning &
Program Development
The New York Hall of Science
http://www.nyhallsci.org


> -----Original Message-----
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> Sent: Wednesday, September 29, 1999 12:07 AM
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> Subject: MUSEUM-L Digest - 27 Sep 1999 to 28 Sep 1999 (#1999-271)
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