Month: June 2014

Hong Kong’s Art Scene is Growing Better all the Time and Art Basel is Just Part of It

“Hong Kong’s Art Scene is Growing Better all the Time and Art Basel is Just Part of It”

by John Batten via “South China Morning Post“

“It’s a tired cliché constantly heard but, yes, Hong Kong’s art scene is stronger “than before”. There’s now a wider variety of commercial art galleries and Art Basel’s choice for its Asian outpost has made the city a destination for international collectors, curators and art personalities.

However, there are still few domestic collectors dedicated to contemporary art, and there is a dearth of continuing and provocative museum exhibitions charting the contemporary art world. That’s notwithstanding the anticipated opening in 2017 of M+, the planned museum of visual culture at the West Kowloon Cultural District.

Within two years of its inception the art fair has become a magnetic juggernaut attracting international galleries and visitors

(more…)

Cambodia Welcomes Return of 1,000-year-old Statues

“Cambodia Welcomes Return of 1,000-year-old Statues”

by Sopheng Cheang via “Monteray Herald“

Three 1,000-year-old statues depicting Hindu mythology were welcomed home to Cambodia on Tuesday after being looted from a temple during the country’s civil war and put in Western art collections.

The pieces were handed over at a ceremony attended by Deputy Prime Minister Sok An and U.S. diplomat Jeff Daigle after being returned by the U.S. branches of auction houses Sotheby’s and Christie’s, and the Norton Simon Museum in California.

Cambodian officials say the statues were looted in the 1970s by being hacked off their bases in the Koh Ker temple complex in Siem Reap province, also home to the Angkor Wat temples. (more…)

Coming Exhibition: Second Sight

“Second Sight”

What: Works by artist S M Sultan from the private collection of Abul Khair.

Who: Bengal Foundation

When: May 23, 2014 – July. 13, 2014 (Mon-Sat. 12 p.m. – 8 p.m.)

Where:

Daily Star-Bengal Arts Precinct
64-65 Kazi Nazrul Islam Avenue
Karwan Bazar, Dhaka

How Much: Looks free, but I couldn’t find a price.

More Information: Here.

“On Friday night Bengal Foundation’s fourth arts venue in Dhaka,’Daily Star-Bengal Arts Precinct’ was jointly launched by Sir Fazle Hasan Abed, Founder and Chairperson of BRAC and Dr. Anisuzzaman, Professor Emeritus University of Dhaka who also spoke on the occasion. Mahfuz Anam, Editor and Publisher of The Daily Star Newspaper, Abul Khair, Chairman of Bengal Foundation, Luva Nahid Choudhury, Director-General of Bengal Foundation and Sadia Rahman, Deputy Director of Bengal Foundation also shared their thoughts during the ceremony.

In celebration of the event, Bengal Foundation organised a special exhibition of selected works by Sheikh Mohammed Sultan, from the private collection of Abul Khair, for which a commemorative catalogue has also been produced.

At this new site, Bengal Foundation looks forward to broadening and deepening the scope of its cultural endeavours in ways that complement and extend the work of the Foundation’s other arts facilities in Dhaka: Bengal Gallery, Bengal Art Lounge and Safiuddin Bengal Printmaking Studio. With this in view, Bengal Foundation has conceived of the Arts Precinct as a non-commercial arts venue, which will operate purely for the public benefit.”

Metropolitan Museum of Art Found to House Looted Art

“The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Python bell-krater acquired in 1989 matches object documented in confiscated Medici archive, according to forensic archaeologist Christos Tsirogiannis: “The evidence suggests that the vase has most likely been unlawfully removed from Italian soil”

by Catherine Schofield Sezgin via “ARCA“

The Classic Greek mixing-bowl attributed to the artist Python (active ca. 350 – 325 BC) of Poseidonia (Paestan) on display in Gallery 161 of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City should be returned to Italy because it has no collecting history before 1989 and has been matched with photographs in the possession of a convicted art dealer, according to the work of University of Cambridge’s Christos Tsirogiannis. (You can see The Met’s description of the object online here ).

This terracotta bell-krater, described in detail in Dr. Tsirogiannis’ column “Nekyia” in the Spring 2014 issue ofThe Journal of Art Crime, appears with soil/salt encrustations in five photographs from the confiscated Medici archive – including one Polaroid image. Then, “The object was auctioned by Sotheby’s in New York in June 1989 and the same year appeared as part of The Met’s antiquities collection,” Dr. Tsirogiannis reports.

Art dealer Giacomo Medici was convicted in 2005 of participating in the sale of looted antiquities. The story of how illicit antiquities were sold to art galleries and museums in Europe and North America was told in the 2006 book by Peter Watson & Cecilia Todeschini, The Medici Conspiracy: the illicit journey of looted antiquities, from Italy’s tomb raiders to the world’s greatest museums(Public Affairs). The Medici archives (or “Medici Dossier”) were described as “thirty albums of Polaroids, fifteen envelopes with photographs, and twelve envelopes with rolls of film … [along with] 100 full rolls of exposed film … [for] a total of 3,600 images” found in Medici’s warehouse of antiquities in Geneva in 1995. . . . .

10 Art Galleries to Visit in Bahrain

“10 Art Galleries to Visit in Bahrain”

via “Time Out Bahrain“

Albareh Art Gallery Gallery
This gallery and café exhibits paintings, sculptures and photography by a wide range of regional artists. Talks and workshops too.
Open Sat 9am-4pm; Sun-Thu 7am-2pm. Off Sheikh Isa Avenue, behind the Carlton Hotel, Adliya, http://www.albareh.com (17 717 707).

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Anamil
Private gallery which shows the owner’s work from furnishings to clothing as well as paintings and also regularly stages the work of up and coming artists.
Budaiya behind the Post Office off Bani Jamra turn (17 162 155).

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Bahrain Arts Society
Gallery, members’ club, etching room, classrooms and studio. The society holds regular exhibitions, workshops and courses throughout the year.
Beside Lanterns on the Burgerland roundabout off the Budaiya Highway (17 590 551).