The Museum of American Folk
Art has established a fund commemorating the work of Julie and
Sandy Palley.
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Massachusett's highest court ruled October 9 that 17
paintings - including works by Claude Monet, Camille
Pissarro and Eugene Boudin, among others -
currently at Boston's Museum of Fine Arts can't be sold by
the trust that owns them in order to brighten the cultural scene
of the struggling blue-collar city of Lawrence, reports
Martin Finucane of the Associated Press. "The bequest makes clear
that the paintings may not be sold by the trustees," the Supreme
Judicial Court said in an eight-page ruling written by Justice
John Greaney. The three most prominent works have a combined
value of $7.5 million, according to one estimate. The paintings,
including Monet's "Field of Poppies, near Giverny," were
bequeathed to a trust, The White Fund, by the Rev. William E.
Wolcott in 1911. Wolcott said the paintings should be displayed
at the MFA until they could be shown in a public art gallery in
Lawrence, a mill city 25 miles north of Boston. Almost 90 years
later, there is still no public art gallery in Lawrence. The MFA
has kept the paintings, exhibiting the three most famous and
storing the rest.
Alan Goldberg, president of First Albany Corporation and
former chairman of the board of the Albany Institute of
History & Art, Albany, N.Y., has made a gift of $1
million to the institute towards its new $5.6 million
initiative, "Achieving Excellence in the Twenty-first Century."
Goldberg has been involved with the Albany Institute for twelve
years, and led the board from 1994-1999. This gift is his largest
charitable contribution. He joins philanthropist and AIHA trustee
Matthew Bender, IV as a $1 million donor to the Albany
Institute's new fundraising campaign.
The Complete Jacob Lawrence, a two-volume catalog of the
black American artist's work edited by Peter Nesbett and research
editor Michelle DuBois, was released October 10 by the University
of Washington Press. Nesbett is founder and executive director of
the Jacob Lawrence Catalogue Raisonne
Project. The work took five years to complete. Lawrence,
who painted until his death, is the first African-American artist
to have a catalogue raisonne. According to the Associated Press,
Nesbett created a nonprofit public charity to finance the
undertaking, collecting nearly $1 million around the country. He
assembled a core staff of three: himself, DuBois and photography
coordinator Stephanie Ellis-Smith.
The Portland Museum of Art (PMA), Portland, Me., has
received a gift of $100,000 from the Hannaford Charitable
Foundation toward the Museum's Century III Campaign. This gift
will support the museum's efforts to preserve the McLellan-Sweat
House and the L.D.M. Sweat Memorial Galleries.
A $100 million endowment has been established for the
Autry Museum of Western Heritage, Los Angeles, Calif., and
is meant to help the institution become more self-supporting,
reports the AP wire. "These secured funds will allow the museum
to cover its basic operations, which in turn will provide it the
freedom to focus on raising funds for the ambitious projects that
have been set by its staff and board of trustees," said Jackie
Autry, widow of museum namesake Gene Autry.
To commemorate the work of devoted trustee Julie Palley and her
husband Sandy, who so tragically and suddenly lost their lives on
September 3, the Museum of American Folk Art, New York
City, has established The Julie and Sandy Fund for Staff
Advancement. The fund will continue Julie Palley's interest
in furthering staff advancement by enabling members of the staff
to participate in professional conferences, such as the College
Art Association and the American Association of Museums,
seminars, courses, and other programs designed to assist in their
professional development.
More than one thousand buried antique bottles - from
perfume bottles to tiny corked medicine vials to two-handled jugs
- have emerged during construction work along a pedestrian
walkway in Ashland, Ore. Initial estimates have concluded the
bottles span from the 1890s through World War II, said Brandon
Goldman, assistant city planner. Shards of English pottery from
the 1880s and 1890s, Japanese pottery fragments from the 1930s, a
teapot and a hand-blown light bulb with an intact filament also
were found in the dirt, Mark Tveskov, assistant professor of
anthropology at SOU, told the Associated Press.
Michele Quinn joins Onview.com as director of
Brooke Alexander Editions. Quinn was formerly a vice president
and head of the print department at Christie's East, a business
analyst at Sotheby's and ran Gemini GEL at Joni Moisant Weyl, the
New York representative of the LA-based print publisher
specializing in contemporary prints and multiples. Brooke
Alexander Editions was acquired by Onview.com earlier this year.
In her new role, Quinn will manage the daily operations and sales
management of the gallery.
William P. Youngworth III, a former antiques dealer
who played an intriguing part in the decade-old drama of the
Gardner Museum's $300 million art heist was released from
custody in Boston, Mass., October 13 and says he still intends to
claim a reward for the stolen artwork reports Theo Emery of the
Associated Press: The Supreme Judicial Court threw out his 1997
indictment as a "habitual offender. Youngworth said his attorney,
Lisa Siegel Belanger, has been talking with museum officials and
federal investigators, and said he is "hopeful" the paintings can
be returned, so "we can put this all behind us."
The Seattle Art Museum has reached a settlement
with the oldest art gallery in New York City in the case of a
post-Impressionist painting that was looted by the Nazis, reports
the AP wire. The museum has 30 days to choose at least one work
of art from the holdings of Knoedler & Co. or opt
instead for cash to buy a "significant addition to the museum's
collection" in compensation for the loss of "Odalisque,"
executed by Henri Matisse in 1928. Monetary terms were
withheld, but museum director Mimi Gates said Knoedler also would
cover all legal, research and travel costs and waive payment of a
$143,000 fine a federal judge imposed on the museum last month
for failing to show proof of legal ownership in a timely way.
