francophile

The Met has enormous revenue potential by turning its fashion designer-focused exhibitions into couture show rooms to rival Barneys. Just imagine how much money it can make by hawking frocks from past seasons from the house of McQueen

Seriously, museums are turning more and more into places of worship for consumerism. Here in San Francisco, there are advertisements all over the city for the exhibition at the de Young Museum, "Balenciaga and Spain".

What's next? An exhibition on Christian Louboutin and the men who lick them?
Or perhaps an exhibition on the life of Louis Vuitton, no doubt "made possible by a generous grant from Bernard Arnault."

YuropFlyer

That one already exists

http://german.china.org.cn/culture/t...t_22700298.htm

Analise

What were the strings? I went to google but couldn't find info of the Met refusing an Annenberg gift. The Annenbergs already have given a fortune for the Impressionist and Post Impressionist galleries so I'm wondering what the "strings" were that the Met refused THEIR additional gift.

That's always been aggravating as a museum goer. Where is the rotation of works for people to SEE the gifts bestowed on the museum?

Yup, the Met can print money.

erik123

You can check their 2009 990 and see how they earned/spent it.
http://207.153.189.83/EINS/131624086...9_06D19E99.PDF

havetoshop

This was part of the whole situation:

http://books.google.com/books?id=cOM...page&q&f=false

It was a long time ago!

Analise

Thank you for that link. So this was in the 70s. I'm still reading it. So far, I can see why the Met turned down the $20 million. They'd lose in the deal.

So was this when Annenberg put his millions into the National Gallery instead?

CMK10

If I may quote The Onion:

Landing Gear

Annenberg gave a lot of money to a lot of good causes. I have no idea what the building with his name on it at Mount Sinai cost, but I'm sure it was a lot of money.

I know nothing about the controversy referenced in the New York Magazine article below but in general, there's a lot to criticize about the Met and its management.

peersteve

Just for perspective, the National Aquarium in Baltimore Inner Harbor also has a $25 admission fee.........

So, same price for live Dolphins in glass tanks or DWEMs in gilded frames!

[DWEMs =Dead White European Males.....apologies for archaic lit-crit jargon]

Analise

There is PLENTY of Dead Black African Male & Dead Asian Male art at the Met. I guess you write off those works of art when you visit? Didn't want to mention the works of art created by women of many races and nationalities either?

peersteve

Ohhhhhhhhh......ummmmmmm..... the use of the radical-chic academic acronym "DWEM" was meant to signal a funny observation, along with "glass tanks" vs. "gilded frames" for some semi-alliterative humor. Maybe the addition of an appropriate emoticon would have helped.

But it's a fair point that museums have their own areas of emphasis. Looking at the Met's list of curatorial departments..... there's just 1 for all of "Africa, Oceania and the Americas" and 1 for everything "Asian"..... while the emphasis on Europe is shown by 6 separate departments.

Recalling my last visit to the Met, it was a longgggggg walk to find a painting that was non-DWEM. That might be an interesting measurement for many major American museums -- how many steps from the front door until you see permanent collection art from beyond Europe or its "Second World" colonies, which was not plundered, uh, originally collected by an European?

To say "I guess you write off those works of art" which are Non-DWEM really hurts a guy whose art bookshelf holds the exhibition guide from the first showing of Judy Chicago's "Dinner Party" when it had the original limited-time display at the Brooklyn Museum of Art back in November, 1980.