An article in Crain’s Business reports that the Museum of Modern Art is the loudest museum in New York City, following a series of impromptu tests at New York’s most prominent museums. The Frick clocks in as New York’s quietest museum. “The Whitney constantly has helicopters outside—you won’t necessarily hear them, but that noise will come through the glass,” says Alan Fierstein, founder of Acoustilog, a New York acoustical consulting firm. “You can’t hear specifics — ‘Oh, that’s a helicopter, that’s a 737, that’s a truck,’ because by the time it makes it to your ears, it’s mixed up and just sounds like an overall din.” (more…)

Despite fierce protests from researchers, curators and museum heads, the Louvre is pushing forward with its decision to move 250,000 artworks and artifacts to a new storage facility north of the city, in Liévin, a move that many say will cripple research attempts in the capital.  “A museum without its reserves is like a plane without engines: it looks all beautiful and glittering, but it won’t move,” says an open letter from 42 of the museum’s 45 curators. (more…)

Tullio Lombardo’s Renaissance statue of Adam, which famously fell from its pedestal at The Met and was smashed to pieces, is back on view after a lengthy restoration, accompanied by a digital video project and performance that gives the work a multi-faceted, occasionally irreverent voice.  The project is a continuation of The Met’s ongoing emphasis on direct engagement of visitors with its collection through performance and new technology. (more…)

The Hong Kong Museum of Arts closes its doors next month for a three-year, $120 million renovation that will expand exhibition space, as well as raise the museum ceilings in exhibition spaces, a much-needed change that had caused problems for the institution.  “There were some exhibits from overseas which could not be shown at the museum because of the height problem,” says Chan Shing-wai, assistant director of leisure and cultural services. (more…)

The Met is currently working on plans for a 2017 exhibition focused on the work of Lucio Fontana, and initial reporting by the Art Newspaper indicates that the exhibition could be held at the Breuer building, formerly the home of the Whitney Museum.  “An exhibition at the Met will necessarily be all-encompassing,” an anonymous source close to the museum says. (more…)

The Economist reviews the touring exhibition of the M+ Museum collection, before the Hong Kong museum opens its doors in 2019, and profiles some of the most important contributors to the emergence of Chinese contemporary art worldwide, including businessman and diplomat Uli Sigg, and Guy Ullens, founder of the Ullens Centre for Contemporary Art.  “The view was that art and culture were enshrined in the past—that Chinese art was ‘something ancient’,” says Edmund Capon, who served as head of the Art Gallery of New South Wales. (more…)

The LA Times looks at the immense efforts taken at the Broad Museum to ready the exhibition space, including the negotiations in installing and managing immense artworks like a recently purchased Takashi Murakami piece.  “Contemporary art is so varied in form, material and scale that you often need to devise new approaches for moving and installing certain pieces,” says the Broad’s director of collections management, Vicki Gambill.  “That’s what makes the work infinitely interesting and complex. Preparators love solving problems.” (more…)

Harlem’s Studio Museum has announced plans for a new, $122 million building, designed by David Adjaye, on West 125th Street.  “We have outgrown the space,” says Director and Chief Curator Thelma Golden. “Our program and our audience require us to answer those demands.” (more…)

Manchester’s Whitworth Museum has been awarded the UK’s annual “Museum of the Year” award, recognizing the institution’s impressive new expansion project, unveiled this past February. (more…)

Josef Helfenstein, the Director of Houston’s Menil Collection for the past 12 years, is leaving his position to head the Kunstmuseum Basel, the New York Times reports.  “It’s a very hard decision for me to leave the Menil – I love this institution enormously,” Helfenstein says. “I think we have accomplished a lot, so it was kind of a natural moment.” (more…)

Professional Gambler and Collector David Walsh is interviewed in the Financial Times this week, discussing his recently founded Mona Art Museum in Tasmania, and his vision for its collection and expansion.  “I’ve got four or five works by James Turrell which will go in the new wing along with a few Jean Tinguely pieces. I like kinetic stuff, I like weirdness,” he says. “The budget for the new extension is about $8m, the art will cost another $2m to $3m.” (more…)

The Whitney has announced new officers for its Board of Trustees, appointing Neil G. Bluhm and Laurie M. Tisch as co-chairs, while Richard M. DeMartini will act as president.  “I am grateful for the immense contributions of these devoted individuals and thank them with all my heart for ushering the Whitney into a new era, particularly Bob Hurst who chaired the capital campaign, which made the new building possible,” says President Adam Weinberg. (more…)

The Wall Street Journal notes the growing number of volunteer museum docents and tour guides among the baby boomer generation, and problems with managing the volunteer staff that often comes with the territory.  “There was this culture of resistance,”says Hirshhorn Museum spokeswoman Kelly Carnes of volunteers who opposed changes in the tour guide structure. “They really felt entitled after spending enough time here not to make any changes from the way they had previously done things.” (more…)

Collector Bert Kreuk has won his lawsuit with Danh Vo, forcing the artist the create a room-sized installation work, after the artist delivered a much smaller-sized work.  Kreuk will pay the artist $350,000 for the piece, but Vo must deliver the piece by a set date.  If not, will be fined $10,000 for each day after he fails to produce the work.     (more…)

The Guggenheim has selected the design for its proposed Helsinki location, a series of interlocking pavilions unified by a single tower, designed by Moreau Kusunoki Architectes.  “Our approach was to try to make a building that is closely linked with the city, with the way people use it,” says architect Nicolas Moreau, who runs the firm with his wife Hiroko Kusunoki. (more…)

A rare Bernini sculpture that many historians had thought lost or destroyed has been acquired by the Getty Museum.  The marble bust of Pope Paul V will “become one of a handful of the most important sculptures in the Getty’s collection, no question,” says Director Timothy Potts. (more…)

The Art Newspaper sits down with Guggenheim Director Richard Armstrong to discuss a range of issues with the Guggenheim’s ongoing expansion plans in Finland and Abu Dhabi, including pressures to improve labor conditions through the sub-contractors working on the project.  “These are all questions that come under sovereignty; I feel unequipped to answer them,” Armstrong says.  “I can state our position: we are in constant dialogue with TDIC and other intergovernmental agencies. It really is top of my mind.” (more…)

As the Broad Foundation prepares to open its Los Angeles Museum, its founders are on a major buying spree, buying about one work per week to bulk up its collection.  The museum already holds the world’s largest collection of works by Cindy Sherman, and is noted as having more Roy Lichtenstein works than anyone else outside the artist’s own foundation.   (more…)

Artist Bernar Venet’s Venet Foundation and Museum in Le Muy, France, is the subject of a New York Times profile this week, documenting the artist’s impressive collection of major American artists, including Donald Judd and Sol LeWitt, which the artist often secured through barters or purchases on “friend rates.”  “Our works had no commercial value,” Mr. Venet says of the works he often traded his own pieces for. “We produced more than we sold.” (more…)

Dasha Zhukova’s long-awaited Garage Center for Contemporary Art has opened in Moscow’s Gorky Park, designed by architect Rem Koolhaas from a repurposed Soviet-era dining canteen.  “We are very happy to work on turning the almost-ruin of vremena goda into the new house for garage,’ says Koolhaas. “We were able, with our client and her team, to explore the qualities of generosity, dimension, openness, and transparency of the soviet wreckage and find new uses and interpretations for them.” (more…)

Climate change activists have concluded a 25-hour long protest against the Tate Modern’s sponsorship by British Petroleum, writing messages and critics on the Turbine Hall floor after facing down a potential use of police force that was not acted upon.  “It’s a back-down,” says Liberate Tate member and writer Mel Evans. “Maybe it’s a sign of how much the groundswell of public opinion has shifted that the Tate doesn’t feel like they can shut down this discussion.”

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An article in Bloomberg this week traces the path of stolen art from theft through to sale, accounting for the variations in strategy by thieves for maximizing returns on what are often considered unsellable works.  “Sometimes people don’t even recognize that the art’s gone missing” says Bonnie Magness-Gardiner, head of the FBI’s art-theft program. “It could be in a storage facility, or in the basement of someone’s house, and it can often be years before anyone notices it’s gone.”  (more…)

Following the example of collectors seeking tax breaks for their donation of art works to museums, artists themselves are seeking more equitable tax treatment for donating works.  While collectors currently can claim fair market value for the works they donate, artists themselves can only write off the cost of materials.  “It seems to me there is a discrepancy in treatment there”, says Philippe Vergne, director of MOCA. “What’s extraordinary is that artists keep giving.”  (more…)

MoMA has acquired several hundred photographs by artist August Sander from his series “People of the Twentieth Century,” the New York Times reports.  “His ambition is nothing less than to use photography to describe the people of the 20th century,” says Sarah Hermanson Meister, a MoMA photography curator.  “He is doing this through the German people, but it’s not limited in its intention to that.” (more…)