An article this week in the Financial Times forecasts a “grim” outlook for UK Museums in the face of harsh budget cuts and austerity measures.  Those in the field note that while museums seem to be at a stronger state than ever within the British Nation, operational budget cuts threaten to hamper continued development and harm future plans.  “Museums are ironically better than ever before, better presented, better run and in better condition,” says  Stephen Deuchar, chief executive of the Art Fund.  “It’s just at the point where we ought to be reaping all the benefit from that investment that revenue funding is being cut back at a worrying pace.” (more…)

Daniel Arsham at Galerie Perrotin, via Art Basel

Following a hectic weekend of events and openings, today caps the final day of Art Basel Hong Kong, bringing strong sales and attendance at the sixth edition of the massive Asian market event. (more…)

Two separate directors for major UK museums have spoken out this week in the run-up to the country’s general elections, condemning current cultural funding cuts, and its effects, describing them as “severe.”  “Austerity is killing many local museums,” says David Anderson, director general of National Museum Wales.  “There is an urgent need for additional funding. The cultural funding model we have is failing.” (more…)

The New York Times notes the growing trends at major museums towards including experimental and contemporary choreography among its programming, noting both the cultural and practical benefits for an institution.  “Live performance encourages audiences to be more frequent visitors to your building,” says Sam Miller, president of the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. “In terms of being responsive to what artists are doing today and bringing in a more diverse audience, it makes sense.” (more…)

CNN has published a list detailing some of the best attractions and galleries that the city of Berlin currently has to offer, including KW Institute, Sammlung Boros, and the popular Mobile Kino traveling cinema on its list. (more…)

The Miami Herald reports that, after months of tense relations, staff from the Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami have decided to break ties with the city and relocate to Miami’s Design District as the Institute of Contemporary Art. Among the museum’s staff who have elected to move is interim director Alex Gartenfield, whose appointment over the city-approved Babacar M’Bow has been one of several sources of contention between the museum and the city. Whether MoCANoMi’s permanent collection, whose ownership has been hotly contested, will follow the staff to their new location or remain with the city is unclear.  (more…)

The New York Times reports that a Detroit creditor has ordered an appraisal of the Detroit Institute of Art‘s collection in hopes that the Institute’s works, which includes pieces by Edgar Degas, Henri Matisse, and Vincent Van Gogh, might be sold to cover the city’s debts. Although this appraisal valued the collection at up to $8.5 billion, an earlier appraisal placed the value between $2.7 billion and $4.6 billion, with the additional caution that, because of external factors like donor lawsuits and lack of demand for certain periods, actual sales will probably be around $800 million.

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The new guide “Not the Met” seeks to introduce museum-goers to New York City’s lesser-known institutions. Written by a pair of friends from Brooklyn, the guide contains information and reviews of 80 museums, including more well-known institutions like the Frick Collection and the Morgan Library alongside smaller, more specialized museums like the Paley Center for Media and the Museum of Biblical Art. (more…)

With the busy summer season in full swing, popular European museums are examining new methods of crowd control in an effort to curb the ever-growing hustle and bustle that could cause damage to both visitors and the art itself. Some museums such as the Louvre and the Prado in Madrid have pursued softer methods like timed tickets and extended hours. Others such as the Vatican Museums and the Uffizi in Florence have taken a harder line. Within the next year the delicate frescoes of the Sistine Chapel will be protected by a crowd-limiting climate control system while the Uffizi has already established a cap of 980 visitors at a time. (more…)

In a conversation with the Financial Times, Irish businessman Niall Fitzgerald reflected on his time as chairman of the British Museum‘s trustees. The former chief executive of Unilever, Fitzgerald became chairman  in 2006 and has focused his eight years in office on reworking the museum’s funding models and providing a stronger structure to the museum’s management. Under his auspices, the British Museum has entered into a profitable deal loaning objects to Abu Dhabi’s Zayed National Museum in addition to becoming, after the Louvre, the second-most visited museum in the world in 2013 . (more…)

Curators, artists and museum directors are preparing to open the 2014 Pittsburgh Biennial this month, a 10 month long event focusing on Pittsburgh-based artists and special events at many of the city’s arts organizations.  “We want to show how rich an environment this is for artists,” says Laura Domencic, the director of the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts. (more…)

The New York Times looks at the results of returning treasured art works to their countries of origin, and examines the varying levels of prominence or neglect these works often reach once returned.  “It’s not the same with music, it’s not the same with film, it’s not the same with literature — but when it comes to physical objects,” says J. Paul Getty Trust President James B. Cuno, “these things are kept as evidence of a proud past, as defined by the nation-state government.” (more…)

MOCA’s newly appointed director Philippe Vergne will assume the Director position at MOCA starting on March 10th, the LA Times reports.  MOCA announced the director’s start date via a press email this week. Vergne’s start date was accompanied by news of two new board members at the Museum: Maurice Marciano and Lilly Tartikoff Karatz, as well as a new endowment fundraising goal of $150 million. (more…)

The German government has announced plans to search its public museums through an independent center, the Wall Street Journal reports.  The news follows the ongoing outcry over the seized collection of Cornelius Gurlitt, and the attempted claims laid by families from whom the art was looted during WWII.  “These are delicate matters to articulate,” says German Culture Minister Monika Grütters. “It’s a matter of earning back trust.” (more…)

The New York Times has profiled Sheikha al-Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, the head of the Qatar Museums Authority in its year-end look at the art world, calling the young sheikha a “power player” on the global stage.  “It’s most important to allow young artists today to see what’s happening,” she says. “Seventy percent of our population is under the age of 30.” (more…)

Seeking to strengthen its international ties, the Metropolitan Museum of Art has announced the “Global Museum Leaders Colloquium,” a two-week program next April that will bring over a dozen museum heads from institutions in Asia, Africa and Latin America to the table, discussing the shared challenges and issues museums are facing worldwide.. “It’s all about promoting international collaboration,” said Met Director Thomas P. Campbell. (more…)

In the face of a $40 Million cut as a result of Congress’s budget stalemate, the Smithsonian Museums are prepared to maintain their normal hours, vowing to find their way around the cuts in more creative ways.  The museums will absorb the cuts through delays in maintenance and construction, as well as other internal adjustments.  “We think we have a plan that allows us to squeak through to the end of this fiscal year. But we can’t sustain this,” Said Dennis Kelly, Director of the National Zoo. “At the end of the fiscal year, if we’re still in this mode, the entire Smithsonian is going to have to rethink all of our priorities.” (more…)

A recurring theme of late for American museums has been that of repatriation, with several major institutions announcing that they will return ancient works to foreign countries claiming that the works were theirs.  However, many critics and museum employees posit that these claims on ancient art are often little more than extortion, and that the claims do little more than starve the cultural offering of museums and institutions around the globe, all while ignoring key issues of theft and looting.  “Has any of this affected the real evil, which is looting?” asks Stephen Urice, a cultural property lawyer at the University of Miami. “From what I see, it’s getting worse.” (more…)

L.A. Times’ Christopher Knight reflects on the market as 2012 draws to an end, with a certain inconsistency in the art market as a whole: demand for high-quality modern and contemporary work, with soaring prices for young artists is coupled with the failing economic health of many nonprofits, (LACMA certainly among the most well-known examples). “Obscene private wealth and gross income inequality are global phenomena; the economic system is rigged and surplus cash must go somewhere”.  (more…)