Claes Oldenburg’s iconic Floor Burger (1962) is currently undergoing a restoration project at the Art Gallery of Ontario, in preparation for its upcoming exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.  Purchased by the AGO in 1967, the work, which is stuffed with empty ice cream cartoons, has shifted in appearance over the years, and now requires restoration work to help regain its original form and coloration.  “I was more concerned with the effect of the piece as I was making it rather than its future conservation,” says Oldenburg, “I started with the foam, but found it was weighing the sculpture down,” he says, “so we used the empty boxes to make it lighter.” (more…)

With its 10-year, $500 million renovation now drawn to a close, Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum is set to reopen on April 13th.  The new design, which undid years of renovations to restore the original design and layout by Pierre Cuypers, was well over both budget and timeframe, but has already received praise for its new design and attention to historical detail. “This was built as a national museum, not just an art museum, and we want the public to get a sense of history, seeing the paintings, furniture and applied arts that were all conceived around the same time.” Said Director of Collections, Taco Dibbits. (more…)

The New York Times has published an in-depth look at Brooklyn’s newly founded Cultural Recovery Center.  Comprised of a task force of 106 volunteers, this rapid response team works to salvage work in the wake of major disasters like last year’s Hurricane Sandy.  “We’re not doing any big conservation,” says studio manager Anna Studebaker. “We are a kind of MASH unit.” (more…)

A painting found in the collection of the Bowes Museum in the U.K. city of Durham, has been confirmed as an original work of Sir Anthony Van Dyck.  The work, a portrait of Lady Olivia Boteler Porter, was thought to be a 19th century copy after Van Dyck until recent examinations proved it as an original.  “To find a portrait by Van Dyck is rare enough, but to find one of his ‘friendship’ portraits like this, of the wife of his best friend in England, is extraordinarily lucky. Although as part of our national heritage values are irrelevant, for insurance purposes it should now be valued at anything up to £1m.” Said Dr. Bendor Grosvenor, an art historian and presenter. (more…)

Two French art advisers resign from the Louvre’s committee after Leonardo da Vinci’s 500-year-old “The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne” was deemed overcleaned, thus too bright to retain Renaissance sfumato and overall art historical accuracy [AO Newslink]

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