The Royal Library in Copenhagen has expressed the wish to house controversial cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad which were published in a Danish newspaper in September 2005 and created a wave of global protest in which more than 50 people were killed. “It would be natural for us to have them at the Royal Library,” Jytte Kjaergaard, a spokeswoman for the Copenhagen- based library, said by telephone today to Bloomberg. “We don’t perceive them as works of art. We don’t have any view on their substance or content. Our view is that they hold a place in our cultural heritage. The cartoons have become a part of Danish history.”

Critics state that the library risks opening old wounds, causing an unnecessary provocation towards the Muslim world. “We don’t need to be reminded of the cartoons. We need to forget about them and build bridges between people, rather than dig ditches,” said Kasem Said Ahmad, a spokesman for the Islamic Community in Denmark.

Der Spiegel writes that “according to Danish law, two copies of everything published in Denmark — from bestselling novels to local newspapers — have to be deposited at the Royal Library, making it the country’s most important repository.” The Danish institution is considered to be Scandinavia’s leading library, with rare treasures like Sören Kierkegaard’s manuscripts, one of 48 copies of the Gutenberg Bible known to exist and “Out of Africa” author Karen Blixen’s diaries.

The Danish Media Museum in Odense has also expressed an interest in the cartoons. “If the library acquires them, we would like to show them together with media reports about the publication and the protests against it,” says its director Ervin Nielsen in the Guardian.

The artists are willing to collaborate, writes the Times. “We have generally agreed that we want a museum to have the works, but everyone still has to take a final decision for himself,” Claus Seidel, one of the cartoonists and head of the Danish cartoonists’ association, said. “Nobody wants to make a lot of money, some of us are even willing to donate the works,” he said.”

Read the article in the Times (January 30, 3008)
Read the article in the Guardian (January 30, 2008)
Read the article in Der Spiegel (January 30, 2008)
Read the article at bloomberg.com (Junuary 30, 2008)
Visit the Web site of The Royal Library
See the timeline of the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy on Wikipedia

Update February 1:
Read the article in the International Herald Tribune (January 30, 2008)
Read the article in the Art Newspaper (January 31, 2008)

General staff building extension for the Hermitage, a former palace in St. Petersburg (Photo: OMA/AMO)

Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas and his Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA/AMO) will redesign the art displays inside St. Petersburg’s State Hermitage Museum over the next six years to bring the landmark Russian institution up to date. In tandem with the Hermitage, Koolhaas will, in the first year, draw up a master plan for re-exhibiting the museum’s treasures. He will then change the displays in the Islamic and Chinese rooms, and use a section of the imperial general staff building as a contemporary art space.

No new structure will be put up, nor will any part of the existing architecture be modified. “The goal is not about going back to a previous condition, but perhaps creating a greater awareness of what was once there, or finding a way so the two can be present at the same time,” said Koolhaas in a recent interview. “I want to find another way to modernize the museum, to modernize the physical substance.”

OMA/AMO has been working as a consultant for the State Hermitage Museum for several years now. In 2003 OMA/AMO already proposed an extension project dealing not only with architecture but as well with the distribution of 3.5 million artifacts across 2,000 rooms. The next phase of the project will run to 2014, the Hermitage’s 250th anniversary. Financial backing will be provided by the Dutch government and the Moscow-based Mercury Group, which sells luxury goods. The architectural team will also organize four international seminars discussing central issues of the investigation, with leading specialists and cultural figures. The Hermitage 2014 Masterplan will culminate in a final international exhibition and publication.

Photo collage of an exhibition in the General Staff Building: “Does every museum need to be modernized”? “Might neglect be used ‘to expose value”? (Photo: OMA/AMO)

Read an interview with Rem Koolhaas (Bloomberg, January 30, 2008)
Read press release (Office for Metropolitan Architecture, January 25, 2008)
Go to website State Hermitage Museum
Go to website OMA/AMO

“The announcement by the British government that it is putting £50m towards the costs of the new development of Tate Modern is one of the most significant moves in public cultural policy in recent years.”

But it is not enough, according to Sir Nicholas Serrota. In a letter in The Art Newspaper on 24 January, the director of Tate urges private donors, trusts, corporations and foundations to recognise the significance of the faith shown in Tate Modern 2.

“In 2000, an investment of £137m of public and private money created Tate Modern. In seven years, it has become the most popular museum of modern and contemporary art in the world, and the second leading free tourist attraction in Britain. What makes it unique among museums is that 50% of its visitors are under 35 years old.”

Read full letter (The Art Newspaper, 24 January 2008)

See also this article in the Guardian of 26 July 2006.

A computer generated image of the new building, from the south © Herzog & de Meuron / Hayes Davidson

Federal agents raided the Los Angeles County Museum of Art on Thursday as part of a five-year inquiry into smuggled relics. (Photo: Nick Ut/Associated Press)

“Federal agents raided a Los Angeles gallery and four museums in Southern California on Thursday, including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, as part of a five-year investigation into the smuggling of looted antiquities from Thailand, Myanmar, China and Native American sites.” (New York Times, January 25, 2008)

“They suspect the items were smuggled in from Thailand and China before being given to museums, allowing the donors to claim back tax. The scam involved smugglers putting “Made in Thailand” stickers on genuine antiques to get them through customs. The museums are co-operating but say they had no reason to be suspicious. No arrests have been made.” (BBC News, January 25, 2008)

After two years of construction, the new extension of the ARKEN Museum of Modern Art in Copenhagen is ready to open on January 26. With this new extension, an exhibition space that consists of 5,000 meters squares, the Danish museum will be twice as large as it is now.

The original building, which opened in 1996, was designed by architect Søren Lund who won the commission while still a student. Despite praise for the design and high visitor numbers (995,000 in 2006), the building’s concrete walls and irregular shapes have proved unwieldy when hanging temporary exhibitions, a problem which the extension is meant to address.

While Søren Lund remained a consultant on the E6m ($8.8m) extension, the principal design was undertaken by architects C.F. Møller. The costs were split one-third to two-thirds between the Copenhagen local government and the museum’s own fundraising.

The new exhibition halls have been given very clean lines and are laid out as four large, white rooms in dynamic contact with each other. (Image: C.F. Møller)

Read more (The Art Newspaper, January 24, 2008)

A rendering of the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum, to open in 2010 at Michigan State University in East Lansing (Image: Zaha Hadid Architects)

Starchitects Frank Gehry and Zaha Hadid have been in the news lately. Gehry will design the 2008 Serpentine Gallery Pavillion.

“Every year since 2000, the Serpentine, a former tearoom located in London’s Hyde Park, asks an architect or artist to put up a provisional structure that serves as a venue for evening talks and events, and, by day, as a cafe. Previous pavilion architects Zaha Hadid and Rem Koolhaas have, like Gehry, been winners of the Pritzker Architecture Prize.”
(Source: Bloomberg)

Zaha Hadid has won the design competition for the $26 million Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum at Michigan State University, which will focus on modern and contemporary art.

“Ms. Hadid, known for bold, unconventional forms, was selected last week in a competition that began in June, when the Broads gave $26 million toward the $40 million museum, which will house modern and contemporary art. The other finalists were Morphosis of Santa Monica, Calif.; Coop Himmelb(l)au of Vienna and Los Angeles; Kohn Pedersen Fox Architects of New York; and Randall Stout Architects of Los Angeles.”
(Source: New York Times)

Philippe de Montebello retires as director of the Metropolitan Museum

According to the Association of Art Museum Directors, a New York-based nonprofit representing more than 180 museum directors, 21 U.S. museums will be looking for successors of the postwar generation of directors. With diminishing federal and corporate funding, the job descriptions of the top position at museums might be intimidating curators at one side, where others leave for better paid jobs at auction houses.

“At the Met, Mr. Montebello’s successor will need to be able to wax rhapsodic with curators about hieroglyphics and Damien Hirst as well as manage a staff of 2,600, a $201 million operating budget and a $1 billion capital campaign.”

Read full article (Washington Post, January 10, 2008)

Japanese architect Tadao Ando has studied the relationship between the graves and Saar city and came up with a geometrical shape for the new museum, which will open in 2010.

After Dubai and Abu Dhabi, yet another Gulf State is making efforts to become a cultural hub for the region. This time Bahrain, a borderless island country in the Persian Gulfstate of the coast from Saudi Arabia, announced plans for a -of-the-art museum and research centre to be built at a 5000-years old archaeological site in Saar. Conceptual designs have been completed and building work is expected to begin by the end of this year. The designs, sponsored by Durrat Al Bahrain, have been created by Japanese architect Tadao Ando. His design integrates the surrounding area with the building itself. It will be a rectangle divided into two triangles, the larger one for the museum and the smaller for the research centre.

Reports that burial mounds in A’ali were to be removed at night by a construction company have been dismissed by government officials. One MP already had launched a committee to look into allegations that burial mounds were to be removed to give way to development projects. He had reportedly been tipped off by an anonymous caller and was taking the claims seriously by setting up a committee to probe the issue. “The graves won’t be moved, it’s the wrong information and a huge mistake,” said Shaikha Mai, the assistant under-secretary for Culture and National Heritage.

Read more (Gulf Daily News, January 1, 2008)