The new Sutton-Hoo?

Cool early medieval news: An amateur treasure-hunter with a metal detector found a cache of Anglo-Saxon objects in England about two months ago. Consisting of about 1,500 objects from the 7th century, the hoard is being billed as the largest such treasure to ever be discovered. I'm most interested in the Christian objects, and it will be interesting to see what scholarship comes out of this (also, I can't believe anyone still uses the phrase "the Dark Ages" seriously).


Depressing art news: A Renee Magritte painting, Olympia, was recently stolen from a museum in Brussels.

A hilariously cliche-laden write-up about a discovery in a 17th century canvas by Poussin.

A telling interview with Thomas Campbell about his leadership style and what it means for the Met's exhibition schedule.

Met tidbits

This made the front page of the NYT online edition this morning: The Metropolitan Museum's "Portrait of a Man" that had been displayed as by the workshop of Velazquez has been reattributed to the master himself, after a recent conservation.

Keith Christiansen, chairman of European paintings and the country's leading Velazquez scholar, Jonathan Brown, are in agreement about the attribution, which basically comes down to a few individual brushstrokes on the man's collar (art history at it's finest!). Debate continues over whether or not this work may be a self-portrait.

In other Met news, the museum announced that it will show fewer exhibitions of major loans, and will instead focus on changing the presentation of the permanent collection, which I think is what we're seeing now with these small, single-painting shows. I've got my money on a "Portrait of a Man" show in the upcoming months!

Art Links

Hello dear readers, I apologize for my long blogging hiatus. I was in Paris researching some manuscripts for my thesis, started a new job, and time got away from me!

Here are a few art links and updates to hold you over for the upcoming holiday weekend:

-In today's Times, an update/analysis on how galleries are faring in the continuing bad economic situation. 57th St. galleries seem to be relocating to Chelsea, where some two dozen have vacated their spaces.

-The much buzzed-about show at the Met which is centered around Vermeer's Milkmaid opens next week, on September 10th. It will also feature the Met's complete collection of (5) Vermeers, along with a selection of Dutch works (which reminds me a lot of the show they put up a few years ago which featured the entire collection of Dutch paintings). I'm interested in the Met's strategy here. Considering the Michelangelo's first painting exhibition, the Vermeer show, and the upcoming show which features a single sculpture (attributed to Michelangelo), the Met seems to be trafficking in small-scale (but big publicity) Frick Collection-style shows. Low cost and high traffic, an interesting move for the Met. MoMA is doing something similar with their exhibition on Monet's waterlilies (which I'm sure will be so packed, it will hardly be the oasis MoMA claims it will be).

-For all of you medieval art dorks who've been anxiously awaiting the arrival of the newly unbound Belles Heures of Jean de France at the Met, the show which was originally scheduled to open later this month has been pushed back to March. (Also opening in March is an interesting show on medieval tomb sculpture from Burgundy.)

-The Walters Art Museum has a neat-looking show on miniature books, which pulls from their permanent collection.