Rare Opportunity Ends Early-The Metropolitan Museum of Art in Manhattan had announced the eagerly awaited reopening of the Old Kingdom tombs of Perneb and Raemkai, on temporary view without the glass panels that will be installed later this spring. However, the unanticipated throngs of visitors increased the humidity to unacceptable levels and the tombs have been closed early. They will reopen permanently to the public in May.

Collection Sold Privately--Sotheby's has announced that the Forbes Collection of Faberge, scheduled for sale at auction in April, has been sold privately to a prominent Russian industrialist who plans to return the eggs to Russia. The amount of the sale was not disclosed but was more than $90 million, the minimum auction estimate.

Budget Increase Requested--President Bush is requesting an $18 million budget increase for the National Endowment for the Arts to fund a major new initiative, American Masterpieces: Three Centuries of Artistic Genius. This three-year program will combine arts presentations with education programming to introduce Americans to the best of their cultural and artistic legacy and will reach large and small communities in all 50 states. See www.nea.gov.

New Director Appointed--The Art Institute of Chicago has announced the appointment of James Cuno to director and president. Cuno is the former director of the Courtauld Institute and Harvard Art Museum.

Finalists Announced--The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation and HUGO BOSS AG have announced the shortlist for the fifth biennial Hugo Boss Prize 2004. The finalists are from Germany, Brazil, Netherlands, UK, Thailand and China. A publication featuring the work of all six finalists with accompanying essays will be published in June, and the winner will be selected and announced next fall.

Grant Awarded--The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts has announced a 10-year $10 million grant to Creative Capital, a foundation providing grants and professional development support for individual artists. The gift will provide $1 million a year over the next nine years and an additional $1 million for cash reserves.

Exhibitions

The Menil Collection, Houston, TX -- Arshile Gorky--A Retrospective of Drawings opens on March 5 and presents the first comprehensive overview of the artist's works on paper. The exhibition brings together 110 important works from European and American collections, some of which are being shown publicly for the first time. Through May 9.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City -- Chuck Close Prints: Process and Collaborations is the first comprehensive survey of this American artist's groundbreaking innovations in the field of printmaking. Featured are approximately 100 prints, working proofs and objects (from 1972-2002) that document the creative ways in which the artist has reinterpreted the signature subject of his paintings and photographs--monumentally scaled images of the human head--into the artistic language of various print mediums. Through April 18.

Philadelphia Museum of Art, PA -- Manet and the Sea is the first show to explore the marine paintings of Edouard Manet and his contemporaries, including such Impressionists as Claude Monet, Renoir and Morisot. Included are approximately 100 objects--paintings, watercolors and drawings--from 60 public and private collections in the U.S. and abroad. For tickets: 215-235-7469 or visit www.philamuseum.org. Through May 31.

The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, CA -- Window onto Spain: Drawings and Prints from Ribera to Goya explores Spanish draftsmanship from the mid-1500's to the early 1800's and brings together a strong collection of Spanish drawings and important prints by Jusepe de Ribera from the Grunwald Center for the Graphic Arts at the UCLA Hammer Museum. The drawings are by key Spanish artists and exemplify a variety of techniques and functions and include designs for paintings, prints and monumental sculpture. Through May 16.

New York, NY -- Whitney Museum of American Art -- The 2004 Biennial will open on March 11 and present works by 108 artists and collaborative groups. This 72nd biennial exhibition will remain on view in its entirety through May 30. The show will also include several site-specific outdoor works presented in collaboration with the Public Art Fund. Prominent artistic trends in new intergenerational work will be presented, and "evidence of an upsurge in drawing and painting will be clearly on view in the exhibition."

Copyright ARTtalk Vol. 14 No. 5 -- March 2004