Merlion
01-18-2006, 09:51 PM
Here is another piece of news about a museum reporting lost of a 38-ton sculpture.
It was put into external storage since 1990, and the company has since gone broke. From what I can see the museum is very much to be blamed.
The sculpture by minimalist artist Richard Serra consists of three big rectangular blocks of steel painted black. It is really as minimalist as one can get.
I would not be surprised when the company's gone broke, who ever took over would just sell the steel blocks as scrap. How would anybody else know that they form parts of a valuable piece of art, unlike Herny Moore's bronze reclining nude. I would not know if I find them in the warehouse.
Here is the news article (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,13509-1995578,00.html) as reported in the Times of London.
Er, has anyone seen my statue? It weighs 38 tons and I left it here in 1990
A SOLID steel sculpture weighing 38 tons has vanished from a Madrid art museum, 15 years after being put into storage.
The Reina Sofia Museum bought the three-part work Equal-Parallel/Guernica-Bengsai by the American artist Richard Serra for €218,500 (£150,000) in 1986. It was displayed for four years and then put into storage. But when Ana Martínez de Aguilar, the museum’s director, decided to put the sculpture on show again, she could not find it. ....
The Serra sculpture consists of three blocks of dark steel, one measuring 4ft 9in x 16ft and the other two are 4ft 9in sq. When Señora Martínez asked the art storage company to explain its disappearance it refused to answer her questions. ....
Today the sculpture would be worth considerably more than what the museum paid for it in the 1980s. ...
The Spanish daily newspaper ABC reported yesterday that between 1990 and 1998 when the company was dissolved, no one from the museum contacted it to ask about the sculpture.
Nor did the museum ever pay the company for holding the work. There is also no record of invoices from the company for storing the piece. ...
It was put into external storage since 1990, and the company has since gone broke. From what I can see the museum is very much to be blamed.
The sculpture by minimalist artist Richard Serra consists of three big rectangular blocks of steel painted black. It is really as minimalist as one can get.
I would not be surprised when the company's gone broke, who ever took over would just sell the steel blocks as scrap. How would anybody else know that they form parts of a valuable piece of art, unlike Herny Moore's bronze reclining nude. I would not know if I find them in the warehouse.
Here is the news article (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,13509-1995578,00.html) as reported in the Times of London.
Er, has anyone seen my statue? It weighs 38 tons and I left it here in 1990
A SOLID steel sculpture weighing 38 tons has vanished from a Madrid art museum, 15 years after being put into storage.
The Reina Sofia Museum bought the three-part work Equal-Parallel/Guernica-Bengsai by the American artist Richard Serra for €218,500 (£150,000) in 1986. It was displayed for four years and then put into storage. But when Ana Martínez de Aguilar, the museum’s director, decided to put the sculpture on show again, she could not find it. ....
The Serra sculpture consists of three blocks of dark steel, one measuring 4ft 9in x 16ft and the other two are 4ft 9in sq. When Señora Martínez asked the art storage company to explain its disappearance it refused to answer her questions. ....
Today the sculpture would be worth considerably more than what the museum paid for it in the 1980s. ...
The Spanish daily newspaper ABC reported yesterday that between 1990 and 1998 when the company was dissolved, no one from the museum contacted it to ask about the sculpture.
Nor did the museum ever pay the company for holding the work. There is also no record of invoices from the company for storing the piece. ...