Results tagged “metropolitanmuseumofart”

Back in August photographer Zach Hyman brought one of his muses to the Metropolitan Museum of Art for some naked time. The 26-year-old model, Kathleen Neill, stripped down in the Arms and Armour exhibit, only to be arrested shortly after for public lewdness. Just a few days later she said: "I want people to have the freedom to express themselves. I want the city to drop the charges. I would love to be able to go to museums and see stuff like this happen on any scale."

Since Mayor Bloomberg was robbed of his chance to engage in Weiner Wars this election year, he's settling for the next best thing—the Wars! Yesterday on his weekly radio show, Bloomberg was asked about the recent crackdown of illegal vendors outside the Met. Since it was reported that veteran Dan Rossi was taking advantage of a 19th Century law that allowed vets to vend without paying, more veteran have been making their way to Fifth Ave, many employed by vendors who use them to beat the law and allow them to sit idly nearby. The mayor said, "They hire a vet to stand there and [he] has nothing to do with [it]. That's as much fraud [as] minority and women-owned businesses where you just hire somebody that's a minority or woman and say, 'Oh, you're the name person.'" As for Pasang Sherpa, after being evicted from his $600K lease to vend at the Met, Rossi hired him to man his stand after seeing Sherpa crying on the Met stairs. Now Sherpa simply joined in on the "rent-a-vet" system, paying disabled Leo Morris Jr. $100 a day to nap in his car near Sherpa's new cart.

Hot dog vendor Pasang Sherpa made headlines a few months back for his big six-figure bids to guarantee lucrative space slinging franks outside the Metropolitan Museum, paying out $643,000 annually to the Parks Department for his spots outside the Met. At the time, he said that he didn't want to pay the city his big rent bills because he contended that nearby construction was having too negative of an impact on his business. Now after following through on his threat to hold off rent, the city has responded by evicting him. A Parks Department spokesman says Sherpa had fallen $310,000 behind in rent. Sherpa told the News that he was "going crazy" and didn't know what to do or where to go. Even more lost though were some Rhode Island tourists outside the Upper East Side museum, one of whom told the paper, "We don't know the area or where else to eat but here. There's no other place to eat around here." When Sherpa's original beef was reported in January, the Post said that another nearby vendor on 5th Avenue was set up and operating without permission or paying anything because of "a regulation that lets veterans like him bypass the bidding process."

It's the 31st year of the Museum Mile Festival, where Fifth Avenue between 82nd and 105th Streets is closed so people can visit the nine museums along that stretch for free! The participating museums are: El Museo del Barrio; Museum of the City of New York; The Jewish Museum; Cooper Hewitt, National Design Museum, Smithsonian Institution; National Academy Museum and School of Fine Arts; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum; Neue Galerie New York; Goethe-Institut/German Cultural Center; and The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Yesterday Michelle Obama was in town for a second time since becoming the First Lady, this visit emphasizing the important role of the arts. She helped reopen the newly renovated American wing of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (where she commented on how she spent her first date with the President at a museum), and later on attended the American Ballet Theatre's Spring Gala. With our cultural institutions suffering during the current financial climate, it's nice to hear the First Lady remind people, "Nearly 6 million people make their living in the nonprofit arts industry. Arts and cultural activities contribute more than $160 billion to our economy every year."

Arts Journal's Culture Grrl Lee Rosenbaum noticed a lovely "interloper" in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's old masters gallery. Next to Johannes Vermeer's "Young Woman With a Water Pitcher" is a small painting, once owned by Las Vegas developer Steve Wynn (and thankfully not elbowed by him). Rosenbaum reports that the painting, "Young Woman Seated at the Virginals" (pictured), which had previously been called by some as a "near Vermeer," is now accepted as a Vermeer by a Met curator. Wynn, who paid $30 million for the painting, "Young Woman Seated At The Virginals" (pictured), in 2004, sold it last fall; it is now owned by the Leiden Gallery. The Met tells Rosenbaum the painting will be on display until June.

How many more hot dogs can a vendor outside the Metropolitan Museum of Art sell at the north side of the museum entrance, as opposed to the south side? First-time vendor Pasang Sherpa is betting he can unload at least $81,701 more lips and assholes, because he's coughing up that much extra for the north location, even though the southern spot is only 100 yards away. Sherpa paid $362,201 to the Parks Department for rights to vend at the north side and $280,500 for the south, but now he's fuming because the more heavily-trafficked north entrance has been blocked by construction won't be done until May. "I don't want to pay them now," he tells a Post reporter, who theorizes that this might be the most expensive retail space per square foot in all the land.

Last night was the star-studded, couture-clad Costume Institute Gala at the Met; the theme was "superheroes," to accompany the museum's latest Superheroes: Fashion and Fantasy exhibit. J. Lo commented on her own superhero ensemble, saying, "the only thing I could think of was Wonder Woman with my cuffs."

The NY Times reports on a farewell of sorts at the Metropolitan Museum of Art this weekend. The Euphronios krater, a 2,500-year old vessel, will depart its home for nearly 30 years on Sunday and make a trip to Italy, where that country's government has been vying for the piece.

The krater, a Greek bowl for mixing water and wine, will be sent to Italy as part of an agreement reached nearly two years ago with that country’s government, which has long contended that the artifact was illegally excavated from a tomb in Cerveteri, near Rome. The Met bought the krater in 1972 for $1 million from Robert Hecht, an antiquities dealer who is now on trial in Rome on charges of conspiring to traffic in looted artifacts. (Mr. Hecht denies the charges.)

The agreement also requires 20 other (apparently looted) objects be returned to Italy, and in return Italy is lending the Met some rare ceramics, which have been brought in slowly over the past two years. A few of these pieces have ties to the krater and its artist, Euphronios, though none are on par with the 515 BC-dated piece, which is considered one of the finest Greek vases in existence.

Philippe de Montebello, director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art for three decades, has announced his retirement; he’ll be leaving as soon as a successor is found. The 71-year-old French born Harvard graduate called it a “wrenching” decision but finally concluded that “to stay much further would be to skirt decency.”