International News Digest
VISITOR RECORDS AT GERMAN AND ITALIAN MUSEUMS
German and Italian museums are enjoying long lines outside their doors. As Der Standard and APA report, exhibition success stories in Germany include the Neo Rauch shows at Munich’s Pinakothek der Moderne and Leipzig’s Museum der Bildenden Künste, the Ernst Ludwig Kirchner exhibition at Frankfurt’s Städel Museum, and the Frida Kahlo retrospective at Berlin’s Martin-Gropius-Bau. The Kahlo retrospective, which opens on September 1 in Vienna’s Bank-Austria-Kunstforum, welcomed 200,000 visitors.
Italian museums registered eighteen million visitors for the first half of 2010, a two million increase over the same period last year. The star is the Caravaggio exhibition in Rome’s Scuderie del Quirinale, which welcomed close to 600,000 visitors between February and June. So far this year, income from ticket sales have increased by 6.5 percent––surpassing a growth goal established for the country’s 419 museums and archeological sites by the ministry of culture. The news comes as the ministry is going ahead with massive culture cuts, which are part of Berlusconi’s austerity package. “These cuts are painful, above all since Italy has given out too little money for culture for years,” said Mario Resca, who was named by cultural minister Sandro Bondi as the general director for the use of Italian heritage. “Taking away funds from culture means robbing Italy of its future,” added Resca, who warns that the quality of exhibitions must increase as their quantity may decrease. In addition to the Caravaggio exhibition, top sites included Pompeii, Florence’s Uffizi, and the Palace of Caserta.
STOLEN POLKE WORKS FOUND
The German police have found sixteen works by the late artist Sigmar Polke. As Der Standard reports, the works, valued at $2.5 million, were found in a residence in Bodenwerder, Lower Saxony. The fifty-six-year-old owner, who remains unnamed, was not taken into custody but will be investigated for handling stolen goods. An agent, who was offered the works for $3,000, led police to the suspect. According to the police report, the works, including “significant” watercolors and drawings, were taken from Polke’s atelier. Some had been in the late artist’s possession for decades.
PRIZES FOR WALTHER AND ULLMAN
The German artist Franz Erhard Walther and the Israeli artist Micha Ullman have been honored with separate prizes. As Der Standard reports, Walther was awarded the Ernst Franz Vogelmann prize for sculpture, which is doted with $30,000. Walther, who was born in 1939, directed the sculpture department at the Hamburg art academy for more than three decades. The jury members of the Heilbronner Stiftung, which manages the prize, recognized the artist’s “completely new way of dealing with sculpture.” The prize is financed by and named after the late arts patron Ernst Franz Vogelmann.
Ullman, who was also born in 1939, was honored with the Moses Mendelssohn Prize, which is doted with $13,000. Ullman is best known for his Bibliotek memorial in Berlin: an underground empty library that pays homage to the books destroyed by Nazis in 1933 during a book burning at Berlin’s Bebelplatz. The prize, which is awarded every two years to support tolerance, is given by the city of Berlin. Ullman will be presented with the award during a ceremony at the city hall on September 6.