Scandalmakers
Hope Springs Eternal: Nope
We took a gander at the Hope Diamond at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History last weekend. To be honest, it pales in comparison to the entire backroom of incredible, naturally formed crystals, not to mention several of the large, many-faceted gems (that’s a cut crystal, we learned) elsewhere in the room. Oh and the crystal ball that was polished into a perfect sphere in China in 1923. Wowzors.
At any rate talk of diamonds always reminds us of this article from the Atlantic Monthly, Have You Ever Tried to Sell a Diamond? It is one of the greatest articles EVAR, in our humble. It’s all about the shady-as-fuck diamond industry, monopolies, the invention of a luxury through advertising and product placement, and other romantic and eternal qualities of the diamond industry.
SD Columnist Accurately Predicts the Future!
On Saturday, Poster Boy defaced, among other prints, a Warhol Marylin in MoMA’s Atlantic Pacific installation.
Somewhere, an art historian who spells authenticity with a capital A just ejaculated and keeled over dead.
WE ARE ALL NOT BRANDEIS STUDENTS
What do you do when your alma mater sells off its entire art museum to private interests? Start a facebook group.
Brandeis recently announced the sale of its Rose Art Museum, much to the surprise of the Museum’s director and entire staff, who received the notice an hour before the school went public with the announcement. It seems that many of the University’s prime donors got Madoff’d, you see. Here’s director Michael Rush’s response.
More half-assed apologies, retractions, and bloglinks, inside!
A Daguerreotype we can believe in?
It’s Lincoln’s birthday! Which means we couldn’t go to the Chamber of Congress and register our business today! Also, we recently learned of this awesome beardless “Young Lincoln” portrait that’s been causing quite a stir among certain internets communities.
What do you think? Did a horse really kick both these men in the face, therefore making them the same man? More photos after zee jump.
Challunge Met! (Get it?)
Thanks to our secret Met Museum correspondent who secured us this deluxe yellow clip-on. Our own Josiah Tell is also collecting them as he goes about his mission to visit every room of the Museum.
what not to write
We love cutie librarians as much as the next nerd, but this guy makes us embarrassed for our gender. See also!
museum 2 collabo
Museum 2.0 launches a new project this week, coLAB, in conjunction with the New York Hall of Science, which allows anyone to participate in the once rarefied world of curators and meddling board members. From now until October…
suggested donation suggests: museums in libya 2.0
Disturbed by the minimal web presence of Libyan Museums? Lamusediffuse, “a group of Fulbright Scholars from different parts of the World, sharing a common interest in improving lives for individuals by improving access to culture through digital…
Cultural Schlock Jocks
Look who’s hiring! The augustly named Resnicow Schroeder is a PR firm that offers services exclusively to cultural institutions, kind of like Suggested Donation! We’d try and lay it out for you, but let’s let them explain it.…
supersize my smithsonian souvenirs!
Just listened to this report about how the Smithsonian hired the retail-oriented consultancy group BerglassGrayson to evaluate their gift shops. Unsurprisingly, the firm returned with blazing criticism, lambasting the museum stores for their under performance and inefficiency…
MOBA (NBMGBBMBMG)
When SD reader L told us about MOBA, we thought she had a head-cold and $20 to blow on the admission fee. Silly us. She was referring to the Museum of Bad Art, a not-bad-meaning-good-but-bad-meaning-bad-meaning-good collection of some of the…
