Weekly Roundup: Museums, Politics and Power 2/10/14

The Lenbach house in Munich reopened in 2013 and gets on as a political museum. An interview with the designate director.

The Tacoma, Washington Art Museum is planning to donate nine works of Chinese textile art to the Chinese Reconciliation Project Foundation, a local non-profit that aims to promote civic harmony in light of the city’s past racial discrimination against Chinese immigrants.

The Jewish museum in Frankfurt will be enlarged by a new building for 50 million euros. The museum asks the public to donate for that  amount.

Venice unveils controversial plans to build an Islamic museum.

The former building of the Ostwall museum in Dortmund will be sold out according to a decision of the Dortmund town council. A citizens’ group wants to save the museum.

Ronald S. Lauder, president of the World Jewish Congress, in Berlin about German museums dealing with NS-looted art – and criticises German museums violently.

China exhibit, part of anti-Japanese campaign, increases tensions.

In the Year of Culture of the Russian Federation on the portal “Culture of Russia” opened a new chapter “Images of Russia”. Information located here about the various objects of cultural heritage, including museums. Раздел постепенно наполняется информацией о различных учреждениях культуры страны, в т.ч. о музеях. На странице конкретного музея размещены контактная информация, инфографика (краткий исторический обзор), виртуальный тур по залам, видео, фотографии наиболее значимых предметов из коллекций музея. Портал культурного наследия России Культура.рф

The Folkwang Museum in Essen, Germany, has cancelled an exhibition of Balthus’ photographs, fearing they will be judged pornographic.

Marius the giraffe killed at Copenhagen zoo despite worldwide protests.

Via Director Max Anderson of the Dallas Art Museum’s twitter feed:  “Clooney: Wld be “very nice” to return Elgin Marbles buff.ly/NrDtdL Reader: Wld be nice to return land to Native Americans.”

The Arab-American Museum continues to acquire works from uprisings in the Arab World as part of the project Creative Dissent.

Image:  from the Arab-American Museum No, and a Thousand Times No, three stencils by Bahia Shehab, Cairo, Egypt, 2013. Artwork courtesy of Bahia Shehab.