Queens Museum of Art upped its fundraising ante this week in a bid to save its educational programs. Jumping into the New York real estate market, the museum will sell off deeds to the buildings that occupy its Panorama of the City of New York, a built-to-scale model of the city originally designed for the 1964 World’s Fair. Prices start at $50 for a single home, while developers can add their mega-projects to the skyline for $10,000.
Sotheby’s London auction of fashion designer Gianni Versace’s Lake Como villa beat estimates by threefold, netting $10.4 million. Just prior to the sale, Sotheby’s was forced to pull an 18th-century portrait by the German artist Johann Zoffany from the lot after it was recognized in the Evening Standard and reported stolen by the descendants of the painting’s subject, Major George Maule.
The family of Brandeis University’s Rose Museum’s benefactors publicly criticized museum officials for the first time this week, accusing them of “planned plundering” of its collection. Taking heed of the outrage over this and other recent debacles, the New York State Legislature introduced a bill that, if passed, will prohibit museums from recouping the loss of operational funds by selling artworks.
