Out & About
METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART
As collectors shop for art in Miami this week, museum curators and directors will be mostly on the sidelines. It is generally acknowledged that fairs — especially the raucous ones of Miami — are for private and impulsive buyers who may take a few minutes to decide on a work. Others may sleep on it a few days or months.
By contrast, museums can take several years to acquire a work, guided by moral and didactic ideas about what it means for an object to enter a permanent collection assembled for education, scholarship, and public enjoyment.
The significance of museum acquisitions was evident Monday at the Metropolitan Museum of Art's annual Acquisition Fund Benefit, where the director of the museum, Philippe de Montebello, emphasized the importance of acquiring works with good provenance. Mr. de Montebello spoke specifically about a new acquisition that will go on display in the Leon Levy and Shelby White Court when the new Greek and Roman Galleries open in the spring: a fluted sarcophagus (220 C.E.) made from a single block of Proconnesian marble by one of the leading workshops in Rome. It came from a private collection near Roanne, France.
The audience of 460 guests in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Temple of Dendur listened with interest. Most elites in the art world have spent months debating the repatriation of antiquities.
Private collectors aren't immune to the issue — Italy recently asked Shelby White to return 20 works — but it hasn't stopped them from buying. At the Met Monday, several guests spoke of their own recent acquisitions. Diane Jacobsen likes her James Peale painting of vegetables. "It's similar to the one in the Met," she said.
Thom Filicia's brother, Jules Filicia, the creative director of the advertising agency Frank, recently received an Elaine de Kooning from his wife as a birthday present. It is hanging in their living room.
Payal and Rajiv Chaudhri purchased a Francis Newton Souza painting at Christie's in September. This year, William and Julie Macklowe bought photographs by Louise Lawler and Florian Maier Aichen. Elizabeth and David Netto also acquired works: He bought a Giacommetti lamp and she bought a Damien Hirst dot painting.
"Law & Order" actor Chris Meloni purchased two Navajo rugs. "One is pictorial, of a sacred Navajo dance. Another is woven from Mohair and has a sheen to it, almost silkish," he said.
Marketing executive Craig Calejo bought a Kenny Scharf mixed–media sculpture.
Veteran and novice collectors will make thousands of similar purchases this week in Miami. The first sales took place last night at the benefit preview of the New Art Dealers Alliance Art Fair, and will continue through Sunday.
It is through discovering the fun, mystery, and passion of collecting that many will eventually turn to supporting museums. The Metropolitan Museum of Art event gathered that audience and raised $1.4 million for future acquisitions. Many museum directors in Miami this week, including Lisa Phillips of the New Museum of Contemporary Art and Adam Weinberg of the Whitney Museum of American Art, will be looking out for similar folks, who just might purchase a work that ends up in a museum collection.
