Art Review: Norton Simon Museum

I’m still bicoastal these days. Two of my recent stories concerned museums along the Acela corridor that are jumping through the looking glass. There’s so much narcissism and grandiose thinking, and talk about whining! At the Baltimore Museum of Art, the director wants radical change. He wants to make his lovely, distinguished museum anew, “from scratch,” so that it looks and feels more like Baltimore, the most screwed-up city in America, as the murder capital and having a local government we can correctly call unhinged. He’s a big-vision guy.

In New York, the Met’s dreams are more prosaic. Its grubby, grabby leaders are selling dime-store art to balance the budget. With $4 billion, they’re crying poor. The first Christie’s auction hawking Met art finally went live. I suppose I’m not surprised that the mediocrities who rule the Met are selling crappy things that the museum has never shown. Their biggest value is their Met provenance. Over time, the gang that can’t raise money and can’t cut its bloated budget hopes to reap $5 million, I hear, from sales running this fall and next spring. They’re selling the Met’s cachet while trashing its renown as the gold standard in museum practices.

About the Author

Brian T. Allen

Brian T. Allen is National Review’s art critic.

I’m still bicoastal these days. Two of my recent stories concerned museums along the Acela corridor that are jumping through the looking glass. There’s so much narcissism and grandiose thinking, and talk about whining! At the Baltimore Museum of Art, the director wants radical change. He wants to make his lovely, distinguished museum anew, “from scratch,” so that it looks and feels more like Baltimore, the most screwed-up city in America, as the murder capital and having a local government we can correctly call unhinged. He’s a big-vision guy.

In New York, the Met’s dreams are more prosaic. Its grubby, grabby leaders are selling dime-store art to balance the budget. With $4 billion, they’re crying poor. The first Christie’s auction hawking Met art finally went live. I suppose I’m not surprised that the mediocrities who rule the Met are selling crappy things that the museum has never shown. Their biggest value is their Met provenance. Over time, the gang that can’t raise money and can’t cut its bloated budget hopes to reap $5 million, I hear, from sales running this fall and next spring. They’re selling the Met’s cachet while trashing its renown as the gold standard in museum practices.