Chapter 3 (Part 2): Global Survey of Private Collector Museums

“In China alone over 100 museums will be built over the next decade.”[i]

What follows is a global survey of private collector museums meant to illustrate the spread of the Bilbao Bug and the various ways these public-private museum projects operate.

Let’s begin in a dark corner of the world, Tasmania: it is there eccentric collector David Walsh built the Museum of Old and New Art to house his collections of antiquities and contemporary art.  MONA is the largest privately funded museum in Australia with an $8 million annual operating budget.  The funding comes from Walsh and from businesses that share the sprawling Morilla estate with the museum.  A winery, brewery, restaurant and sexy boutique hotel all benefit from a micro Bilbao Effect, which in turn supports MONA.  Walsh does not view MONA as a philanthropic endeavor,[ii] nor does he “give a shit” about MONA’s economic impact.  How little shit he gives is revealed in the museum’s design: MONA is built into the side of a tidal river and will eventually crumble away due to erosion.  “In 50 years, there’s going to have to be a lot of money spent on Mona or it’s going to be underwater.”[iii]

So this is going to be washed away by the river in a few hundred years.

Art + Auction Power 100, 2011

The only list that matters.

Art + Auction announced their annual Power 100 list earlier today, and celebrated it with a big party in Miami last night.  No, I am not in Miami for Basel, I am but a humble graduate student doing hours and hours of thesis research.  (Next year I’ll be forced to go by my fabulous future job.)  I did take the time to comb through the entire slide show on Artinfo.com. For thesis research… Here are some facts:

KOONS’S TRAIN

LACMA

What is 70 feet long, suspended by a 160-foot-tall crane, and will cost an estimated $25 million dollars?—Jeff Koons’s Train, of course.  The massive sculpture is now several years along in planning; its realization prolonged by several factors.  The most retarding factor: the economy.  When and if realized (a big “if”), Train will consist of a replica 1943 Baldwin 2900 steam locomotive hung on its end by a Liebherr LR 1750 lattice-boom crane.  Twice a day the train’s engine will hum to life, pistons will churn, wheels will spin, and finally jets of steam will explode from the train’s stack , while its whistle screams.  Considering its authorship and this suggestive action, it is easy to read Train as a giant orgasmic metaphor.

Letting off some steam: model by Koons.

This sexy piece is commissioned by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA).  It will hang over the museum courtyard, behind the BP Pavilion, next to the Broad Contemporary Art (BCAM) and Resnick Pavilion buildings.  All of the buildings are recent additions to museum’s campus—part of LACMA’s multi-year, capital campaign called “Transformation.”  This western portion of LACMA’s campus is the product of the creative leadership and powerful fundraising accumen of Michael Govan, Wallis Annenberg Director and CEO of LACMA.