Five years ago, contemporary art collector Frieder Burda opened a museum right in the heart of Baden Baden, Germany. As one of the world's original resort towns, tradition tends to trumps trendiness in Baden Baden, and this museum, in a building designed by Richard Meier, and the modern and contemporary art exhibits on offer, definitely set tongues a-wagging in town. When I visited this past Spring, the Burda museum was in the midst of an atypical show of 18th century art, including seven giant tapestries. I'd assumed that regular museum goers might be upset about the turn away from contemporary art, but was assured by a local that response was more like relief.

Short-lived, I suppose, since the Burda museum returned to its modern and contemporary art mission. Still horizons have been stretched, five years have passed, and more than a million visitors have passed through the museum's door, Now until November 8th, the museum is exhibiting "Blue Rider" movement paintings, which were first exhibited in early 20th century Munich. (These paintings are usually at the Lenbachhaus in Munich, which is now under renovation. See a few of the works on display in the gallery below.) Next up, starting on November 21st, is an exhibit of the work of German artist Georg Baselitz. The artist himself is involved in the curation of the exhibit, which will be shared with Baden Baden's museum Staatliche Kunsthalle. The Burda will exhibit Baselitz paintings, the Staatliche Kunsthalle will exhibit Baseltiz's sculpture.

The Obama family is definitely leaning modern, with Rothko, Degas and Diebenkorn among the artists represented. They've also included a word painting by Ed Ruscha. Not wanting to deprive the public of the opportunity to view works on display, the Obamas limited their choices to artwork in museum storage.

There's now a lot of money hanging from those White House walls. "Red Band" by Rothko, "Berkeley No. 52" by Diebenkorn and "White Line" by Sam Francis together are estimated to be worth between $20 million and $30 million. Throw a piece by Jasper Johns into the mix – specifically "Numerals, 0 through 9" – and you get a sense of the collection the Obamas have assembled.

Even with access to a collection of that caliber, though, I'd still never take Obama's job. And, there aren't enough Rothkos out there to change my mind.

This past year we've watched museum after museum struggle through the recession. Some have been forced to close, others have had to fire employees. Nearly all have watched their endowment shrink. Therefore the annual news of the salary earned by Glenn D. Lowry, the director of New York's Museum of Modern Art strikes a particularly off note this year. Lowry, shown above with artist Ron Arad at the opening of Arad's retrospective at the MoMA, has long been one of the highest paid museum directors around. This year he actually took a pay cut, Bloomberg News reports that he earned $1.32 million in pay and benefits in the year ending in June, down from $1.95 million the year before. Lowry took a voluntary pay reduction; the previous year he had received a 13 percent raise. Lowry's compensation includes not just his salary and bonuses as well as a pension and health insurance but he also lives rent-free in the 52-story Museum Tower lifting his total compensation to $2.7 million in 2008.

After this year's big business meltdown many people are questioning how much CEOs of publicly owned businesses should be allowed to earn, a concern that has been around for a long time in the nonprofit world. Those who defend the high salaries say that the high-pressure job of being a museum director is worth the price and that the right director is key for attracting the big givers who donate both money and their prized collections to museums. But for museum staffers who often have advanced degrees and yet earn low salaries this can sometimes be hard to take. To Lowry's credit, he has balanced the museum's budget every year since he became director in 1995 and the museum has expanded its exhibit space and increased attendance. The Museum has also not had to lay off any employees yet.

All across the country museum boards are starting to look at salaries of directors. Like CEOs, museum directors have to satisfy a board of directors who want to see results. But instead of profits, museum success is measured in a variety of ways: success of fundraising, museum attendance and landing the big art donations are just a few of the criteria. There is no doubt that it is a challenging job. But after the rough year that nonprofits have experienced it seems unlikely that many directors will continue to receive seven figure salaries.

This is my idea of a small splurge, the Connecticut Art Trail offers an Art Pass that gives visitors the chance to experience 15 museums just $25. The pass has a $75 value and is available for any two-week period. You can order the Artpass online, select travel dites and print vouchers directly from the site. The pass includes the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford, two galleries at Yale and a variety of other great museums scattered throughout the state.

[via Art Daily]

The Rocco Forte Collection of boutique European luxury hotels is celebrating Belgium's new René Magritte Museum with a special package at their five-star Hotel Amigo (above) in Brussels. The museum, opening in June, will contain 170 works by the Belgian Surrealist master. The Amigo features copies of Magritte paintings and design elements throughout. Its Magritte Suite is an elegant series of rooms with amazing city views. In addition to tickets to the new museum, a Magritte book, and other perks, the Magritte Museum package includes a special dinner at the hotel's excellent Ristorante Bocconi.

Meanwhile the Rocco Forte Collection just opened their 12th and newest property in Prague, The Augustine. Located in Prague's Mal Strana district in the heart of the city's rich cultural center, a short walk from the majestic Prague Castle, the Wallenstein Gardens and the famous Charles Bridge, the 101-bedroom hotel was created from a set of seven buildings. Many of of them are historically significant, including the 13th-century Augustinian St. Thomas Monastery for which the hotel is named.

If you can't make it to "Francis Bacon: A Centenary Retrospective" at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York this month you can still enjoy the great painter's works courtesy of art book imprint Skira Rizzoli. Francis Bacon, a comprehensive study of the seminal 20th-century painter (and oligarch favorite) "provides a radical reassessment of his major achievements and his enduring importance for the twenty-first century."

Bacon developed a way of portraying the human body that was unique in the history of painting - "usually in isolation, at moments of extreme tension or even pain, his figures distorted as if in a fantastical nightmare," as the authors note. In addition to 250 full-color plates, the book also reveals Bacon's inspirations, including magazine tear sheets, photographs, and imagery from films. The book, which will be published later this month, is currently available for pre-order on Amazon.

Coming up Saturday, May 16th, is the Madison Avenue Gallery Walk. From 11 am to 6 pm, approximately 50 galleries on Madison Avenue between 57th and 86th Street will open their doors to raise funds for arts education in New York City public schools.

The sprawling, day-long event will include free guided gallery tours conducted New York City public school art teachers, and a silent auction of notable works donated by participating galleries.

Pictured is the Whitney Museum where, if you complete a family-friendly scavenger hunt, you can get 2 for 1 admission.

The Madison Avenue Gallery Walk is sponsored by HSBC Bank USA, N.A. and New York magazine, and benefits the Fund for Public Schools.

A row of cars waiting for a green light was concealed by four large canvases proceeding across New York's busy Fifth Ave., creating the appearance of emptiness from W. 51st St to Central Park and beyond. Artist Nelson Diaz chose Palm Sunday to reveal his latest project, "The Isolated Christ," to the people of New York. The response to this unique mix of street art, performance art and oil on canvas was nothing short of astounding.

Five years in the making, The Isolated Christ is a four-part rendering of the most famous figure in one of Leonardo Da Vinci's most recognized works. Diaz "isolated" the image of Jesus Christ from the apostles in DaV inci's "The Last Supper" and plotted thousands of points on the image by hand. Then, using advanced calculus techniques, he fed the point into an equation that exposes "hidden" four dimensional space in the original image and used the results as the foundation for his signature perspective.

The result is four faces of DaVinci's Jesus, reflecting various situations. The final canvas – transcendence – offers an obscure, almost headless presentation, signifying the departure from the norm. The meaning is left to the viewer, with the religious assuming resurrection and the atheist likely to posit obsolescence. Diaz remains coy with his intention, believing that interpretation (like faith) is a personal affair.

With half a decade spent on the vision and production of The Isolated Christ (all four paintings were completed by hand – sans brushes, literally with his fingers), Diaz spent the last few months struggling with venue. He decided last summer to skip the traditional alternatives (such as art galleries) during his protest against the treatment of art as a commodity, during which he auctioned 10 paintings on eBay for the princely starting bid of $1 each.

"The old way of doing things is dead," he explained during several of our meetings. Deep-pocketed buyers writing checks for pieces they don't understand, he believed, would not be able to sustain itself ... a lesson to which the art market was treated last September. Diaz wanted a public setting. As with his eBay experiment, he wanted to return the aesthetic to everybody, not a self-proclaimed elite.

That left only one "gallery" from which to choose: the streets of Manhattan.

A series of limited-edition cigars and boxes is being designed under the leadership of Litto Gomez to benefit El Museo del Barrio, New York City's only Latin American museum. To pull the project together, Gomez is working with artist Ruben Toledo and his wife Isabel, a fashion designer.

The end result, La Flor Dominicana El Museo Limited Edition is a Churchill-sized cigar. The filler and binder are from the La Flor de Palma farm in the Dominican Republic, and the wrapper is from other parts of the same country. The cigars are packaged in off-white lacquer boxes with designs by Ruben Toledo on both sides of the lid. Gomez says that the El Museo has a rich, smooth, full-bodied taste with both sweetness and complexity.

Gomez is making 2,000 boxes available, with each priced at $600. They will be available in May.

Another museum has announced that it is closing its doors. The McCormick Freedom Museum, which is located in Chicago's Tribune Tower, opened three years ago and explores the role of freedom in society, will be closing March 1. The museum will take its message of free speech and civic responsibility on the road, putting on exhibits at schools and other locations using mobile displays in converted buses or trailers. The Chicago Tribune reports that the McCormick Foundation, the charitable trust that owns and operates the 10,000-square-foot museum decided to vacate partly because of Tribune Co.'s uncertain plans for the building. Tribune has said that it may put the building up for sale. The museum will keep offices elsewhere on Michigan Avenue and may lay off some staff.

This news follows the recent announcement from Brandeis University that it is closing the Rose Art Museum and a statement from the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles that it is cutting staff by 20 percent. Many museums are cutting back staff and open hours in order to cope with a decrease in donations and endowments.

The world's third largest cut diamond, otherwise known as the "Incomparable Diamond," went on display this weekend at the Royal Ontario Museum. It weighs in at 407.08 carats, has been graded 'flawless' by the Gemological Institute of America, is kite shaped and has a beautiful golden yellow color -- all of which combine to create its very unique and individual beauty.

The Incomparable Diamond was, interestingly enough, found in the Congo by a girl playing in a pile of rubble back in the early 1980s (how awesome is that?) and will be on display until March 22nd of next year as part of the museum's The Nature of Diamonds engagement.

Whether you're a prince or a pauper, there's probably a day (or night) you can get into the best museums in your area for free. For example, The Walker Art Center in Minneapolis offers free admission every Thursday night (sponsored by Target), and the first Saturday of every month. Their sculpture garden, where you find the Spoonbridge and Cherry by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, at right, is always free.

In New York, you can always visit the Guggenheim in Soho for free, as well as The Whitney at Phillip Morris and The Museum of American Folk Art. A number of other museums offer a "suggested donation" admission, and are instructed to treat you the same whether you're donating $1 or the full fare. Here's a pretty good list for New York.

The Art Institute of Chicago is free from 5-8 on Thursdays, Los Angeles free days are listed here, and if you find yourself in Paris, the Louvre is free on the first Sunday of every month and on Bastille Day, July 14th.

Be sure to Google museums in your area, or check the website of any museum you intend to visit to see if there's a free day of which you can take advantage.

It's just another easy way to make life more lux for cheap or free.

Most of megabucks Irish artist Francis Bacon's major works - an estimated $6 billion worth in total - just went on exhibit at the Tate Britain in London. As my colleague Deidre Woollard reported in May, Luxist mascot Roman Abramovich slapped down a record-breaking $86.3 million for a Bacon triptych at Sotheby's.

The exhibition will run through January 2009; as we noted earlier this month, Abramovich is bankrolling a Bacon show of his own at his girlfriend's Moscow gallery in 2010. Meanwhile, the Times of London just declared Bacon, who died in 1992 long before his prices went ballistic, to be the "single greatest artist that Britain has produced in the past 100 years." That must come as something of a shock to Damien Hirst.

[via Men.Style]

Kate Taylor writing for the NY Sun has a provocative piece on the massive flood of museum expansions around the world. When the Frank Gehry-designed Bilbao Guggenheim opened ten years ago the world questioned whether or not people would make the trek to Bilbao, Spain for the beautiful building. It almost seems like a foolish speculation now. Since then museum projects have sprung up all around the world with bigger buildings and bigger budgets. But what will the future hold for these massive expansions, will they be seen as the monumental establishment of an arts-based culture or will they seem like just so much architectural foolishness, possibly even bankrupting the museums they tried to expand?

Taylor's article says that the answer is different for each project. The Denver Art Museum for example, which opened a new building by starchitect Daniel Libeskind last fall, thought that the expansion would bring them a million new visitors in the first year. Instead, it received just 630,000. Even the stunningly beautiful Santiago Calatrava addition at the Milwaukee Art Museum caused the museum to go into debt for a few years although now the museum does nearly double the traffic it did before the expansion. For the cities, a distinctive new building, especially one built by a name architect is also a matter of civic pride. But a large new building requires new methods of income often including restaurants, larger museum shops and special exhibition galleries. The focus on revenue rather than arts doesn't sit well with some museum leaders.

The biggest news on the museum front may just be the expansion into markets like China and the Middle East. The government of Abu Dhabi is planning a $27 billion "cultural district" on Saadiyat Island that will be home to a Gehry-designed Guggenheim, a Louvre Abu Dhabi designed by Jean Nouvel and a performing arts center designed by Zaha Hadid. In China museums funded both by the state and private organizations are booming. The branding of museums all around the world with Western names and in some cases borrowed Western collections seems to be a major trend uniting Eastern cash with Western experience. This may not be a situation that sits well with purists but culture is a commodity and even museums are not immune from the power of branding.

Sotheby's William Blake auction on May 2 in New York has an interesting story behind it. The Art Newspaper gives the extensive background on Blake's watercolor illustrations which accompany Robert Blair’s poem “The Grave” and actually form one complete set. The 19 individual works  are selling for up to  $1.5 to 2 million each. The works have been together for over 200 years (they were painted in 1805).  Sotheby's says that they are still open to offer from museums interested in keeping the set together. The Yale Center for British Art in New Have has the only other watercolor from the set.  The folio of works spent five generations in the family of watercolor artist John Stannard. They were sold in 2000 as part of a collection of ordinary books. The paintings were assumed to be prints until 2001 when two Yorkshire dealers took them to a specialist. The paintings were originally offered to the Tate and a prolonged dispute erupted. London dealer Libby Howie bought the Blakes for around £5 million on behalf of a  small group of investors. After more failed negotiations with the Tate the paintings finally came to Sotheby's. Hopefully someone will step forward to keep this beautiful set together.