Museums

[beefeater24]

Just a thought - how many of you actually spend your day visiting museums? (When in a foreign country or even in the country you live in....) NYC I believe has some really nice ones - so if you could name a few that would be really handy....

[stache]

I do. I go to as many as I can when in other cities. http://www.nyctourist.com/museums_main.asp

[ablarc]

Three superb bite-size museums, each in splendid settings:

1. Frick Collection: as many top drawer paintings as the Metropolitan without having to wade through the lesser stuff. Check out especially the El Greco and the Ingres. 70th street at Fifth Avenue.

2. Neue Galerie: Austrian and German stuff, especially from the Art Nouveau; be sure you don't miss the Klimt that fetched $135m (the world record for a painting?). Be sure you grab a pastry at the Cafe Sabarsky inside the museum. Fifth Avenue at 86th.

3. The Cloisters: a trip to the Middle Ages, where you can find a unicorn's horn. To get there, you have to pass through a more-or-less enchanted forest; and on the way, you might encounter a fieldstone cafe that serves brunch among other things. Thank Bette Midler. Fort Tryon Park at Manhattan's northern end. Take the A train to 190th Street.

.

[scumonkey]

(the world record for a painting?)not quite (but a close 3rd);)
The record is
140 million -sold by David Geffen
in a private sale:
No.5 by Jackson Pollock
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/4a/No._5%2C_1948.jpg

[ablarc]

The Klimt (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portrait_of_Adele_Bloch-Bauer_I) was probably a better deal. Not only is the abstraction vastly more disciplined, but there's a realistic face to go with it. And all that gold... ;)

Btw, what was No.2 ?

[stache]

Adjusted price (in millions) http://en.wikipedia.org/skins-1.5/common/images/sort_none.gif (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most_expensive_paintings#) Original price (in millions) http://en.wikipedia.org/skins-1.5/common/images/sort_none.gif (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most_expensive_paintings#) Painting Artist http://en.wikipedia.org/skins-1.5/common/images/sort_none.gif (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most_expensive_paintings#) Year http://en.wikipedia.org/skins-1.5/common/images/sort_none.gif (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most_expensive_paintings#) Year of sale http://en.wikipedia.org/skins-1.5/common/images/sort_none.gif (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most_expensive_paintings#) Seller Buyer Auction house http://en.wikipedia.org/skins-1.5/common/images/sort_none.gif (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most_expensive_paintings#)
$149.6 $140 ----------------------No. 5, 1948 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No._5,_1948) Jackson Pollock (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackson_Pollock) 1948 2006 David Geffen (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Geffen) David Martinez (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Martinez) ? private sale
$147.0 $137.5 --------------------Woman III (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woman_III) Willem de Kooning (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willem_de_Kooning) 1953 2006 David Geffen (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Geffen) Steven A. Cohen (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_A._Cohen) private sale via Larry Gagosian
$144.4 $135 ----------------------Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portrait_of_Adele_Bloch-Bauer_I) Gustav Klimt (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustav_Klimt) 1907 2006 Maria Altmann (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Altmann) Ronald Lauder (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Lauder), Neue Galerie (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neue_Galerie) private sale
$136.1 $82.5 ---------------------Portrait of Dr. Gachet (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portrait_of_Dr._Gachet) Vincent van Gogh (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vincent_van_Gogh) 1890 1990 Siegfried Kramarsky (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Siegfried_Kramarsky&action=edit&redlink=1) family Ryoei Saito (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryoei_Saito) [1] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most_expensive_paintings#cite_note-0) Christie's (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christie%27s), New York (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_City)
$128.8 $78.1 ---------------------Bal du moulin de la Galette (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bal_du_moulin_de_la_Galette)[2] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most_expensive_paintings#cite_note-1) Pierre-Auguste Renoir (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre-Auguste_Renoir) 1876 1990 Betsey Whitney (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betsey_Cushing_Roosevelt_Whitney) Ryoei Saito [3] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most_expensive_paintings#cite_note-2) Sotheby's (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sotheby%27s), New York
$118.9 $104.2 --------------------Garçon à la pipe (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gar%C3%A7on_%C3%A0_la_pipe) Pablo Picasso (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pablo_Picasso) 1905 2004 Greentree foundation (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greentree_foundation) (Whitney family) Sotheby's, New York
$102.3 $53.9 ---------------------Irises (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irises_%28painting%29) Vincent van Gogh 1889 1987 son of Joan Whitney Payson (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_Whitney_Payson) Alan Bond (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Bond_%28businessman%29) [4] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most_expensive_paintings#cite_note-3) Sotheby's, New York
$101.8 $95.2 ---------------------Dora Maar au Chat (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dora_Maar_au_Chat) Pablo Picasso 1941 2006 Gidwitz family (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerald_Gidwitz) Sotheby's, New York
$100.8 $58 plus exchange of works "Portrait of Joseph Roulin" (http://www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?object_id=79105) Vincent van Gogh 1889 1989 Swiss private Collection Museum of Modern Art New York (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Museum_of_Modern_Art_New_York) Private sale[5] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most_expensive_paintings#cite_note-4) via Thomas Ammann (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Ammann) Fine Art Zurich
$94.6 $71.5 ----------------------Portrait de l'artiste sans barbe (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-Portraits_by_Vincent_van_Gogh) Vincent van Gogh 1889 1998 heirs of Jacques Koerfer (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jacques_Koerfer&action=edit&redlink=1) Christie's, New York
$94.0 $87.9 Portrait of ------------Adele Bloch-Bauer II (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adele_Bloch-Bauer_II) Gustav Klimt 1912 2006 Maria Altmann Christie's, New York
$91.9 $76.7 (£ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pound_Sterling)49.5) --------------Massacre of the Innocents (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massacre_of_the_Innocents_%28Rubens%29) Peter Paul Rubens (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Paul_Rubens) 1611 2002 an Austrian family Kenneth Thomson (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_Thomson) [6] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most_expensive_paintings#cite_note-5) Sotheby's, London (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London)
$86.3 $86.3 Triptych, 1976 -------Francis Bacon (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Bacon_%28painter%29) 1976 2008 Roman Abramovich (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Abramovich) [8] (http://www.theartnewspaper.com/article.asp?id=7951) Sotheby's, New York (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York)
$85.7 $49.3 (F300) ---------------Les Noces de Pierrette (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Noces_de_Pierrette) Pablo Picasso 1905 1989 Fredrik Roos (http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/washingtonpost/access/73913905.html?dids=73913905:73913905&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&date=DEC+01%2C+1989) Tomonori Tsurumaki (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Tomonori_Tsurumaki&action=edit&redlink=1) Binoche et Godeau (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Binoche_et_Godeau&action=edit&redlink=1) Paris (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris)
$85.6 $80.0 ----------------------False Start (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=False_Start&action=edit&redlink=1) [7] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most_expensive_paintings#cite_note-6) Jasper Johns (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jasper_Johns) 1959 2006 David Geffen Kenneth C. Griffin (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_C._Griffin) private sale via Richard Gray
$85.1 $57 ------------------------A Wheatfield with Cypresses (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=A_Wheatfield_with_Cypresses&action=edit&redlink=1) Vincent van Gogh 1889 1993 son of Emil Georg Bührle (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emil_Georg_B%C3%BChrle) Walter H. Annenberg (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_H._Annenberg) [8] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most_expensive_paintings#cite_note-7) private sale via Steven Mazoh
$83.2 $47.85 ---------------------Yo, Picasso (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Yo,_Picasso&action=edit&redlink=1) Pablo Picasso 1901 1989 Wendell Cherry (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wendell_Cherry&action=edit&redlink=1) Stavros Niarchos (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stavros_Niarchos) Sotheby's, New York
$80.4 $80.4 (£40.9) --------------Le Bassin aux Nymphéas (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Le_Bassin_aux_Nymph%C3%A9as&action=edit&redlink=1) Claude Monet (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_Monet) 1919 2008 J. Irwin and Xenia S. Miller Christie's, London
$78.3 $60.5 ----------------------Rideau, Cruchon et Compotier (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rideau,_Cruchon_et_Compotier) [9] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most_expensive_paintings#cite_note-8) Paul Cézanne (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_C%C3%A9zanne) 1894 1999 Whitney Family (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hay_Whitney) Sotheby's, New York
$75.7 $72.8 ----------------------White Center (Yellow, Pink and Lavender on Rose) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Center_%28Yellow,_Pink_and_Lavender_on_Rose% 29) Mark Rothko (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Rothko) 1950 2007 David Rockefeller, Sr. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Rockefeller,_Sr.) Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamad_bin_Khalifa)[10] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most_expensive_paintings#cite_note-artnewsMay04-9) Sotheby's, New York
$75.4 $39.7 (£24.75) -------------Vase with Fifteen Sunflowers (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunflowers_%28series_of_paintings%29) Vincent van Gogh 1888 1987 daughter-in-law of Chester Beatty (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chester_Beatty) Yasuo Goto, Yasuda Comp. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meiji_Yasuda_Life_Insurance_Company) Christie's, London
$74.6 $71.7----------------------Green Car Crash (Green Burning Car I) (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Green_Car_Crash_%28Green_Burning_C ar_I%29&action=edit&redlink=1) Andy Warhol (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andy_Warhol) 1963 2007 Private Collection, Switzerland Christie's, New York
$70.8 $40.7 ---------------------Au Lapin Agile (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Au_Lapin_Agile&action=edit&redlink=1) Pablo Picasso 1904 1989 daughter of Joan Whitney Payson (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_Whitney_Payson) Walter H. Annenberg Sotheby's, New York
$70.6 $70.6 (£50)--------------- Diana and Actaeon (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diana_and_Actaeon_%28Titian%29) Titian (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titian) 1556-1559 2009 Duke of Sutherland (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Egerton,_7th_Duke_of_Sutherland) National Galleries of Scotland (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Galleries_of_Scotland) & National Gallery, London (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Gallery,_London) private sale [9] (http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601088&sid=a00z.Ov.weDw&refer=home) [10] (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/scotland/article5644381.ece) [11] (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/edinburgh_and_east/7863635.stm)
$70.2 $38.5 (£20.9) -------------Acrobate et jeune Arlequin (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Acrobate_et_jeune_Arlequin&action=edit&redlink=1) [11] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most_expensive_paintings#cite_note-10) Pablo Picasso 1905 1988 heir of Roger Janssen (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Roger_Janssen&action=edit&redlink=1)? Mitsukoshi (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitsukoshi) Christie's, London
$68.9 $55.0 ---------------------Femme aux Bras Croisés (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Femme_aux_Bras_Crois%C3%A9s) Pablo Picasso 1902 2000 McCormick family, Chicago Christie's, New York
$67.9 $63.5 ---------------------Police Gazette (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Police_Gazette_%28painting%29&action=edit&redlink=1) Willem de Kooning 1955 2006 David Geffen Steven A. Cohen private sale, Richard Gray Gallery
$65.0 $48.4 ---------------------Le Rêve (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Reve_%28The_Dream%29) [12] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most_expensive_paintings#cite_note-11) Pablo Picasso 1932 1997 Ganz family (http://www.cnn.com/US/9711/11/auction/) Wolfgang Flöttl (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wolfgang_Fl%C3%B6ttl&action=edit&redlink=1) [12] (http://www.artsjournal.com/culturegrrl/2007/01/dr_gachet_sighting_it_was_flot.html) Christie's, New York.
$64.2 $49.6 ---------------------Femme assise dans un jardin (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Femme_assise_dans_un_jardin&action=edit&redlink=1) Pablo Picasso 1938 1999 Robert Saidenberg (http://www.thecityreview.com/f99ssaid.html) Sotheby's, New York
$63.8 $47.5 ---------------------Peasant Woman Against a Background of Wheat (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peasant_Woman_Against_a_Background_of_Wheat) Vincent van Gogh 1890 1997 Stephen Wynn (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Wynn) [13] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most_expensive_paintings#cite_note-12) private sale via Acquavella Galleries Inc., New York
$61.2 $35.2 ---------------------Portrait of a Halberdier (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Jacopo_Pontormo_062.jpg) Pontormo (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pontormo) 1537 1989 Chauncey Devereaux Stillman (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Chauncey_Devereaux_Stillman&action=edit&redlink=1) Getty Museum (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Getty_Museum) Christie's, New York

[ablarc]

As an investment, is art as good as gold?

[scumonkey]

no...art is generally not a great investment...
(unless you find a "known" piece in the hands of someone
who doesn't know)

hence the old adage "Buy only what you like!"

[stache]

Somebody I know bought an oil painting at a garage sale for $20 and it turned out the artist had a whole page devoted to his work in a book. :)

[Derek2k3]

Great to see that NY dominates that list.

[Gulcrapek]

I was in DC a couple of weeks ago and managed four museums in two days, barely. Until that point I had been near totally turned off from museums, but seeing four well-done ones has changed that.

[beefeater24]

Thanks for all that info it was really useful. I shall check it out as I do plan to come to NYC soon. I live in London at the moment and I've got to say that the reason why I am asking about museums is because the ones in London are just fantastic. Has anyone been to any of the ones in London?

[dtolman]

The American Museum of Natural History and the Metropolitan Museum of Art are world class museums, well worth visiting. If you are interested in modern art, the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) is world class as well.

All 3 are comparable to the British Museum, V&A, or other major London institutions I've had the pleasure of visiting.

In any other city, the Frick, Brooklyn Museum of Art, Whitney, Cloisters, Jewish Museum, Intrepid, Museum of City of New York, Cooper-Hewitt, and many others would be center-pieces of their tourist programs. In NYC, they're "smaller" museums. They are still large. Very large in some cases. Any of them would be well worth seeing.

Are you interested in anything in particular? There are a lot of specialized institutions in NYC...

[stache]

http://www.museumofsex.com/

[MidtownGuy]

for something indigenous to this side of the ocean:

The National Museum of the American Indian (http://www.nmai.si.edu/), in a splendid building at Bowling Green.

[ablarc]

^ I concur.

[beefeater24]

Dtolman: so you have been to the ones in London? what did you think of them? Went to one recently at the London Design Museum where one of favourite artists is exhibiting. Have you heard of Tom Dixon - recently his been setting a trend of producing eco-friendly products. Check out what is doing at the Super Contemporary exhibition: http://www.supercontemporary.co.uk/?s=tom-dixon ...who are your favourite artists?

[dtolman]

Hi,
Its been a number of years since I went to London last, but I hit all the major museums and was very impressed (I thought the Met's near east/egyptian collection was big - was blown away by the British museum).

My tastes in art leans towards...representational. That leaves out most critically acclaimed artists from the past century. So most of the artists I like are either current regional artists I follow in local galleries, or classic greats of yesteryear (El Greco, Winslow Homer, Thomas Moran, Louis Comfort Tiffany, Van Gogh, Monet, etc, etc).

[Codex]

Hi,
Its been a number of years since I went to London last, but I hit all the major museums and was very impressed (I thought the Met's near east/egyptian collection was big - was blown away by the British museum).

My tastes in art leans towards...representational. That leaves out most critically acclaimed artists from the past century. So most of the artists I like are either current regional artists I follow in local galleries, or classic greats of yesteryear (El Greco, Winslow Homer, Thomas Moran, Louis Comfort Tiffany, Van Gogh, Monet, etc, etc).

London is home to over 250 museums, and four United Nations Heritage sites. London's world famous museums include The British Museum, The Natural History Museum, The Science Museum, The Victoria and Albert Museum and the Imperial War Museum. There are however numereous excellent musuems, art galleries and other cultual centres throughout London. :)

http://www.chr.org.uk/museums.htm

http://www.visitlondon.com/attractions/culture/major-museums

http://www.londonnet.co.uk/ln/guide/about/museums.html

http://www.mlalondon.org.uk/uploads/documents/facts_&_figs.pdf


UNESCO World Heritage sites London

The Tower of London

Westminster Abbey, The Palace of Westminster and St. Margaret's Church

Greenwich Maritime Centre

The Royal Botanical Gardens Kew.

London's Museums are also investing heavily with the new Darwin Centre at the Natural History Museum, the planned extension to the British Museum, a planned extension to the Greenwich Maritime Library and a major new scheme recently announced by the Science Museum.

http://www.bdonline.co.uk/story.asp?storycode=3142439



:)

[lbjefferies]

Three superb bite-size museums, each in splendid settings:

1. Frick Collection: as many top drawer paintings as the Metropolitan without having to wade through the lesser stuff. Check out especially the El Greco and the Ingres. 70th street at Fifth Avenue.




Is this a joke? Have you been to the Met?

I adore The Frick too, but it ain't the Met.

[Merry]

And for Compensation, the View

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2009/12/20/realestate/20habi_span-CA0/articleLarge.jpg
BEACHCOMBER Paul Moakley photographs the beach below his home in the Rosebank section of Staten Island.

By CONSTANCE ROSENBLUM

TRUTH be told, life at the Alice Austen House in the Rosebank section of Staten Island was considerably livelier in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when Austen, one of America’s earliest and most prolific photographers, ruled the roost.

Audio Slide Show (http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/12/18/realestate/1220-hab-audioss/index.html?ref=realestate)

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2009/12/20/realestate/20habi_CA1/popup.jpg
HARBORSIDE Paul Moakley is the resident caretaker of the Alice Austen House, once the home of a pioneering photographer.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2009/12/20/realestate/20habi3/popup.jpg
A photographer and photo editor himself, he has a tiny apartment on the top floor of the Gothic- Revival-style building.


It was from this Gothic-Revival-style house that she used to take off on her bicycle, laden with 50 pounds of equipment, to photograph fishmongers, bootblacks and other working people. It was on the front lawn that she used to dance wildly with her female friends. Even more scandalous, she took pictures of herself with a cigarette stuck in her mouth.

The house became a museum in 1985. It is owned by the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, and visited by 8,000 people a year.

But if Austen, who died in 1952 at the age of 86, were still in evidence, she might be happy that something of a kindred spirit is ensconced in her old home. She might be happy that Paul Moakley is serving as the museum’s full-time caretaker and curator and living in the snug little apartment on the top floor.

Mr. Moakley, 33, a photographer and freelance photo editor, can gaze through the diamond-paned dormer windows as tankers and cruise ships glide in and out of the harbor. He can watch hawks and cardinals as he washes dishes in the kitchen, a space as compact as a ship’s galley and with appropriately slanting floorboards.

Mr. Moakley, who is dark-haired and soft-spoken, is a child of the island through and through. His family moved here from Queens when he was 13 months old, and the day after graduating from college, he and two friends rented a century-old house on Bay Street, just up the road from the museum, which is at 2 Hylan Boulevard.

“It was the oldest, most decrepit house I could find,” Mr. Moakley said the other day, sitting on the living room sofa amid great quantities of his photographic paraphernalia. “I’d grown up in a duplex and I always hated it. I thought it was flimsy, and there was no privacy. It was definitely not cozy.”

Mr. Moakley did something else that day after graduation, something that would help determine the course of his future. He got a job as a photo editor at a magazine called PDN (the initials stand for Photo District News). The job was the first step in a series of positions in the field.

It was not an easy choice of profession, in part because when Mr. Moakley was growing up, he had no exposure to anyone who shared his interest in this world.

“Everyone in my family worked in construction,” he explained. “I didn’t know anyone who had a nice camera.”

In 2003, he curated of a pair of photography exhibitions at the Austen museum, and in the process got to know members of the staff. In October of 2005, when the previous caretaker left, Mr. Moakley was asked to move in. His four-room space includes the room where a family of servants lived and the bedroom occupied for a time by Austen’s Aunt Minn and Uncle Oswald, the man who gave Alice her first camera.

The furnishings are largely hand-me-downs, among them the worn wooden dresser from Mr. Moakley’s grandparents. What makes the apartment memorable are the period architectural details — the sharply angled ceilings, the secret cupboards, the built-in shelves and cabinets, the bookcases with glass doors, the wide floorboards.

On the white walls hang vintage photographs of Mr. Moakley’s family along with works by contemporary photographers and a huge silk-screen of a sunset that Mr. Moakley’s father, who liked to rescue discarded art from the buildings where he worked, found in an empty office.

The light in the apartment seems to have a life of its own. The sun that streams through the unshuttered windows is so brilliant, Mr. Moakley sometimes has to move his bed to one side to avoid being awakened at the crack of dawn. As the sun travels across the sky, he says, each room is beautiful in a different way.

In exchange for living here rent free, Mr. Moakley is responsible for providing security, handling emergencies and spending one day a week taking care of the house and its grounds.

He vacuums. He dusts. He polishes the furniture, washes the windows, paints over scratches on the walls and nails down loose floorboards. He sets out humane traps baited with peanut butter sandwiches in an effort to catch the squirrels that make a mess of the attic.

Yet being from a family of construction workers has its advantages, so much so that even the most complicated maintenance tasks come easily to him.

“I’m not afraid of tools,” he explained. “In the house where I grew up, if something was broken, we’d all sit around and watch my father fix it.”

This life wouldn’t suit everyone. “There’s always something to be done,” he explained. “Raking the leaves. Shoveling the snow. Getting the garden ready for planting. Planning the next exhibition. You can never lie on the couch and feel that everything is done.”

Privacy is another issue. Sometimes Mr. Moakley comes home to find a stranger standing in his living room, a visitor to the museum who has taken a wrong turn and accidentally wandered up the narrow staircase that leads to the second floor.
But the upsides are considerable, a major one being that the apartment, while small, is eminently suitable for entertaining. This is largely thanks to the porch that extends out from the bedroom onto an amazing view of the bay.
In Austen’s day, the house was called Clear Comfort. Mr. Moakley’s friends call it Camp Comfort and often arrive with bags of food, happy to hang out there for the weekend and in good weather dine alfresco.

“We’ll come to Camp Comfort, and you’ll cook,” they announce cheerfully to Mr. Moakley, and he does just that, sometimes whipping up Mediterranean dishes using recipes he learned from his days working as a waiter at an island restaurant called Aesop’s Tables.

“It’s like having a little bed-and-breakfast,” he said of the setup. “But I’m lucky it’s so nice. I’m not sure people would come otherwise.”

Although Mr. Moakley’s appointment is open ended, he realizes that his time here will not last forever.

“As much as this is my home,” he explained, “I know that I’m just Austen’s caretaker.”

And when those days are over?

“I’ll most likely be living in an apartment like everyone else,” Mr. Moakley said. “Though I’ll probably stay on Staten Island and watch the other guy rake the leaves.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/20/realestate/20habi.html?ref=style

[Merry]

An offer you can't refuse! Museum of the American Gangster is outta this underworld

BY Joe Neumaier

March 4th 2010

http://assets.nydailynews.com/img/2010/03/04/alg_prohibition_exhibit.jpg
Lorcan Otway holds a Tommy gun and a bottle in the museum that's set to open in the spring.

A once-infamous speakeasy, where mobsters ruled and booze flowed when Prohibition made it illegal, has an offer you can't refuse.

Welcome to the Museum of the American Gangster (http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Museum+of+the+American+Gangster).

Built inside the old Theatre 80 space on St. Marks Place, it opens for previews Sunday. But the East Village rowhouse is already part of the city's storied underworld history.

Gangster Walter Scheib ran it in the 1920s as a speakeasy that you entered by going through an alley and a secret door that took you to a back room.

There, it didn't matter that the 18th Amendment had banned alcohol.
"One of the things that makes this place very New York is it's a living history," says owner and co-curator Lorcan Otway.

A teenage Frank Sinatra even sang for his supper here as a crooning waiter.

In the '60s it became the Termini brothers' Jazz Gallery club, where John Coltrane's quartet first played and Lord Richard Buckley's cabaret card was seized.

"This museum is a part of the real world, with real stories," Otway said. "You can get your hands dirty here."

When Otway's dad, Howard, bought 80 St. Marks from Scheib in 1964, he found two safes inside and decided it was smarter to let Scheib know than open them himself.

It turned out there was $2 million in gold currency inside.

When the gangster museum is fully up and running in the spring, it'll tell the Walter Scheib story - and much more.

The museum will trace the rise of Al Capone, Meyer Lansky, Lucky Luciano, Bugsy Siegel and many others.

There are also classic Tommy guns, copper stills and revolvers on display. After moving past an elegant barroom, visitors glimpse the once-hidden booze-filled restaurant.

In the basement, small groups will put on protection helmets to see bootleggers' hidden paths, beer lockers - and the safe.

Still there.

"These 'gangsters' in our past were our neighbors, part of the fabric of the community. And a part of New York," says Otway.

The museum will have a special preview Sunday, noon to 5p.m. It opens this spring. For more info: go to moagnyc.org.


http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2010/03/04/2010-03-04_new_museum_is_outta_this_underworld.html#ixzz0h CmUpiJ4

[Ninjahedge]

Every fabric has a few stains on it, given time.

I wonder what happened to that "gold currency" ;)

[lofter1]

The MOAG website (http://moagnyc.org/) is still a work in progress, but they do have a Gangster Museum Forum (http://moagnyc.org/gangster-forums) up and running.

[Ninjahedge]

Stand back!!!!

19 posts and counting!!!!! ;)

[Merry]

Very nice.


In Detail> Frick Portico Gallery

A Beaux-Arts porch transforms into an light-filled exhibition space.

by Molly Heintz

http://www.archpaper.com/uploads/image/frick_portico_04.jpg
Davis Brody Bond created a climate-controlled gallery from one of the Frick mansion's open air loggias. Paul Rivera

Balanced on a pedestal at the end of the Frick Collection’s newest gallery, Diana, goddess of the chase, appears to have just leaped back across Fifth Avenue after a little hunting in Central Park. That this late-18th-century statue by Jean-Antoine Houdon was allowed to emerge from storage and strike a pose against an appropriately sylvan backdrop is one of the highlights of a thoughtful renovation led by Davis Brody Bond (DBB).

The Portico Gallery for Decorative Arts and Sculpture, the museum’s first new exhibition space in 35 years, was created from a south-facing loggia running along the Frick mansion’s ample front yard. The project came about when a donor’s gift (an extensive collection of porcelain) required additional display space. DBB and former Frick director Anne Poulet decided to take a cue from the 1914 building’s original architect, Thomas Hastings of the firm Carrère and Hastings, who, just after completing Henry Frick’s main house, immediately began sketching up a proposal for a sculpture gallery addition.



http://www.archpaper.com/uploads/frick_portico_01.jpg (http://www.archpaper.com/uploads/frick_portico_01.jpg)
http://www.archpaper.com/uploads/frick_portico_02.jpg (http://www.archpaper.com/uploads/frick_portico_02.jpg)

http://www.archpaper.com/uploads/frick_portico_03.jpg (http://www.archpaper.com/uploads/frick_portico_03.jpg)


Left to Right: Thomas hastings' 1916 drawing for a proposed sculpture gallery at The Frick mansion; a plan of the New Gallery with ITS Bluestone Floor; and a section showing DAvis Brody Bond's new glass curtain wall and ventilation system. (right).
Courtesy the frick collection/DBB


Hastings’ scheme went on hold once the United States entered World War I in 1917 and never came to pass due to Frick’s death in 1919. But almost a century later, that plan to create a sculpture gallery connected to the main house led DBB to consider the disused colonnaded loggia, whose decorative limestone relief carving has been fading due to exposure to corrosive exhaust fumes from Fifth Avenue traffic. Part of the original house, the long and narrow 815-square-foot loggia was accessible from the library, but had long been closed to museum goers.

The new gallery’s southern orientation means copious amounts of sunlight, an issue for paintings but less so for sculpture and ceramics. “We wanted to maintain the character of an outdoor space,” said DBB partner Carl Krebs, whose team specified low-iron glass panels to fill the spaces between the columns. The panels, some of the largest in production at approximately 14 feet by 7 feet by 2 inches, are cantilevered from below, resting in shoes secured 16 inches below the floor. Framed in bronze and set slightly back from the outmost edge of the loggia’s floor, the glass panels defer to the limestone columns, allowing the space to retain its original appearance both from the interior and the exterior.



http://www.archpaper.com/uploads/frick_portico_08.jpg (http://www.archpaper.com/uploads/frick_portico_08.jpg)

http://www.archpaper.com/uploads/frick_portico_05.jpg (http://www.archpaper.com/uploads/frick_portico_05.jpg)

http://www.archpaper.com/uploads/frick_portico_07.jpg (http://www.archpaper.com/uploads/frick_portico_07.jpg)


LEFT TO RIGHT: Illuminated at night, the Gallery becomes a vitrine for sculpture and ceramics; the modernist Curtain Wall defers to the Loggia's Beaux arts Colonnade; from the Rotunda, Houdon's Diana The Huntress (1776-1795) overlooks the 815-Square-foot gallery.
Paul Rivera



The loggia’s stone paving was too damaged to be saved, but removing it allowed DBB to install power lines and a radiant heating system below for finely tuned climate control. Ventilation of the space was made easy thanks to a series of existing grates running along the floor of the interior wall, where the gallery’s main display cases are mounted. The grates originally allowed air into servant’s quarters in the basement, and DBB took advantage of the subterranean space to install new air ducts. Lantern-style custom lighting fixtures modeled on those found elsewhere in the house hang from the ceiling of a newly insulated roof; a striking bluestone floor replicates the pattern of the early 20th-century paving, running the length of the gallery and culminating in Diana’s oval rotunda.

http://www.archpaper.com/news/articles.asp?id=5837

[Ninjahedge]

Gorgeous hall, but they need to keep exhibits rotating through there fairly quickly to prevent sun damage to the pieces.

Odd that many of these were probably made for just such a presentation, but there are few materials that can truly stand the test of time unless hidden in a box for nobody to see......