Do Art Museums Benefit More From Purchasing Collections Than Other Institutions?

In the article “Metropolitan Museum Buys a Jusepe de Ribera Painting” by Carol Vogel of the New York Times, the Metropolitan Museum of Art has decided to purchase a Spanish painting by Jusepe de Ribera called “The Penitent Saint Peter”.  The painting is from the early 1600’s and was painted in Spain. The Met wants to purchase the painting because it will expand their Spanish collection, which already has one painting by Jusepe de Ribera called “The Holy Family with Saints Anne and Catherine of Alexandria”. The Metropolitan Museum bought the painting for $ 1.3 million from Madrid art dealer Coll & Cortés. The work by Ribera is important because the Met hopes it will establish a link in the story of early Spanish artwork between Velázquez and Ribera’s master, Caravaggio.

The article also mentions a famous art and film show called the Jack Goldstein Show. The show will feature various paintings by Jack Goldstein and will also feature some of his films, most notably, the film “Shane”. Goldstein has found support for his work in the younger generation, which caters to the young and wild artistic side. The article also mentioned the after effects of Hurricane Sandy, which ravaged homes and flooded New York City. The side paragraph of the article mentioned how the Hurricane left the 19^th century marble statue of Columbus untouched. The statue was going through renovations, which was interrupted by the effects of the hurricane.

After doing further work on the Columbus statue, the City of New York actually built a very tall construct to hold the statue up during the storm. The statue had been commissioned by the Public Art Fund, which had set the unveiling for December, 2^nd. The Art fund has sold tickets to people who wish to see the new statue unveiled.

Overall, the article is very informative and engaging. After reading about the decision of the Metropolitan Museum to purchase a panting, I began wondering if buying certain artifacts or antiques is more frowned upon than others. It seems that for art museums it is better in the eye of the public, to purchase works of art and collections than it would for another type of museum. I don’t know if that is the case, but it just seems that way. Another thing I noticed in the article is that the people who sold the art didn’t receive any controversy or complaints over selling the piece. This is extremely odd because most museums or collectors who sell their collections receive a good amount of controversy over the fact that they are selling the piece. The museum also refused to state how much it sold the piece for, which should further enrage the public because only the museum and the private collector know how much the piece sold for.