Works on loan shape Florence exhibit
In the fall of 2011, James Bradburne, director of the Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi in Florence, came to San Francisco to negotiate the loan of three paintings — one by John Singer Sargent and two by Elihu Vedder — from the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco to the exhibition “Americans in Florence,” now on view at the Palazzo Strozzi (through July 15).
I met Bradburne in San Francisco and again some weeks ago at the Palazzo Strozzi, where I saw the beautifully presented “Americans in Florence” installed.
The exhibition surveys for the first time the work of painters, notably Sargent and William Merritt Chase, who guided other American artists’ creative discovery of Tuscany.
Bradburne and I began a conversation about how loans of artworks function that continued later by e-mail. Q: When were the FAMSF first contacted about the loans, and by whom? A: The Palazzo Strozzi’s shows are generally organized about three years before the opening date, and the formal loan requests sent out once the curators have identified the works they feel best support the exhibition’s overall argument.
The three paintings were requested together. We learned in late October 2010 that the loans had been declined, graciously of course, but declined all the same. Q: The late John Buchanan was still alive when you secured these loans. Did he participate directly in the process? A: When a work is truly indispensable, or very difficult to secure, directors routinely do get involved, as negotiations may include “supra-curatorial” decisions that generally only directors can take.
John was personally involved. He was extremely open to having a second look at the earlier decision, and after discussing the project with his curators, the whole team decided to reverse their earlier decision and make the loans. Q: Typically loan requests imply reciprocity between the institutions involved. Considering that the Palazzo Strozzi is not a collecting institution, what sort of bargaining power do you have?
A: In this regard, the Palazzo Strozzi is an expression of the city of Florence. Our exhibitions often receive important loans in the hope (although never the certainty) that other Florentine museums will lend in return. It is a natural and legitimate act of diplomatic goodwill.
Also, the Palazzo Strozzi team represents a resource that can be used by other museums to enhance their own interpretive, education and publications strategies. Q: Are loan fees customary, and who assumes the costs of shipping and insurance? A: Loan fees are not customary, although in these straitened times that may change. The borrowing institution generally covers all the costs of transport and insurance, including the couriers who accompany the works to and from their destination. In addition, the borrowing institution may agree to cover the costs of cleaning, new framing or complete restoration of a particular piece of art. Q: Has post-9/11 anxiety made it any more difficult to negotiate loans of artworks? A: Despite its apocalyptic character, neither 9/11 specifically nor international terrorism in general has greatly increased the existing risks in moving art masterpieces around the planet.
In my opinion, works should be loaned to exhibitions only if the organizers can argue that the whole exhibition fulfills three criteria:
1) Every exhibition should contribute to learning something new. Even if a particular object is already well-known, the exhibition should use it to the end of creating new understanding.
2) Conserving heritage. Every exhibition should show that objects are restored as a consequence of it.
3) Transforming visitors. The exhibition is a medium — like film, like dance, like the opera — and follows its own internal logic. The organizers must be able to show that the experience of the exhibition — these works brought together with this form of interpretive support — has the potential to create a strong emotional impact. If a visitor leaves an exhibition untouched, it is the exhibition-maker, not the visitor, who has failed. Q: Are there changes you would like to see in museums’ loan practices? A: I think the mechanics of lending are relatively well understood, and the practices relatively efficient. But I think museums should loan less, and lend for better reasons. We are too quickly becoming passive consumers and viewers of culture, sleepwalking with our eyes open, believing mistakenly that enhanced and virtual realities are a substitute for the real thing. The museum, for all its faults, is still the kingdom of the real — we have to develop the critical skills to make it ours.
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