Page 39 - EXPOTIME!Sept2017

From the newsdesk

gust that it will be finally winding up the project. The
Trust was unable to find alternative funding for the
scheme, following the decision by London mayor Sadiq
Khan in April to scrap any mayoral financial guarantees.

● Jane Austen's home in Hampshire has been a muse-
um for long. In the neighborhood is the Manor Chawton
House, the former home of her brother. It has served
as a museum for women's literature since 2003. An
US-American female patron financed the conservation of
Paul Klee, Sumpflegende, 1919, 47x40.8 cm; Municipal Gal- the house and the transformation into a museum, but
lery at Lenbachhaus Munich and Gabriele Münter and Jo- withdrew last year from the sponsoring. Now, for Jane
hannes Eichner Foundation Austen House Museum in Chawton urgently 150,000 ₤ are
sought, which would secure operation into next year.
https://www.jane-austens-house-museum.org.uk/janes-
The painting is different to all other works painted by fund
Klee after the world war: in the "swamp legend" of 1919
humans, houses and nature get lost in "abstract image
architectures", as Klee called his landscapes. In this art-
work, Klee is pushing forward the concept of cubist art
to "poetic deconstruction".
Like many other works of art, the German Reich sold
Klee "Sumpflegende" to the art dealer Hildebrand Gur-
litt in 1941. Then the track loses. In 1962, the painting
changed ownership at Kunsthaus Lempertz to the Ba-
sel gallery Beyeler and was sold later to a Swiss private
collector. From 1973 to 1982, the Galerie Rosengart in
Lucerne was the owner of the painting, until the paint-
ing was acquired by the Lenbachhaus and the Gabriele
Münter and Johannes Eichner Foundation in 1982.

● Racist messages, coded and decoded as signs of intim-
idation, try to treaten US museums: For the third times Jane Austen House Museum, Chawton, Hamps. Photo: Win-
nooses were found on the ground and exhibitions of the chester Tourist Information
Smithsonian Museum of African-American History and
on the grounds of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture ● Over 90 ecclesiastical museums and treasury cham-
Garden. In an internal eMail, the Secretary of the Smith- bers in Belgium, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania,
sonian, David Skorton wrote: "“The Smithsonian family the Czech Republic and Hungary, Germany, Austria and
stands together in condemning this act of hatred and Switzerland are united in the "Ecclesiastical Museums
intolerance, especially repugnant in a museum that af- and Treasuries Working Group", founded in 1958. Here,
firms and celebrates the American values of inclusion museum experts exchange experiences and knowledge,
and diversity." advise on issues relating to exhibitions, loans and other
special museum topics. The managing director of this
● Why not building it in Paris? The Garden Bridge Trust, working group has been the head of the Xanten Abbey
a charity established to build and run the proposed Gar- museum for almost 25 years, Dr. Udo Grote. One meets
den Bridge in central London, has announced in mid-Au- every year at a multi-day conference, which is organised

39

EXPOTIME!, issue August/September 2017