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Gabriël Metsu’s “The Sick Child”

In the collection of Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum since 1928, The Sick Child was painted by Gabriël Metsu of the Netherlands in the 17th century (c. 1664 – c. 1666).

The painting of this touching work may have been influenced by the plague that spread through Amsterdam in 1663. One in ten citizens were killed.

Oil on canvas, h 32.2 cm × w 27.2 cm
h 50.5 cm × w 56 cm × t 7 cm

See:

“The Sick Child” | Gabriël Metsu, Rijksmuseum, c. 1664 – c. 1666

“Gabriël Metsu” | Wikipedia

#art #oiloncanvas #GabriëlMetsu #Rijksmuseum #museums #theNetherlands #resilience #smartluxury

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Miami museums prepare as Hurricane Irma approaches

What a month.

Museums in Miami and Miami Beach are taking precautionary measures ahead of the possible landfall of Hurricane Irma.

Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM), The Wolfsonian—Florida International University (Wolfsonian-FIU, www.wolfsonian.org), the Institute of Contemporary Arts Miami (ICA Miami), Dimensions Variable, the Vizcaya Museum and Gardens, and Faena Art closed yesterday (Wednesday) and will remain closed through the weekend.

The Pérez Art Museum Miami was designed and engineered to withstand the vicissitudes of extreme weather.

The ICA Miami’s new building, expected to open to the public in December, is also designed to weather extreme storms. The museum “’collection is currently being held in a state-of-the-art storage facility, which also adheres to hurricane codes’”.

The Bass Museum of Art, currently undergoing expansion and expected to open in October, has an action plan to protect the building, the collection, and employees.

See:

“Miami museums hunker down ahead of Hurricane Irma” | Helen Stoilas, The Art Newspaper, 6 September 2017

“Pérez Art Museum Built ‘Like Rock of Gibralter’ for Hurricanes” | Rudabeh Shahbazi, CBS Miami, 9 June 2017

“Pérez Art Museum” | Knippers Helbig Advanced Engineering

#art #museums #Miami #MiamiBeach #artcollections #resilience #realestate #climatechange #climaterisk #HurricaneIrma #Irma #smartluxury

 

 

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when buying a home in a “global warming zone”

Ron Lieber, the “Money” columnist for the New York Times, suggests a team to work with and a process to follow when purchasing a house “in a global warming zone.”

Mr. Lieber suggests:

a real estate professional

“who has deep knowledge of the local market and has lived through a few floods, fires or hurricanes”

a municipal flood expert

“preferably someone from town or city government who can explain any and all regulations you might need to know about when or if you ever want or need to fix your place up”

a local insurance expert

    • what sort of insurance claims the home has generated in the recent past
    • two reports to obtain and read: the CLUE, for Comprehensive Loss Underwriting Exchange, and A-PLUS
    • “get both, follow up with the homeowner and ask about any flood insurance claims or FEMA grants that may not show up on the reports”

“Read every word of the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s website on the flood insurance program before you buy a home”

a home inspector

    • who can check how well the roof might hold up in a hurricane

When out looking at houses, check the features of the houses

    • look out for special impact-resistant glass in the windows or hurricane shutters.
    • wind mitigation inspection, how well the roof might hold up

“Make like a reporter and talk to any potential neighbors”

    • ask questions

See:

“You’re Buying a Home. Have You Considered Climate Change?” | Ron Lieber, The New York Times, 2 December 2016

#realestate #climatechange #climaterisk #resilience #smartluxury #finance #insurance #floods #municipalfloodexpert #art #artcollections #museums #privatemuseums

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sudden heavy rains damage works in the Louvre

During the course of one hour late on Sunday evening, July 9, two inches (50mm) of rain fell on Paris during severe thunderstorms that swept across the region.

Several works in the collection of the Musée du Louvre are reported to have been damaged due to the effects of the sudden rainstorm:

  • two (“Spring” and “Fall”) of the works that make up Nicolas Poussin’s “Four Seasons” in the Sept-Cheminées room
  • “The Triumph of Mordecai” (1736) by Jean-François de Troy
  • works, housed on the second floor, by 17th-century French artists Georges de La Tour and Eustache Le Sueur

Water flowed into the mezzanine of the Denon wing also. This affected the rooms housing “Arts of Islam” and “From the Mediterranean Orient to Roman Times.” These rooms have been closed pending hygrometric stabilization

Le musée du Louvre a été touché par les intempéries d’une violence inédite qui ont frappé la région parisienne dans la nuit du 9 au 10 juillet et le 10 juillet au matin.

Les infiltrations d’eau ont entraîné la fermeture de certains espaces et l’évacuation préventive d’œuvres du département des Peintures et du département des Antiquités égyptiennes.

See:

“Violent Storms Invade the Louvre, Damaging Art by Poussin and Other Holdings” | Naomi Rea, Artnet.com, 17 July 2017

“Louvre masterpieces damaged in storm” | The Connexion, 16 July 2017

“Informations suite aux intempéries des 9 et 10 juillet 2017” | Louvre, 13 July 2017

 

#Louvre #NicolasPoussin #Jean-FrançoisdeTroy#GeorgesdeLaTour #EustacheLeSueur #ArtsofIslam #art #rain #CO2 #climaterisk #Paris

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valuing climate-related risks, investing well, & avoiding stranded assets

The Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD, @FSB_TCFD) has published a new report on June 29. The report is published as part of a G20 initiative led by the governor of the Bank of England Mark Carney and the former mayor of New York City Michael Bloomberg.

The report provides a framework for companies to disclose in their financial filings all of their direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions and describe the risks and opportunities caused by climate change under a range of potential scenarios. The objective of such disclosures would be to allow economies to properly value climate-related risks and to help minimize the risk, to investors, banks, and insurers, that market adjustments to climate change will be incomplete, late and potentially destabilizing.

Importantly, the report recommends that banks should disclose lending to companies with carbon-related risks.

Climate change presents global markets with risks and opportunities that cannot be ignored. The framework can be of assistance to investors (such as banks, pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, university endowments, investors in commercial real estate, and homeowners) as they evaluate the potential risks and rewards of a transition to a lower carbon economy and avoid investing in assets that might become stranded, non-performing (such as non-performing loans made to entities that are cash-strapped due to rising carbon costs or houses and buildings that themselves cannot perform and/or are difficult or impossible to sell).

While the report’s recommendations are intended to be adopted by all companies, extra guidance is given to the financial sector. Other sectors, likely to be most affected by climate change and/or the transition to a lower carbon economy, are also given extra guidance. The other sectors likely to be most affected by climate change and/or the transition to a lower carbon economy include energy, transportation, construction, and agriculture, food, and forestry.

Christian Thimann, Group Head of Regulation, Sustainability and Insurance Foresight, AXA Group and a member of the TCFD, observes that insurers “see the frequency and intensity of natural disasters linked to climate change augmenting every year.” “Insurers,” Dr. Thimann says,
consider a world of plus two degrees may still be insurable but a world of plus four degrees might not be.”

Dr. Thimann notes that while banks have a shorter outlook than insurers

  • Banks “too can use these recommendations because they will need to steer their lending between sectors aligned with a 2-degree world and sectors not aligned. They need to know which are the sectors with a high risk of stranded assets in the future and those with a low risk of stranded assets in the future.”

 

See:

“Banks should disclose lending to companies with carbon-related risks” | Michael Slezak, The Guardian, 29 June 2017

#TCFD #MarkCarney #BankofEngland #NYC #MichaelBloomberg #climatechange #climaterisk #strandedassets #banks #investors #finance #insurance #AXA #lowcarboneconomy #energy #transportation #construction #agriculture #food #forestry#realestate #homeownership #museums #artcollections #art

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art storage & protection @ $1+ billion globally

The global art market generated sales of about $65 billion in 2016 according to the TEFAF Art Market Report 2017.

The growing, global network of facilities to store art now generates revenues of over $1 billion a year. Many of these spaces serve multiple objectives – including security, environmental protections, and trade: Sto

  • security
    • video surveillance
    • retinal scanning
  • space | collectors have too much to keep at home
  • protection
    • climate-controlled environments
    • fire-resistant walls
    • air-filtration
    • flood control
    • LEED and BREEAM building certifications
  • investment purchases
  • tax benefits
  • tax-suspended transport to and from galleries | as long as works of art return to storage no duty is payable, even if ownership of the art has changed
  • “1031 exchange” friendly
  • gallery inventory between shows and art fairs
  • storage of art taken by banks as collateral against loans
  • viewing rooms that can be rented on a more permanent basis | in-house, private sales and transfers of ownership
  • passport free access (freeports within airport perimeters)

Simon Hornby, the president of Crozier Fine Arts, estimates that 80% or even more of all the world’s art is in storage at any one time.

The art storage business has doubled in size in eight years and continues to grow.

“Until about ten years ago, Modern and contemporary art collectors were mainly made up of art enthusiasts and amateurs, they had a real passion, spending their money on what they liked; they collected in order to simply enjoy the work in their home environment. Today you have to work with an increasing number of art funds or speculators buying art for investment. Art buying has become accessible to a much larger audience than before and is considered an asset. The result of this is that more work sleeps in warehouses rather than hanging in collectors’ homes.”

Stephane Custot, Waddington Custot Gallery, London

“In the last year, I only physically saw one piece of art that I negotiated. Everything else was bought and sold via jpegs and remained in storage. It was all for investment.”

New York dealer and appraiser

In order to protect the assets, moreover, built environment investment is attempting to keep up with the evolution of demand, including security and environmental protections.

A state-of-the-art storage facility with “foreign trade zone” (FTZ) status (a freeport), ARCIS Fine Art & Collection Care, is under construction on Manhattan’s West 146th Street. Developed by Cayre Equities, the project has taken two years and over $40 million. Executive Director Tom Sapienza and Tom Lay, both formerly with Crozier Fine Arts, were recruited by art collector, real estate developer, and Crozier founder Ken Cayre to manage the project.

The five-story, 110,000 square foot is scheduled to open next month (July 2017).  ARCIS is Latin for “fortress”. The facility is designed and engineered to provide and enhance both environmental and security protections.

With the objective of constructing a museum-quality, sustainable, state-of-the-art secure building, Sapienza and Lay took crash courses in thermal dynamics and consulted with the professional services branch of the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. Works of art will be scanned as they move through the building. State-of-the-art air filters are installed; air will change three to six times an hour.  LEED and BREEAM certifications are to be achieved for the building.

See:

“TEFAF’s 2017 Art Market Report” | Marion Maneker, Art Market Monitor, 6 March 2017

“TEFAF Art Market Report 2017” | Prof. Dr. Rachel A.J. Pownall, TEFAF Chair in Art Markets, The European Fine Art Foundation, March 2017

“Where does all the art go after a fair?” | Georgina Adam, The Art Newspaper, 16 June 2017

“Picasso Finds Possible Digs in Harlem $2.5 Billion Art Port” | Katya Kazakina, Bloomberg, 2 March 2017

“Will New York Get Its Own Freeport for Art? ARCIS Plans a Tax Haven in Harlem” | Eileen Kinsella, Artnet, 2 March 2017

“One of the World’s Greatest Art Collections Hides Behind This Fence” | Graham Bowley & Doreen Carvajal, The New York Times, 28 May 2016

“About Foreign-Trade Zones and Contact Info” | U.S. Customs and Border Protection, U.S. Department of Homeland Security

#realestate #resilience #smartluxury #art #LEED #BREEAM #finance #investments #artcollections #artmarket #VanGoghMuseum #museums

 

 

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New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art changes leadership structure

New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art announced yesterday that Daniel H. Weiss, who has served as president and chief operating officer of the Met since 2015,  will now serve as president and chief executive.

This appointment, decided by the Board of Trustees, represents an organizational shift for the museum.  In prior years the director has served as chief executive.

As both president and chief executive, Dr. Weiss will lead the administrative operation of the museum and will have the “worry about day-to-day matters like security, restaurants and maintenance.”

The next director will oversee the museum’s “core mission functions” –  curatorial focus, acquisitions, exhibitions, publishing program, conservation efforts, and library – and will report to Dr. Weiss, the chief executive.

Both chief executive and director will serve on the Board of Trustees. They will establish the museum’s priorities together.

See:

“In an organizational shift, Met president Daniel Weiss takes over as chief executive” | Pac Pobric, The Art Newspaper, 13 June 2017

“Met Museum Changes Leadership Structure” | Robin Pogrebin, The New York Times, 13 June 2017

#MetropolitanMuseumofArt #theMet #art #museums #DanielHWeiss #collections #NewYork #realestate

 

 

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smart art | collections storage

The American Alliance of Museums will meet on Sunday, May 7 to discuss “sustainable collections storage, strategies for our future.”

Facing increased energy costs, changing standards, and issues brought about by climate change, institutions are reevaluating their facilities, collections storage, and operations.

The May 7 discussion will include a review of building site and architecture, environmental control systems, lighting, and waste.

Speakers will explore practical, pressing, and efficient measures to reduce carbon footprints while maintaining the paramount goal of preserving collections.

See: “Sustainable Collections Storage: Strategies for our Future” | American Alliance of Museums, 2017 Annual Meeting & MuseumExpo

#art #artcollections #collections #collectionsmanagement #artstorage #collectionsstorage #smartart #luxury #smartluxury #urbanluxury #resilience #realestate #museums

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smart art | preventive conservation in China

Based on a nationwide investigation of the current state of preservation of museum objects in China, around 51% of the 35 million museum objects show different degrees of deterioration.

In China’s present situation, preventing damage to museum objects is much more cost-effective than allowing damage to happen and then treating it.

By 2013, the number of museums in China had increased to 3354 from 3055 in 2012, among which the number of private museum is 811. The number of museum visitors annually is 600 million.

Based on China’s national long-term outline plan for museum development (2011‒2020), we expect that by 2020 there will be one museum for every 250 000 people, compared to one per 400 000 in 2014, and that 20% of museums will be privately funded.

Owing to the impressive number of museums opened in the twentieth century, a large number of objects has been accumulated and has often been left in unsuitable environments, resulting in irreversible damage. Treatment of individual objects cannot meet the ever-increasing demand.

Rather than treatment after they show signs of degradation, looking for preventive conservation solutions becomes the most important museum function.

See:

“Overview of preventive conservation and the museum environment in China” | Nan Feng, Research Center for Chinese Frontier Archaeology, Jilin University, Changchun, China, published online on 12 August 2016

#art #artcollections #smartart #smartluxury #urbanluxury #collectionsmanagement #China #museums #preventiveconservation #realestate #airpollution #climatechange #risk #riskmanagment