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Sacred and Stolen: Confessions of a Museum Director
PDF Download Sacred and Stolen: Confessions of a Museum Director
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Review
Not since Thomas Hoving made the mummies dance has there been such a lively and engaging look at the inner workings of a major museum. Based on Gary Vikan’s decades-long tenure at the helm of the Walters Art Museum, this book brings his exceptional flair for scholarship and pop culture, which has seen Graceland described as a contemporary Byzantium, to showing how to make a great collection come alive. Having played a minor role in some of Vikan’s adventures, I know at first hand that the work of a museum director is often more Raiders of the Lost Ark than Father Knows Best. Vikan’s autobiographical account is a welcome addition to the often bone-dry literature about modern museums.James Bradbourne, Director, Pinacoteca di Brera, MilanThe world of museums, art collectors, and trade in cultural heritage ranges from murky to opaque, though it is always intriguing. Gary Vikan’s wonderful, insightful memoir lifts the curtain and provides an invaluable, honest, and engaging glimpse behind the scenes of the museum world. A must-read for anyone interested in museums, curating, and collecting.Dr. Noah Charney, best-selling author of The Art of ForgeryGreat read!! Fun! One-upping fictional art whodunits, Gary Vikan shares a variety of nerve-racking real life experiences to provide new insights into the world of art museum directors. Lurking behind all that Technicolor museum glamour are many shades of gray, a fascinating cast of characters, and lots of intrigue.Tom Freudenheim, former Director of the Baltimore Museum of Art and the Worcester Art Museum; former Assistant Secretary for Museums, Smithsonian InstitutionIn his fascinating memoir, Sacred and Stolen, Gary Vikan invites us into the mind of a leading American museum director as he wrestles with the issue of our day: whether or not to buy art that, by all indications, was looted. Vikan navigates the issue with humor, aplomb, and a common sense that is both reassuring and, at times, treacherous. You may not always agree with his decisions, but you’ll find him an able guide to one of the most confounding and controversial issues facing the art world today. Rarely have we had such a candid window into the thinking that guides America’s biggest cultural institutions.Jason Felch, co-author of Chasing Aphrodite: The Hunt for Looted Antiquities in the World’s Richest MuseumAs a writer Gary Vikan has three virtues hardly ever found together. He genuinely loves art and is extraordinarily erudite on the subject; he cares about what’s right and wrong; and he is wonderfully alive to the human capacity for absurd behavior. Gary’s scholarship and professional ethics, combined with his impish sense of humor, make for delightful reading.Dan Hofstadter, author of Goldberg’s Angel: An Adventure in the Antiquities Trade
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From the Inside Flap
Sacred and Stolen is the memoir of an art museum director with the courage to reveal what goes on behind the scenes. Gary Vikan lays bare the messy underbelly of museum life: looted antiquities, crooked dealers, deluded collectors, duplicitous public officials, fakes, inside thefts, bribery, and failed exhibitions. These backstories, at once shocking and comical, reveal a man with a taste for adventure, an eagerness to fan the flames of excitement, and comfort with the chaos that often ensued.A Minnesota kid who started out as a printer’s devil in his father’s small-town newspaper, Vikan ended up as the director of The Walters Art Museum, a gem of a museum in Baltimore. Sacred and Stolen reveals his quest to bring the “holy” into the museum experience as he struggles to reconcile his passion for acquiring sacred works of art with his suspicion that they were stolen.The cast of characters in his many adventures include the elegant French oil heiress, Dominique de Menil, the notorious Turkish smuggler, Aydin Dikmen, his slippery Dutch dealer, Michel van Rijn, the inscrutable and implacable Patriarchs of Ethiopia and Georgia, and the charismatic President of Georgia, Eduard Shevardnadze—along with a mysterious thief of a gorgeous Renoir painting missing from a museum for over sixty years. When the painting suddenly shows up, it’s Vikan who tracks down the culprit.In his afterword Vikan explains his coming to grips with the realities of art dealing in our present dangerous world that includes the fanatical iconoclasm of the Islamic State. We know of the violent destruction and looting of precious treasures of antiquity and unscrupulous black market art dealers who take advantage of international conflicts to possess them.Sacred and Stolen is a truly eye-opening account of art dealing in the modern world.
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Product details
Hardcover: 256 pages
Publisher: SelectBooks (September 20, 2016)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1590793935
ISBN-13: 978-1590793930
Product Dimensions:
6.2 x 1.3 x 9.1 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review:
4.5 out of 5 stars
22 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank:
#66,579 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Gary Vikan's _Sacred and Stolen: Confessions of a Museum Director is a brilliant, provocative look into the world of religious antiquities -- where they come from, how they get into circulation (from private collectors to venerable institutions' collections), and the ethical and legal challenges of dealing with sellers, some scrupulous and others less so, including those who sell fakes.Vikan's reflections on a long career as a museum director are surprisingly fascinating and moving: he is very honest about what moves him. It is partly an autobiography and partly an expose of the international trafficking in looted treasures, especially religious objects but more broadly artifacts that belong to whole countries and the world. Think of our our horror when the museum in Baghdad was looted a few years ago. Well, where do those treasures go? Into the hands of collectors via the black market: no self-respecting museum could buy them (under current law), but Gthe author exposes the seamy underside of how goods move from country to country in this era and the past. Two other topics were also fascinating to me: the huge market for fake works of art that have been bought by respectable museums and wealthy collectors alike (and he names lots of them) and, for me, the most intriguing theme: what is an "aesthetic experience"? What does it mean to experience a work of art, especially sublime works of art (pictures, sculptures, music)? The author knows the intensity of such experiences -- he calls it the "numinous" (growing close to the divine) when he talks about religious artifacts. Each chapter focuses on a different episode in which the author faced ethical dilemmas, including dealing with international incidents and wheeler-dealers from many different countries. If this sounds serious, relax: the author has a very droll sense of humor. Think of Garrison Keiller as your tour guide at the Met or the Louvre. His asides about people and institutions are truly funny. I strongly recommend the book! I hope that the success of this book will encourage the author to give us volume two: further adventures in the murky world of buyers and sellers.
This is a book that frequently rises from interesting to exciting. Art inspires, but great art is rare and stokes the always present human trait: greed. Thus, stolen and faked treasures are to be expected. But money is also important in running museums which must always be looking for more dollars and also find ways to enrich their collections. The ethics of collecting come into play. Under what circumstances should collectibles not be bought or accepted and returned if they are already in the collection. The author is honest about the frequent compromises that are made. There are no easy answers and simplistically chanting the common rule that title can never be gotten for stolen property will not do. The problem, still not wholly solved, is to fashion rules that satisfy the various legitimate interests.
“Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of man?†The Shadow knew and it’s now obvious to me that Gary Vikan knows. His most interesting and intriguing book, Sacred and Stolen: Confessions of a Museum Director, reveals to the reader the ins and outs of a world most of us rarely think about, and about which we know very little. He takes us on adventures around the world into situations that had me sitting on the edge of my chair. His keen sense of humor comes into play throughout, and learning about his roots makes his story even more fascinating. Having lived in Baltimore, I was keenly aware of his superb reputation as the former Director of the Walters Art Gallery, but I only learned through this volume of his interesting upbringing, education, and his mysterious experiences as an expert in his field. A fast and enjoyable read that I highly recommend.
This is a good read, flows right through, telling story after story of life as a museum curator. Although this book offers some insight into the profession and the people who traffic in artifacts, I didn't think it really touched at the heart of either the art or the author or even the 'bad guys'. I got the impression that it was very carefully worded in an effort to avoid stepping on toes or causing problems "at the office". Understandably, the author has placed himself in pretty murky waters more than once, so I do get it that he's cautious, but he did take the time to write the book and, in light of that, he could have just gotten it all off his chest with more passion. A good read, interesting information.
A very candid memoir from an interesting person who has been involved in a lot of unusual events relating to artistic treasures of the past. There are many points in the book when you will think "I can''t believe that he said that for publication." Well worth reading if you think that being a museum curator is a quiet and contemplative profession. I recommend it.
Informative as well as highly entertaining. I will never go into a museum again without a lot of questions about origin and research background and what stories are untold but worth knowing.
The author of this memoir thinks everyone is interested in him on a personal level. Long chapters about his mundane childhood, etc. If you thought working in a museum would be boring: this book proves it.
This was a page-turner with an inside look at the adventures and misadventures (sometimes bordering on cloak-and-dagger) of a museum director. It shows the sometimes complex (Byzantine?) process by which museums and collectors make acquisitions and mount exhibits.I recommend it for art-lovers and for anyone who enjoys a good story.
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