Art Research News

Volume 2, No. 4

1983

Discoveries in Peru: The Cuzco School of Painting
— B. Burnham
Earthquake, business decline and neglect imperil church paintings; IFAR develops a program to send cataloguers and photographers to Peru as first step toward conservation

The Theft of Peru's Past
— Richard L. Burger
On pre-Hispanic art stolen from Peruvian archaeological sites; looting has been going on for centuries, but the scale of destruction is growing, fueled by demand from Western private collectors and museums. Reprinted from Peruvian Antiquities: A Manual for United States Customs

Missing Links
— R. Wallace Stuart
On the growing attention by the American public to the global problem of illicit traffic in world art and antiquities, with special focus on Peru's artistic heritage, as exemplified in a National Geographic Society exhibit, Peru’s Artistic Heritage.

Cultural Property Advisory Committee Members Named
White House nominates members to the committee, established under the 1983 Cultural Property Implementation Act, to advise the President on requests from foreign nations for treaties limiting imports. The nominees (by category) are: Arthur A. Houghton, Patricia Rieff Anawalt (curators); Clemency Coggins, Denver Fred Wendorf, Leslie Elizabeth Wildesen (scholars); Alfred Stendahl, James Crowley (trade); John J. Slocum, Michael Kelly, and James William Alsdorf (public interest).

IFAR Board Profiles: Paul Guth and Daniel Zilkha
— Joan Huntoon
Guth, a partner in New York law firm of Kelley, Drye and Warren; Zilkha, publisher of Art and Auction magazine.

Forgery, Misattribution or Masterpiece?
— Virgilia H. Pancoast
Detailed examples of recent works examined by IFAR’s Authentication Research Service: a color lithograph described as Toulouse-Lautrec Le Petit Trottin is actually a reprint after the artist's death; untitled Mark Rothko painting on paper authenticated; inherited work attributed to Jacques-Louis David is actually by French artist Rose Decreux; Portrait of Madame Hebuterne is not by Modigliani.

The International Fund for Monuments: Architectural Preservation in Ireland
— Joan Huntoon
International Fund for Monuments holds reception for Irish Georgian Society's Desmond Guinness.

High Times in Atlanta
— Joan Huntoon
The High Museum of Art opens in Atlanta. While Richard Meier’s design is exemplary, so is the museum’s precise acquisition policy.

Book Review: The Salvator Mundi of Leonardo da Vinci?
Review of Joanne Snow-Smith’s book examining the authenticity of this painting.

Book Review: Beauty and the Beasts: On Museums, Art, the Law and the Market
Review by Robert A. Weiner of collection of lectures and book reviews by Stephen E. Weil.

Book Review: The Forger's Art: Forgery and the Philosophy of Art
Review by Robert S. Bianchi of this book of essays, edited by Denis Dutton, attempting to define the nature of forgery, using the Hans van Meegeren Vermeer trial as the point of departure.

Modern Museology: 108,000 images per disk
— Lisa Ackerman
On the Museum of the American Indian’s computerization of its collection.

IFAR Authentications
Two unsigned landscapes are authentic works by Anton Faistenberger. Approaching Storm, a painting in the collection of the Arnot Art Museum, Elmira, New York, is an Albert Bierstadt original, but a duplicate submitted to IFAR was probably painted by one of his students.