Saturday, August 30, 2008

When good art turns bad


John Chamberlain's 4.3 meter sculpture Detroit Deliquescence stood outside that city’s McNamara Building for about 20 years, when it was taken down and sent to storage and repair at McKay Lodge Art Conservation, Inc. Because of ongoing corrosion, the work can no longer be installed outside and its size prevents it fitting through convention doors to enable an indoor installation. As a result it has been dissasembled and hidden fastenings attached to allow it to be moved in a number of smaller units and reassembled. According to the Wall Street Journal it is still at McKay Lodge. That got us to wondering what happens to all the damaged art that is subject to insurance claims as well as the unwanted art. A professional art mover in the States once told us that after claims are paid out, art works are transported to a storage warehouse and left. A museum of broken art.