Tom Krens Off The Guggenheim Abu Dhabi Project

Krens is off Guggenheim Abu Dhabi project

“Leadership role” appears to have passed to foundation’s director

ABU DHABI. Thomas Krens, the former director of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation who oversaw the development of the Guggenheim Bilbao, is no longer working on the project to build the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, The Art Newspaper has learned.

Krens was the foundation’s senior advisor for international affairs, a position created when he stepped down as director in February 2008 after 20 years in charge. At the time he was described as assuming a “leadership role” in developing the new Guggenheim Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, a key part in the Tourism Development and Investment Company’s plan to create a cultural complex on Saadiyat Island including the Louvre Abu Dhabi.

Rumours of his departure have been circulating since the Abu Dhabi Art fair last month after Krens, whose profile had been high in the region, was not present. By contrast, Richard Armstrong, the director of the Guggenheim, was highly visible, as was Nancy Spector, the museum’s chief curator, and Suzanne Cotter, the Guggenheim’s curator of exhibitions for the Abu Dhabi project.

Krens created a consultancy, Global Cultural Asset Management in 2008 and it is this company that has been advising the Guggenheim. The foundation’s latest tax returns show the Guggenheim paid $816,000 in fees to this consultancy last year. The returns also record that last year Krens was paid the second instalment in his $2m severance package (as director of the foundation).

Krens’ vision for the Abu Dhabi Guggenheim, which is set to be 30% larger than its Bilbao counterpart, also designed by the architect Frank Gehry, included a centre for contemporary Middle Eastern art. To develop the idea he invited independent curators from countries including Turkey, Iran, and the Lebanon, to form an expert panel. The Art Newspaper understands that this has been disbanded.

A spokeswoman for the Guggenheim foundation confirmed by email that Krens is no longer working on the Abu Dhabi project. On the subject of the curatorial panel, she added that: “No formal group was ever officially formed. The Guggenheim is in conversations with experts from around the world who are knowledgeable about Middle Eastern art and culture and who will be called upon for their expertise.”

Krens did not respond to requests for a comment and neither did his consultancy.

 

This article is from: http://www.theartnewspaper.com/articles/Krens+is+off+Guggenheim+Abu+Dhabi+project/21932

Guggenheim Struggles With Its Finances

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Tax Filings Show Struggles for Guggenheim

By KATE TAYLOR

The last two years haven’t been easy on New York museums, but they’ve been particularly challenging for the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation. In a disastrous 2008, the museum’s net assets declined by 25 percent.

The latest tax filings show that 2009 was not nearly as bad, though the numbers still offer cause for concern. Despite a round of layoffs (completed midyear), expenses exceeded revenue by more than $12 million. Contributions were down from the previous year, to $20 million. The foundation’s endowment decreased slightly, to $62.5 million from $64.4 million.

A Guggenheim spokeswoman, Betsy Ennis, said that the foundation expected the endowment to finish 2010 slightly higher. (The foundation includes the museum on Fifth Avenue at 89th Street and its satellites abroad.)

Richard Armstrong, the new director of the Guggenheim, made $612,550 in 2009 — roughly comparable to the pay for his colleagues at other major New York museums. The exception was Glenn D. Lowry of the Museum of Modern Art, who took home twice that amount between July 1, 2008, and June 30, 2009 (the period that that museum uses as its fiscal year).

Mr. Armstrong’s salary was lower than the $1 million the Guggenheim paid its former director, Thomas Krens, last year, as the second installment of a $2 million severance package. The Guggenheim also paid $816,295 in fees to the company that Mr. Krens started after leaving the Guggenheim, Global Cultural Asset Management, which was consulting on the planned new Guggenheim in Abu Dhabi.

The tax filings show that the Guggenheim received $715,000 in 2009 for doing a feasibility study, jointly with the State Hermitage Museum, for a possible museum in Vilnius, Lithuania. Because of the economic crisis and turnover in the local government, that museum has not gone forward.

 

This article is from: http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/21/tax-filings-show-struggles-for-guggenheim/?partner=rss&emc=rss