Arts & International Affairs: Volume 2, Issue 1 | Page 123
The Guggenheim opened two branches in Las Vegas in ����, both in the
Venetian Hotel. The Guggenheim Las Vegas and the Guggenheim Hermitage
were both designed by Rem Koolhaas. The Venetian paid for them, made
other undisclosed contributions and shared operating income with the
Guggenheim (Haacke ����:���). Guggenheim Las Vegas closed after ��
months and one exhibition. The Guggenheim Hermitage closed in ����.
The Las Vegas Guggenheim branches were done in partnership with other
cash-strapped museums, namely the Hermitage in St. Petersburg and the
Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. “Their ostensible common purpose is
to mount shows from their respective collections in Las Vegas, Bilbao, New
York, and in Venice, occasionally sponsored by Deutsche Bank” (Haacke
����:���). The Berlin and Las Vegas Guggenheim branches, as well as the
Hermitage Las Vegas, are noteworthy because, unlike the Guggenheim
Bilbao, which was developed in partnership with the Basque government,
they are partnerships with private-sector actors.
The Guggenheim’s most recent undertakings, in Helsinki and Abu Dhabi,
return to the original approach of partnering primarily with governments. In
June ����, the winning architectural design for the Guggenheim Helsinki was
announced. However, that project has encountered a number of roadblocks.
The first came shortly after the museum presented its initial proposal to the
City of Helsinki in ����. The skepticism with which this proposal was met
led to the submission of a revised proposal in ����, which included extensive
changes to the financial model and the museum operating structure (SRG
Foundation ����). While some welcome the prospect of increased tourism
that a Guggenheim might generate, others reject a model of Finnish
taxpayer subsidization of an American initiative. The opposition has been
so strong in some quarters that it spawned a parallel competition alongside
the one launched by the city for the architectural contract. The “Next
Helsinki” parallel competition invited proposals for alternative strategies
for developing the cultural life of Helsinki. “Our competition—not really a
competition at all, rather a call for ideas, an anti-competition—sought to ask
first if a massive foreign museum was the highest and best use for public
resources, especially in an aspirationally egalitarian social democracy like
Finland.” � Incensed that Helsinki might “surrender such a fabulous site to
�.
For example, in early ����, this space showed Jackson Pollock’s mural, Energy Made Visible. The
exhibition notes indicate that the painting is held by the University of Iowa Museum of Art and had
recently undergone an ��-month cleaning and conservation process at the Getty in Los Angeles. The
exhibition is curated by the Senior Consulting Curator from the Clyfford Still Museum in Denver.
At the same time, the mural was commissioned by Peggy Guggenheim in ���� and has recently been
on view as part of her collection. .
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