Art Conservation, Publicity and the Met

I'm fascinated by issues relating to conservation of cultural objects, but most of the publicity goes to fine art conservation--if there is any at all. Friday's disaster at the Metropolitan Museum, where a woman taking an adult education class fell on an early Picasso, The Actor, and tore a 6" hole in the canvas, got some play in the tabloids and finally made the New York Times.

The New York Post concentrated on the question of the painting's $130 million appraisal being shaved in half and then raised the question how could the public get so close to something so valuable. Here's the first story which talks about the accident and the follow up story on Jan 26, noting a $65m loss of value; one of the commentors raise the question of getting close.

The Times's coverage started with a brief Jan 25, 2010 notice, and then a longer article on the same day by Carol Vogel about the incident, but included lots of good commentary from experts (this is what the Times is great at):