On Saturday night September 6th, the Picasso curtain which had adorned the lobby of the Four Seasons Restaurant in the Seagram Building for fifty-five years was taken down and sent on its way to a conservation treatment and its future home. As if the long battle between the building’s owner and the curtain’s owner did not have enough drama, Benjamin Mueller writing about the deinstallation in The New York Times, (“After 55 Years in Vaunted Spot, A Picasso is Persuaded to Curl”, September 8, 2014), described a scene with lots of drama telling the reader that “one false tug could cause its [the curtain’s] demise” and noting that “the spector of the unknown haunted the proceedings”. As conservators, we know the careful planning and consideration for safety that goes into such an operation. Am I alone in finding Mr. Mueller’s manufactured drama a bit insulting to the professionals involved?
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AIC Blog Archives: Conservators Converse
Former Blog of the American Institute for Conservation