Museum of Fine Arts Developments | Fenway

stellarfun said:
The "nice" museum in an "obscure corner" of the region has a larger endowment than the MFA. MFA is at $550 million (June 2011), PEM is $630 million, and raising $100 million more.
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Stell -- that's paper endowment -- think about the value of the stuff in the museum

The PEM is nice and I enjoy it -- the MFA is in the same league with the Great National Museums of the World
 
^ if you guys haven't been to the Worcester Art Museum I highly suggest you go. There is some amazing stuff there such as a water lilies and and a Waterloo Bridge by Monet, a Rembrant kinda "self portriat," one of Warhol's Tomato Soup Cans, Mosiac floors from Antioch, a large collection of Paul Revere silver, one of Gauguin's most famous paintings, a version of The Peaceable Kingdom, etc. etc. etc.
 
found5dollar said:
^ if you guys haven't been to the Worcester Art Museum I highly suggest you go. There is some amazing stuff there such as a water lilies and and a Waterloo Bridge by Monet, a Rembrant kinda "self portriat," one of Warhol's Tomato Soup Cans, Mosiac floors from Antioch, a large collection of Paul Revere silver, one of Gauguin's most famous paintings, a version of The Peaceable Kingdom, etc. etc. etc.
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Found$ -- yes Worcester is very nice

As a matter of chauvinistic pride New England because it had both the resources and the "cultural inclination" in the late 19th Century ended-up with far more than our share of great stuff -- consider the following museums (not counting university collections) which would be the toast of the town in major cities on the west coast or in the south -- an embarrassment of riches:

1) Worcester Art Museum
2) PEM
3) Wadsworth Athaneum in Hartford
4) Portland Museum of Art
5) Isabella Stuart Gardner Museum

Note that many of the items in the collections are virtually unobtainable today as countries have very very rigid policies regarding export of newly found ancient stuff -- thus the only opportunity to get important really old stuff is for someone to have had it for a while -- such as the Juno newly arrived at the MFA
 
datadyne007 said:
NECN has a video:

http://www.necn.com/03/20/12/MFA-we.../landing_arts.html?blockID=673912&feedID=4214
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Data --I presume that they didn't leave her on the roof -- but NECN didn't bother to send a camera inside?

We can presume that the MFA has some video -- they must still be editing it

Meanwhile there is a nice YouTube, posed by the MFA -- edited with music of the preparations to move her from Brookline to the MFA

the video includes:
1) cutting her head off and carting it off in a box
2) drilling a fairly big hole down through her neck and on....
3) cut her marble base lose from the concrete she was mounted upon for a century
4) installing a support frame which you see in the NECN lifting video
5) finally she's driven off into the distance

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ewai2Tvtybc&list=UUI5_RrU163lo9Sbbb9fx4Rw&index=1&feature=plcp

PS -- suggest that you click on the button to put the Youtube on its own tab of your browser and then click on the button for full screen -- and its available in 1080p HD -- well worth the view!
 
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Here's Juno.....
Juno arrives at Museum of Fine Arts for all to see

http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/news/x394117183/Juno-arrives-at-Museum-of-Fine-Arts-for-all-to-see


By Chris Bergeron/Daily News staff
The MetroWest Daily News
Posted Mar 22, 2012 @ 09:53 AM
BOSTON —
A 13-foot tall, 13,000 pound marble statue of the ancient Roman goddess Juno has arrived at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and will be on view early next month.
....."You would have to travel to Rome to see such a monumental and impressive marble sculpture,'' said Christine Kondoleon, senior curator of Greek and Roman art. "As in ancient Rome, MFA visitors will be awestruck by the physical presence of the gods and the power of the empire.''
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Read more: http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/n...eum-of-Fine-Arts-for-all-to-see#ixzz1py4STcI6

21namesjuno1.jpg



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She will be moved through the MFA’s Italian Renaissance Gallery — part of which has been deinstalled to accommodate Juno’s size—and a wide base will be constructed to properly distribute the weight between the floor beams. The sculpture will reside in the Behrakis Gallery, which will be temporarily closed until Juno is properly in place.
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http://www.wbur.org/2012/03/21/mfa-statue-roof

.....On April 9, the gallery will reopen, revealing the goddess to visitors who will be able to observe conservators treating the sculpture in situ as part of the Museum’s “Conservation in Action” program. In the future, she will be the focal point of a gallery devoted to the gods, goddesses, and heroes of ancient Greece and Rome.
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http://www.bostoniano.info/2012/03/21/juno-largest-roman-era-statue-in-north-america-arrives-at-mfa/

Now we have a video with an inside view
ANCIENT ROMAN GODDESS JUNO DESCENDS INTO BOSTON MFA
by ROBERT GREIM PRODUCTIONS
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http://vimeo.com/38916965
 
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Everyone wants to be credited with helping the MFA's new goddess

http://www.wai.com/pressrelease.aspx?id=114

This is PR material from Weidlinger Associates, Inc., Boston, Massachusetts – the MFA's favorite Structural engineer who assisted with repairing, transporting, and displaying the macro marble sculpture of the Roman goddess Juno

Weidlinger performed many important tasks during the process, including design of the repair of a significant horizontal crack through the statue’s midsection and, more challenging, design of the one-of-a-kind steel cage that protected the statue during journeys to interim storage and then to the museum. A 3D scan of the sculpture was used to size the cage, which had to be lifted by a crane 80 feet into the air and lowered through a six-foot-square skylight in the museum. It then had to negotiate a sharp 90-degree turn from a museum corridor into the gallery. Weidlinger also designed a custom steel-framed grillage base to support and display the statue.

Additionally, Weidlinger engineers provided the construction sequence for assembling the cage around the repaired statue as it was cut free of its former location on an exterior granite foundation. For the final installation, they consulted original 1907 architectural drawings of the MFA to review the museum’s floor (consisting of a concrete slab supported by steel framing), which had to support the 13,000-pound statue and the two temporary scaffolds that were used to lift Juno onto the grillage. Weidlinger engineers also advised the rigger how best to spread the loads as the statue was transported along its route down a museum corridor and into the gallery.

To repair the crack, the marble was reinforced with steel, much as any typical concrete section would be. After the statue’s head was temporarily removed, a permanent rod was inserted through a hole drilled vertically down through the neck and beyond the crack point. The rod was epoxied into place below the midsection crack, tensioned by torqueing the nut at the neck, and then locked into place by grouting the entire rod. The tension rod created a compression force in the marble (equivalent to the tensioning force), which clamped the crack together.

The cage was designed to enclose the entire statue. Its size was restricted, based on the rigging plan, transportation requirements, and route into and within the museum. Three of the cage’s four sides were welded in the shop, and then, at the site, this three-sided cage was slid into cuts made in three sides of the marble pedestal. Once stabilized by this frame, the rest of the pedestal was cut and the front of the cage was bolted on. Finally, the statue was lifted off the granite foundation, rotated to the horizontal, and placed on the truck that transported it offsite to interim storage. To prevent the statue from moving within the cage, plastic sleeves filled with flowcrete (a low-strength concrete that becomes a free-flowing liquid mortar when mixed with water) were inserted into the gap between the statue and channels constructed along the insides of the cage.

The cage bottom consisted of a one-inch-thick steel baseplate, which was anchored to the statue. Once the statue was positioned in the gallery, the plate was attached to the two-foot-high grillage and covered with stone cladding. Beginning April 9, Juno will be on view to the public in the MFA’s Behrakis Gallery, where visitors will be able to observe museum curators as they clean and repair the statue.
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Who knew that moving and re-installing Juno was the equivalent to erecting a small building
 
Juno is now accepting visitors at the MFA beginning April 9

07junothisone.jpg


from the Globe a couple of days ago
http://articles.boston.com/2012-04-07/metro/31300780_1_roman-statue-marble-statue-museum
Roman statue of Juno settles in at the MFA
THIS STORY APPEARED IN April 07, 2012| By Geoff Edgers
“The size is important,’’ said Christine Kondoleon, the museum’s senior curator of Greek and Roman art. “This is really a strong reminder of that impressive, colossal scale in which the Romans built.’’

The reveal comes six years after Kondoleon first saw Juno in a private garden in Brookline. Beyond its size, the statue is impressive because it features a long, flowing garment carved gracefully in marble.....

For the museum, Juno serves several roles. It offers museum visitors a window into the restoration process, as conservators work to clean and repair the statue in the gallery, in full view. The artwork also gives a hint of the promise of future renovations to one of the most worn-out sections of the building, a gallery currently housing Egyptian art. Juno is the first ancient Roman piece to arrive in the space. The museum plans to convert the gallery over the next decade, a project that will require considerable fund-raising.

In that spirit, the museum is putting a collection box near Juno and adding an online link through which visitors can donate to support the conservation of the statue and other works of art. It’s similar to the appeal made last year that led to the purchase of Dale Chihuly’s “Lime Green Icicle Tower.’’

Due to Juno’s size, it serves as a centerpiece of the gallery, a towering marble sculpture unlike anything else at the museum. Kondoleon believes there are only a handful of similar statues in the world, all in Europe.
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Datsa oneBiga statue!
 
I still don't quite understand why they removed her head for transportation...
 
Plus the head is not original to the statue. They think it was added hundreds of years later so it's not as big a deal to separate it (since it's always been separate pieces of marble).
 
The head will be reattached in about 6 months. While the MFA has one of the great collections of Greek and Roman art, it's biggest weakness is too many heads without bodies and bodies without heads.
 
PaulC said:
The head will be reattached in about 6 months. While the MFA has one of the great collections of Greek and Roman art, it's biggest weakness is too many heads without bodies and bodies without heads.
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Paul -- that's an idea - the MFA could have a website "Match the Head to the Body"
the winner would get to pose with either a head or a body

It could be truly eclectic and cross-cultural:
A Roman Imperial Period Head and a Mughal Indian Body
An Egyptian Pharonic Period Head and a Buddhist Body
An Olmec Head and Greek Archaic Period Body

the possibilities are nearly endless - with a contribution for every match attempt -- the new gallery could be paid for in less than a year
 
PaulC said:
http://www.mfa.org/collections/conservation/conservationinaction_juno/removalofhead

Removing the head made the crate lighter and smaller.
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Paul -- the Globe has a YouTube which includes the statue in its cage being installed in the Gallery and then the structure being cut-away and the statue being prepared for its first visitors

I certainly hope that all of the technical work involved in the rescue of the statue is included in the conservation in action exhibit

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ST6TMPZ9XMo
 
The MFA has an updated version of their earlier video which not only includes a summary of the prep at the estate in Brookline, but also shows a lot more details not shown earlier about her move inside the light shaft, Hallways and Galleries at the MFA

they actually used rollers in the ancient tradition to move the horizontal cage down through the Italian Renaissance Gallery and on into Galley 207

http://www.mfa.org/give/special-projects/saving-goddess

http://www.mfa.org/media/detail/6707/586
 
whighlander said:
Paul -- that's an idea - the MFA could have a website "Match the Head to the Body"
the winner would get to pose with either a head or a body

It could be truly eclectic and cross-cultural:
A Roman Imperial Period Head and a Mughal Indian Body
An Egyptian Pharonic Period Head and a Buddhist Body
An Olmec Head and Greek Archaic Period Body

the possibilities are nearly endless - with a contribution for every match attempt -- the new gallery could be paid for in less than a year
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You mean like this:
(Part XIV): Aspelta's Nose

Since its discovery, the statue of Aspelta in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, had always lacked its nose. In 1970, during the Museum's centennial, a Museum promotional poster had been issued with the caption: "If you find King Aspelta's nose, call 267-9377·." No one, of course, ever seriously imagined that the nose would be found, for it was thought to have been destroyed by the Egyptians in 593 BC. When the broken statues were brought back to Boston in 1923, they were accompanied by boxes of hundreds of small fragments of worked granite that the excavators had picked up at Gebel Barkal through four years of excavating. These were stored in drawers in the Museum basement. In 1994, Associate Curator Timothy Kendall noticed a fragment that looked like a nearly twice-lifesize nose in black granite. Realizing that the stone was identical to the Aspelta statue, he took it and a ladder to the statue, climbed up in front of the king's face, and the stone snapped right into place. This allowed for a full restoration of the king's face.
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http://www.nubianet.org/exhibits/aspelta.html
 
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