LACMA Cézanne *Not* the One Stolen
Despite a report in The Art Newspaper, a Cézanne owned by LACMA has not been stolen. Italian police say thieves took a Renoir painting and watercolors by Cézanne and Matisse from the Magnani-Rocca Foundation, near Parma, Italy. The Art Newspaper article leads with an image of the LACMA Cézanne and uses a version of its title (Still Life with Cherries) for the stolen work. In fact the stolen work is a watercolor with a somewhat similar name (Tasse et plat de cerises/"Cup and Plate of Cherries"). Art Newspaper's error has been picked up by media around the globe.
The LACMA painting is currently in the museum's Resnick Pavilion, in "Collecting Impressionism at LACMA" (through Jan. 3, 2027).
Below is the missing watercolor.
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| Paul Cézanne, Tasse et plat de cerises, about 1890. Fondazione Magnani-Rocca |
UPDATE. The Art Newspaper article swapped out the Cézanne for an image of the stolen Renoir. It's still confused about the name of the stolen Cézanne.
Comments
I've been curious about the Legion of Honor building in SF, circa 1924. It's in the neo-classical or Beaux-Arts style, fashionable in the first quarter of the 1900s. It's similar to other art museums like the Minneapolis Institute of Arts of 1915 or Philadelphia Museum of Art of 1928.
LACMA in 1965 followed the classic tract-house style fashionable during the age of the Beatles and Gilligan's Island. Okay, lol, snark.
2 or 3 videos taken during the past 5 years in the so-so Legion of Arts at least show a fair number of visitors. That compares with more recent videos taken at LACMA (in the BCAM and the Resnick) where more of the visitors are dressed up as no-one's-around galleries. One video taken before 2020 showed the Pereira-HardyHolzmanPfeiffer central court area way too evocative of a dead mall.
The Zumthor/Govan building will have its own shortcomings, but it couldn't have come a second too soon. The Geffen Galleries will be an interesting counterpoint to the traditional look of Beaux-Arts, everything surrounded by walls (few or no windows) and the typical enfilade format.
I'm thinking the look and layout of the Geffen - windows included - may be a nice change of pace from the Louvre Syndrome, which is like being in a room where someone is wearing way too much perfume.
I also recall the Metropolitan, where its galleries for older European art weren't bustling with visitors while the galleries for Impressionist art were busy. They therefore seemed somehow less isolated from the rest of the museum.
A smaller version of that exists in a museum like the Norton Simon, even more so for its lower level of less popular Indian/Southeast Asian art. The lower level of the old Ahmanson Gallery really felt and looked like a basement.
The LACMA "Still Life With Cherries And Peaches" is extraordinarily beautiful.
You don't recognize the quality of what LACMA already has. You're unserious in your aspirations.
I read the above 4 points so often I wonder if the messages are AI-generated.