Director of Brazil’s National Museum to seek funding from Europe

Our daily round-up of news from the art world 

Director of Brazil’s National Museum to seek funding from Europe | Alexander Kellner, the director of the National Museum of Brazil in Rio de Janeiro, has announced that he will seek funding towards reconstruction of the museum from European sources, after a serious fire gutted the building and destroyed most of the collection last September. Kellner plans to spend his two-week trip meeting with representatives from governments and museums in France and Germany, having been so far unable to secure sufficient restoration funds in Brazil.

Lawrence Carroll (1954­–2019) | The Australian-born American painter and sculptor Lawrence Carroll, best known for his minimal works made from found objects and scrap materials, has died at the age of 64. His work is held in public collections worldwide, including the Guggenheim Museum in New York and the Vatican Museums, Rome; in 1992 he participated in the ninth edition of Documenta.

Herzog & de Meuron to design Memphis Brooks Museum of Art building | The Swiss architecture firm Herzog & de Meuron has been appointed design consultant for a $105m project to create a new main building for the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art in Tennessee. Memphis-based company Archimania will serve as architect of record for the new building. which will overlook the Mississippi River, and is expected to be about 25 per cent larger than the museum’s existing facility.

Harvard’s Peabody Museum appoints Jane Pickering as director | The Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnography at Harvard University has named Jane Pickering as its next director. Pickering, who is currently executive director of the Harvard Museums of Science & Culture, will take up the post on 1 July.

US Supreme Court declines appeal over Norton Simon Cranachs | The US Supreme Court has declined to hear an appeal of a ruling passed last July, which allowed the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena to retain possession of two Lucas Cranach the Elder paintings acquired in the 1970s. The paintings, which were seized by the Nazis from the collection of Dutch art dealer Jacques Goudstikker in the 1940s, have been the subject of a protracted legal dispute lasting more than decade.