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Guggenheim Said to Consider New Branches Sources Say Thomas Krens Is in Talks with Abu Dhabi and Moscow Thomas Krens, director of the New York–based Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, recently held discussions about the possibility of opening Guggenheim museums in Abu Dhabi and Moscow, ARTnewsletter has learned. According to an informed source, Abu Dhabi representatives have made a $2 million deposit to the foundation in connection with their discussions. Krens was traveling at press time and was unavailable for comment, according to Anthony Calnek, the Guggenheim’s deputy director of communications, who told ARTnewsletter, “The Guggenheim Foundation is not undertaking a feasibility study for a new Guggenheim Museum in Russia or the Middle East, nor is it considering any plans for a new museum in either location.” Asked about the $2 million deposit to the foundation, Calnek would not comment. According to another source, Krens was in the Middle East as recently as May 1. Asked to explain the purpose of Krens’s trip, Calnek responded, “I’m not commenting on his travels.” In March Krens met with a Russian businessman in Moscow about a possible site for a Guggenheim branch, sources say. Over dinner at the Central House of Writers in Moscow, Krens met with Shalva Breus, Russia’s former deputy minister for state property and now the chairman of Ost West Group, a Russian investment firm and one of the country’s largest paper producers and exporters. Other guests at the dinner included Nic Iljine, the Guggenheim Foundation’s director of corporate development for Europe and the Middle East, who orchestrated the meeting; Moscow art dealer Aidan Salakhova; and Nikolai Molok, editor in chief of the Breus-owned Russian journal Art Chronika (and who has written in the past for ARTnews). After
dinner, Breus—who is ranked by Russia’s Finans magazine
as the country’s 127th richest man—showed Krens some
of the buildings he owns in Moscow, a source told ARTnewsletter,
including one that could serve as the future site of a Guggenheim
museum. Breus and his wife joined Krens for the March 28 opening
of the “Russia!” exhibition at the Guggenheim Bilbao
museum, according to the source. Krens had discussed the possibility of opening a branch in Moscow a few years ago, but the deal, which involved Russian oligarch and Alfa-Bank chairman Mikhail Fridman, never got past the preliminary stages. Under Krens, the Guggenheim, which has branches in Berlin, Bilbao, Venice, and Las Vegas, has explored opening Guggenheim-branded museums in Hong Kong, Rio de Janeiro, Taiwan, Lower Manhattan, and Guadalajara, Mexico, among other locations. A branch in SoHo and a second branch in Las Vegas have closed in recent years. The Guggenheim operates its Las Vegas museum in partnership with Saint Petersburg’s State Hermitage Museum. The two institutions have been associated since they formed a partnership six years ago to develop joint exhibitions and projects around the world, including possibly establishing Hermitage-Guggenheim Galleries in the east wing of the General Staff Building, which the Hermitage is renovating for museum purposes. Last year, Peter Lewis, the Guggenheim Foundation’s largest benefactor, resigned as chairman of the board after failing to convince the trustees to fire Krens, who, he maintained, was focusing on establishing Guggenheim franchises around the world to the detriment of the New York museum. Last November, the board promoted Lisa Dennison, the foundation’s former deputy director, to director of the New York museum. While Krens remains director of the foundation, which oversees the Guggenheim branches, Dennison has stepped in to lead the flagship institution. |
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