The Odyssey Continues: Masterworks
from the New Orleans Museum of Art
& Private New Orleans Collections
Wildenstein & Company, New York.
November 16, 2006-February 9, 2007
Natural disasters—as opposed to the man-made variety such as wars and revolutions—have historically shown a peculiar kind of selectivity when it comes to works of art. The catastrophic earthquake that virtually destroyed Messina in 1908 claimed thousands of lives, yet left many of the city’s artistic treasures, if not intact, at least recoverable. On November 4, 1966, an unimaginably violent flood inundated the city of Florence, submerging its center for the better part of a day in a poisonous cocktail of water, dirt, organic detritus, and black heating oil—in certain areas as much as eighteen feet deep. The city’s vast artistic patrimony suffered irreparable losses, whereas the human toll was almost negligible.
Of the two dramatic events just mentioned, the hurricane that devastated New Orleans in August of last year can claim closer similarity to the former than to the latter. Of course, as in Messina, the ordeal suffered by its citizens was excruciating. Yet in contrast, and by all accounts, much of the older and more distinguished architecture of the Crescent City has survived. So has its principal repository for the visual arts: the New Orleans Museum of Art. To be sure, structural damage was severe, but the collections came through the maelstrom unscathed; they await reinstallation once extensive repair to the building is completed.
In an exemplary act