Guggenheim Bilbao

(Newser) - A decade ago the Frank Gehry-designed Guggenheim Museum put the sleepy Basque city of Bilbao on the international art map. But in recent months the institution has been tarnished by an embezzlement scam, overspending on middling artworks, and a $9.4 million loss in a botched currency deal. Now, reports...

(Newser) - The Guggenheim Museum's outpost in Bilbao is suing its director of finance after he admitted embezzling $800,000 from the institution's coffers. In a long mea culpa letter to the museum's director, Robert Cearsolo Barrenetxea confessed that he had used bank transfers and fraudulent checks to line his own pockets...

(Newser) - Frank Gehry's Guggenheim Bilbao is ten years old this week, freshly buffed and looking better than ever, Bloomberg reports. The birthday is marked by a successful show of American heavyweights like Keith Haring, Julian Schnabel and Richard Serra. Bilbao continues to benefit from the cultural attention garnered by the building,...

(Newser) - Architecture critic Herbert Muschamp died of lung cancer last night at age 59, the New York Times reports. Muschamp wrote for the Times during a “surge of exuberance” in architecture, and his personal style grabbed readers for more than a decade. Said the Times editor who hired him, “...