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Trumps ask to borrow a Van Gogh from the Guggenheim. They offered something else instead .

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pauldun170 said:
Protip for future retards in chief looking to abuse position.

When requesting artwork to spruce up the White House, request American artists.
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well, in that article, the Obama's chose some Rothko paintings. Rothko was a Latvian artist. :colbert:


hmm...one starts to wonder....if Dump wanted this painting in his private quarters (no [Melania] allowed), I wonder if someone had told him that Obama greatly admired this Van Gogh guy, and this painting in particular. One wonders if Trump had this clever idea to request the painting so that he could piss on it, you know, because Trump is a horrible human being.

The sad thing is that as ridiculous as that sounds, it fits exactly with his known behavior. What a terrible specimen of humanity.
 
MomentsofSanity said:
I believe what makes it different is they wanted them for the private residence quarters. Not common areas which is indicated in the article you linked, at least for the paintings being discussed. They wanted them for themselves and them alone.

Now the article does mention there are requests made for both public and private spaces but doesn't really go into detail on anything related to private spaces.
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Article does say Obamas had modern art in private part of WH loaned from museums. I didn't see any mention of any other president trying to borrow a Van Gogh though.
 
sdifox said:
Article does say Obamas had modern art in private part of WH loaned from museums. I didn't see any mention of any other president trying to borrow a Van Gogh though.
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Yeah I just edited the post with a different article and pretty much made the same statement.
 
sdifox said:
Article does say Obamas had modern art in private part of WH loaned from museums. I didn't see any mention of any other president trying to borrow a Van Gogh though.
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If Obama made a similar request for loaned art for display in the private quarters, that was also inappropriate and an abuse of position.
 
MomentsofSanity said:
I believe what makes it different is they wanted them for the private residence quarters. Not common areas which is indicated in the article you linked, at least for the paintings being discussed. They wanted them for themselves and them alone.

Now the article does mention there are requests made for both public and private spaces but doesn't really go into detail on anything related to private spaces.
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It seems pretty clear that the Curator selects pieces, at a minimum from the White House collection and moves them from the public viewing places to private quarters.

And that's why I said "not much different" rather than "the same." The oval office and the Green Room might not be in the private quarters, but I don't believe they are public either.

Nonetheless, with just another 5 second search - https://www.cnn.com/style/article/obama-living-quarters-white-house/index.html

It turns out the Obama private quarters was filled with art borrowed from national museum.
 
IronWing said:
If Obama made a similar request for loaned art for display in the private quarters, that was also inappropriate and an abuse of position.
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I get the feeling this basically every President, so it is a long-standing problem with our tendency to treat the President like royalty despite the intent that there would be no nobility or royalty in the U.S.
 
So I'm guessing the difference is that presidents traditionally request art from the National Gallery ("federal/public property," as I understand it), whereas Trump wanted something from the Guggenheim (a private collection)?
 
zinfamous said:
So I'm guessing the difference is that presidents traditionally request art from the National Gallery ("federal/public property," as I understand it), whereas Trump wanted something from the Guggenheim (a private collection)?
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Even there, it is still inappropriate if the President is using public resources for private benefit in a manner that is not available to all citizens. If the National Galleries have a loan program open to everybody, then a President would be on solid ethical grounds for making a request.

Side note: When I was growing up, one could check out artwork from our local library. One had to like dark paintings of fruit bowls and wine bottles but the program did exist.
 
MomentsofSanity said:
Edit: This article references items borrowed under the Obama admin from national museums of American artists for display who have never been displayed in the WH before. Mind you not on the level of a van Gogh. Doesn't break down what would have been displayed in the private residence.
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That's the difference here. Being on display in a public place versus on display for personal gain and enjoyment.
 
K1052 said:
The emailed response from the Guggenheim's chief curator to the White House was polite but firm: the museum could not accommodate a request to "borrow" a painting by Vincent Van Gogh for President and Melania Trump's private living quarters.
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I'm reminded of this scene from Unbreakable:

 
Was anyone still wondering how America is viewed abroad? Yep, we are the laughing stock of the developed world.
 
zinfamous said:
So I'm guessing the difference is that presidents traditionally request art from the National Gallery ("federal/public property," as I understand it), whereas Trump wanted something from the Guggenheim (a private collection)?
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From a quick look around it seems like the National Gallery will loan art to the WH for public/private display but only under the condition that is it not presently on display or planned/likely to be part of an upcoming exhibition. So an administration has the run of the stored collection more or less.

The Guggenheim, however, isn't going to yank a Van Gogh off wall so it may adorn the walls of the residence and it was wrong to have asked in the first place.
 
Puffnstuff said:
The request was denied because of this:

The emailed response from the Guggenheim’s chief curator to the White House was polite but firm: The museum could not accommodate a request to borrow a painting by Vincent van Gogh for President and Melania Trump’s private living quarters.
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I know. I'm just saying the article I liked about the Obamas was about their private living quarters. The article Cozarkian linked mentions the curators secure pieces for both the public and private spaces. So where things are displayed isn't really the issue here I believe so much as what was being asked for.
 
Out of curiosity, I checked to see if the National Gallery of Art has a loan program for individuals. The Gallery provides loaner teaching kits with CDs or slides of artwork to individuals but doesn't loan out originals to the peasants. It sends originals on touring exhibits to other galleries though.
 
MomentsofSanity said:
I know. I'm just saying the article I liked about the Obamas was about their private living quarters. The article Cozarkian linked mentions the curators secure pieces for both the public and private spaces. So where things are displayed isn't really the issue here I believe so much as what was being asked for.
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I disagree. If the President had asked for the Van Gogh for a public area of the White House, the request would not have been inappropriate as the request would not have been solely for personal benefit. The museum probably would have declined but maybe not have made the toilet offer.
 
IronWing said:
I disagree. If the President had asked for the Van Gogh for a public area of the White House, the request would not have been inappropriate as the request would not have been solely for personal benefit. The museum probably would have declined but maybe not have made the toilet offer.
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This request was distasteful on multiple levels and the museum should've just declined and left it at that.
 
Puffnstuff said:
This request was distasteful on multiple levels and the museum should've just declined and left it at that.
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The Guggenheim is a storied New York institution and like all such institutions (The NY Phil, the Met, etc), operates off of the donations and subscriptions of the elite NY philanthropy class. The actual billionaires. Trump has long been spurned by these people, never allowed to play their reindeer games and always shunned from their parties, because he is universally hated by these people. He's known as a crass, lying, shelfish prick. These people know that in reality he is actually a gauche, house poor cretin that has only ever tried to pretend to belong to the club of the well-traveled elite simply to add another prize to his lapel. The Guggenheim, as with all other such institutions, knows this. They have long had to deal with his petty inducements to "let him in," knowing full well that he is wholly incapable of reciprocating on any promises that he has ever made.

This is just them publicly responding to the petty little bastard that they are all-too familiar with, and more than happy to be done with.
 
Wasn't it already reported that Trump's residence in Trump tower already had a solid gold toilet or something?
 
IronWing said:
I just thought of something, "how did Van Gogh keep his glasses from falling off?"
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well he probably didn't have to bother with this problem for very long because I think he offed himself only a few days after that.

...I know, I ruined it. 🙁
 
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