New Orleans Avoids Degas Decoys

The New Orleans Museum of Art, celebrating its centennial in 2011, has canceled its scheduled exhibition of a set of bronze sculptures newly cast from recently discovered casts made by famous Impressionist painter and sculptor Edgar Degas. The problem, explains new director Susan M. Taylor, is that experts have cast doubt on the casts. The Degas experts met in January 2010 in New York City, concluding, according to one source for an April 2010 ARTnews article, that "there was absolutely universal agreement that these things are not what they are advertised as." The bronzes have already been exhibited in a couple of museums, and are, at this writing, scheduled to appear at the National Museum of Fine Arts in Havana, Cuba.

No news yet what other big plans NOMA has for its centennial celebration, but bets are it’ll be worth checking out. A trip to the Crescent City is always a magical experience, and the art scene is certainly worth a gander.