Even before “Sensation: Young British Artists from the Saatchi Collection” opened on October 2nd 1999 the show made headline news when Mayor Rudolf Giuliani condemned the exhibition as “sick stuff” and threatened to withdraw funding from the Museum and to revoke it’s lease. What followed was a saga involving various stakeholders in the art world; the museum and it's director, the collector, the auction house, dealers, artists,government, media and the public.
As Andras Szanto claims the relentlessness of the media coverage that surrounded the show was usually reserved for airline disasters.
The Sensation exhibition exposed the arrangements that museums undertake to put on such shows, however, it also provided a catalyst for discussion, debate and analysis about much larger issues. The relationship and conflicts of interest between art and politics and art and sponsorship became major concerns. The role of the media and how to recognize communities with divergent cultural values also became matters to consider.
This case study will attempt to unravel some of the issues raised by the events and media interest surrounding the Sensation show, investigate the debates that followed (concentrating on museums and sponsorship) and examine how these debates impacted on museum policies in the United States and elsewhere.
http://www.georgetown.edu/faculty/irvinem/visualarts/ArtMarket/AmProspect-
The Business of Art by Andras Szanto
American Prospect Volume 11 Feb 2000
Szanto argues that power and money have always had an influence in the art world and what went on in organizing the Sensation exhibition was standard practice
http://www.aam-us.org/museumresources/ethics/bus_support.cfm
Guidelines for Museums on Developing and Managing Business Support
A series of guildelines to help museums manage ethical questions
Approved, November 2001, AAM Board of Directors
www.nytimes.com/library/arts/100199museum-
Private Collections Routine at Museums
By JUDITH H. DOBRZYNSKI
http://www.nytimes.com/library/arts/093099brooklyn-museum.html
Brooklyn Museum Accused of Trying to Lift Art Value
This links to lots of other articles in the Times
http://culturalpolicy.uchicago.edu/conf2000.html
A suumary and introduction to the book Unsettling ‘Sensation’: Arts Policy Lessons from the Brooklyn Museum Of Art Controversy” Papers given at the conference University of Chicago Feb2000