Huang Goodman · Art Forgotten

Art Forgotten

Art from public museum collections. A mismatched real Japanese law, and some other factoids.

Every object, image and description comes from the museum's own catalogue record, and every object links to its original. Japanese records are machine-translated into English; the museum's Japanese is kept beside the translation because it is the authoritative form. Each law carries its official number and links to e-Gov 法令検索, the Japanese government's statute database.

土蜘蛛絵巻[土蜘蛛草紙]
{土蜘蛛絵巻[土蜘蛛草紙] · 東京文化財研究所撮影 · 1930~1955年頃 · Japan Search · 国立国会図書館}
Spider Scroll [Paper with Spiders] · Tokyo Cultural Property Research Institute Photography

The Tokyo National Museum holds a "Spider Grass Paper" (Institution Management Number: A-18). This is a glass plate photograph taken at the Tokyo Cultural Property Research Institute around 1930-1955. For the title information and the like, it is recorded based on the investigation records at the time of photographing. For the current title information, please check with the relevant preservation institutions.

東京国立博物館が所蔵する「土蜘蛛草紙」(機関管理番号:A-18)を東京文化財研究所で1930~1955年頃に撮影したガラス乾板です。作品名等の情報は撮影時の調査記録を元に記載しております。現在の作品名等については各所蔵機関の情報をご確認ください。

View the original at Japan Search →
The law
美術品の美術館における公開の促進に関する法律
Act on Promotion of Public Exhibition of Works of Art in Museums
平成十年法律第九十九号 · Act No. 99 of 1998

A statute built to coax privately held work onto public walls. An owner registers a piece with the Commissioner for Cultural Affairs, then contracts with a museum to display it. Article 2 defines a work of art broadly, as paintings, sculpture, crafts and other tangible cultural products that are movable, which is the legal way of saying anything you could carry out of the house.

The cool part. The terms are the interesting part. Article 2 requires the public display contract to run for five years or more, and to contain a clause stating that the parties may not give notice of cancellation. You cannot lend a masterpiece for the tax treatment and then reclaim it when the market turns. Japan concluded the barrier to seeing art was never storage. It was ownership, and the fix was a contract you cannot walk out of.

Verify at e-Gov 法令検索 →

Use it Palette for a single-colour run: one ink, heavy stock, nothing else on the sheet.

Description source: museum curator text, translated — not generated