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.

[1968年 自由学園幼児生活団 6才組 卒業式 新しい生活団の家の前で/卒業にむかってゆく列車の説明/羽仁恵子と/絵巻/合奏(29回生)]
{[1968年 自由学園幼児生活団 6才組 卒業式 新しい生活団の家の前で/卒業にむかってゆく列車の説明/羽仁恵子と/絵巻/合奏(29回生)] · Maker unrecorded · 1968年 · Japan Search · 国立国会図書館}
[1968 year, Free School Kindergarten Group of 6-year-olds, Graduation Ceremony, In front of the new living group's house / Explanation of the graduation train they are about to board / Haruna Hanayagi and / Scroll painting / Ensemble (29th generation)]

The Free School Kindergarten Group of Children aged 6, 29th Generation. Scene of Graduation Ceremony. The house of the South Nishiwara Living Group was established in July 1967. The 29th Generation was the first to hold a graduation ceremony in this house (since the relocation to Nishiwara from April 1961, graduation ceremonies had been held at the Women's Gymnasium). The term "train going to graduation" refers to the preparation of each item for the three-year course of living instruction leading up to graduation, which was used during this process.

自由学園幼児生活団29回生6才組。卒業式の様子。1967年7月に南沢の生活団の家が落成。29回生はこの家で初めて卒業式を行う回生となった(1961年4月の目白から南沢への移転以降、卒業式は女子部体操館で行っていた)。「卒業にむかってゆく列車」とは、3年間はげんだ生活講習の各項目についての仕上げを卒業前に行った際に利用したはげみ表を説明している。

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 A motif small enough to blind-deboss, which is where restraint actually shows.

Description source: museum curator text, translated — not generated