The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com Friday, December 1, 2006 - 7 FINE ARTS NOTEBOOK Museums of today Kidman is H'wood salary queen By ANDREW SARGUS KLEIN ManagingArts Editor In the world of museums, the past year or so has seen renovation and growth on a broad scale as well as bitter debate across continents. According to the American Association of Museums' 2006 Museum Financial Informa- tion survey of 809 institutions tracks, at least half of those surveyed are either in the process of renovation or just completed one. (Think: all those fences and piles of steaming asphalt in between the University's Museum of Art and Angel Hall. They're going to be here for a long time.) We all might be taking a bit of inspiration from New York City's Museum of Modern Art. Yesterday, MoMA opened its new research center, a $425 million project, to the public. While the center does not display more works, it does contain the museum's extensive cata- logue, offering enormous public research opportunities and public outreach campaigns. This comes just two years after the museum's main building opened after substantial reno- vation. As reported by CNN.com, MoMA's director Glenn Lowry said that "with the opening of our new building in November 2004, we went from about 1.5 million people per year to 2.5 million." He added: "We often have 13,000 people at the museum in a day." Because of financial support from Target, Fridays at MoMA are free. "If you can make a museum a hip place to be on a Friday afternoon, that is going to sustain itself over a long period of time," Lowry said in the same interview. Our own museum has been long dedicated to fostering as open an atmosphere as possible, including hosting free lectures to concerts in conjunction with the student radio station WCBN. The $34.5 million campaign is just getting started, the finish line still a few years off - but for those who believe the building will look as good someday as it does in model form, the anticipation is already mounting. But as our oldest museums hunker down with their respective face lifts and newer institutions spring up, fiery debate rages across continents as to what artwork belongs where. For decades there has been plenty of public- ity documenting the re-appropriation of Nazi- stolen artwork to rightful owners as well as the ongoing battle between Greece and England over the infamous Elgin Marbles (statues and friezes from the Parthenon). Greece's argument relies on England's "moral obligation" to return the marbles to their rightful home. Britain maintains both the legality of their purchase and the notion of the British Museum as a one- stop wealth of art and culture. But these debates are eclipsed for the moment by the fierce struggle between Italy and Los Angeles's Getty Museum (among sev- eral other American museums) over disputed classical artifacts. It's no secret anymore how corrupted the global antiquities market is, with scandals still fresh in the news. While New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art and Boston's Museum of Fine Arts have struck deals with Italy involving loans of Italian arti- facts in exchange for disputed ones, the Getty has remained defiant, returning 26 of 52 arti- facts. At the forefront of the debate surrounds one particular statue, "The Getty Bronze." Known to the Italians as the "Athlete of Lysip- pos," it was Purchased by the Getty in 1977 for $3.95 million, and dates to about the second or third century B.C. The Getty is currently in a sticky situation with Italy. As with Greece's claim on the Elgin Mar- bles, Italy can do little but depend on moral argument in the case, since it seems quite clear that its discovery and subsequent retrieval were legal under existing law of the time. Darkening the situation even further is the upcoming trial in Rome of former Getty antiq- uities curator Marion True. True has been linked to conspiracy charges surrounding the trafficking of stolen antiquities. Museums, especially those in the United States, are at a crossroads: Great strides have been made in the continuing and furthering accessibility and relevance, but on a global scale, there remains much to be resolved. Arguments over disputed artworks will last for as long as there is art. But in the cases of Italy and Greece, their respective outcomes, for better or worse, will greatly affect the business side of an art world whose motives are becoming farther and farther cries away from the spirit of art itself. LOS ANGELES (AP) - Nicole Kidman is the queen of Hollywood - at least when it comes to money. The Oscar winner, who earns as much as $17 million per movie, tops the fifth annual listof highest-paid actresses released Wednesday by The Hollywood Reporter. Never mind that the actress has had a rough year. She starred in just two movies, "Fur: An Imagi- nary Portrait of Diane Arbus," which has widely been dismissed by critics and audiences, and "Flushed Away," Dreamwork's middle-of-the-road CGI feature. Kidman, 39, ranked second on last year's list behind four-time top-earner Julia Roberts, who didn't make the list this year. Forgoing Kidman's strug- gles, she avoided Hollywood altogether this past year, passing her time out of the limelight with her 2-year- old SEEING DOLLAR SIGNS Hollywood's five top-paid actresses, according to The Hollywood Reporter's annual list. None of the top five have had bona fide hits this year. 1. Nicole Kidman, $17 million 2. Reese Witherspoon, $15 million 3. Renee Zellweger, $15 million 4. Drew Barrymore, $15 million 5. Cameron Diaz, $15 million twins. In second place, with $15 million per movie, was Reese Witherspoon, 30, who won the best-actress Oscar this year for her performance in "Walk the Line." Witherspoon has also starred in no films this year. Renee Zellweger, Drew Bar- rymore and Cameron Diaz placed third, fourth and fifth, respec- tively. They also get $15 million for each film. Rounding out the top 10 are Halle Berry ($14 million), Charl- ize Theron ($10 million), Angelina Jolie ($10 million), Kirsten Dunst ($8 million to $10 million) and Jennifer Aniston ($8 million). The list will appear in the Women in Entertainment Power 100 issue to be published by The Hollywood Reporter on Dec. 5.