Guggenheim Las Vegas to go dark Jan. 5

Tuesday, Dec. 24, 2002 | 11:06 a.m.

SUN STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS

The Guggenheim Las Vegas, a soaring exhibition hall that opened just 15 months ago to the roar of a celebrity motorcycle cavalcade, will go dark on Jan. 5 for an indefinite period while the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York looks for a sponsor for the hall's next exhibition.

The temporary closing of the hall in The Venetian puts the Guggenheim's shrinking ambitions in perspective as New York's most flamboyant museum undergoes a severe retrenchment.

"We are working on securing funding for our next exhibitions," Lisa Dennison, the Guggenheim's deputy director, said. "Until we are in a state where we have the right show and the right sponsorship, it will remain closed."

Kimiko Haight, spokeswoman for the 63,700 square-foot Guggenheim Las Vegas and the 7,660 square-foot Guggenheim Hermitage Museum -- which will remain open -- said the closure should not raise eyebrows.

"It is very common for museums to go dark, especially when you are talking about a large, elaborate structure," Haight said, adding that the "Art of the Motorcycle "display was to have ended in December and was extended through Jan. 5.

The Hermitage's current display, a 39-painting exhibit of six centuries of art called "Art through the Ages," is scheduled to close March 23. Artwork of Picasso, Titian and Chagall are featured. The yet-to-be-announced replacement exhibit is scheduled to open by the end of March, Haight said.

Between October 2001 and this month 560,000 people have seen one or both of the exhibits, Haight said. She added she did not know whether any of the 90 people employed by both museums would be laid off or if employees of the larger museum would be assigned jobs in the smaller museum.

Kurt Ouchida, spokesman for The Venetian, says there is no pressure at this time on the hotel or the museum to immediately find a replacement.

"In the grand scheme of things, it is necessary to take the time to find a new program that fits Las Vegas, the museum and The Venetian," Ouchida said. "We will do what is right for Las Vegas in general and The Venetian in specific to take the necessary steps to bring in a world-class attraction.

"We are looking into many options."

Asked if one of those options was to shut down the museum, Ouchida said, "I will not comment on or deny that."

Mark Hall-Patton, administrator of the Howard W. Cannon Aviation Museum at McCarran International Airport, said museums that deal in large pieces sometimes have long gaps between exhibits, but they usually don't lack plans for the next display.

"It's a large space to keep empty," said Hall-Patton, who has operated museums for 25 years.

The Guggenheim operates the Guggenheim Las Vegas in partnership with The Venetian, so there is no rent on the space. However, the Hermitage leases space from the resort.

Each of the Guggenheim museums charge $15 for adults, with lower prices for locals, seniors, students and no charge for children under age 6. A ticket for both exhibits costs $25.

Haight said whatever the New York headquarters picks as a replacement for the motorcycle exhibit, "it will be contemporary and cutting edge."

The Las Vegas closure reflects larger troubles for the Guggenheim, which in the past year has lost 181 full-time positions worldwide from 339 in November 2001. In all 102 people have lost their jobs through layoffs.

Last month the museum's prime benefactor, Peter Lewis, an automobile insurance magnate from Ohio, came to its rescue with a last-minute infusion of $12 million, just enough to start 2003 with a balanced budget. But Lewis put the museum's director, Thomas Krens, on notice to either live within his means or start looking for another job.

With its operating budget down to $24 million -- half what it was at the end of the 1990s -- the Guggenheim has learned to make do with less. Its exhibition schedule for the coming year includes two shows that were postponed from 2002.

Yet museum officials insist that the Guggenheim is now at the size that suits it best.

More than any other project, the Las Vegas venture, consisting of two separate museums inside The Venetian, somehow came to symbolize Krens' dreams and schemes. Opened in October 2001 with a party that attracted Guggenheim supporters from all over, including Russia and Hollywood, the project got off to a heady start.

According to the Guggenheim's financial statement for 2000 and 2001, The Venetian -- which paid for the construction costs for both museum spaces and for the initial installations -- has yet to be reimbursed for the cost of installing the "The Art of the Motorcycle," an exhibition that has been on display in the larger of the two museums since it opened. Estimated at several million dollars, those expenses were to be covered by any surplus revenue generated by admissions and sales at the museum, Cox explained. So far, she said, no surplus has been generated.

archive