Museum acquisitions round-up: Andy Warhol in an apron, a solid-silver relief and Christo's luggage rack

Andy Warhol in an apron with his Big Shot Polaroid camera in the Factory (1970s) by Ronnie Cutrone
Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC

More than 400 stereoscopic slides depicting Andy Warhol and other figures inside the Factory have been donated to the Smithsonian’s Archives of American Art by James R. Hedges IV, a Los Angeles-based art dealer and collector. The slides, which create the illusion of 3D images, were taken by the artist Ronnie Cutrone (1948–2013), who joined Warhol’s studio as an assistant in 1972. Cutrone soon began photographing Warhol and visitors to the Factory—Georgia O’Keeffe, Bruce Nauman, Debbie Harry, Mick Jagger and David Hockney among them. After Cutrone left Warhol’s studio, he became a successful artist in his own right, his brightly coloured neo-Pop paintings depicting characters such as Donald Duck and Felix the Cat.

Lamentation of Christ (1786) by Luigi Valadier
Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nuremberg

This solid-silver relief, standing more than a metre tall, is believed to be the last known work by the virtuoso silversmith Luigi Valadier (1726-85). Valadier was renowned in 18th-century Rome and beyond. Commissioned by royalty, aristocracy and popes, his ornate works traverse the Baroque, Rococo and Neo-Classical styles. This depiction of the Lamentation of Christ was a diplomatic gift from Pope Pius VI to Countess Palatine Maria Anna of Zweibrücken-Birkenfeld-Bischweiler (sister of the future King Maximilian I of Bavaria) in 1786, given “out of spiritual kinship”. Heike Zech, the deputy director general of the Germanisches Nationalmuseum, calls this “courtly showpiece” a “significant testament to European cultural history”.

Package on a Luggage Rack (1962) by Christo
Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris

Christo and Jeanne-Claude had a special relationship with Paris. It was there that they met in 1958 and lived until 1964. The city also hosted numerous projects of theirs, including the wrapping of the Pont Neuf in 1985 and, posthumously, the Arc de Triomphe—which drew six million visitors in 2021. Now, the Christo and Jeanne-Claude Foundation has donated 14 of the couple’s works to the City of Paris and Paris Musées. Some go to the Musée Carnavalet-Histoire de Paris, and the remainder to the Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris—including this early Christo piece, Package on a Luggage Rack, which complements the museum’s already substantial collection of New Realism works.