Date: Fri 12-Feb-1999

Publication: Ant

Author: LIZAM

Quick Words:

Monet-MFA-Boston

Full Text:

Monet Show Was Highest-Attended In The World Last Year

BOSTON, MASS. (AP) -- "Monet in the 20th Century," the first major exhibition

devoted solely to the Impressionist painter's later works, brought critical

acclaim to the Museum of Fine Arts in 1999.

It also brought visitors. The Monet show was the most highly attended

exhibition in the world last year, the MFA announced February 1.

From the show's September 20 opening until it closed just over three months

later, 565,992 people viewed the exhibit, also making it the most popular

attraction in the museum's 128-year history.

"`Monet in the 20th Century' has been rewarding for the MFA, the city of

Boston and visitors from around the world," museum director Malcolm Rogers

said in a statement.

The city also drew benefits from the exhibit's popularity, said Patrick

Moscaritolo, president of the Greater Boston Convention and Visitors Bureau,

who called the show "the largest cultural tourism event in the region's

history."

"The impact of the Monet exhibit was dynamic," he said, adding that it

generated more than $30 million in spending by tourists who came to town to

see the show. "In the long term, we enhanced our position in the world as a

visitor destination."

A survey conducted by Kane, Parson & Associates found that 35 percent of

tourists visiting the exhibit said the show was their primary reason for

traveling to Boston and 65 percent said it was their secondary reason.

The exhibit, on view at the Royal Academy of Arts in London until April 18,

drew widespread praise for its attention to Claude Monet's less-well known

works completed between 1900 and his death in 1926.

The works showed how Monet stretched his Impressionistic style in his last

years, moving at times toward the abstract in the paintings done when he was

between 60 and 86 years old.

More than 80 of the 450 works he painted during that time were featured in the

show. They came from 68 collections around the world, about one-third of them

private.

Monet also proved to be a cash cow for the museum, which attributes a 42

percent increase in membership last year to the show. MFA Enterprise, the

museum's non-profit retail organization, sold about 34,000 Monet catalogues,

10,000 posters of "Water Lilies" (1907) and 10,000 Monet wall calendars.

The Monet exhibit was sponsored by the Fleet Financial Group, which gave the

museum $1.2 million, the largest single sponsorship gift ever made to the

museum.

The second-most highly attended MFA exhibition was "Monet in the '90s," which

ran for three months in 1990 and attracted 537,502 visitors.

Along with droves of visitors, the recent show drew controversy when it was

revealed that a 1904 water lily painting on exhibit may have been stolen by

Nazis during World War II.

Jewish groups also criticized the museum for the placard initially placed next

to the painting, which noted only that the work was "recovered after World War

II."