Morning Report - News from Sept. 12, 2002

POP/ROCK

Punk Rockers Score Big on Hall of Fame Ballot

Musicians who emerged during the punk explosion of the late ‘70s made a strong showing for the second straight year on the list of nominees for induction next year into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

The Clash, the Police and Elvis Costello became eligible for the first time under the rock hall’s rule requiring 25 years to pass since an artist’s first recording, while the Sex Pistols are making their second bid at induction. Punk poet-singer Patti Smith appears for the third year on the ballot, which was sent to voters last week. Last year, the Ramones and Talking Heads became the first punk-generation bands inducted into the hall.

This year, the only other act making the list in its first year of eligibility is the R&B-disco; group Chic. Other previously eligible performers nominated for the first time include ABBA, the Righteous Brothers, Steve Winwood, MC5 and Kraftwerk. Previous nominees returning to the ballot also include AC/DC, Black Sabbath, the Dells and Lynyrd Skynyrd.

Winners will be announced in December and feted at the hall’s annual induction ceremony next year in New York.

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THE ARTS

Two Buildings Irk Designer Herzog

Jacques Herzog, the highly regarded designer of London’s Tate Modern museum, lashed into two of the venue’s international competitors during a seminar at this week’s Venice Architecture Biennale, the London newspaper the Independent reports.

New York’s Museum of Modern Art is driven by a cynical and elitist strategy, said Herzog, claiming that the institution is emblematic of those portraying art as decoration for charmed lifestyles.

Herzog also targeted Frank Gehry’s much-touted Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, which he called a “very bad example for museums in the future.” The gleaming, titanium-clad building is “just superficial ... like an alien,” he maintained.

Though Daniel Libeskind, designer of Berlin’s iconic Jewish Museum, defended Gehry’s vision, architecture commentator Charles Jencks sided with Herzog. Since the Bilbao structure came into being, “the game is about competitive buildings,” Jencks said. “It’s a dangerous game and it’s getting more dangerous. In America alone, there are currently more than 50 museum expansion projects worth a reported $5 billion.”

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Works by Goya, Gris Retrieved in Spain

Police say they’ve cracked Spain’s biggest art heist in recent years with the discovery of 20 stolen artworks by Francisco de Goya, Juan Gris and others in a home in the Spanish resort town of Playa D’Aro.

Police suspect that the paintings and antiquities--stolen last year from the Madrid apartment of one the world’s wealthiest women, Esther Koplowitz--were bound for the collection of a Colombian drug baron.

The artworks--which included Goya’s “The Donkey’s Fall,” valued at $9.5 million, and Gris’ “Guitar on a Chair”--represent about half of the estimated $47 million in art stolen from Koplowitz’s apartment while she was on vacation. The other half was recovered in June, when two of those involved in the robbery tried to sell the pieces to a police informant in a Madrid hotel.

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QUICK TAKE

A clip of Warner Bros.’ “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets” will be shown tonight during the 8 p.m. premiere of the WB’s “Family Affair.”