QUICK TAKES - May 8, 2009

The U.S. and Cuba governments have taken the first tentative steps toward ending 50 years of hostilities, but the thawing of relations is already in full swing in the arts world. After being largely absent in recent years, U.S. gallery owners, museum directors, curators and collectors are returning to the island to view and buy the work of Cuban artists.

Hundreds showed up for the just-ended Havana Biennial arts festival that was a regular stop for art buyers before a Bush administration travel crackdown earlier this decade. Their presence reflected both newly relaxed U.S. policy toward Cuba under President Obama and a U.S. hunger for Cuban art.

The strong American presence at the Biennial means U.S. demand for Cuban art is on the rebound, said Pamela Ruiz, an American art curator based in Havana.

“My guess is that there were at least 1,000 Americans walking around, and 95% of them were here because either they wanted to buy work or because they were curators or [worked for] nonprofit [organizations],” she said.