Even though he died at the age of 37, Raphael had by then trained a generation of painters in his innovations. That partly explains his remarkable influence and reputation among artists over three centuries, Bambach explained, before the rediscovery of Michelangelo and Leonardo. The final rooms of the show are devoted to some of the most fully realized drawings by Raphael himself, as well as those who followed his path. There you’ll see Head of an Apostle, one of two drawings that Leon Black bought for $47 million each more than a dozen years ago. Surrounded by other ethereal Raphael drawings from the world’s most prestigious museums, you can see how intoxicating it must be to be able to own one for yourself.

Last week, the conservative RealClearInvestigations took aim at the notoriously aggressive New York Times reporter Zachary Small over a 6-year-old story that the reporter wrote as a freelancer (along with staffer Robin Pogrebin). The piece accused Joshua Helmer, the former assistant director of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, of making employees uncomfortable during his tenure there. RealClear’s Nancy Rommelmann asked why the story had not run in The Art Newspaper, where it had originated, and a former editor offered her a pointed explanation: “The Art Newspaper only runs stories we can verify.”

The internecine media snark is fun, but RealClear was perhaps misreading the comment. Their piece included a screenshot of a 23-point email that Small sent Helmer in November 2019, demanding a response within 48 hours. Times spokesperson Danielle Rhoades Ha confirmed that Small sent the same email simultaneously to several of Helmer’s former colleagues at the Philadelphia Museum, plus its board, as well as that of Erie, the art museum where Helmer became director upon leaving Philly. She claims it was a “fact-checking email.” It’s hard to verify a story, or check facts, when no one will respond—which perhaps explains TAN’s position.

It’s a different story at the Times, which surely has more reporting leverage. Two years earlier, in 2017, Pogrebin had set in motion the ouster of the Met’s former director Thomas Campbell by questioning his leadership. “When the Times began reporting,” Rhoades Ha went on, “our reporters reached Mr. Helmer, whom they interviewed for the story that was published in January 2020.” By “our reporters,” Rhoades Ha meant Pogrebin.

Helmer was out a few days after the Times published its first story on January 10, though he told the paper he’d followed museum policy, otherwise declined to discuss what he called his “personal life,” and never faced a lawsuit over the allegations. Nevertheless, the Times published a few more stories that mentioned the accusations against Helmer. RealClearInvestigations says that after leaving Erie, Helmer “self-exiled to northern Pennsylvania, took up woodworking, and hasn’t worked again.” (Though we later learn that he “was fortunate to have invested well and thus did not need a job.”)

Small wound up full-time at the Times, working as “an investigative reporter on the dynamics of power and privilege in the art world.” Many in the art world have since been subjected to the staff writer throwing the paper’s weight.

That’s enough for today. Join the Inner Circle for tomorrow’s conversation with Seth Johnson, Bonhams’ newish C.E.O.

See you then,
M