To the editor:
I applaud the marketing strategy of the Berkshire Museum. Stage a sale of some of your more important works then gain worldwide attention due to legal wrangling and artists' activism. Hence, said sale does not go through and now the world wants to see The Forty Works!
P.T. Barnum once said, "Do not squander good or bad publicity but exploit it!" The viewing public wants to see the show in its entirety.
If you have been reading about this most interesting of topics, you may have caught the op-ed page column by Eric Rudd (Dec. 26) who suggested a new curator with rejuvenated vigor and vision for the museum. Barnum and his curator would have made "The Forty Works Show" one of the biggest art events on the East Coast for 2018. And yes, it could be put together in that amount of time.
Berkshire Museum has the art, the space, and a marketing/installation team already in place. Bolster the team with the new visionary curator who would make these 40 pieces of gold really shine in the main galleries and that will put you in the "big top" in the art world. P.T. Barnum would be proud.
You may say that he was just a showman, but so is every other museum director. His museum traveled the world and now the Berkshire Museum has an opportunity for the world to travel here. The collection is important enough for Sotheby's to want to auction off and thus split up the artwork forever. That may still not happen. But, would you like to see the Greatest Show On Earth?
Christopher J. Gillooly,
North Adams