Putting a New Spin on World of Collecting

Last year’s big art publishing news was Grove’s 32-volume Dictionary of Art, priced at a whopping $8,800. This year’s hot item--so far--is a history of art collecting in Western Europe on CD-ROM, published by the Getty Trust. It’s a relative bargain, selling for a mere $900.

Sixteen years in the making, the Getty Provenance Index CD-ROM includes databases containing more than 330,000 records from auction catalogs and historical inventories of some of Europe’s most prominent collectors, from the 16th to the 19th centuries. Among notable acquisitors represented are the Colonna family of Rome, Amedeo Dal Pozzo of Piedmont and Almirante de Castilla of Spain.

Although intended primarily as a research tool for art curators, scholars, professors, dealers and collectors, the new resource can be used by anyone who is interested in the history of collecting, the evolution of artistic taste and the art market.

By consulting the CD-ROM, one can track an artwork’s owners, follow its moves and chart its value on the market. The new product is a sort of one-stop research center--in compact, digital form.

The process of gathering information for the CD-ROM began in 1982, when computers were just beginning to be used by art historians. Under the direction of Burton Frederickson, the Getty Provenance Index has developed into a collaborative effort involving 13 partner organizations in eight countries. Information: (800) 223-3431.

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OXFORD BOUND: George Goldner, the J. Paul Getty Museum’s former curator of paintings and drawings who moved to New York four years ago and became chairman of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s department of drawings and prints, has been appointed director of the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford University. Goldner, who will be the first American to direct the English museum, will assume his new position Oct. 1. He will succeed Christopher White, who is retiring.

The Ashmolean, founded in 1863, is the oldest museum in England and is one of the most venerable. Its renowned collection has an encyclopedic range, encompassing art and artifacts from antiquity through the 20th century.

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NEW YEAR/NEW SPACE: SITE, an alternative artists’ organization founded in 1988, has kicked off the new year by moving to a new home. It’s downtown at the Brewery Arts Complex, 2100 N. Main St., No. A-9. The first exhibition, “Viaggiatore/Travelers”--featuring works by six artists from Los Angeles and nine artists from Umbria, Italy--opens today with a reception from 1-3 p.m. and runs through Jan. 31. Gallery hours: Wednesdays-Saturdays, 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Information: (213) 221-9039.