Troy, Mich., philanthropists and real estate developers Maxine and Stuart Frankel pledged $10 million to the Cranbrook Academy of Art and Art Museum in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan.

Eric McCauley Lee, former director of the University of Oklahoma Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art, will replace retiring Taft Museum of Art (Cincinnati) director Phillip Long.

Design Miami has presented its 2006 Designer of the Year Award to Marc Newson, who will redesign the railing located in the courtyard of the Design and Architecture Senior High in the Miami Design District. This installation will be unveiled during December 2007’s Design Miami.

Starting December 6, the Moore Space Loft in Miami will feature John Bock’s installation and performance piece “Zero Hero” as its inaugural exhibition.

The Carnegie Museum of Art launched an Internet database of nearly 30,000 works from the museum’s collection, making previously inaccessible information and images available to the general public and scholars. 

The New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York has appointed Massimiliano Gioni to its curator team. He will assist in organizing exhibitions and programs for the museum’s new building, scheduled to open in late 2007.

The National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., named businessman and philanthropist Mitchell P. Rales to its board of trustees and John C. Fontaine, chairman of the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, as chairman of the board.

London-based art dealer Giuseppe Eskenazi was appointed Chevalier (Knight) of the Légion d’honneur by the Minister of Culture in Paris for having supplied remarkable works of art to museums worldwide.

The Museum of Latin American Art has announced its first MoLAA Award winners, who will receive a combined total of $100,000. Visit its Web site for a list of winners and their works.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s rating on the New York State Dormitory Authority’s revenue bonds has been raised to AAA/A-1+. Standard & Poor’s Rating Services cites the museum’s overwhelming liquidity levels, larger endowment and significant capital improvements for the increase, describing the museum’s financial outlook as “stable.”

Roll International Corporation has sold The Franklin Mint to the Hicksville, New York–based Morgan Mint, a group of investors led by M. Moshe Malamud and Steven J. Sisskind. The group has backgrounds ranging from art and collectibles to marketing and entertainment.

The Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation has committed $1 million to the art gallery at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass. The college plans to raise an additional $600,000 in matching funds, doubling the institution’s endowment.

The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts has named Roman art specialist Peter Schertz as curator of ancient art. Schertz formerly was the Kress Curatorial Fellow in the Department of Art of the Ancient World at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
 
The Harvard University Art Museums has named Helen Molesworth the new curator of contemporary art, effective February 5, 2007. She becomes the first full curator of contemporary art since the department of modern and contemporary art was established in 1997.

Cowan’s Auctions has hired Diane Wachs as its furniture and decorative arts specialist. Wachs, an expert in American furniture, silver and 18th- and 19th-century ceramics, will oversee three major annual auctions.

Cyr Auction Company recently sold items from the estate of Judge Edward T. Gignoux, who gained national attention by presiding over the Chicago Seven and other prominent cases. Half of the net proceeds benefited the University of Maine School of Law.

After renovating, expanding and reopening, the Art Museum of South Texas in Corpus Christi recognizes sculptor Kent Ullberg with the naming of the Kent Ullberg Gallery.