In a way, the 1923 photograph in Sunday's href="http://208.248.87.252/03122000/26056.htm">New York Post told much of the
story: heiress Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, great-granddaughter of
19th century robber baron Cornelius Vanderbilt, standing at the top of
a ladder, outstretched arm touching the shoulder of her sculpture of a tall,
dashing man in breeches. He squints at the distant horizon, while Gertrude's
eyes are lowered; she appears desperate, as if she is losing her grasp on
her Art.
Seventy years after Gertrude founded the Whitney Museum of American Art in
Greenwich Village, some of her descendants are openly talking about removing
the family name -- and, more importantly, a sizable portion of its money --
from the institution. The rift is over a work of art by Hans Haacke, called
"Sanitation," which was commissioned by Whitney director Maxwell Anderson
for the museum's upcoming 2000 Biennial Exhibition. The installation
apparently links Mayor Rudy Giuliani to Nazism, highlighting his
denunciations of the recent "Sensation" exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum of
Art.