We saw ‘Bill’s stuff’ here first

Wichita got up close and personal with Bill Koch’s star-studded art collection in 1992 and 1996, in exhibitions at the Wichita Art Museum that drew boffo crowds and inspired fantasies that the native Wichitan and America’s Cup winner might turn the loan into a gift someday. Similar thinking has sparked debate in Boston, where two of Koch’s racing yachts are on display outside the Museum of Fine Arts as part of the just-opened exhibition “Things I Love: The Many Collections of William I. Koch.” One passer-by told The Boston Globe, “They’re beautiful, but I’m still trying to figure out why they’re at the museum.” That Koch is funding some of the show’s costs is fueling the controversy in the art world. But whether in Boston or Wichita, it’s getting harder all the time to argue that it’s a bad thing when art creates a buzz.
Posted by Rhonda Holman

2 Comments

  1. Galahad
    Posted September 1, 2005 at 9:41 am | Permalink

    Wow, rich guy buys nice stuff.

    Now, if he and his family stopped funding all those right-wing think tanks, our counrty would really be better off.

  2. Joe Williams
    Posted September 1, 2005 at 9:59 am | Permalink

    Galahad! The arts? Boston? Liberal heaven! Why would he live there?

    Maybe it is a right wing conspiracy to transform New England into red states.