Art in America: Guggenheim Bets on Las Vegas - Guggenheim museum to open in Venetian Resort Hotel C

A Guggenheim Museum branch in Las Vegas? You've got to be kidding! That was the response of many earlier this year, when talk of a Guggenheim-Las Vegas marriage was bandied about [see "Front Page," Sept. `00]. Will the highbrow institution open a venue in the city of glitz and gambling? You bet. Guggenheim director Thomas Krens and Rob Goldstein, president of the Venetian Resort-Hotel-Casino, recently announced a joint partnership to open a 63,700-square-foot exhibition space within the Venetian complex to be named Guggenheim Las Vegas. The project, designed by architect Rem Koolhaas, is set to open summer 2001 and will feature temporary traveling exhibitions. An additional 7,660-square-foot space will be set aside for the display of selections from the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, part of the Guggenheim's wide-ranging collaborations with the Russian institution [see "Front Page," Nov. `00].

Why Las Vegas? The Guggenheim may have had its eye on the success of the Bellagio Gallery of Fine Art, which, in spite of the recent departure of most of its permanent collection [see "Front Page," July `00], continues to be a big draw on the strip with its current loan show of works from the Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C. [through Mar. 4, 2001]. The inaugural exhibition at the Guggenheim Las Vegas will be a touring show, "Art of the Motorcycle," featuring a new installation designed by Frank Gehry.