The Responsibilities of Museums and the Market: Karol Wight’s Interview with the Antiquities Coalition
December 16, 2015
Karol Wight is the President and Executive Director of the Corning Museum of Glass as well as Curator of Ancient and Islamic Glass. In this video during the New York Forum on September 24, 2015, Wight describes the art museum industry’s approach to acquisitions policies and the responsibilities of dealers and the art market to ensure that reliable pronounce accompanies all the pieces that pass through the market. Although it is increasingly difficult to track the provenance of pieces that specifically come out of the Middle East, Wight stresses the importance for museums to track collections histories and find the appropriate documentation in determining what pieces are secure to acquire. Wight became the Executive Director of the Corning Museum of Glass in August 2011 and assumed the title of President and Executive Director in January 2015. Wight was previously Senior Curator of antiquities at the J. Paul Getty Museum. She is a member of the Association of Art Museum Directors (AAMD) and the AAMD’s Art and Archaeological Task Force. Wight received her doctorate in Art History from the University of California, Los Angeles.