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Collecting the Newis the first book on the questions and challenges that museums face in acquiring and preserving contemporary art. Because such art has not yet withstood the test of time, it defies the traditional understanding of the art museum as an institution that collects and displays works of long-established aesthetic and historical value. By acquiring such art, museums gamble on the future. In addition, new technologies and alternative conceptions of the artwork have created special problems of conservation, while social, political, and aesthetic changes have generated new categories of works to be collected. Following Bruce Altshuler's introduction on the European and American history of museum collecting of art by living artists, the book comprises newly commissioned essays by twelve distinguished curators representing a wide range of museums. First considered are general issues including the acquisition process, and collecting by universal survey museums and museums that focus on modern and contemporary art. Following are groups of essays that address collecting in particular media, including prints and drawings, new (digital) media, and film and video; and national- and ethnic-specific collecting (contemporary art from Asia, Africa, and Latin America, and African-American art). The closing essay examines the conservation problems created by contemporary works--for example, what is to be done when deterioration is the artist's intent? The contributors are Christophe Cherix, Vishakha N. Desai, Steve Dietz, Howard N. Fox, Chrissie Iles and Henriette Huldisch, Pamela McClusky, Gabriel Pérez-Barreiro, Lowery Stokes Sims, Robert Storr, Jeffrey Weiss, and Glenn Wharton.

\"There's so much of his work that's not really known,\" said Lisa Phillips, director of the New Museum, who is curator of the show. It will take over all five floors of the museum's building and part of its exterior, and will include several new works. \"Part of that might be because of his self-imposed isolation. But he was also working in advance of a lot of people and never really fit into any style or movement, though the work now looks prescient.\" After months of debate and engineering calculations, the idea was vetoed, and now only two towers and a sailboat will be attached to the exterior. Mr. [Chris Burden]'s intentions with the boat, which will be suspended dozens of feet above the street, are in one sense brutally straightforward, post-Hurricane Sandy. \"When the next high tide is that high,\" he said, \"then it's time to climb in. It's that simple.\" \"If this little piece, this one piece, breaks,\" Mr. Burden said, pointing to a negligible-looking round concrete cylinder near the top of one arch, \"then you no longer have a bridge. It all comes down. How many people will understand that I have no idea. But it fascinates me.\"

\"We heard thunder and then a horn from the course,\" [Chris Burden] said. \"We kept yelling at people to get off the course, but some people weren't. When we got inside (the strike) hit, it shook the building, it was one of the brightest lights I've seen. Then we heard men yelling for us to call 911.\"

\"I could see that he was dead, I could see it in his face, he was ashen and purple,\" said the 28-year-old nurse who would eventually save the man's life. \"There were burn marks on his face, his shirt, hat and glasses were torn and melted. He had black hands, with lacerations and sheared skin, the grass was burned all around him and he was bleeding out of his mouth and nose.\" \"I just kept thinking, 'did that really happen?' I was just playing golf and now this,\" he said. \"I needed a pop to deal with the shock. I wanted a shower, I smelt like burnt flesh.\" \"We heard thunder and then a horn from the course,\" he said. \"We kept yelling at people to get off the course, but some people weren't. When we got inside (the strike) hit, it shook the building, it was one of the brightest lights I've seen. Then we heard men yelling for us to call 911.\"