The director of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, Richard Armstrong, below, appears to be consolidating control over the development of the Guggenheim’s enormous new branch in Abu Dhabi. When Mr. Armstrong took over the Guggenheim in 2008 from Thomas Krens, who began the Abu Dhabi project, the Guggenheim said Mr. Krens would continue consulting on it, setting up what seemed like a potentially difficult power-sharing arrangement. But the Guggenheim’s spokeswoman, Eleanor Goldhar, said this week that Mr. Krens’s involvement would conclude by the end of the year. Asked if that was a change of plans, Ms. Goldhar said that Mr. Krens’s role “was always connected to the creation of the building,” designed by Frank Gehry, rather than the planning of the museum’s program. But at the time that Mr. Krens stepped down as director, and as recently as last year in an interview in the Russian-language magazine Snob, Mr. Krens seemed to envision a larger role. Mr. Krens, who did not respond to requests for comment, pioneered the concept of the global museum during his 20-year tenure at the Guggenheim, opening branches in Bilbao, Spain; Berlin; and Las Vegas.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/16/arts/design/16arts-GUGGENHEIMDI_BRF.html?pagewanted=print