Art museums become thing of past in Las Vegas

LAS VEGAS: Museums dedicated to neon, entertainer Liberace and pinball machines remain, but high-brow culture in Las Vegas has achieved a new nadir with the closure of its public art museum.

The 59-year-old Las Vegas Art Museum (LVAM) went broke and shut down, the latest in a string of bad news for the arts in the largest metropolitan area in the United States.

Last year saw the closure of a Guggenheim outpost in the Venetian Hotel-Casino and the decision in 2007 by Steve Wynn to convert a gallery at his Wynn Las Vegas resort into a Rolex shop.