The art world’s consensus has been that the painting was inspired by the African masks Picasso saw on a visit to Paris’s first ethnographic museum in 1907. Collector/researcher Alain Moreau argues that Demoiselles was completed before then and Picasso inspiration came instead from medieval Catalan frescoes. - The Times (UK)
Remember Alberto Vilar? What Matthew Christopher Pietras did might have been worse. Or it might not, since the victims of the theft may not have noticed that they were being robbed. - New York Magazine
The future of the world’s largest fully-functional musical instrument was in doubt when Macy’s vacated the Wanamaker space earlier this year. Now the building’s new owner is partnering with Opera Philadelphia for a four-month series featuring concerts, ballet, bearded ladies, horror movies, and, of course, the organ. - Broad Street Review (Philadelphia)
The 1966 watercolor-and-felt-tip painting was meant to be part of a series of illustrations for The Arabian Nights; Dalí never finished the project. When someone bought it in Cambridge two years ago for £150, nobody realized it was a Dalí. Then someone spotted the signature. - The Guardian
A favorite tactic of Alden Global Capital is, when someone else is about to buy a newspaper, to jump in with a higher bid that’s difficult for the sellers to resist. That’s just what happened when Hearst agreed to buy the DMN. In this case, though, the key seller resisted. - Nieman Lab
“It has the potential to make careers, but it’s so expensive it’s not just the working-class comedians who are getting shut out – so are middle-class comedians. If you don’t intervene financially, Edinburgh is just going to become more elitist. Then comedy on telly becomes more elitist.” - The Guardian
Books are removed, and replaced with coffee bars and spaces for socializing. In case people don’t get the message, librarians now put up signs discouraging quiet study. - The Honest Broker
“A poet, photographer and bandleader, (he) explored race, music, politics, academia and family in dazzling, erudite and often funkified verse — ‘percussive prosody,’ he once called it — and was a founder of the Dark Room Collective, a noted community of Black poets.” - The New York Times
Sales of adult books dropped 9.6% in the month, with fiction sales off 8.3% and nonfiction falling 11.3%. For the first five months of 2025 adult book sales were down 4%, with fiction falling 4.9% and nonfiction down 2.7%. - Publishers Weekly
Most experts acknowledge that a takeover by artificial intelligence is coming for the video game industry within the next five years, and executives have already started preparing to restructure their companies in anticipation. - The New York Times
Site Santa Fe opened in 1995 in a former warehouse turned nonprofit gallery in the city’s art-filled Railyard District, but it stretches to museums and unconventional venues nearby, including a much-beloved novelty store and a boutique-y cannabis dispensary. - The New York Times
“In the 21st century, no other country has reinvented the language of the orchestra on such distinctive and appealing terms. … Call it the First Icelandic School — the only formative national movement in classical musical history to have emerged in the 21st century, dominated by women and heavily influenced by art pop.” - Financial Times
A growing body of research suggests classical music can offer measurable benefits to athletes: helping regulate nerves, boost balance, reduce perceived effort, and even foster team cohesion. - Classic FM
The idea that technology is altering our capacity not just to concentrate but also to read and to reason is catching on. The conversation no one is ready for, though, is how this may be creating yet another form of inequality. - The New York Times
