The Netherlands turned over 119 objects to the Nigerian government, while the MFA Boston gave their two directly to the Oba of Benin. “As these two repatriations underscore, questions linger about who should rightfully receive them — the state or the Oba — as well as what restitution looks like in practice.” - Artnet
“He became one of the originators of the British Pop art movement in the 1950s and ’60s. … Phillips layered mundane images of consumer culture and mass entertainment into his vibrantly colored paintings, often with a playful twist.” - ARTnews
“(Many) believe weeks of leaks about Paramount’s legal machinations and of the 60 Minutes staff’s aversion to any kind of settlement have already undermined the show. Paramount has allowed the newsmagazine … to become ‘the opposition,’ says one of these people. ‘It’s so damaging.’” - Variety
Citing “operating costs (which) continue to rise while revenue earnings have not kept pace,” company management announced that it would use recorded music for The Nutcracker and ALICE (in wonderland) but that the Milwaukee Ballet Orchestra will play for season opener Giselle. - Milwaukee Magazine
Will the occasion underline the country’s divisions, as with Trump's military parade and the No Kings protests? Or can Americans come together over the principles in the Declaration of Independence? The Bicentennial in 1976, also a time of division after the Vietnam War and Watergate, could offer some clues. - The New York Times
“Four pro-Tibetan groups in France have filed a legal complaint against Paris’s state-run Musée Guimet, accusing it of attempting to erase Tibet’s cultural identity by renaming its Nepal-Tibet gallery to ‘Himalayan world’ and removing references to ‘Tibetan art.’” - Artnet
“A decadelong project to clean and restore the largest of the four … spectacularly frescoed reception rooms of the Apostolic Palace … uncovered a novel mural painting technique that the superstar Renaissance painter and architect began but never completed.” - AP
The Library announced this week that it has acquired more than 5,000 items from Sondheim's collection, which will be available to the public on July 1. - CBC
“A King Lear and two Othellos are in repertoire in major Kyiv theatres; there is also A Midsummer Night’s Dream in the capital, a Hamlet, a Macbeth and a Romeo and Juliet.” And there’s the Ukrainian Shakespeare Festival in Ivano-Frankivsk, which Guardian chief culture writer Charlotte Higgins went to visit. - The Guardian
“This isn’t about banning books,” Premier Danielle Smith posted on X. “It’s about protecting kids from graphic, sexually explicit content that has no place in a classroom.” (None of the books appear to have been part of any classroom curriculum, nor were students compelled to read them.) - The Walrus
The outcome will shape who gets to tell Canadian stories and what those stories are, and also which ones count as Canadian under the law. This, in turn, will determine who in the film and television industries can access funding, tax credits and visibility on streaming services. - The Conversation
The Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland, a global academic collaboration led by Trinity College Dublin, deployed historians, computer scientists and other specialists to digitally recreate parts of a vast archive destroyed in Ireland’s civil war. - The Guardian
“I’ve always been aligned with the mission and values of Ailey. So when I heard they were searching for a new artistic director, given all the knowledge and experience I’ve gained, it almost felt like I would be doing myself and the organization a disservice not to try.” - Dance Magazine
America’s creators are mounting a campaign to push back on any use of their work without permission or compensation, seeking to head off potential abuses of their intellectual property. - The Wall Street Journal
