The effort, publicly launched on Wednesday at Tate Modern in London, has already raised £43 million of its £150 million goal. Meanwhile, the Tate board of trustees approved, for this fiscal year, a second consecutive deficit budget. - Press Association UK (Yahoo!)
The 37-foot-tall living sculpture, created in 2000, is designed to nurture more than 50,000 flowering plants and will be seeded in August with the hope that it will be fully established by April, when architect Peter Zumthor’s new poured concrete building is scheduled to open to the public. - Los Angeles Times (Yahoo!)
"The Venice Biennale has long been a mirror of the profession. This year, we tried a different format: Could a biennale shift from being a mirror to a tool? Could it become not a polished celebration of current architecture, but a place where we confront the urgency of adaptation to a planet in flux?" - Bloomberg
“On Monday, the Italian government announced it will cut the country’s VAT on art sales from 22% — the highest in the European Union — to just 5% percent … now the lowest.” A recent study estimated that the reduction could see galleries, antique dealers, and auction houses in Italy generate €1.5 billion in three years. - ARTnews
The statues, from the city’s cathedral, became the city’s property in 1948 and were subsequently moved to Franco’s summer palace at his wife’s request. The dictator’s family held onto them after he died and claimed ownership, a claim the court has now voided. - ARTnews
The copper-coated figures, each weighing almost 150kg, escaped the blaze because they were removed from the Parisian landmark for renovation just four days before flames consumed the roof and destroyed the spire. - The Guardian
While trying to emulate de’ Medici’s arm placement, the man lost his balance and rolled backwards on the balls of his feet, falling back on the painting and making a tear in the lower section of the artwork. - Hyperallergic
Iran’s Cultural Heritage Organization has transferred museum artifacts across the country to secure storage locations and closed museums and heritage sites until further notice, according to local reports. - ARTnews
Unlike traditional restoration, which permanently alters the painting, these masks can reportedly be removed whenever needed. So it's a reversible process that does not permanently change a painting. - Ars Technica
For now, Art Basel’s reputation for quality and importance in the art market continues to draw in more seasoned collectors, but that may change in years to come. There are questions about whether galleries need to pivot. - The Art Newspaper
The Picasso painting, an early Blue Period portrait from the permanent collection of the Pinacoteca Agnelli in Turin, is a star attraction in the special exhibition Berthe Weill: Art Dealer of the Parisian Avant-garde. - The Art Newspaper
“With its fascist posturing, suggestion of militarized violence, laser light shows, and relentless ego-buffing in the form of giant statuary, it’s like World War Z but with fascists instead of zombies (and also on the side of the zombies).” - Hyperallergic
“Artspace, the Minneapolis nonprofit that owns the lofts, sold the city on a vision: affordable housing that would help retain Seattle’s creative soul as redevelopment and rising costs were driving out artists. But the dream shattered.” - Seattle Times
