The newly renovated national museum had closed its doors in 2019 amid escalating anti-government protests in Baghdad. Home to artifacts dating from ancient Mesopotamian, Abbasid, and Persian civilizations, the institution was originally founded in the 1920s as a part of a cultural initiative led by a British archeologist. - ARTnews
"The Portland Museum of Art has embarked on an $85 million project leaders say will fundamentally transform the museum, bolstering its endowment and unifying its downtown campus with a physical expansion that will more than double the museum's current space." - MSN (The Boston Globe)
Awkwardly, the list was finalized before Putin's forces attacked Ukraine. The locations included range from world-renowned (Teotihuacán) to very ancient (cave paintings in the Amazon) to African Modernist (the People's Palace in Ouagadougou) to embattled (the old cities of Beirut and Benghazi) to offbeat (Kolkata's Chinatown). - Smithsonian Magazine
"The J. Paul Getty Trust, a nonprofit that oversees the Getty museum complex in Los Angeles, is suing the financial services firm Allianz Global Investors, alleging that the company 'recklessly' mismanaged the trust's investment fund, resulting in 'significant losses' for the organization's endowment." - ARTnews
"In one partially empty gallery of the Andrey Sheptytsky National Museum (in Lviv), employees placed carefully wrapped baroque pieces into cardboard boxes. A few meters away, a group walked down the majestic main staircase carrying a giant piece of sacred art, the 18th century Bohorodchany iconostasis." - AP
But the artist says the aftermath has made him calmer, and more focused on different goals. "I’ve been attempting to make paintings which speak to connection, reaching towards empathy. The noise of previous work gave way to something quieter." - The Guardian (UK)
“Vladimir Potanin has advised the Board of Trustees of his decision to step down as Trustee effective immediately,” the museum said. “The Guggenheim accepts this decision and thanks Mr. Potanin for his service to the Museum and his support of exhibition, conservation and educational programs. - Hyperallergic
According to the 2021 State of Artistic Freedom Report by Freemuse, Russia detained 17 artists in 2020, a number exceeded only by Cuba. Artists are regularly fined, detained, and sentenced to prison, usually for political dissent or falling foul of the notorious “gay propaganda” law passed in 2013. - Hyperallergic
Or are the painting actually not very old at all? "Where Dr. Iriarte’s team sees potential giant ground sloths and Pleistocene horses, Dr. Urbina and Dr. Peña see modern capybaras and horses." - The New York Times
It's not simple: "Creating these immense light installations isn't a matter of changing some lightbulbs. The Kennedy Center Production Department used 48 sheets of lighting gels and a 67-foot lift to place the gels over 144 lights." - NPR
In short, one artist's work was removed for being "antisemitic," and then other artists covered their work in protest, the museum's chief curator resigned, and now the museum has closed. - The Observer (UK)
An intellectual property lawyer explains: "The fundamental issue, I think, is that fashion companies are under pressure to produce large volumes of new and fashionable goods, so their designers often go for the quick fix." And artists can rarely afford to pursue legal action. - The Observer (UK)
Anthony Amore, chief of security for the Gardner museum, tells Boston 25 News that a recent tipster prompted officials to take another look at the murder of career criminal Jimmy Marks, a known career criminal, because the killing may have possible links to the heist. - Smithsonian
"Due to our carefully built relationship," said a statement from the Dutch satellite, "we had access to one of the world's most famous art collections that we could use to complement our exhibitions. ... The recent attack by Russia on Ukraine means that neutrality is no longer tenable." - ARTnews
