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Met Museum Returns More Stolen Antiquities

The $25 million sculpture dates to 225 C.E., and is believed to have been looted in the 1960s from a shine at Bubon, an archaeological site in southwest Turkey. It had been on loan from a collection in Switzerland since 2011. - Artnet

Remember Damien Hirst’s Spin Paintings? Now You And AI Can Make One Of Your Own

Hirst did the originals, back in the 1990s, by dripping paint onto a rotating canvas. Now he and his partners have set up an AI generator with which you can designate colors and spin styles — and then get the resulting work as either a hard copy or an NFT. - Artnet

Is The Philadelphia Museum Of Art Sitting On A Vermeer We Didn’t Know About?

"Arie Wallert, a former Rijksmuseum scientific specialist, … is convinced that there are two versions of the young woman playing a guitar: the long-accepted painting at Kenwood House, in north London, and a very similar composition that has been in the Philadelphia museum's stores for nearly a century." - The Art Newspaper

How Architecture Has Become A “Hollowed-Out” Profession

Greater specialisation had become necessary and appropriate as construction grew in complexity, and they felt this compartmentalisation of roles would allow all aspects of architectural work to be carried out more skilfully. The logic is understandable, the outcome disastrous. - Dezeen

Fifty Years After He Died, This Is What Picasso Has Become

It’s no longer necessary that he connect in people’s minds with any actual art. It’s enough that he stands for that bigger thing: unfettered creativity. In fact, it’s better. A clear line connects Picasso’s description of his pictures as “a sum of destructions” and the capitalist mantra of “creative destruction.” - Washington Post

The Painting In The TV Room (AKA The Breughel) Sells For $850K

Yes, the family had long called it “The Bruegel,” but it was an affectionate dig at a painting that was clearly a fake. Turns out, the family joke was a hidden masterpiece, a genuine work of Pieter Bruegel the Younger, a 17th-century Flemish artist. - Washington Post

Giant 225-Ton Landscape Art Relocated Across Washington DC

Six years ago, the National Geographic Society, decided that the sculpture, known as “Marabar” and designed by the artist Elyn Zimmerman, was in the way of expansion plans for its headquarters, and later agreed to help find it a new home. - The New York Times

The Doofus Who Broke Off And Stole The Finger Of A 2,000-Year-Old Terra Cotta Warrior Takes A Plea Deal

To avoid a charge that could have sent him to prison for up to 30 years, Mihcael Rohana — who did the deed at Philadelphia's Franklin Institute in 2017 — will plead guilty to interstate trafficking, which carries a maximum two-year sentence. - KYW (Philadelphia)

Recognizing Elizabeth Siddal, Pre-Raphaelite Artist, Much More Than Just A Model

Siddal died young, and her husband Dante Gabriel Rossetti took up a lot of the air about the movement she was part of, both as model and as painter. "Regarded as an appendage to her husband, she remained unknown during her lifetime." - The Observer (UK)

At Long Last, MTV’s Reality Art Show Is Paying Off, Sort Of

"This was a decent last stop before the end of an extremely niche and largely anticlimactic journey." - Hyperallergic

You Can Still Find Peace And Quiet In Manhattan

That is, if you can find your way to one specific part of the Met Museum. - The New York Times

In London, Gilbert And George Open Their Own Museum

"The Gilbert and George Centre, which they have planned for years, is a built representation of their slogan 'art is for all' and designed as a gift to the community they have lived and worked alongside together for most of their working lives." - The Observer (UK)

Hold On, Let’s Talk More About This National Portrait Gallery-Getty Joint Buy

The sale hasn't closed, so why all of the PR? To get Britain to pay up. "It’s Britain, after all, not the Getty that hasn’t been able to muster the necessary funds. U.K. fundraising stalled at under $30 million — less than half the asking price." - Los Angeles Times

Italian Court Stops Puzzle-Maker From Reproducing Famous Leonardo

Ravensburger was brought to court by the Gallerie dell’Accademia in Venice, where the real Vitruvian Man lives. The museum claimed that it was owed financial compensation from the puzzle manufacturer, even though the 500-year-old artwork in question belongs to the public domain. - Artnet

How Poster Design Helped Reshape Japanese Society After World War II

"Curator Erin Schoneveld breaks down five seminal posters from the exhibition (at New York's Poster House Museum) that reveal how art reflects history — and how history influences art." - Fast Company

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