Sure, gladiators, but: "The recent restoration of a 17th-century wall painting of ancient Jerusalem on one of the Colosseum’s main interior arches is shedding new light on another centuries-old use of the Roman landmark: as a sacred site for Christian worship." - The New York Times
Theaster Gates' design for the Serpentine Pavilion 2022 reveals that there's slavery behind many contemporary building materials, and buildings: "To the greatest extent possible, Black Chapel was built without any materials produced by slave labor." - Fast Company
The Cosquer cave is "an underground grotto off the coast of Marseille that was once home to more than 500 works of prehistoric art." Now 150 remain, and climate change is rapidly destroying access (and the paintings themselves). But a new museum gives everyone access. - Artnet
Her father, a doctor who resisted Nazi orders, "had stored the painting in the Amsterdam Bank in Arnhem, thinking it would be safe there. But the Nazis broke into the vaults and seized it, amid widespread looting, destruction and devastation." - The Guardian (UK)
In the 1970s, "there was a backlash against reclaiming of the naked body, from feminist polemicists campaigning against pornography, to feminist artists and critics who were concerned that any image of a nude woman would play right into the male gaze." Is social media criticism similar now? - Aeon
Luella Knapp, a member of the clan, said, "As a caretaker of these clan items, it is an honor. Receiving them back, one by one, brings back the spirit of the person who wore them. We are so happy to have them returned to Wrangell’s Naanya.aayí." - Oregon ArtsWatch
"The tapestry of 400 reindeer skulls, the flesh and tissue boiled and scrubbed off and the bone polished to a shine, hangs like a huge flag in what the curator Randi Godø says is a statement about the museum’s intention to newly reflect all aspects" of Norway. - The Guardian (UK)
It's a history of Caravaggio's wild escapades and violent temper, a tale of armed knights bursting in to a cardinal's palace, and then a lot of centuries of who knows what, before they ended up in Avignon. - History Today
The pitch from ruangrupa: "The lumbung, the common rice store traditionally found in Indonesian villages, built and shared by everyone. They wanted Documenta to be a lumbung, treating artists as partners and creating resources that would live on beyond the show." - The New York Times
"A major lost painting by a follower of the Italian Renaissance painter Filippino Lippi hidden in plain sight in a London bungalow" of a 90+-year-old woman was discovered & sold to pay for her nursing home memory care. - Artnet
Last month a Saudi man took a wrong turn and drove his rented Maserati down the steps — then he tried to reverse the car back up, taking some chunks out of the marble. This week, an American couple tried to wheel their scooters down the steps and caused more damage. - Artnet
The previous director left less than one year into the role. But Mónica Ramírez-Montagut, who is currently the director of the Broad Art Museum at Michigan State, says she's eager to help the Parrish, in the Hamptons, connect more to its regional community. - The New York Times
Elizabeth Ann Macgregor, the Scot who took Sydney's Museum of Contemporary Art from expensive also-ran to "trail-blazing cultural attraction," is finished being quiet about the amount of crap she dealt with every day. "It’s just a modus operandi for politics in this country." - The Guardian (UK)
Roughly 500 pieces of basketry, quillwork, regalia and other items from the Mi'kmaq people which have been at the Museum of the American Indian for decades are to be turned over, under a long-term loan agreement, to the new Mi'kmawey Debert Cultural Centre in Nova Scotia. - CBC
