“What was initially believed to be nothing more than a large rock was found to contain the snout of an ichthyosaur, which was so heavy it took two men to lift.” The fossils likely “had been moved by a glacier and deposited at Melton some 200 million years ago.” - BBC
“Victor Quiñonez, the artist behind the exhibition, said he learned about the university’s decision when students messaged him on social media to say the windows of the gallery in Denton, northwest of Dallas, had been covered and the door locked.” - The New York Times
“In the face of an £8.2 million deficit in the coming year, … initially there will be a ‘voluntary exit scheme’ available to all staff. … With regard to the exhibition programme, (there could be) fewer free exhibitions, not as many ticketed shows, less international borrowing of artworks, and more expensive tickets.” - The Art Newspaper
“The Paris prosecutor's office on Thursday said that nine people were being detained as part of an investigation into a suspected decade-long, 10 million euro ($11.8 million) ticket fraud scheme at the Louvre.” - AP
Tina Rivers Ryan had stepped into the leadership role at Artforum after a tumultuous year. It had just fired David Velasco, at the time its editor in chief, after he had signed and published an open letter calling for Palestinian liberation. - The New York Times
“After announcing last week that Jersey City is facing a $255 million deficit, Mayor James Solomon removed any doubt about where he stood on Centre Pompidou’s proposed satellite location in New Jersey’s second-largest city. ‘We will not be doing Pompidou, to be clear. It is dead.’” - NJ.com
Depending on where you stand, the human face has become either a digital playground or digital battleground. Your Instagram feed can now produce a diaspora of thousands of faces that uncannily resemble but are not quite Kim Kardashian, a “cyborgian” look best achieved through plastic surgery and Facetune. - The Walrus
The principle is currently set out in two French legal codes, including the Heritage Code, which applies to public museum collections. Under the principle, nothing can be permanently removed from these collections without a special law passed by the French parliament in each case, a cumbersome and time-consuming process. - The Art Newspaper
That Sunday, a ribbon-cutting ceremony will kick off two weeks of priority member access to the galleries, with general admission beginning May 4. - Los Angeles Times
“The Southbank Centre in London, which includes the Hayward Gallery, Purcell Room, Queen Elizabeth Hall and Undercroft skatepark and was once voted ‘Britain's ugliest building’, has been heritage-listed. Completed along the River Thames in the 1960s, the post-war landmark has now been Grade II-listed by the Department for Culture Media and Sport.” - Dezeen
Matthew Bogdanos, founder and chief of the Antiquities Trafficking Unit in the New York District Attorney’s office, has been awarded the Marica Vilcek Prize in Art History, which is usually given to curators or scholars and includes a $100,000 purse. - ARTnews
“Maggie Fairs, who was promoted to chief of staff last year by former director and CEO Sasha Suda, will leave the museum at the end of the month. CFO Valarie McDuffie has also resigned, with her last day this Friday. Previously, the museum parted ways with its marketing chief Paul Dien.” - The Philadelphia Inquirer (MSN)
Today, as architects seek to improve the sustainability of a sector that is responsible for more than a third of global carbon emissions, the concept of using rammed earth sourced from, or near, the grounds of a proposed building site is attracting attention. - The Guardian
The AI-supported “findings supported scholars who had suggested that both versions were studio paintings – produced in the artist’s workshop but not necessarily by him,” but surprised some art historians, who now wonder whether an original exists somewhere. - The Guardian (UK)
Tabouret: “It’s not very French to change stuff, so I thought that interesting as well as brave and fresh. They specifically wanted figurative painting, which also isn’t very French.” But church authorities eventually gave her a lot of artistic freedom. - The Guardian (UK)
