VISUAL

The Louvre Scandals And A French President’s Legacy

France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, is at risk of losing what could be a legacy-defining cultural project: a $1 billion-plus refurbishment of the Louvre, which would include moving the Mona Lisa, the museum’s most famous painting, to its own room and building a new entrance. - The New York Times

Native Artist Hand-Stitches ‘Bead Bomb’ Projects Onto Utility Poles In LA

”At the edge of a Home Depot parking lot where federal immigration agents have violently detained vendors and others,” a utility pole “carries a band of color with a fluorescent sheath ... made up of 10,000 pony beads spelling a message in block letters: ‘FUCK ICE.’” - Los Angeles Public Press

The Vatican Has Removed ‘A Chalky White Film Of Salt’ Coating The Last Judgement

That is to say, people’s sweat had gotten all over Michelangelo’s masterpiece, and now it’s being cleaned off while the sweat accumulates on a screen. - Associated Press

The Los Angeles Olympics Logo Needs To Settle Itself Down

“If you're going through all the trouble to create what I assume will be hundreds of logos by the time the games roll around, why would you not brand LA28 using 'LA' as a customized emblem? Why is it only the 'A' that changes out?” The answer may surprise you. - Torched LA

The Snow Sculptures Of New York’s Latest Storm

“Collaboration was key. What came first? The snow baby sitting on the bench or the lounging mermaid beside him? Did the same person who built the snow pyramid also build the snow sphinx?” - The New York Times

And Just Like That, 144 Year After Construction Began, Sagrada Familia’s Central Tower Is Finished

“Construction is expected to continue for a decade or so, but The Guardian called it ‘nevertheless a day full of emotion for a city that has lived with Gaudí’s unfinished work for generations.’” - ART News

Cambodia Gets Back Dozens Historic Artifacts Allegedly Looted In British Art Dealer’s Scheme

“The artifacts were described as dating from the pre-Angkorian period through the height of the Angkor Empire, including ‘monumental sandstone sculptures, refined bronze works, and significant ritual objects.”’ - Yahoo (AP)

The Kentucky Optical Shop Owner Who Was Also One Of The Twentieth Century’s Best, Strangest Photographers

“Often dark (literally and figuratively), surreal, sometimes playful and at other times sinister, his pictures stunned and sometimes perplexed viewers with their wild, poetic strangeness.” - Undermain Arts

Sorry, “Guerilla Teaching” Isn’t Allowed In Smithsonian Galleries

He was at the Portrait Gallery as an educator but also as co-founder of Citizen Historians for the Smithsonian, a group that last year spent thousands of hours documenting every corner of the Smithsonian, to track any changes made as Trump administration officials assert control over the content of the museums. - Washington Post

Pompeii Gets a Digital Makeover: Now With Less Ash

Forget the petrified citizens – new 3D renderings show Pompeii as the thriving metropolis it was before Vesuvius crashed the party. Because apparently we needed CGI to remind us that ancient Romans actually lived there. — Aeon

A Real Shit Show: Berlinale’s Director Faces Axe Over Israel Stance

Tricia Tuttle discovers that running a major film festival means navigating more landmines than a war correspondent. Her crime? Apparently failing to muzzle artists fast enough for Berlin's taste. Nothing says 'artistic freedom' quite like institutional panic. — Hyperallergic

DePaul Art Museum In Chicago To Shut Down This Summer

Announcement of the closure, which is effective June 30, comes two months after DePaul University laid off 114 full-time and part-time staff. Administrators cited financial troubles due to a significant drop in international graduate student enrollment, increased demand for financial aid and the rising costs of benefits. - WBEZ (Chicago)

35 Rembrandt Etchings Rediscovered After A Century In A Safe

Charlotte Meyer’s grandfather, who had a sharp eye, picked them up inexpensively back when etchings weren’t highly valued, and they remained in her family’s safe for decades. When she had time during the COVID lockdowns, she found the works and later took them to the nearby Rembrandt House in Amsterdam, where they were authenticated. - ARTnews

LA’s New Golden Age Of Museums

This shift to the West Coast has long been driven by the region’s many art schools, including the ArtCenter, California Institute of the Arts, Otis College of Art and Design and the art department at the University of California, Los Angeles. - The Art Newspaper

Paris’s Other Wildly Popular Museum, The Musée d’Orsay, Also Has A New Director

The home of the city’s collection of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist works will be led by 57-year-old Annick Lemoine, currently director of the Petit Palais. She succeeds Sylvain Amic, who died suddenly in August 2025.” - Le Monde (in English)

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