Simon Jenkins does not like the plans for a new building. "I could not imagine that London might inflict any more visual damage to the Thames than it has already done. No city on earth has made such a mess of its river." - The Guardian (UK)
Take the Toledo Museum of Art's new sale: "Almost no museum could afford to buy a $40-million Cézanne or $18-million Matisse. Call it forced retirement." And call it the continued cultural fallout of Reagan. - Los Angeles Times
Especially for those in diaspora communities, "artists destabilize the idea of a monolithic culture and instead construct works that are influenced by locations of cultures that reflect an 'in-between space': a site of dialogue reflecting these interconnected influences." - Fast Company
Iceland made some questionable decisions about national identity in the early 2000s, including copying a statue from the 1930s called The First White Mother in America. That copy was stolen and placed in a rocket "to comment upon its aggrandizing of colonialism." - Hyperallergic
A new Russian website known as Art For Victory, which belongs to an organisation known as Terricon Project, is supporting the Russian war in Ukraine by selling works of art, a number of which appear to be fakes. - The Art Newspaper
Joshua Hammer traveled to Lviv to look into the history of the Bohorodchany Iconostasis, a 36'-by-42' wall of delicately painted icons in a lavishly decorated wooden framework, and the dangers it has survived over its 317 years. - Smithsonian Magazine
The unconventional appointment — previous mayoral designees were political and philanthropic heavyweights — gives the club owner an entrée into one of New York’s wealthiest and most influential circles. - Politico
"The Wyeth Foundation for American Art is turning over its collection of nearly 7,000 Wyeth pieces to the Brandywine River Museum of Art in Pennsylvania and the Farnsworth Art Museum in Maine. ... Both museums will display a rotating, year-round selection of Wyeth's work" and will lend to other museums. - Smithsonian Magazine
When a certain 72-year-old woman explored the exhibition in March, she reportedly didn’t realize the jacket was anything other than someone’s actual jacket—and she fancied it for herself. So she took it off the hook, brought it home, and had a tailor shorten it by nearly a foot to fit her better. - Mental Floss
Having been stamped with the label of postmodernism – out of favour since the 1990s, when his work was described as “architectural terrorism” – he has been rediscovered by a new generation, thirsty for colour, pattern, ornament and fun. - The Guardian
Even the Met’s own head of costume has said; “I think the power of fashion is that it can reflect the zeitgeist.” So what does last night’s Gala tell us about the time we’re living? Ironically, by saying nothing as the world burns around them, the guests gave a very clear sense that we’re still living in a gilded...
The rebuilt of Glasgow School of Art’s Mackintosh building "favours the cheapest over the most suitable bid" according to a Glasgow architect. - Glasgow Live
There are thousands of life-sized engravings of anthropomorphic figures on the low ceilings of the three-mile-long cave complex, whose ceilings are as low as two feet. Researchers were able to see the drawings thanks to 3D photogrammetry scans. - Smithsonian Magazine
