"119 local women and 670 men are being trained in traditional stone masonry techniques using 'Mosul marble' — a kind of gypsum alabaster native to the area — as part of a larger effort by UNESCO to encourage community participation in heritage conservation." - The Art Newspaper
For artists and curators from countries that have been hit hardest by Covid-19 or those that have struggled most to foot the bill—presentations require around $100,000 to $300,000, according to several commissioners we spoke to—it’s been a race against both time and resources. - Artnet
The redesign, led by the firm’s founder, Annabelle Selldorf, has gracefully unified a jumble of buildings from various eras, added 30,000 square feet of gallery space and reoriented the entire structure to the stunning feature it had long turned its back on: the Pacific Ocean. - Los Angeles Times
Andrés Rubio, travel editor at El País, has just published a book arguing that Spain's natural beauty and historic cities and towns have been blighted by hasty, often chaotic real estate development with architecture that's often hulking, dull and even downright repugnant. - The Guardian
The artwork spent 150 years at a school in the Blue Mountains that's now owned by the National Trust of Australia, which sent the painting for conservation. Once the varnish was removed, conservators discovered the signature of Gerrit Willemszoon Heda (1624-1649), and the painting is worth several million dollars. - Artnet
This week sees the release of a new film, Who Can He Be?, in which David Rolfe argues that, far from the shroud being a definite dud, new discoveries in the past few years have again opened the question of its authenticity. - The Guardian
An Italian court says the Piero della Francesca work must be returned to the hilltop church where it was painted in 1460. The mayor of the town says no way in hell is it going to live among 3,000 graves. - The Guardian (UK)
Devon Henry "has emerged as the go-to statue remover not only for , but for all of Virginia and other parts of the South." And there's a high price to pay, on a personal level. - The New York Times
Barry Joule "said he is so frustrated by the Tate’s failure to exhibit an earlier donation of the artist’s work that he has cancelled plans to donate hundreds more items to the gallery." - The Observer (UK)
More than half a million such objects—by some accounts, more than ninety per cent of all cultural artifacts known to originate in Africa—are held in Europe, where they have long seemed destined to remain. - The New Yorker
"Far from being sweet and adorable, rabbits in the margins and illuminated letters of these texts ... are frequently shown wielding swords, axes, and bows and arrows as they fight against — and sometimes kill — those who often hunted them." - Mental Floss
"We uncovered all these riches just 10-15cm under the floor slabs," said the leader of the dig. "Suddenly we had several hundred pieces from small fragments to large blocks including sculpted hands, feet, faces, architectural decorations and plants. Some of the pieces were still coloured." - The Guardian
Hand-painted benjarong was a super-luxury product in the 18th and 19th centuries, and early 20th-century Buddhist temples were clad in benjarong shards. Yet the craft had died out by 1930 and would now be gone altogether, but for a group of artisans who revived it in the 1980s. - National Geographic
LACMA is telling us that movies toppled painting and sculpture to became last century’s “greatest art form”? Hollywood is no slouch in the grandiosity department, but even the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, LACMA’s new neighbor next door, knows better than to try to pull that one. - Los Angeles Times
