The artworks, which belong to prominent Russian museums including the Hermitage and Tretyakov, were being returned from exhibitions in Italy and Japan. Finnish customs says it does not dispute Russia's ownership of the art and will keep it only for the duration of the sanctions. - Artnet
What if we put video game designers inside the gallery context? How could they reimagine the world of gaming for a more collective audience and with that kind of spatial format for their work? - ArtsHub
The Jeu de Paume room was built in 1686 for Louis XIV to play the game of the same name, an ancestor of modern tennis. At the start of the French Revolution in 1789, that room — now restored and reopened — was where the National Constituent Assembly was created. - Yahoo! (AFP)
Once a leader in Russian cultural diplomacy overseas, the Hermitage is now isolated by the cultural boycotts of Russia that have multiplied through the western world since the war began. - The Art Newspaper
Once a slow-changing bastion of tradition, it was announced on Monday that the institution famous for its Renaissance masterpieces had last year leapt past Rome’s Colosseum, the ruins of Pompeii, the Vatican Museums and other well-known sites. - The Guardian
The gathering of these 200 artworks at the Fondation Louis Vuitton was one of the most popular museum shows in French history. Following the invasion of Ukraine, there were calls to withhold the collection rather than giving it back to Russia; those have now been rejected. - Artnet
The museum was originally set up as a privately funded branch of the St. Petersburg flagship, an affiliation now ended due to the invasion of Ukraine. Other museums in the Netherlands will lend items to DHA for a five-part series of shows. - The Art Newspaper
It’s great to have the Biennial back — to talk about, to love and hate — after it was postponed a year because of the pandemic. The Biennial has always trafficked in the contemporary, but this year’s offering, even with the inclusion of deceased artists, radiates with the power of now. - New York Magazine
They're Ukranian Dancers, not Russian Dancers - and it's not just a stunt during the war. The director of London's Ukranian Institute said last week, "Curators have no problem presenting Jewish, Belarusian or Ukrainian art and artists as Russian." - The Guardian (UK)
"More than a dozen artifacts linked to infamous antiquities trafficker Subhash Kapoor were seized from an (unnamed) Ivy League school's art gallery on Wednesday by Homeland Security. Twelve of the 13 artifacts were allegedly looted from India, and one item originated from Burma." - ARTnews
David Best's construction, titled Sanctuary and erected in the English Midlands in late May, will be modeled on the Temples he creates at Burning Man each year: festivalgoers place in the structure notes to loved ones who have died, and the Temple is set ablaze on the final night. - Artnet
As elsewhere in the world, the US museums that struggled the most in 2021 were the big names: the world-famous museums in the big cities that have been gutted by the evaporation of international tourism. - The Art Newspaper
"Spot is agile enough to inspect narrow passages and traverse uneven surfaces, and will collect terrain data alongside a laser-scanning drone released to fly over the site and conduct autonomous 3D scans. The robot will also be used to sniff out underground tunnels made by tomb raiders." - Artnet
