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More Monoliths. (Is This Irritating Yet?)

Even though it has a little more flair, I hope we can accept the Turkish monolith as a normal part of life in 2021. It is not a mystery — even though we don’t know who exactly put it there, we know human beings did it, and we know that they were undoubtedly inspired by the 100-plus other monoliths...

Last Summer, Museums Made Promises About Diversity. What Are They Actually Doing?

"Many workers regarded it as a positive step this summer when numerous leading institutions released detailed diversity, equity, and inclusion issues (DEI) plans. But more than six months later, employees are still waiting for progress reports. Artnet News surveyed more than a dozen museums across the country, none of which agreed to share the full amount of money they...

Frick Collection Set To Open At Old Whitney Museum Building

"The Frick Collection will open in the Breuer building as the Frick Madison on March 18, the museum announced on Tuesday, beginning a two-year stay in the Brutalist space while its 1914 Gilded Age mansion on Fifth Avenue undergoes renovation." - The New York Times

Defying National Government, French City’s Mayor Reopens Museums

"Louis Aliot, the right-wing mayor of Perpignan, a city in the south of France, will let four museums begin welcoming visitors once more, effectively disobeying countrywide COVID-19 safety guidelines that are keeping museums throughout the country shuttered." - ARTnews

Why The California Attorney General Is Investigating The San Francisco Art Institute

The attorney general does not comment on ongoing audits, but Hyperallergic has acquired documents raising questions about board member self-interest and misuse of tax-exempt bonds that nonprofit attorneys interviewed by Hyperallergic say are within the office’s investigative scope. The documents shed light on the school’s debt-financed expansion into Fort Mason that jeopardized SFAI’s original campus on Chestnut Street and...

To Deaccession Or Not, And Why? Museum World’s Long Argument About This Is Now Playing Out In Public

Once the AAMD, looking at the financial carnage wrought by COVID, relaxed its strict rule about museums selling their art only in order to acquire other art, the sales started — with major museums in Brooklyn, Syracuse, the Berkshires, and, above all, Baltimore drawing a huge amount of scrutiny, more than a little condemnation, and even (though it's not...

Louvre’s New Conservation Facility Will Hold One-Third Of The Museum’s Entire Collection

The Louvre Conservation Center, located in Liévin (20 miles or so southwest of Lille), "has six storage areas, including dry, low-humidity areas for metalworks, a photography studio, workshop rooms, a varnishing booth, and study space. The center has large windows for natural light, and the rooftop garden features 27 seed varieties. More than 5,000 plants have been sown around...

Often, The Art Was Taken By Force, So This Activist Says He Can Take It Back

Mwazulu Diyabanza is a Congolese activist who would prefer France's museums were open so he could get some attention for taking African objects from their displays "to highlight what he sees as the mass pillaging of the continent by European colonialists. And it’s not just the mighty museums. Diyabanza and his supporters also plan to include smaller galleries, private...

Pro Tip: Not All Of Those Suddenly On The Market ‘Seldom Seen’ Artist’s Works Are Real

Five Florine Stettheimer works showed up in 2020. But there was a bit of an issue: "Only two turned out to have been actually created by Stettheimer. Of the other works, two were removed from the marketplace and the attribution changed on the third." - The New York Times

Who, Or What Collective, Should Create 45’s Official Portrait?

One suggestion: 43, aka painter George W. Bush. - Hyperallergic

There’s A ‘Museum Of Comfort’ In Spain

Well, on Instagram, actually. Yes, another InstaMuseum. Did Spanish people invent something to make life easier, better, more comfortable? Into the "museum" it goes. Part of its goal: "We have to generate a narrative for Spanish design." - El Pais

Edinburgh’s Royal High School, With Its Greek Revival Architecture, Was Saved From Development

Or from bad development, anyway. Now it's up for bids not for sale but for "sustainable longterm uses." The fight against a luxury hotel development galvanized Edinburgh preservationists. "For campaigners, the fate of the Royal High School, established as a free educational facility for rich and poor children alike with the ethos that all deserved to learn in an...

Even The Met Is Considering Selling Some Art To Make Ends Meet

The Met's director, Max Hollein: "Every museum in the U.S. is having these conversations. ... For us not to discuss this now would be irresponsible." - The New York Times

‘Salvator Mundi’ May Be by Leonardo, But Its Hand May Not Be

Two different studies — one by the Louvre, the other by an independent art historian and her AI researcher husband — find that the Christ figure's hand raised in blessing was added to the otherwise finished painting after the fact. The image recognition algorithm developed by the couple indicates that the hand was not by Leonardo (probably by an...

Remember That Fake Gauguin The Getty Bought? They Were Warned

"The J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles was privately warned in 2002 that a Gauguin sculpture it had just bought for around $4m was a fake. A few months later the museum sent a researcher from Los Angeles to Paris to investigate, but she failed to resolve the question — so the matter remained unpursued with the Wildenstein...

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