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To Save Itself, San Francisco Art Institute Might Sell Its Diego Rivera Mural To George Lucas

The long-financially-strapped school — which shut itself down last March, only to reverse that decision a month later after raising $3 million — has one valuable asset other than its campus that it could sell: a piece of meta-art by Rivera depicting workers painting and installing a Diego Rivera mural. And the creator of the Star Wars franchise wants...

An Enormous Expansion Of Melbourne Contemporary Museum

The proposed new building, the NGV Contemporary in Melbourne, will be Australia’s largest gallery of contemporary art and design, says Tony Ellwood, the director of the National Gallery of Victoria. It will span 30,000 sq. m, one third of which will be exhibition space. - The Art Newspaper

Has The Gagosian Gallery Left San Francisco?

As of Thursday, Dec. 31, the gallery phone was disconnected and the exterior banner as well as signage in the window had been removed. Mentions of the San Francisco location have also been stripped from the Gagosian website, which serves as an online hub for its myriad galleries. - San Francisco Chronicle

The Biggest Archaeological Finds Of 2020

As always, Egypt was fruitful ground for archaeologists, with the discovery of the first ancient Egyptian funeral parlor, the world’s oldest Illustrated book, and a mummy buried with a secret painting gallery, among other finds. But the biggest news in Egyptian archaeology this year was undoubtedly the excavation of over 100 painted sarcophagi in Saqqara, an ancient burial ground south of Cairo....

More Museums Are Presenting “Sponsored Content.” Is This A Problem?

"On either side of the Atlantic, museums have teamed up with corporations in an effort to utilize their spaces—and collections—in order to reach new audiences and make a little extra dough." - Artnet

Inside The Largest Trove Of Nazi Propaganda

Today, one of the world’s largest collections of Nazi propaganda sits in a climate-controlled warehouse at Fort Belvoir, in northern Virginia. Much of it is virulent; most of it is never seen by the public. - The New Yorker

Unknown El Greco Painting Discovered In Spain

The small canvas depicting Christ carrying the cross and wearing the crown of thorns, owned by a private individual, was authenticated after two years of study by a team at the University of Lleida. - ARTnews

Dorms Designed By Louis Kahn In India Saved From Wrecking Ball

The board of governors of the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad admitted that an international outcry prompted their decision to call off plans to demolish 14 of the school's 18 buildings designed by Kahn in the '60s and completed in 1974. But the buildings are still considered unsafe to use because of deterioration in their bricks and damage...

Congress Passes New Controls On Antiquities In The Defense Authorization Bill

Regulators have long worried that the opacity of the antiquities trade, where buyers and sellers are seldom identified, even to the parties in a transaction, made it an easy way to shroud illicit transfers of money. The new legislation empowers federal regulators to design measures that would remove secrecy from transactions. - The New York Times

Study: Was Stonehenge Built As A Giant Amplifier?

The study found that people who spoke or played music inside the monument would have heard clear reverberations against the massive standing stones. Testing on the model also suggests that the stones increased the volume on interior sound, kept exterior sound out, and made it hard for anyone outside the structure to hear what was going on inside. -...

Star Museum Directors Talk The Future Of Museums

As the Ford Foundation’s president, Darren Walker, recently told me, “museums are in a crisis because America is in a crisis.” Museums shape narratives that matter, so it’s no surprise young people are passionate about pushing for change. It’s time now to do better—a lot better. That means looking at ourselves honestly and fixing a whole lot about the...

Uncovering – Literally – The Forgotten And Hidden Work Of Italy’s Women Artists

In Italy, for centuries, women weren't allowed to work as artists, but many did anyway. The group Advancing Women Artists has been working its detective magic to change the history. The group "has shed light on a forgotten part of the art world, identifying some 2,000 works by women artists that had been gathering dust in Italy's public museums...

Painting In Apocalyptic Times

The Canadian artist painting 2020 for a spot across from Salvador Dalí's Santiago El Grande, which includes a nuclear bomb going off: "I wanted the apocalypse I was creating to be different — different from traditional ending-of-the-world scenes where some people are being elevated and some people are being damned to hell." - CBC

A 33-Meter Hillside Vagina Sculpture Is Highlighting Brazil’s Cultural And Political Rifts

The artist, Juliana Notori, "said the scarlet hillside vulva was intended to 'question the relationship between nature and culture in our phallocentric and anthropocentric western society' and provoke debate over the 'problematisation of gender.'" Brazil's alarmingly right-wing government, and its supporters, seem to be provoked. - The Guardian (UK)

The Antiquities Trade Is About To Get Reined In

Or at least, that's the hope of the U.S. Congress. "Regulators have long worried that the opacity of the antiquities trade, where buyers and sellers are seldom identified, even to the parties in a transaction, made it an easy way to shroud illicit transfers of money. The new legislation empowers federal regulators to design measures that would remove secrecy...

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