Abraham Bredius was director of the Mauritshuis in The Hague 1889-1919, and he bequeathed 25 Rembrandts and other Old Master paintings to the museum on condition that they be displayed. Only five are on public view, so Bredius's heirs say the Mauritshuis is violating the bequest's terms. - The New York Times
According to Claire Nicholson, chair of the Virginia Woolf Society of Great Britain and a retired lecturer at Cambridge University, “Bloomsbury dressing is creative and individual.” - The Wall Street Journal
Sotheby’s had been riding a rollicking art market wave in recent years, bringing in at least $7 billion in sales annually and setting record-level prices. Now, amid signs cash is running low, it is pushing off payments to its art shippers and conservators by as much as six months. - The Wall Street Journal
"In a library, you create your own narrative. The material in the Heritage Library is of such a caliber that it could be considered works of art, so this really makes this building both a museum and a library.” - The New York Times
London’s historic Evening Standard newspaper has been making plans to revive its former writer using artificial intelligence. Two sources said AI Sewell has been assigned to review The National Gallery’s new Vincent van Gogh exhibition, titled Van Gogh: Poets and Lovers. - ARTnews
The owners of this 1623 portrait want to sell it abroad, where it can command a much higher price than in Spain. On the chance that it's a Velázquez — the attribution is considered questionable — authorities have prohibited its export. Spain's Supreme Court is now considering the case. - El País (Spain) (in English)
Refik Anadol, a leader in the development of AI-generated artwork, will place his museum, to be called Dataland, in the Frank Gehry-designed Grand L.A. development — right across Grand Avenue from Gehry's landmark Walt Disney Concert Hall. - Los Angeles Times (MSN)
"The large number of new figures has allowed the researchers to differentiate between two main types, and to offer an explanation of the possible reasons or functions that led their creators to draw them on the ground more than 2,000 years ago." - El País (Spain) (in English)
"The rugged terrain of Chile’s Atacama Desert is etched with giant images of llamas, cats, fish, birds, and humans. … At Alto Barranco in the Tarapacá region, ... the most persistent damage comes from motorcycles and 4×4 vehicles, whose tire tracks are erasing the geoglyphs." - Artnet
The ruins of the ancient Persian capital, built in the 6th century BCE, are an important locus of Iranian national pride and a major tourist attraction. Now lichens, algae-fungus hybrids, infest the stone monuments, dissolving minerals and penetrating surfaces by 1.5 cm, slowly breaking the ruins down. - AFP (MSN)
But not quite fully reassembled. Giorgio Vasari's 1541 portrayal of the Five Virtues, painted for the ceiling of a Venetian palazzo, was broken up and sold off in the mid-1700s. Except for one cherub in the corner and a bit of Faith, the panels have now been recovered and restored. - Artnet
Wilde’s grandson said of the sculpture: “It seems to say ‘here is a monument to a man whom society decapitated’. How do we want to remember him? Amusing, entertaining, engaging or carved up and beheaded for breaking the law of the time? I know which I prefer.” - The Observer
“Others had similar ideas, but he was the one who did it. The tube map really is something that deserves to be called iconic: it is even an international icon really, because so many people have used it as the basis of their own network designs.” - The Guardian
Footage from CCTV cameras - posted on Ai Weiwei's Instagram account - showed a man vigorously pushing the sculpture over, breaking it and then holding a piece of it over his head. - Reuters
Or rather, with glass plates shaped like SIM cards, so important to most refugees’ stories. "This collection has become a rich archive of migration stories curated entirely by the people they represent.” - Fast Company
