"Across Europe and North America, museums are waking up to an ethical dilemma. The widespread historical use of pesticides means objects in their storage halls are not only toxic in terms of their problematic colonial heritage, but also in terms of them being contaminated with highly hazardous substances." - The Guardian
"In his role as payroll manager, (Michael) Maurello had access to make direct deposits. But between 2007 and 2020, he disguised payments to make it appear as though they were going to other employees, when they were actually going into his own account." - WTTW (Chicago)
The shift to screen life has been decades in the making, and generations of tech-savvy artists have been charting those changes. - The Wall Street Journal
Ukrainian officials say that Russian forces have robbed or damaged more than 30 museums — including several in Kherson, which was retaken in November, and others in Mariupol and Melitopol, which remain under Russian occupation. - The New York Times
"From one angle, the limbs form a heart, representing the couple’s love. But much as Chicago’s landmark 'Cloud Gate' sculpture quickly became known as 'The Bean' for looking like, well, a giant bean, legions of amateur art critics aren’t seeing what Thomas intended." - Washington Post
The sculpture, called "The Embrace," is also meant to give Boston a new shine. "People come to Boston to get their American story reified. And if Boston can tell a different story about America, then America can start telling a different story about itself." - Boston Globe
"Dance on the Beach was part of a masterpiece of 12 major panels, which Max Reinhardt, the theatre director, commissioned in 1906 for his avant-garde theatre in Berlin." Years later, the Nazis declared Munch a "degenerate." - The Observer (UK)
Itinerant artist and poet Ser Serpas says that "Parisian trash is sturdy." The 27-year-old, "like, many of her peers, she favors objects that bear the marks of use, as if, having inherited a sorely used world, she’s making stanzas from its leftovers." - The New York Times
"Since making petroglyph hunting their collective hobby, in 2016, the three enthusiasts have transformed knowledge about prehistoric art in Norway, more than doubling the number of carvings known in their home region." - The New York Times
The prize, named for the influential German Dadaist, was awarded - but at the request of artist winner Hito Steyerl, and agreement of writing winner Olivia Wenzel, "the 2023 award will be replaced by an open discussion about historical and current antisemitism and racism." - Hyperallergic
In 1987 the work was auctioned for £25m, but the heirs of the German Jewish banker Paul von Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, who owned it until the 1930s, now value it at a staggering $250m. - The Art Newspaper
"(The Brazilian capital's) proportions can render political action strangely inert. … It is an otherworldly landscape of red earth, open grass and enormous roadways ... best viewed from the air. So vast are its voids that the sheer scale of the space may have helped temper the energies of the crowds." - Bloomberg CityLab
"(Damages) go far beyond the shattered glass on the exteriors of the presidential palace, Congress and Supreme Court, all architectural icons. Modernist furniture was burned, portraits defaced, sculptures decapitated and ceramics smashed. Carpets were found soaked with water from the buildings' sprinkler systems, as well as with urine." - AP
"The Muslim Public Affairs Council has published a statement urging reinstatement of an art history professor who was fired from Hamline University in Minnesota after showing her class Medieval paintings depicting the Prophet Muhammad." Indeed, MPAC said she should be thanked for "educating students … in a critically empathetic manner." - Artnet
Scuttling reports from last week of secret talks over a deal, premier Kyriakos Mitsotakis restated his nation's longstanding position that the ancient sculptures, having been stolen by Lord Elgin in the 19th century, are not Britain's to return and belong to Greece by right. - Reuters
