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Twenty-Five Years Ago The YBA’s Took The Art World By Storm. Here’s Where They Are Today

The YBAs are now all middle-aged. Hirst is 57, Emin 59, the Chapmans 56 and 60 respectively, and the years have been kind to them. They are still figures who command attention and whose work has come-hither appeal to a certain type of collector. - The Critic

Phillips Collection Gets A New Director

He replaces Dorothy Kosinski, who led the Phillips since 2008, increased endowment from $18 million to $100 million, expanded art holdings from 2,000 to more than 6,000 objects, and made diversity and inclusion a major focus. - Washington Post

The Guy Who Smashed Stuff At The Dallas Museum Of Art Called 911 On Himself

"'Hey, I'm in the Dallas Museum of Art,' he told a dispatcher nearly 15 minutes after police say he entered. 'Come get me.' The calls show the museum security force appeared to have no knowledge an intruder was inside the building (that) night." - MSN (The Dallas Morning News)

St. Mark’s In Venice Has New Glass Barriers To Protect It From Flooding

The big floodgates out in the lagoon aren't enough: the Piazza San Marco is the lowest point in the city.  What's more, the heavy floods of recent years have inflicted heavy water and salt damage on the church and its artworks. So far, the new barriers have worked. - Euronews

Berlin’s Massive New Museum Of The 20th Century Under Attack As “Climate Killer”

There has been growing criticism of its main construction material, concrete – one of the highest contributors to carbon dioxide emissions – and of its open and transparent internal structure, which will require a highly sophisticated ventilation system to maintain temperature and humidity levels. - The Guardian

Artwork Rescued Before The Bombing Of Kyiv Goes On Show In Spain

Titled “In the Eye of the Storm: Modernism in Ukraine, 1900–1930s,” the show is branded as the most comprehensive survey of Ukraine’s avant-garde movement. - Artnet

Plans For Makeover Of London’s National Gallery Assailed As “Clownish”

The architect of the controversial Sainsbury Wing of the National Gallery in London has publicly hit back at plans to completely rebuild it, accusing the new designer of “making our building look like a circus clown”. - The Art Newspaper

Qatar Announces New Round Of Big New Museums

In the run-up to the tournament, the country’s authority for cultural institutions and heritage sites has announced a wave of future construction projects—and revealed the first details of the museums that will house the country’s extensive art collections. - The Art Newspaper

The Rijksmuseum Declares Three More Vermeers Authentic.  But Is That A Self-Interested Decision?

Amsterdam's flagship museum is, after all, about to present the largest Vermeer exhibition in history, so increasing the artist's slim corpus could very much benefit the institution.  And there's definitely scholarly disagreement over these paintings, especially Girl With a Flute. - ARTnews

This Year’s Venice Biennale Sets Attendance Record

It must, however, be noted that the 2022 exhibition ran longer than usual, stretching over 197 days instead of 173 days in 2019. According to the Biennale, 41% of this year’s visitors were from Italy while 59% came from other countries. - Hyperallergic

2,500 Strip On Australian Beach For Spencer Tunick Piece On Skin Cancer

The installation is American photographer Spencer Tunick's latest project, aimed at encouraging Australians to get regular skin checks. Legislation was changed to allow public nudity on the beach for the first time. Australia is the country in the world worst affected by skin cancer. - BBC

UK Museum Returns Trove Of Bronzes To Benin

The Horniman Museum in south-east London is returning 72 items, including so-called Benin Bronzes, to Nigerian ownership - making it the first in the UK to officially take such action on this scale. - BBC

You Knew It Would Happen: Popular AI Image Generator Starts Censoring

One user on Stable Diffusion’s sub-reddit said the removal of NSFW content was “censorship,” and “against the spirit philosophy of Open Source community.” Said the user: “To choose to do NSFW content or not, should be in the hands of the end user, no in a limited/censored model.” - The Verge

The Architect Who Made Modernism Colombian

"If (Rogelio Salmona is) relatively unknown outside Colombia, that's perhaps because his work is difficult to categorize, distant from both the pure rationality of high Modernism and the historicism of his postmodern contemporaries.  Above all, Salmona was recognized for his career-long experiments with ... brick." - T — The New York Times Style Magazine

The Vatican’s $2 Billion Bathtub

One of the most valuable items in Rome is a bathtub that has been estimated to be worth $2 billion. And you thought your bathroom renovation was expensive. The bathtub—more technically known as a “porphyry basin”—is today housed in the round hall in the Pio Clementino Museum. - The Daily Beast

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