The argument is not about pristine whiteness or the purity of uncolored marble: scholars have known ancient Greek statuary was originally painted for over a century. At issue is the particular approach used by the archaeologists behind this exhibit and the flat visual affect that results. - The New York Times
The feature on the San Francisco mansion of Roger and Sloan Lindemann Barnett includes an image of an interior courtyard with empty pedestals. Those pedestals aren't actually empty: they hold Khmer statuary that the Cambodian government says was looted in the 1990s. Here's how they identified it. - The Washington Post
The list ranges from a small watertower in England converted into a home to a steel mill in Shanghai transformed into an eco-park to the enormous grain silo at Cape Town's old port remade into the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa. - BBC
An accusation that Carter handled property “undoubtedly stolen from the tomb” has emerged in a previously unpublished letter sent to him in 1934 by an eminent British scholar within his own excavation team. - The Guardian
"A recent poll by the American Alliance of Museums asked museum professionals to submit their nominations for best museum bathrooms, and the results prove that Marcel Duchamp was only the first, but not the last, to find art in the commode." Frankly, some of them are beauties. - Hyperallergic
An announcement from Iraq's Interior Ministry says that the painting, found in the possession of three suspected narcotics dealers, could be worth "millions of dollars." The statement did not say which painting it is or what condition it's in. - The National (Abu Dhabi)
"(A union official) said the museum 'has a very lowball offer on the table in terms of wages.' Two-thirds of the nearly 100 unionized museum employees make less than $15.50 an hour, which (she) described as 'far below what a living wage would be.'" - MSN (The Boston Globe)
Those who buy the churches, for housing or co-working spaces or workshops or galleries, sometimes find it hard to get work done as all of the locals stop by to talk about history. - The Guardian (UK)
"Two months after cancellation, the collective calls what happened at Luminato 'disrespectful and unethical.' The artists describe a difficult rehearsal process marred by poor communication, lack of support and disrespect." - Toronto Star
"Slingshot Rat, a stencil painting, appeared on a concrete block at an abandoned Israeli army position in Bethlehem next to a section of the wall in 2007." It was then graffitied, and finally cut out by ... someone. - The Guardian (UK) (AP)
The supposed whiteness of ancient statuary is intertwined with larger ideas of Whiteness in European culture, and the sense that colorizing the statues somehow cheapens them could well be rooted in racialized thinking. - Washington Post
Patterned after the famous "Monuments Men" who tracked down treasures looted by the Nazis, a group of archivists, archaeologists, art historians, and other specialists are training as military reservists, ready to assist during armed conflicts. One specialist described it as "cultural first aid" training. - MSN (The Washington Post)
"The J. Paul Getty Museum is returning its Orpheus group of sculptures — a significant group of nearly life-size terra-cotta figures known as 'Orpheus and the Sirens,' some of the museum's greatest antiquities — to Italy. The objects ... have been determined to have been illegally excavated and exported." - Yahoo! (Los Angeles Times)
