“Among the goods seized in the multinational operation, which was dubbed Pandora III and organised by Europol, were an ancient Mesopotamian crystal cylinder seal, a 15th-century bible that had been stolen in Germany over 25 years ago and 109 ancient coins.” – The Art Newspaper

Now that Warren Kanders (“the tear-gas CEO”) has been chased off the Whitney’s board, “which institution might wind up in the crosshairs next? We looked at the makeup of various museums and ranked whose ties make them likely targets of outrage.” – New York Magazine

“A French street art association is the unexpected beneficiary in the years-long legal battle brought by the French schoolteacher Frédéric Durand-Baïssas against Facebook over censorship claims. The Paris-based group Le MUR (The WALL), which works with artists including A1One and BK Foxx, is due to receive an undisclosed amount from the social media giant.” – The Art Newspaper

“The exponential expansion of the culture sector rests entirely on a quite narrow demographic of white, middle class, educated staff and visitors who have signed a social contract on what and who constitutes value in the field of visual art. Until there’s radical change in the makeup of institutional bureaucracies and boards, that’s unlikely to change.” – Artnet

To be clear, government censorship wasn’t involved, although a number of right-wing politicians criticized the show. Titled After “Freedom of Expression?”, the exhibition at the Aichi Triennale in Nagoya featured artworks that had been kept out of other museums and shows, and it was cancelled after repeated threats of violence, including one to set fire to the venue. The issue? A statue of a Korean “comfort woman” — an extremely sore subject between Japan and Korea ever since the end of World War II. – The New York Times

The UK’s international trade secretary, Liz Truss, announced on Thursday that she hopes to launch “the world’s most advanced freeport model” as soon as possible, promising it will create “thousands of jobs.” The move was immediately criticized by the opposition Labour Party. Peter Dowd, the shadow chief secretary to the treasury, said that creating tax havens, where the super-rich can store their “art, wine, and gold,” is “payback for Tory funders and their mates.” – Artnet

“Restorers at the laboratory for wooden objects at the Grand Egyptian Museum have begun fumigating the gilded coffin” — the outer one, largest of three (the two inner coffins are the ones that have always been on display) — “after it was carefully moved from Tutankhamen’s tomb in Luxor’s Valley of the Kings in southern Egypt amid tight security last month.” – Los Angeles Times

Trying to sell Renoir as a progressive, or even a feminist … just no. – Hyperallergic

The 17-year-old who appears to have thrown the child – who was airlifted from the London museum in critical condition after landing on the fifth-floor roof – was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder, and the museum went on lockdown for hours. – The New York Times

And not just the lobby – some hotels commission artists or exhibits for every bit of space, including rooms, conference rooms, cafeterias and much more. – The New York Times

The timeline: Last August, “more than 40 artists removed their work from the exhibition Hope to Nope at the Design Museum in London after the museum housed an event hosted by the arms manufacturer Leonardo. At the time, the museum assured the protesting artists, who organized in a group named Nope to Arms, that it will review its due diligence policy related to commercial and fundraising activities.” Or … not, apparently. – Hyperallergic

The federal government is not happy with the town of Tournal, where, after years of argument and discussion, a crane pulled apart the bridge over the Scheldt, in sections. “A crowd on the river’s banks audibly reacted when some of the brickwork was seen falling into the water on Friday. Many watching a live stream on the website of the regional television station, Notele, wrote of their sadness at saying ‘goodbye’.” – The Guardian (UK)

“Sotheby’s Mei Moses found that between 2012 and 2018, sales results rose just eight percent for men, while women saw the price for their work go up an astonishing 73 percent. By comparison, the study found that resale markets for men and women had been about the same over the 50 previous years.” – Artnet

Andrea Scott: “Of course, the major power dynamic at play in this story is the one between art and money. For too long, patronage of the arts has come with patronizing attitudes toward artists—that they should be grateful for funding, no matter its source. The obscenely inflated contemporary art market—whose metrics are based on auction results, from which artists don’t see a penny—has created the impression of art as a playground for the wealthy. But the delusion that art is an oasis in which beauty is truth and politics are irrelevant is more risible than it ever has been. Art isn’t made in a vacuum, and neither is money.” – The New Yorker

“It explicitly states that the cathedral must be rebuilt as it looked before the fire … and it limits derogations to the existing heritage, planning, environmental and construction codes to the minimum.” The new law also lays out the structure of a new agency to be created to oversee the reconstruction. – The Art Newspaper

“Beijing brags about its humming art scene. Galleries thrive. The art schools possess a certain frisson. Art is widely taught in elementary schools. But shrouding all this creative fervor is the meddling hand of the government. Censorship is rife in literature, and film. Although few art shows have been closed in the last few years, exhibitions are self-censored, and many artists choose to work abroad to escape the official tastemakers.” – The New York Times

“The idea that an old building becomes inauthentic if it is seamlessly restored is a credo that has been repeated so often it’s easy to forget that this was not the way that buildings were repaired in the past. It was the custom among the ancient Chinese, when an important building was damaged or destroyed by earthquake or fire, to simply rebuild as if nothing had happened.” – The American Interest

“Between 2010 and 2015, [Timothy] Sammons is said to have pocketed money from art he sold for his clients” — including works by Picasso and Chagall — “and used art that did not belong to him as collateral to obtain personal loans.” – Artnet

“The 75-year-old [José Berardo], who has been described as the ‘Portuguese Charles Saatchi,’ used his 900-piece collection — which includes works by Picasso, Bacon, and Basquiat, among others — as collateral for bank loans of nearly €1 billion … The majority of the works are on loan to the Berardo Collection Museum in Lisbon, one of the country’s most visited art museums.” – Artnet

“Arc Majeur, an imposing 250-tonne steel structure [that will be 60 meters tall], will stand over the busy E411 between the city of Namur and Luxembourg, a spot chosen partly on the basis that a driver’s view will be unencumbered by any lampposts.” – The Guardian

In an Instagram post that has received tens of thousands of likes, children and adults can be seen playing and interacting on both sides of the fence using the seesaws, which provide “a literal fulcrum” between the countries. – The Guardian

When Shah Jahan (yes, the one who built the Taj Mahal) built Chandni Chowk in the 1650s, it was lined with trees and elegant buildings and had a canal down its center. Now it has jam-packed crowds, insane traffic, run-down buildings and hawkers everywhere. But the Delhi city government has engaged a team of architects to redesign the street to something like its original splendor. – The Guardian

“Pavillon Notre-Dame would replicate the exact dimensions of the nave of the cathedral so that it feels familiar. The roof would be made from Ethylene Tetra Fluoro Ethylene (EFTEC) cushions, a lightweight plastic membrane, and the walls from translucent polycarbonate panels.” – dezeen

The Mid-Century Monster, a children’s play structure created in 1952 by artist Robert Winston for the shores of the city’s Lake Merritt, had by 2015 become “a washed-up husk. Its chartreuse color had faded to a drab white. Several of its knobbly concrete limbs had begun to crack. … But this year, after a long restoration project, the monster has finally been let out of its cage.” – Atlas Obscura

As you can tell, the experience isn’t easy to describe. Afterwards, as I walked back out into the bright, muggy New York evening, I felt equal parts amused, excited and unsettled, and I knew this wasn’t like any other VR I’d seen. – TechCrunch

“This will be the fourth sign that the [Emmett Till Memorial Commission] has placed at the site. The first was swiped in 2008, and no arrests were ever made in connection with the incident. The replacement marker was vandalized with bullets, more than 100 rounds over the course of several years. Just 35 days after it was erected in 2018, the third sign was shot at as well.” – Smithsonian Magazine

“Artists have always taken political stands, but in some eras there’s more of a conviction that beauty yields larger truths about the human condition that are not accessible through politics alone — and these are the truths that keep us sane. Now one gets the sense that not only is the personal political, but that the political has eclipsed the personal. What’s missing from most of these pieces is human contact and emotional range.” – The New York Times