“[The museum] has invited the illustrator Jean-Philippe Delhomme to take over its Instagram account every Monday during 2020. On the account he will post a different drawing each week, depicting an artist as a contemporary social media user.” – The Guardian

“The sepulchre of Frederick (Friedrich) III, emperor from 1452 until his death in 1493, the greatest monument in Vienna’s cathedral of St Stephen’s, in the city’s historic centre, has been shown to contain his enamelled gilded crown and imperial regalia.” And this has been revealed without opening the tomb, whose cover weights eight tons. – The Art Newspaper

In 2013, construction of the new metro system for Greece’s second city uncovered, in an unusually well-preserved state, the major commercial crossroads of the town during the Byzantine era. Ever since, arguments have raged over whether to remove the ancient structures and return them after construction is complete, relocate them entirely, try to build around and through them and incorporate them into a subway station, or (expensively) re-route the entire metro line. Last month, Greece’s Central Archaeological Council made its decision, though opponents aren’t giving up just yet. – Global Voices

When the Taliban destroyed the historic Bamiyan Budha, the international response “was indeed collective, a near-universal eruption of outrage and dismay at the loss. At the United Nations, after the Taliban announced its intent to destroy the statues, representatives of countries from around the world, Muslim and Christian alike, spoke of the Taliban’s intent as barbaric, and condemned the threatened vandalism. After the deed was done, and the ancient statues were reduced to rubble, the event defined the Taliban as an outlaw regime, uncivilized and evil.” – Washington Post

“Until the early 17th century, learning to draw meant entering an artist’s workshop — often as a child — copying the master’s sketches and drawing from plaster casts and live models. Students drew under the supervision and authority of the master. But all of that changed in 1608, when the Italian painter and printmaker Odoardo Fialetti published the first instructional drawing guide.” – Hyperallergic

“Tashkent’s metro system is so much more than just a means of transportation. Over the decades of its existence, the design and names of the metro’s 29 ornate stations have changed to reflect the turbulent trends of Uzbekistan’s history. In short, a ride on the Tashkent metro tells the story of a country where nation building is still very much in process.” – Global Voices

The National Gallery of Australia in Canberra closed its doors today due to worsening air quality caused by the bushfires burning across the country. The gallery’s director, Nick Mitzevich, said the decision to close was taken to help protect public, staff and the gallery collection. – The Art Newspaper

Does Trump know what would be lost? Probably not – but he’s hardly the only one. The fact that the country is rarely visited by western tourists is not due to a lack of attractions. With a civilisation dating back 5,000 years, and over 20 Unesco world heritage sites, Iran’s cultural heritage is rich and unique, especially its religious architecture, which displays a mastery of geometry, abstract design and pre-industrial engineering practically unparalleled in civilisation. This is is not just Iran’s cultural heritage, it is humanity’s. – The Guardian

“Today we can say there is maybe a 50% chance that it will be saved. There is also a 50% chance of the scaffolding falling on the three vaults, so as you can see the building is still very fragile.” – The Guardian

The new finding changes the way people look at the painting, from all sides. While some have argued that the oddity of the glass ball is evidence that the work is actually by a lesser painter, Leonardo scholar Martin Kemp has said that it was the orb itself that convinced him of the work’s authenticity. – Artnet

The V&A’s collection of women’s hats from the time has a lot of feathers, and those feathers were preserved in arsenic salt. Yikes. – The Guardian (UK)

Giichi Matsumura died during a freak summer snowstorm when other members of his hiking group went on to fish in a lake, and he stayed back to paint. Though the family knew roughly where his grave was, the area is remote – and hikers stumbled across the cairn of stones atop the grave in October of 2019, bringing it to the attention of local authorities. – NBC (AP)

And really, did it ever? The problem (in the U.S., at least): “Though exhibitions might have a progressive point of view and artists themselves might be making radical statements, as institutions, museums often possess retrograde politics, beholden to traditional forms of influence and power.” Oof. Can they change? – Jezebel

Says the chief registrar at the Denver Art Museum, “It’s a lot. … There are many, many spreadsheets.” – NPR

Stephanie Carlisle: “While architects are not fully responsible for steel manufacturing or concrete production per se, there is a direct line from the material specifications that architects write to the steel mills of China, the coal mines of Appalachia, the brick kilns of India, or clear-cut forests in the Pacific Northwest or the Amazon.” She says the design industry has to change, and quickly. – Fast Company

The discovery, first announced by the country’s state-run news agency, came during a decade-long excavation of the first of four pits at the mausoleum, a 4,300-square-foot area where some 6,000 warriors were previously found. Archaeologists uncovered roughly 200 new warriors, 12 clay horses, and two chariots, as well as a number of bronze weapons, over the past 10 years. – Artnet

A month after the disastrous flood of November 12, the president of the historic church’s governing body said that the building cannot withstand repeated exposure to salt water it has faced the past two years. He and his colleagues want “to surround the basilica on the side of the square with a two-metre-high Perspex wall and sheet piles sunk four metres deep into the ground.” – The Art Newspaper

“In 1951, the Abstract Expressionist stopped working with galleries and became his own dealer. He continued to paint for nearly three decades, retaining complete authority over his canvases’ whereabouts: Until his death in 1980 at age 75, no one could purchase a Still on the primary market without going through the artist himself. This was no easy task. Content to live and paint in Maryland, selling the occasional work in order to get by, Still made admirers prove themselves worthy of his art.” – Artsy

Hyperallergic makes a list of those who “are rendered powerless in a system greatly influenced by the super wealthy and the commercial galleries and vanity museums that serve them.” – Hyperallergic

The gallery gave no details about its condition. A spokesperson said: “The work of art is with our conservation team for expert assessment. Tate Modern remains open.” – BBC

The removal of melted scaffolding requires “three levels of steel beams to be positioned around its exterior to form a stabilising “belt”. Once this operation is complete, the same firm that built the scaffolding (Europe Echafaudage) will start to dismantle it, using telescopic crawler cranes that will allow roped technicians to descend into the forest of pipes and gradually cut them away after having coated them with a protective layer to avoid spreading the pollution caused by the melting of the lead roof.” – The Art Newspaper

“At the archaeological site of Kulubá, nestled amid the lowland forests of Mexico’s Yucatán state, experts have unearthed the remains of a large palace” — six rooms, 180 feet long, 50 feet wide, 20 feet high — “believed to have been used by Maya elite around 1,000 years ago.” – Smithsonian Magazine

Real surprise here, but his designs were, mostly, uh, “too avant-garde” for the company. – Open Culture

And, of course, in a larger sense, does it matter? Well, it matters for the money, of course. “Juliet Wilson-Bareau, a Goya scholar, told the Observer that museums must re-examine their Goya holdings because there are so many ‘problematic’ pictures. She regularly sees auction houses and dealers selling works under Goya’s name when she is convinced that they are by lesser hands.” – The Observer (UK)

In fact, that’s what it was created to do. Installed in response to neighbors’ noise complaints following the opening of Amsterdam Schiphol Airport’s fifth runway, the Buitenschot Land Art Park was designed by landscape architects and acoustical engineers to dampen the noise from passing airplanes. – 99% Invisible

“Egypt’s Sunken Cities” helped the museum double its income from program activities to $4.9 million in the year ended June 30. Membership increased 30 percent to 52,102 members, and attendance grew to 779,973, up by more than 69,000. – The Star-Tribune (Mpls)