They can't even bring paintings that size to the conservation studio; the studio has to be brought to the paintings. So the conservators are doing this enormous, strenuous job at the Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Antwerp in full view of visitors. And those visitors have opinions. - AP
It’s a subset of the architecture business that has surged in recent years. During the Covid pandemic, the demand for cloud-based online services from Zoom calls to streaming movies caused a spike in data center construction. “Now we’re seeing another jump in growth because of AI and machine learning coming on board.” - Fast Company
The $144 million project was to rebuild the Great Mosque of Al-Nouri and other structures in Mosul's old city which were destroyed during the three-year occupation of the area by ISIS. - Deutsche Welle
The bequest by the late collectors Lynn and Phillip Straus includes two paintings and 62 prints — raising the total number of Munch works given over the years by the Strauses to Harvard to 117. - ARTnews
After video of a worker using a hammer, chisel, and other tools on the stones of the Great Pyramid of Giza went viral on social media last November, outrage about the incident has grown to include a statement in Egyptian Parliament and one Egyptologist claiming “mismanagement.” - ARTnews
Justin Sun, a cryptocurrency mogul who earned international notoriety when he purchased Maurizio Cattelan's Comedian (the banana duct-taped to a wall) and ate it, claims that an art adviser forged his signature and fraudulently sold to Geffen Giacometti's Le Nez. Geffen's attorney calls the suit "bizarre and baseless." - The New York Times
"The newly discovered work shows an unidentified man with a thin moustache, quill in hand, standing next to a stack of papers or books — a prosaic image compared to the scene of Jesus Christ, bound and wearing a crown of thorns, that Titian later painted over it." - Reuters
The closure comes nine months after Wales' Culture Secretary assured the historic building would remain open, despite concerns from the museum's director over its deteriorating condition. - BBC
For both galleries in Mexico and those traveling to Mexico City to participate in the city’s three fairs—Zona Maco, Material, and Salón Acme—there appears to be both worry and uncertainty over what effect the impending tariffs might have on collectors’ purchasing behavior, if any, or what costs galleries will have to absorb. - ARTnews
The art/architecture/engineering school, which owns the land under the midtown Manhattan landmark 35 blocks uptown, had been leasing the building to real estate developer RFR Holdings, which fell $21 million behind on the rent. - Curbed (MSN)
The LMI Group spent years using high-teach chemical and data analysis to produce a 431-page report arguing that the portrait of a fisherman is a late van Gogh painting. The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam promptly dismissed LMI's argument, while other observers pointed to someone else as the likely artist. - ARTnews
With the rise of technology there are radical changes headed our way and the architecture/design industry as we know it (and have known it for generations) will soon cease to exist as a result. This is not necessarily a bad thing. - Fast Company
“There is nothing more irritating to enthusiasts than when the mainstream tries to portray their niche world and gets it wrong. And The Brutalist gets an awful lot wrong.” - The Guardian (UK)
Living the dream: A head security officer, “who is the only woman to have been appointed to this high-level position at the Centre Pompidou and whom everyone affectionately calls ‘Tinker Bell,’ would accompany me for the duration of the stay, guiding me into any room of my choosing.” - ARTNews
“The surreal, Renaissance-influenced composition of broken bodies, ominous hooded figures and tools of cruelty was crumbling and faded. Whole sections of the piece were missing. The patio was being used to store chairs.” - The New York Times
