This was the second time that the vast, sand-yellow Transfiguration Cathedral, which sits in the heart of Odesa’s Unesco-listed historic centre, had been attacked: in the 1930s, it was torn down during Joseph Stalin’s atheism drive. On Sunday morning, the rebuilt version was hit during a Russian airstrike on the city. - The Guardian
A new piece was "built using a paste of mycelium and sawdust that’s pumped inside a fabric formwork. ... hardened into a moderately strong experimental pavilion that looks like a mix between a gazebo and a moldy piece of bread." - Fast Company
Which IKEA? Well, that depends on where the residency applicants live. In Burbank, one artist "pulled out a tub of IKEA’s MÅLA modeling dough and pressed it into the hole, then carefully removed the cast and stored it safely in a cardboard box like an archaeological specimen." - Hyperallergic
Artist Megan Cope, for instance, says her artwork at the Sydney Opera House, made by a team of volunteers, "can raise awareness of oyster reef destruction – but also point the way to a more sustainable ocean." - The Guardian (UK)
"The Bavarian state criminal police said that they had arrested four men suspected of carrying out the theft after a monthslong investigation ... turned up a trace of DNA on an unspecified item at the scene." Bad news though: Some of the coins have been melted down. - The New York Times
One gallerist said that "the tents were built over ground-level plywood rather than on above-ground risers, like one would see at other art fairs. Another gallerist ... alleged that the gallery walls weren’t flush with the floors either, calling the entire thing 'a recipe for disaster.'" - Hyperallergic
"Since February, the Manhattan DA, Alvin Bragg, has returned 29 antiquities from White collection’s to Greece, 12 to Turkey, four to Iraq, two to China and one to Yemen. collecting has been described as naive or careless." - The Guardian (UK)
“We weren’t really trying to develop the world’s whitest paint. We wanted to help with climate change, and now it’s more of a crisis, and getting worse. We wanted to see if it was possible to help save energy while cooling down the Earth.” - Artnet
"On Thursday, the final tapestry in the set of 13 Gideon tapestries (at Hardwick Hall in Derbyshire) was unveiled on the wall of the long gallery, the culmination of a painstaking effort to clean and handstitch the huge pieces one at a time, at a cost of £1.7m." - The Guardian
Heavy monsoon rains this summer have swollen the Yamuna River in Agra right up to the Taj's walls. There might be slight damage to the mausoleum's white marble, but the moisture is strengthening the building's wooden foundation and support rafters, which had been weakened by a prolonged drought. - Bloomberg CityLab
"Even as Cecilie Hollberg highlights her achievements at Italy's second-most-visited museum" — it's the home of Michelangelo's David — "since arriving in 2015, rumors circulate that Italy's far-right-led government intends to revoke the museum's independence once more," exactly as happened to Hollberg and the Galleria in 2019. - AP
"A Swiss teenager is the latest offender to start carving her name into the ancient amphitheatre. The 17-year-old was caught in the act, with a local tour guide managing to video her scratching the letter N into the wall of the famous landmark." - The Independent (UK)
What feels different about ecocritical art is that the very topic it engages with proposes widespread ruin and demands that action be immediately taken to counteract such an apocalypse. - Art Review
The antiquities were lent for a 2019 Hanukkah event at the White House but, due to a "bureaucratic difficulty," were never displayed. They were supposed to be returned to Israel within weeks but never were, partly due to the pandemic, and have now been located at Trump's Florida residence. - The Forward (Haaretz)
The demolition of the 300-year-old minaret of a mosque in southern Iraq last week to make way for a road extension has drawn outrage from locals and heritage authorities. - The Art Newspaper
