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Over $200 Million Worth Of Stolen Paintings Recovered By French Authorities

"A Paris court has secured 135 stolen paintings estimated to be worth over €200 million for the family of (collector) Uthman Khatib, (who) is seeking to recover a collection of 1,800 pieces of Russian avant-garde art allegedly taken from a storage facility in Germany in 2019." - Artnet

Marianne Faithful, 78

"(The) British singer-songwriter and 1960s pop star reinvented herself as a new-wave artist and smoky-voiced chanteuse, channeling her struggles with drug abuse and personal loss into songs of torment, anger, sorrow and resilience." - The Washington Post (MSN)

This Broadway Play About Fighting Over Vaccines Is Very Tricky — Because The Audience Is Laughing So Hard

The third scene of Eureka Day depicts a board meeting at a private school in Berkeley (!) after a student gets mumps. The board does it town-hall style, with a running feed, shown upstage, of the insane comments the online attendees put in the chat box. Yikes. - The New York Times

Is This The Worst Page On The Internet? Or An Important Lesson About The Internet? (Both, Of Course)

"The name of this monstrosity, which was released earlier this month, is Stimulation Clicker, and it is more than a game. It is a reenactment of the evolution of the internet, a loving parody of its contents, and a pointed commentary on how our online life went wrong." - The Atlantic (MSN)

Every Artist In Britain Including Paul McCartney Wants The Government To Stand Up To AI Pressure

What the actual artist-hating hell, UK? “The government is considering an overhaul of law that would allow AI developers to use creators' content on the internet to help develop their models, unless the rights holders opt out.” - BBC

Theatre Critics, Tear Down That Wall

A regular rotation of theatre articles and criticism from daily papers (whatever those are) isn’t coming back. So it’s up to theatre makers to keep writing, posting, blogging, making video about the process and the products - and critics need to deal with it. - The Stage (UK)

The Death Of The Commons

What does Starbucks’ new bathroom policy have to do with an ability to gather in public, and the forces destroying that ability? - The Atlantic

The National Gallery Of Art Ends Its DEI Program

“The museum has removed any language referring to DEI from its website. On a page outlining the institution’s mission and values, the words 'diversity, equity, access and inclusion' have been replaced with 'welcoming and accessible.’” - Hyperallergic

Thieves Blow Up Dutch Museum Door To Steal A Golden Helmet

“The video is grainy but ominous: three hooded figures, clambering over one another to tug at a heavy access door of the Drents Museum ... and then an explosion and a flurry of sparks in the wee hours of Saturday.” - The New York Times

What Happens When A Theatre Critic Physically Can’t Sit Down

It’s edifyiing, truly: "Gazing over hundreds of heads and shifting my weight around in the dark, I was reminded time and again that theaters are just rooms full of people whose vulnerability, uncertainty and imperfections — including my own — are what bring them alive.” - Washington Post (Yahoo)

Hollywood Composers, Whose Work Is Drying Up, Find Solace In Home Concerts Of Their Chamber Music

"One surprising thing," says one of the co-founders of the free-with-RSVP series, called Night Temple, "is how these really accomplished film composers, who have music on big movies and big shows, say there’s something really vulnerable about writing for this. There's a bit of danger to it." - Los Angeles Times (MSN)

Daniel Libeskind Has Designed A Low-Income Housing Project, And It’s Good

"His global brand would seem like an odd choice for the most basic tier of New York’s urban shelter, sort of like handing out food-bank groceries in Louis Vuitton bags. … (Yet) the pairing of high-design auteur and low-income residents meets an assortment of needs and isn’t just noblesse oblige." - Curbed (MSN)

Inside The Professional Theater Scene In Las Vegas

"It’s scrappy, sure, with its rock’n’roll energy but theatermakers here are resourceful and don’t fit in boxes. … There's a palpable hunger to make theater against the odds, locals who can keep it viable are ready for it and artists enjoy the freedom of straddling aesthetic and artistic worlds." - The New York Times

The British Museum And Its 8 Million Objects, 6 Million Annual Visitors, Hundreds Of Researchers, And Overlapping Crises

"It is a sprawling, chaotic reflection of Britain’s psyche over 300 years: its voracious curiosity and cultural relativism; its pugnacious superiority complex; its restless seafaring and trading; its cruel imperial enrichment; its brilliant scholarship, its brutality, its idealism, its postcolonial anxiety." - The Guardian

Cartoonist Jules Feiffer, 95

"The Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist, playwright, screenwriter and children’s book author was one of the most humorously neurotic literary voices of his generation. … (He) found his voice in comics that provided a sardonic and sarcastic takedown of authority and conventional wisdom." - The Washington Post (MSN)

Without Reality TV, We’d Never Have Arrived At Today’s Inauguration

“The idea that blandly macho host would become one of the most influential figures in American life would have seemed as ridiculous as, well, Donald Trump getting elected president. Twice.” - Los Angeles Times (Yahoo)

Publishers, Who First Resisted And Then Embraced TikTok, Worry About What Can Replace It

As author Brandon Taylor noted on social media, it’s a little disingenuous for The NYT to publish this article since it’s a whole newspaper that could focus more on books. Still, BookTok was special, and the BookTok goodbyes were intense. - The New York Times

The Broad Museum Is Hit With Sexual Harassment And Discrimination Lawsuits

“The lawsuit accuses the Broad of failing to take 'reasonable steps to prevent retaliation and wrongful termination against Walker who opposed discrimination in the workplace.’” - Los Angeles Times (Yahoo)

When Is A Calder Not A Calder?

Or rather, when is a broken Calder still a Calder? "Richard Brodie, an art collector, says his ability to sell the work has been undermined by the Calder Foundation,” and he is suing to get the artist’s name back on the piece. - The New York Times

Getty Museums In L.A. Now Seen As “Beacon Of Fire Preparedness”

"The Center, which houses a sprawling collection in a modernist building, is described on the Getty website as a 'marvel of anti-fire engineering.' The Villa, which focuses on ancient Greek and Roman art, has a well-tuned anti-fire protocol that kept it intact amid the devastation (in) Pacific Palisades." - The Washington Post (MSN)
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