He has achieved what many curators, scholars and museum professionals dream of: A museum that decontextualizes art, mixes it all up in a giant cauldron of visual distraction and isolates it from history and culture. But why? How could this happen to one of the country’s great art collections? - Washington Post (MSN)
“Unionized staff across all four branches of the Victoria & Albert Museum in London announced their intention to strike on October 29 and 30, citing stalled negotiations and allegations of ‘Amazon-style’ working conditions at the newly-opened V&A East Storehouse.” - ARTnews
“Identifying a sitter in a portrait is a tricky art-historical task that involves a study of provenance, inscriptions, archival documentation, iconographic juxtaposition, collection history, and costume and jewelry. Could present-day technologies be another item in the researcher’s tool kit?” A project in Switzerland is giving it a try. - ARTnews
In Limoges, the 19th-century Hôtel de Ville, which had historic landmark status, was destroyed by arson during the violence that has convulsed much of France in recent days. One suspect has been arrested. - Euronews
Donors who have given artwork to the institution are trying to reclaim their gifts, fearing for their safety amid a renovation and in the wake of layoffs. They are not convinced that the leadership, largely appointed by Trump, values the artworks as part of the institution’s holdings. - ARTnews
In conversations with several people with intimate knowledge of Phillips, past and present, it appears Phillips has decided it doesn’t want to be the same company it spent the last decade trying to become. - ARTnews
“The museum announced Tuesday that it's shipping 164 works to the Frank Gehry-designed Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris for its most extensive exhibition ever mounted outside Los Angeles. The show will open April 21 and run through Aug. 30,” as the Broad finishes major construction on a new extension. - Los Angeles Times (Yahoo!)
Before the 770-pound, 220-foot-long embroidery left its eponymous museum in France for London, it was hung vertically. At the British Museum, the enormous textile is lying flat in a display case in a darkened room, a format which the post-renovation Bayeux Museum will (mostly) adopt. - ARTnews
The Louvre temporarily closed Monday due to about 50 protesting arts and culture students, who blocked its glass pyramid entrance, Le Figaro reports. - ARTnews
After four hours of these intricate aerobatics, he had sketched a version of the Mona Lisa instantly recognizable to anyone tracking his flight online. - The New York Times
"'As soon as we opened we were aware of the lack of opportunity for the entire minority community,' said Dale, 80, in a recent interview. 'It was definitely the mission.'” - Los Angeles Times (MSN)
"The sticking point, as discussed by city officials at a public meeting last Wednesday before a vote on a revised contract, was Art Basel’s demand to essentially halve the nearly $1 million annual rent the fair had previously paid to Miami Beach." - The New York Times
"Pink was precisely the color Frank Lloyd Wright envisioned for this museum in his plans, and it’s the color we would see across the street from Central Park today had prejudices not stood in the way." - El País English
"It’s his essays about art and artists that matter most to me now. Reading them, you often feel you’re standing next to him in the museum or even looking through his eyes at a painting or a sculpture. You pay attention to his attention." - The New York Times
