VISUAL

Sorry, “Guerilla Teaching” Isn’t Allowed In Smithsonian Galleries

He was at the Portrait Gallery as an educator but also as co-founder of Citizen Historians for the Smithsonian, a group that last year spent thousands of hours documenting every corner of the Smithsonian, to track any changes made as Trump administration officials assert control over the content of the museums. - Washington Post

Pompeii Gets a Digital Makeover: Now With Less Ash

Forget the petrified citizens – new 3D renderings show Pompeii as the thriving metropolis it was before Vesuvius crashed the party. Because apparently we needed CGI to remind us that ancient Romans actually lived there. — Aeon

A Real Shit Show: Berlinale’s Director Faces Axe Over Israel Stance

Tricia Tuttle discovers that running a major film festival means navigating more landmines than a war correspondent. Her crime? Apparently failing to muzzle artists fast enough for Berlin's taste. Nothing says 'artistic freedom' quite like institutional panic. — Hyperallergic

DePaul Art Museum In Chicago To Shut Down This Summer

Announcement of the closure, which is effective June 30, comes two months after DePaul University laid off 114 full-time and part-time staff. Administrators cited financial troubles due to a significant drop in international graduate student enrollment, increased demand for financial aid and the rising costs of benefits. - WBEZ (Chicago)

35 Rembrandt Etchings Rediscovered After A Century In A Safe

Charlotte Meyer’s grandfather, who had a sharp eye, picked them up inexpensively back when etchings weren’t highly valued, and they remained in her family’s safe for decades. When she had time during the COVID lockdowns, she found the works and later took them to the nearby Rembrandt House in Amsterdam, where they were authenticated. - ARTnews

LA’s New Golden Age Of Museums

This shift to the West Coast has long been driven by the region’s many art schools, including the ArtCenter, California Institute of the Arts, Otis College of Art and Design and the art department at the University of California, Los Angeles. - The Art Newspaper

Paris’s Other Wildly Popular Museum, The Musée d’Orsay, Also Has A New Director

The home of the city’s collection of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist works will be led by 57-year-old Annick Lemoine, currently director of the Petit Palais. She succeeds Sylvain Amic, who died suddenly in August 2025.” - Le Monde (in English)

Refresher: What To Know About The Louvre As It Changes Directors And Navigates Crises

Why the resignation of director Laurence des Cars hit so hard, the background of new director Christophe Leribault, the long list of problems which the world’s busiest museum is facing, and why President Macron is unusually invested in all this. - AP

Leaked Transcript Shows Thinking Behind University Canceling Anti-ICE Show

In the leaked transcripts, Hutzel reportedly told employees that while the school’s administration might survive the reputational fallout, the college itself could become a target of elected officials with the power to allocate—or withhold—state funding. - ARTnews

Director At Palace Of Versailles Appointed To Lead Troubled Louvre

“(Christophe) Leribault, 62, is an 18th-century-art historian who previously led the Musée d’Orsay and the Musée de l’Orangerie, both in Paris, before taking over at Versailles in 2024. ... He was deputy director of the Louvre’s department of graphic arts from 2006 to 2012.” - The Guardian

COO Of Atlanta’s High Museum Of Art Resigns After $600K Goes Missing

“According to the Woodruff Arts Center, which oversees both the High and two other Atlanta art institutions, High Museum COO Brady Lum resigned after an independent review was triggered by the discovery of ‘financial irregularities’ and then identifying $600,000 specifically that was stolen.” The case has been referred to federal prosecutors. - 11 Alive (Atlanta)

Louvre’s Director Resigns After A No-Good-Very-Bad Year

After months plagued by strikes over chronic understaffing, damage caused by a deteriorating and expensive-to-maintain building, discovery of a years-long ticket-fraud scheme, complaints of inadequate security, and the broad-daylight theft of French crown jewels, Laurence des Cars has stepped down, effective immediately. - AP

Confirmed: This Country House Is Definitely A Gaudí

“Xalet del Catllaràs, an early 1900s building tucked away in the mountain forests of Catalonia, Spain, has now been officially recognized as (Antoni Gaudí’s) design.” - Artnet

Has The UK’s Era Of Free Museum Entry Come To An End?

As funding pressures deepen across the sector, and running costs increase, a policy once treated as untouchable is now under renewed scrutiny. - The Guardian

A Video Game That Lets Players “Repatriate” Art From Western Museums

A new South African video game lets players take back African artefacts held in western museums in a series of heists, amid a growing campaign to repatriate treasures looted by colonial armies. - The Guardian

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