The privately-owned Gelman Santander Collection, whose 68 pieces include 10 paintings by Frida Kahlo along with works by Diego Rivera, Jose Clemente Orozco, and others, is scheduled to spend two years touring Europe. Some citizens, unconvinced that the art will come home, are suing to keep it in Mexico. - Los Angeles Times (Yahoo!)
Over the weekend, a European Union commission followed up on its earlier threats to cancel a €2 million grant to the Venice Biennale, citing Russia’s participation in the event this year as its reasoning. - ARTnews
“The suspects, named locally as Abdoulaye N and Ghelamallah A, claimed they had broken into the Louvre’s Apollo gallery on the orders of a client they refused to name out of fear for their families. … The alleged mastermind … ‘wasn’t happy’ with the outcome. ‘He thought we could have taken more.’” - The Guardian
“The U.S. Justice Department said on Monday that former High chief operating officer Brady Lum pleaded guilty to a single charge of felony theft. Prosecutors accused him of stealing more than $600,000 from the museum by doctoring invoices and approving personal purchase transactions.” - Georgia Public Broadcasting
Initially, the administrators discussed removing some of the pieces from the show. But then the provost texted that he wanted to take down the entire exhibition instead. Michael McPherson wrote, "I think it'll be easier to manage any barking from our friends in Austin." - NPR
A painter from Manchester, who focused on the working class, isn’t necessarily what Londoners think. “What we’re hoping to do is actually to bust a few myths. … wasn’t just an industrial painter. He certainly wasn’t naive or isolated.” - The Guardian (UK)
“Initially, the administrators discussed removing some of the pieces from the show. But then the provost texted that he wanted to take down the entire exhibition instead. wrote, ‘I think it'll be easier to manage any barking from our friends in Austin.’” - NPR
“When Kapoor first made one of these works in Prussian blue, he was stunned to find ‘it wasn’t an empty space painted blue,’ he said. ‘It was full of blueness or, as I say, darkness. What was empty became full. How can that be?’” - ArtNet
But, er, don’t freak out, New York. “The building remains safe for employees and visitors, according to both the museum and the union that represents its workers.” - The Art Newspaper
“The secretive operation was the result of years of negotiations, tricky logistical planning and multiple technical studies to ensure the integrity of the 70-metre-long (230ft) medieval artwork.” - The Guardian
One architectural historian might go even farther: “Anything on a stone building that looks like a design gets picked up as these damn things now. There’s absolutely no evidence they were ever used like that.” - The Guardian (UK)
“Mickalene Thomas, an artist known for her popular paintings and photo-based installations centering Black women, is facing a lawsuit from the photographer Barbara Karant, who alleges that Thomas used her pictures without attribution or permission in works that appeared at an array of museums and blue-chip galleries.” - ARTnews
