He has been fixing institutions for his entire career, from his very first job, at the Kennedy Center’s gift shop, to the Metropolitan Museum, which, when he became CEO, had issues not dissimilar to those at the PMA when he became director last year. So far, the staff appears to be happier. - ARTnews
The Stendahl Art Galleries were a key driver in the illegal looting, smuggling, and sale of these objects to its Los Angeles clientele. The Galleries’ archive is now housed at the Getty Research Institute (which published this book), allowing for a deep investigation into the shady dealings of an art dealer. - Hyperallergic
Getty Images is preparing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy after years of financial struggles, a failed merger, and growing competition from technology that can create images in seconds. - Fast Company
The blockbuster that just opened at the Met, “Krasner and Pollock: Past Continuous,” is probably, canvas for canvas, the best painting show in America this year. It does something I thought impossible, which is make Abstract Expressionism—the most fossilized of American art movements—seem new again. - The New Yorker
“The specialty plaster is a type of gypsum product known as Hydrocal, which ... is durable enough for metal casting but soft enough for direct sculpting. In addition to artworks, it is used in architectural restoration projects, dental molds, orthopedic molds and the customization of prosthetic limbs.” - The New York Times
Okay, not the first painted self-portrait, but a photo taken by Mia Jackson (younger sister of early photographer Julia Margaret Cameron and grandmother of Virginia Woolf) sometime in the late 1850s is evidently the oldest known image in which the camera is deliberately aimed at the subject in a mirror. - Artnet
Art trickery can get tricky. And yet it persists. Some experts estimate that around half of the secondary art market consists of forgeries and misattributions. - ARTnews
After abandoning a $3.7 billion merger with rival Shutterstock in late June over a regulatory roadblock, Getty Images now plans to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and go private in partnership with Charles Koch’s investment firm. - The Hollywood Reporter
A lot of things went right in this investigation, starting with the fact that police arrived only four minutes after the museum’s alarm went off — and they found that the thieves had dropped two of the stolen paintings in their haste to escape. - AP
At an institution with a fiscal operating budget of about $30.4 million, she is seeking to place educational initiatives on equal footing with exhibitions, pursuing collaborations across the city, and positioning the Hammer as the anchor of a Westside arts district. - Los Angeles Times
The museum, one of Europe’s most popular art institutions, had long campaigned for additional government funding for what it said were essential renovations to help preserve its more than 200 paintings and nearly 500 drawings by Vincent van Gogh. - The New York Times
A relative of the 19th century artist whose work is under Chagall's says oui: Jules-Eugène Lenepveu "was specifically chosen to decorate the opera ceiling by Charles Garnier, who designed everything in the opera house right down to the last door knob." - The Guardian (UK)
Scarily so. "Goya’s works depict the society of his time with criticism, and some images are no different to modern-day situation." - The New York Times
