Eyebrows were raised at reports that a restored fresco in Rome’s Basilica of San Lorenzo in Lucina had an angel with the face of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. The restorer denies any likeness, but orders came from the office of the local bishop — Pope Leo XIV — that the face be repainted. - The Daily Beast
After a wave of criticism, the culture minister of the Belgian region of Flanders has reversed her plan to move the Antwerp museum’s entire collection to Ghent and turn the museum building into a “cultural center.” - ARTnews
The first major restoration since 1994 of The Last Judgment (as the fresco is titled) a film of microparticle buildup — a “widespread whitish haze, produced by the deposition of microparticles of foreign substances carried by air movements” — caused by the over 6 million people who visit the chapel each year. - AP
Since Walt Disney first created the company, the CEO has been a highly visible presence not only in Hollywood and on Wall Street, but in pop culture. - Fast Company
Our survey reveals that Gen Z’s relationship with AI is more pragmatic than personal. While headlines suggest young people treat chatbots as confidants and companions, the data tell a different story. - Harvard Business Review
“Good poets exploit that musicality the same way good rappers do, favoring one word over another for the way it interacts with the words around it. But poets, unlike rappers, are not generally performers, and it shows when they recite their work for an audience.” - The New York Times
Our analysis reveals that women and female bands sustained a dramatic fall in winners compared to last year. They received less than a quarter of all Grammys (23%), a 14 percentage point drop from last year’s high of 37% and the lowest level since 2022. - The Conversation
You will not find any submissions of his languishing in the LRB slush pile. Instead he posts on BookTok and BookTube, the social media planes concerned with reading, where millions of viewers watch videos about books. - New Statesman
Brandon Weinbrenner, currently the associate artistic director at the Alley Theatre in Houston, will succeed Vincent Lancisi, who is stepping down at the end of the season from the troupe that he founded 35 years ago. - The Baltimore Sun (MSN)
The AI's "all outperformed the average human. However, when they measured the average performance of the top 50 percent of human participants, it exceeded all tested models. The gap widened further when they took the average of the top 25 percent and top 10 percent of humans." - Singularity Hub
The notion that students should mainly be acquiring “skills” or “competencies,” so prevalent in high-level discussions of education policy and in ranking school systems, rings hollow to anyone who has ever cared enough to become a teacher. - The Point
A judge has ruled that the messy conflict between the Philadelphia Art Museum and its former director and CEO, Sasha Suda, who was dismissed in November, will go to arbitration, not to a jury trial, as Suda had requested in a civil suit. - ARTnews
“The venue and office space, on Glasgow’s Sauchiehall Street, fell into the hands of liquidators on Friday, with the building immediately shut down and all staff laid off. It had temporarily closed its doors in September as it worked to secure its long-term future - however, had planned to reopen in March.” - The Scotsman
Restituting artefacts will be crucial to improve France’s relations with its former African colonies, many of which have broken off military co-operation with Paris. “This is a really important issue for young Africans and for my generation.” - The Times
It certainly seems possible that the 1971 building, designed by architect Edward Durrell Stone, could be partially or completely erased. And with it, the center’s basic function, as a venue for the arts, along with its history, its distinguished legacy and its last remaining audience. - Washington Post (MSN)
