The demolition of the 300-year-old minaret of a mosque in southern Iraq last week to make way for a road extension has drawn outrage from locals and heritage authorities. - The Art Newspaper
"The furry pooch, named A.I.C.C.A. (or Artificially Intelligent Critical Canine) has been trained on a corpus of visual art and art writing. … Using its black-lens eye, it assesses physical artworks, before working with OpenAI's GPT model to generate a concise piece of art criticism" which is ejected you-know-where. - Artnet
"The transport secretary has granted a development consent order for a scheme to widen roads and dig a two-mile tunnel near the ancient site. The project, which was initially costed at £1.7bn, is designed to speed up journey times on the A303, a major link to south-west England." - The Guardian
Investigators from the Manhattan District Attorney’s office have carted away 71 looted artifacts from Shelby White’s home in the past two years, though they have not suggested that she or her husband knowingly bought stolen antiquities. In fact, investigators would later thank White, 84, for her cooperation. - The New York Times
We're not talking about the Bund or other Nazi sympathizers in the U.S. - of course they liked it. But its use "was widespread and fashionable, first infused with a sense of vaguely whimsical 'exoticism,' and then perfect for the developing Art Deco aesthetic." - Slate
Luella Bartley, famous British designer whose oldest, artist child died two years ago at age 18: "I wouldn’t say that I have acceptance, but there is an understanding. ... It’s strange that you can carry on. What’s the motivation for that? I’ve struggled with that." - The Observer (UK)
Varda was a photographer first, and for her first film, La Pointe Courte, "she really worked on the photos – it was more than reportage, it was about preparing the film. When she came on set, she had no problem knowing where to put the camera." - The Guardian (UK)
"Sandip K. Luis, the former curatorial research and publications manager at the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (KNMA) in Noida, was formally terminated from his post on July 5 due to a Facebook post criticizing an art exhibition celebrating Modi’s 'propagandist' radio show." - Hyperallergic
“There was this idea that, OK, industry and maybe some people left this city, so now it’s our playground." (the city’s population declined from about two million in the 1960s to about 1.5 million in 2021). “If you leave a building abandoned, it’s going to get filled with art.” - The New York Times
Both the Armory Show, which is led by executive director Nicole Berry, and Expo Chicago, led by founder and president Tony Karman, will operate as separate divisions under Frieze with their existing teams but will share business services. - ARTnews
"The Renaissance painter Albrecht Dürer took revenge on his patron" — Jacob Heller, a wealthy Frankfurt merchant — "after a bitter row over pay by placing his own self-portrait in a 1500s altarpiece that he painted for him." - The Guardian
The contemporary Flemish architecture is an enjoyably polyphonic architecture, that enjoys all kinds of complexities and contradictions. It’s boom is even more surprising as it apparently came out of nowhere. - Metropolis
Quite a few museums have started communicating with the public on Meta's new Twitter alternative, but none (so far) with quite the enthusiasm or cheek of the Whitney. An example: "Twitter as deserted as an Edward Hopper painting rn." - Artnet
With trusses weighing 7 to 7.5 tons, the delicate operation drew crowds along a bridge over the Seine River and on its banks. - Seattle Times (Reuters)
The institution itself is strange, neither public nor private: still, after nearly 60 years, funded largely by contributions from abroad, yet located in a government complex. The museum is seeking its fifth director-general in seven years, though the old one is staying on as the new one's boss. - MSN (Haaretz)
