ArtsJournal: Arts, Culture, Ideas

VISUAL

A German Photographer Who Won For An AI Photo Turns Down The Award

Boris Eldagsen says, "It was not about winning anything. ... I have been a photographer for 30 years before turning to AI and I’m very involved in the German scene in making workshops, lectures, and helping to draft up proposals for AI-related legislation." - Hyperallergic

The FBI Raids An Art Foundation In Puerto Rico

The investigators "seized over 100 works from the Michèle Vasarely Foundation in San Juan, Puerto Rico, which houses pieces by the late artist Victor Vasarely and his son Jean-Pierre." The seizures are, depressingly, "just the latest in a long and bitter saga." - Hyperallergic

An Englishwoman In New York

How Cecily Brown moved from working as a waitress, farmer's market worker, and animator to being a working painter celebrated at the Met. - The Observer (UK)

The Asia Society Will Stop Blurring Images Of The Prophet Muhammad Online

The Asia Society blamed a contractor for the blurring of two images in its show about the underworld. "We take responsibility for this error, but this was not an active choice to censor and is being corrected." - The New York Times

Collectors In Britain Are Warned Against Overzealous ‘Restorers’ Of Furniture

Is that desk an antique, or is it a much more recent piece that's been, er, "restored"? One expert says, "Quite frankly, if you want something bright and shiny, buy something new." - The Observer (UK)

Digital Modeling Is A Key Component In Restoring Notre Dame

Of course, stories abound about the ways artisans skilled in medieval construction have helped recreate the beloved cathedral. "But the builders, architects, and engineers do have the advantage of some 21st century technologies." - Fast Company

Big New Museum Built Underneath A Dutch Palace

The extension, designed by Kaan Architecten and finished with decorative walnut and Blanco Macael white stone, echoes the symmetry and style of the Dutch palace – itself built as a riposte to Versailles, built for William III’s French rival Louis XIV. - The Guardian

Spain Seizes Counterfeit Old Master Paintings That Were Being Marketed For $84 Million

"Spanish police are investigating four people for fraud after they allegedly tried to sell forged paintings for more than €76 million. … The four forged works, attributed to Francisco de Goya, and a fifth allegedly by Diego Velázquez were accompanied by abundant documentation, which was also fake." - CNN

Former Art Institute Of Chicago Payroll Manager Pleads Guilty To Stealing $2 Million

"Michael Maurello ... falsified payments to employees and funneled museum payroll into his personal bank accounts from 2007 to 2020, the written plea agreement states. To hide the scheme, Maurello kept spreadsheets and notes to track the embezzled funds so later he could make reversals in the payroll system." - MSN (Chicago Tribune)

Uffizi Galleries Raise Ticket Price By 25%, And Italians Argue Over The Cost Of Culture For Ordinary People

"The Uffizi Galleries (in Florence) have hiked their ticket prices because of pressures from rising energy prices, … sparking a debate about how much people should be asked to pay for culture." - The Art Newspaper

FBI’s New Stolen Art App Needs Work

The app features 4,522 stolen objects which are searchable by subject matter, medium, or artist. Many of the works are not photographed, and a simple search returns multiple reproductions of a stock photo of an empty silver frame. - Hyperallergic

An Infestation Of Information-Based Art

Although the elements vary, the genre is characterized by a reliance on text and discourse to support an abundance of materials, distributed spatially. - ArtForum

The Taliban Are Actually Moving To Protect An Ancient Buddhist Site

"The Afghan heritage site Mes Aynak is currently at risk of being destroyed due to a delayed mining project. The site, just 25 miles southeast of Kabul, is believed to contain the second largest untapped copper mine in the world. The deposits are estimated to be worth $100 billion." - ARTnews

Today In Schadenfreude: Florida Woman Runs Her Rolls-Royce Smack Into A $3 Million Damien Hirst Sculpture

The unnamed motorist, who claims not to remember the incident, drove into the Palm Beach backyard of billionaire art collectors Steven and Lisa Tananbaum, knocked the sculpture — Hirst's 2017 work Sphinx — off its pedestal, and plunged over the property's five-foot seawall. "Rich-on-rich crime, or revolutionary act of climate awareness activism?" - Hyperallergic

Auctioneer In Counterfeit Basquiat Scheme Cops Plea And Faces Prison

"A former Los Angeles auctioneer," Michael Barzan, "has agreed to plead guilty in a scheme where he created fake artwork and falsely attributed the paintings to artist Jean-Michel Basquiat. … The paintings ultimately wound up at the Orlando Museum of Art before they were seized by federal agents last year." - AP

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