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How Museum Architecture Is Changing

The tension between architectural expressionism and restraint is nothing new. Still, there is a kind of reckoning in the field of museum design with the realisation that the tourist-candy structures that went up in recent decades did not succeed in truly making the art institution more accessible. - The Art Newspaper

Institutions Like Museums Have A Hard Time Changing Their Historically Racist Ways

And that's not an accident, says former Montreal Museum of Fine Arts curator eunice bélidor: "I realized they didn’t care about what I was going to bring here. They just needed me as a good news story." - Hyperallergic

Canadian Police Make Arrests In Years-Long, Massive Forgery Investigation

The wide-reaching fraud included three separate groups that traded fake Norval Morrisseau paintings back and forth and created fake certificates of authenticity. More than 1,000 paintings were seized and eight people arrested. - CBC

Brain Science May Explain Why We Like Certain Works Of Art

Some neuroscientists believe "that the mind creates an opinion of an artwork after dissecting it into discrete elements. Basic features, such as color and texture, and complex qualities, like style, are ranked and weighed individually to make a judgment." - Hyperallergic

Who Benefits From Saudi Arabia’s New Art Scene?

"Critics say these shifts are purely transactional, with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman trading the appearance of an open culture to paper over a dismal human rights record and buy political capital." - NPR

This Was, And Is, Pompeii

New excavations make the ancient site fresher than ever. But people have been digging at the site ever since the lava cooled."It has always been in a state of flux." - The Observer (UK)

Artists Organize To Fight Social Media Censorship

“Social media corporations have become cultural gatekeepers with unprecedented power to determine which artworks can freely circulate and which ones are banned or pushed into the digital margins,” says Don’t Delete Art (DDA), a project created in 2020 that documents art censorship on social media. - The Art Newspaper

Toronto’s Art Gallery Of Ontario Unveils Major Expansion

The expansion is the seventh such effort in the 123-year history of the AGO at its longtime downtown Toronto home. - Architectural Record

Only 37 Vermeer Paintings Are Known. The Big Rijksmuseum Show Has 28. Nine Are Missing.  Which Are They, And Are There Others Someplace?

"Vermeer's production was certainly larger, so the hunt continues. ... Art historians have found it particularly difficult to track down Vermeer's work for a number of reasons: ... only half his known works are signed, and, most importantly, he remained relatively unknown outside Holland until the late 19th century." - The Art Newspaper

Visiting A Hindu Temple That Sculptures Were Looted From

The Tanesar sculptures were stolen from India circa 1961, ultimately ending up at such prominent locations as LACMA, the British Museum, and the Met. While many of the statues currently sit in legal limbo, Elizabeth Kadetsky went to find the rural temple that had once been their home. - The American Scholar

Ukraine Commemorates Start Of The War With A Banksy Stamp

On February 24, the first anniversary of Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine, the Ukrainian postal service released a new stamp featuring a Banksy mural and the shorthand “FCK PTN!” in Cyrillic. - Hyperallergic

Britain’s Coronation Throne Has Been Through An Awful Lot In Seven Centuries

"Of the hazards that Westminster Abbey's 700-year-old Coronation Chair has survived – a suffragette bomb, schoolboys with penknives, thick brown paint, the violent theft of the Stone of Scone from inside it, Oliver Cromwell – the one that perhaps came closest to destroying it was an outbreak of white fungus." - MSN (The Telegraph)

Restoring The 700-Year-Old Throne On Which Charles III Will Be Crowned

"The ancient throne, known as the Coronation Chair, has been at the centerpiece of English coronations for centuries, including those of Henry VIII, Charles I, Queen Victoria and the late Queen Elizabeth II."  It is likely the world's oldest piece of furniture still used for its original purpose. - CNN

UK’s National Lottery Fund Will Refocus On Longterm Heritage Benefits, Less On Quick Hits

Perhaps the key difference will be for the fund to look for longer-term benefits. Short-term benefits are easily measured, but research by the fund shows that the key issue is long-term viability. - The Art Newspaper

Appropriation, The Andy Warhol Case, And Five Centuries Of “fArt”

Blake Gopnik makes a case that the appropriation of imagery — at the heart of the legal dispute between the Andy Warhol Foundation and photographer Lynn Goldsmith — has been fundamental to the nature of "fine art" ("fArt," as he calls it) since the 16th century. - The New York Times

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