"In the ancient Turkish city of Antakya" — known in the early years of Christianity as Antioch — "the domes and walls of the 1st-century Antioch Orthodox Church, known as Antakya Church, and the 7th-century Habib-i-Nejjar Mosque have almost completely collapsed." - Euronews
"In January, the State Department and the Yemeni Embassy approached the National Museum of Asian Art with an unusual query: Would the Smithsonian museum be able to house 77 cultural objects that the United States had retrieved during smuggling attempts?" - MSN (The Washington Post)
The red chalk drawing is thought to date from 1512, shortly before Michelangelo painted that final section of one of the world’s most famous works of art, which he had started in 1508. - The Observer
"The (works were) taken from houses in Barcelona last year, sparking a major police investigation that led authorities to a hideout in Catalonia. Officers found (them) alongside a hoard of stolen money, watches, jewelry, and expensive pens. ... The police have arrested five suspects, including three brothers aged 50, 53 and 55." - Artnet
“Si collected Johns in depth, but can we sell more than 10 Johns for $10 million apiece all at once? Absolutely not. So instead we’re selling a group that feels holistic and feels like Si.” - Wall Street Journal
The rare marble of which the Duomo is built may be lovely, but it's particularly fragile and susceptible to breakage from temperature changes — and that's on top of the usual modern stressors such as corrosion due to air pollution. - The New York Times
What began with a chance discovery turned into a quest that consumed Mr. Ayers for decades. He managed to discover a great deal about the painting’s mysterious origins before he died last year at age 64. - Wall Street Journal
Remember the Garden Bridge imbroglio? These two are far from that. Instead, the results are "faceted and intriguing ... driven by the imaginative response to circumstance." - The Observer (UK)
Turns out that after years of doubt and many studies, "experts are confident they can declare the portrait a true Peale, one of many versions of his 1779 original, which the artist painted over and over in an era when copiers did not exist." - The New York Times
Consider the way ink diffuses into water. "The algorithm first turns complex images in the training data set into simple noise—akin to going from a blob of ink to diffuse light blue water—and then teaches the system how to reverse the process." - Wired
The museum's director calls museums "empathy machines" and says the mission goes "beyond caring for objects and collections to 'caring for beliefs and ideas and relationships.'" - The New York Times
The Navy images’ "unusual lighting and dramatic composition ... smooth individual sailors into heroic archetypes and make the calm, pre-dawn Atlantic seawater as lush as oil paint." - The New York Times
First the local council said the freezer that was part of the artwork was a hazard, and now a gallery says they can't figure out a way to keep it safe. What's to be the fate of the sculptural mural? - The Guardian (UK)
At a preview, a woman brushed the sculpture - and, said a collector, "Before I knew it, they were picking up the Jeff Koons pieces in a dustpan with a broom." - The New York Times
After a 24-year renovation and expansion and a $180m capital campaign (of which $156m has been raised), the Hammer has announced 26 March as the completion date for its building transformation. - The Art Newspaper
