The idols themselves are typically made of plain stone or metal alloy, but part of Hindu worship is adorning the statues with clothing, flowers, jewels, and, sometimes, even weapons. Here's a profile of a former computer scientist in Chennai who gave up his career to follow his calling. - AP
"The United Nations cultural organization is training law enforcement and judiciary officials from countries on Ukraine’s western borders, seeking to prevent the trafficking of looted cultural objects from Ukraine amid Russia’s war against its neighbor." - AP
In what would be a first, one of the bills also offers an opportunity to legally acknowledge crimes committed against Jews during World War 2 by the French state, according to a French senator involved in drafting the bills. - Artnet
Rabieh Remmo, one of six men — all from a notorious crime family — on trial for the multimillion-dollar theft from Dresden's "Green Vault" in November 2019, admitted taking an axe to display cases and stealing the gems. Two relatives confessed to taking part as lookouts. - Yahoo! (AFP)
"In her lawsuit, Erika López Prater alleges that Hamline University — a small, private school in St. Paul — subjected her to religious discrimination and defamation, and damaged her professional and personal reputation." - AP
Even as those disclosures have flowered into optimism that real progress will soon be made, both sides have made it clear that no deal is yet imminent. Indeed, they remain far apart on some key questions. - The News York Times
She was a rarity, a professional female painter, in the Dutch Golden Age; her work has been admired ever since — although, for centuries, most of it wasn't recognized as hers. (It was frequently attributed to her likely teacher, Frans Hals.) Here's a rundown of what's known about her. - ARTnews
"Within the tomb, archaeologists discovered the remains of some 50 bodies, buried alongside an assemblage of artifacts and weapons. It included bronze daggers, knives, and axes, interred alongside ceramic vessels, bronze beads, and a plaque carved in the silhouette of a stag." - Artnet
“We now know that our world as we thought we understood it is far more fragile... wars that seemed inconceivable now happened, we’ve lived through a racial reckoning and really seismic social rethinking about race and equity in this country that is deep and profound.” - The Art Newspaper
Since November 2022, organizers have uploaded images from the Met’s collection of public domain works to the @thealgorithmicpedestal account on Instagram. Whichever posts the platform’s algorithm opted to display in other users’ Home feeds are what made it into the show. - Artnet
The anti-government protests that exploded in late 2019 hit the city hard. Shops were looted, windows smashed and walls were covered in graffiti. Some of the stores and banks remain boarded up more than three years later. - Bloomberg
"Across Europe and North America, museums are waking up to an ethical dilemma. The widespread historical use of pesticides means objects in their storage halls are not only toxic in terms of their problematic colonial heritage, but also in terms of them being contaminated with highly hazardous substances." - The Guardian
"In his role as payroll manager, (Michael) Maurello had access to make direct deposits. But between 2007 and 2020, he disguised payments to make it appear as though they were going to other employees, when they were actually going into his own account." - WTTW (Chicago)
The shift to screen life has been decades in the making, and generations of tech-savvy artists have been charting those changes. - The Wall Street Journal
Ukrainian officials say that Russian forces have robbed or damaged more than 30 museums — including several in Kherson, which was retaken in November, and others in Mariupol and Melitopol, which remain under Russian occupation. - The New York Times
