VISUAL

Sonia Boyce "greets the trophy with a mix of gratitude and circumspection. 'It seems almost ridiculous that it takes into the 21st century for a Black British female artist to be invited to do Venice.'" - The New York Times

And glimpses of it in Imelda Marcos' apartment after Ferdinand Marcos Jr.'s (shocking, for those who remember the 1980s) presidential win "has added to fears the family will use its now-increased power to brazenly further stifle efforts to recover ill-gotten wealth." - The Guardian (UK)

Unlike the banking industry, the art trade has few rules that govern its dynamics, but for Americans it seems that even these are too many. - Apollo

A look at the layout, functions, and history of machiya, the traditional shop-front-and-courtyard houses of Kyoto. - Bloomberg CityLab

Or you could call it a frieze. Hockney was inspired, he says, by the Bayeux Tapestry as well as by the seasons in Normandy, where he now lives. - Artnet

So far, of 56 US institutions surveyed, 16 museums are in the process of returning Benin Court artworks, and five more would do so if requested. Added to similar efforts in other countries, there are now more repatriation requests than Nigerian officials can promptly process. - MSN (The Washington Post)

The figure of Christ the Redeemer that reigns over Rio de Janeiro is 98 feet tall (not including the pedestal or the mountain it sits atop). This new statue, Christ the Protector, is in Encantado, Rio Grande do Sul, a small city closer to Montevideo than to São Paulo. - Artnet

The Borys Voznytskyi Lviv National Art Gallery, like most of its counterparts in Ukraine, hid its collection to protect it from destruction or looting by invading Russian forces. Now some of its artworks are going back on display in the museum's 18 branches across Lviv province. - The New York Times

An elderly American woman, who may have been feeling ill or may have tripped on the slightly raised platform, landed on Guido Reni's St. Francis receiving the stigmata (1612) at Rome's Galleria Borghese. The damage? A 1½-inch "slight superficial tear." - Artnet

Indeed, the work — full title Shot Sage Blue Marilyn and dating from 1964 — is also the highest-priced 20th-century artwork and the second-most expensive artwork of any kind ever sold, trailing only Leonardo da Vinci's Salvator Mundi ($450 million). - ARTnews

All told, an online auction of 150 of items owned by the late justice raised $803,650 for Washington National Opera, one of the late justice’s passions. - Toronto Star

Sometimes, collectors of physical objects also make a transition to "curating" those objects in digital forms for social media or other online exhibits. But others hold tight, and try to figure out conservation along the way. - The Observer (UK)

Sometimes, a painting traded for a grilled cheese sandwich ends up being worth thousands of dollars years later. - The Observer (UK)

Simon Jenkins does not like the plans for a new building. "I could not imagine that London might inflict any more visual damage to the Thames than it has already done. No city on earth has made such a mess of its river." - The Guardian (UK)

Take the Toledo Museum of Art's new sale: "Almost no museum could afford to buy a $40-million Cézanne or $18-million Matisse. Call it forced retirement." And call it the continued cultural fallout of Reagan. - Los Angeles Times