More than half a million such objects—by some accounts, more than ninety per cent of all cultural artifacts known to originate in Africa—are held in Europe, where they have long seemed destined to remain. - The New Yorker
"Far from being sweet and adorable, rabbits in the margins and illuminated letters of these texts ... are frequently shown wielding swords, axes, and bows and arrows as they fight against — and sometimes kill — those who often hunted them." - Mental Floss
"We uncovered all these riches just 10-15cm under the floor slabs," said the leader of the dig. "Suddenly we had several hundred pieces from small fragments to large blocks including sculpted hands, feet, faces, architectural decorations and plants. Some of the pieces were still coloured." - The Guardian
Hand-painted benjarong was a super-luxury product in the 18th and 19th centuries, and early 20th-century Buddhist temples were clad in benjarong shards. Yet the craft had died out by 1930 and would now be gone altogether, but for a group of artisans who revived it in the 1980s. - National Geographic
LACMA is telling us that movies toppled painting and sculpture to became last century’s “greatest art form”? Hollywood is no slouch in the grandiosity department, but even the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, LACMA’s new neighbor next door, knows better than to try to pull that one. - Los Angeles Times
These artifacts are 10 times older than the pyramids of Egypt. Dating back tens of thousands of years, this cluster of one million images on the Burrup Peninsula is like an artistic encyclopedia, depicting human and environmental evolution. - National Geographic
That fireplace is at The Frick Collection in midtown Manhattan, and on each side of it are Hans Holbein's famous portraits of Henry VIII's two ministers. Penelope Rowlands retraces the paintings' journey into Henry Clay Frick's mansion. - The American Scholar
"The coming Van Gogh in America exhibition at the Detroit Institute of Arts will include 72 Van Goghs, with 56 paintings and 16 works on paper ... (and) will for the first time reveal the story of the artist’s rise to fame in the US." - The Art Newspaper
Four artists—including three women and one non-binary artist of diverse age ranges, racial and cultural backgrounds—have been shortlisted for this year’s Turner Prize, Tate announced on Tuesday morning. - Artnet
The remarkable rate of leadership churn is widely seen as having hurt MOCA’s credibility with donors, artists and the public at a time when other institutions, like the Broad, LACMA, and the Hammer Museum — as well as galleries like Hauser & Wirth — have energized the city’s world-class arts scene. - The New York Times
After being hit by "intense inspiration," Jesús Cees has spent much of the past two years painting vivid murals on the previously blank walls of a deconsecrated 14th-century chapel. He was denied permission to paint in 2018, so he "decided to do it and ask for forgiveness later." - The Guardian
When Jared Whipple first picked up the works, which came from an abandoned barn in Watertown, he figured he could use them in a "haunted art gallery" setup for Halloween. It turns out the pieces were made by American abstract expressionist Francis Hines. - Artnet
For example, at the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center in Skokie, you can slip on a virtual reality headset and enter the world of survivor George Brent, at the moment the terrified teenager stepped off a boxcar at Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1944. - NPR
The ancient Romans are even more famed for the deliberate destruction of images, thanks to their habit, dubbed damnatio memoriae by modern scholars, of destroying all portraits of people deemed enemies of the state. - Slate
The Zelensky “minifig,” as the figures are known, retailed for $100 each and sold out in hours, as did Molotov cocktail accessories bearing the Ukrainian flag, which sold for $20 each. All proceeds from the sales were donated to the nonprofit humanitarian organization Direct Relief. - Hyperallergic
