Says one sculptor, the descendant of a king of Dahomey, "The artistic awakening of our population was switched off from the end of the 19th century to 2022. ... We are now waking up." - The New York Times
Jana Harper: "The thing about community-engaged work is that it takes an actual community for it to work. ... I feel like I just introduced the seed, but everyone else planted, watered, and now, are hopefully sowing the results. This work now belongs to the community." - Glasstire
"Varvara Logvyn might look like any other open-air artist working in Kyiv’s historic Independence Square ... except she doesn’t direct her attention to a canvas, but to a large, steel antitank obstacle known as a hedgehog." - Washington Post
Michael Heizer's megasculpture in the Nevada desert is called City and is a mile long, half a mile wide, and the artist's masterpiece. "It had become the art-world version of ancient Atlantis, a chimera. Art-world Atlantis will shortly be accepting reservations." - The New York Times
The judge who allowed the trial to go forward: "While using silver duct tape to affix a banana to a wall may not espouse the highest degree of creativity, its absurd and farcical nature meets the ‘minimal degree of creativity’ needed to qualify as original." - The Observer (UK)
Experts believe the striking circle of dozens of megalithic stones has existed since 5000 BC. However, it was first discovered by German archaeologist Hugo Obermaier in 1926 before it became flooded in 1963 due to a rural development project under Francisco Franco's dictatorship. - ABCNews
"The Cambodians have enlisted the help of the U.S. Justice Department to press for the return of dozens of artworks, basing their claim in part on the account of a reformed looter. ... But the dispute (with the museum) has evolved into something of an odd standoff." - The New York Times
Most NFT projects are definitely bubbles—but the NFT art-and-collectibles trading ecosystem as a whole is something more like a new form of art-themed online gambling. It scratches the same itch as horse racing or sports betting, but for digital natives. - Artnet
"Papier-mâché has been practiced for centuries by Kashmiri artisans ... who make their living from the craft. But, in recent years, just as Kashmiri papier-mâché has gained recognition in museums across the world, the renowned and beloved art has faced extinction." - ARTnews
The argument is not about pristine whiteness or the purity of uncolored marble: scholars have known ancient Greek statuary was originally painted for over a century. At issue is the particular approach used by the archaeologists behind this exhibit and the flat visual affect that results. - The New York Times
The feature on the San Francisco mansion of Roger and Sloan Lindemann Barnett includes an image of an interior courtyard with empty pedestals. Those pedestals aren't actually empty: they hold Khmer statuary that the Cambodian government says was looted in the 1990s. Here's how they identified it. - The Washington Post
The list ranges from a small watertower in England converted into a home to a steel mill in Shanghai transformed into an eco-park to the enormous grain silo at Cape Town's old port remade into the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa. - BBC
An accusation that Carter handled property “undoubtedly stolen from the tomb” has emerged in a previously unpublished letter sent to him in 1934 by an eminent British scholar within his own excavation team. - The Guardian
