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Even The Louvre Is Creating An Immersive Art Show — And With The Mona Lisa

The world's most visited museum is teaming up with another Paris institution, the Grand Palais, to crate the light show, which will debut in Marseilles beginning in March. - Artnet

LA’s Bold New Event Space Is… Well, I Need A New Word For It

The history and location are why I wanted to love — love — the new Audrey Irmas Pavilion (which bears the name of the patron who gave the lead gift on the $95-million project). But OMA has delivered a building that is hard to love. - Los Angeles Times

Rescuing The Iconic Floor Tiles Of Barcelona

The decorative cement tiles were used in most residential buildings that went up from the late 19th-century construction boom to 1950, and they became a Barcelona trademark. But as those buildings are remade into luxury apartments, the tiles go into dumpsters — whence Joan Moliner rescues them. - The Guardian

Here’s Just How Lord Elgin Got Those Marbles Out Of Greece And Into England

It was an even uglier, more dishonest project than some of us had realized. (At least Elgin was heavily criticized for it at the time, even within Britain.) - Smithsonian Magazine

Met Museum, Having Difficulty Finding Guards To Staff Galleries, Increases Pay

Until last month, guards starting at the Met had been paid $15.51 an hour, just above the $15 minimum wage for fast food workers in New York state. Now guards are paid a starting wage of $16.50. - The New York Times

How A Major Gift Turned Into A Shiny New Gallery For Indigenous Art In And Unlikely Australian Town

Against the promise of his holdings of Aboriginal art, Gantner urged Shepparton to build a standalone gallery and for it to become a not-for-profit company independent of the council. Councils are “not natural operators of major arts facilities”, he says. - The Art Newspaper

Prehistoric Rock Art In Texas “Irreparably Damaged” By Jackass Vandals

The petroglyphs, at least 4,500 years old, in Big Bend National Park were ruined by "Isaac, Ariel, Norma, (and) Adrian," who carved their names on the rock on the day after Christmas. - Texas Monthly

How Traditional Architecture Has Become A Right-Wing Culture Wars Battleground

This time around, the traditionalist lunatics have succeeded in taking over the asylum. Reactionary ideas hostile to the cosmopolitan, to Modernism, to modernity itself, are in the ascendant. - The Art Newspaper

You Don’t Need To Be Rich To Assemble A Collection Of Art

Search out painters, sculptors, and other artists you like, and buy what you can. For fun. For your own space. For falling in love with art. "If a vaguely affordable picture speaks to me, the tips of my fingers seem to tingle and burn." - The Guardian (UK)

One Potential Future For Giving Art Back

That is, the future of restitution. "Each object is a symbol of countless others lost to systemic cultural devastation." - Hyperallergic

Want To Be A Successful Artist? Find A Rival

A study of composers during from 1750-1899 discovered that they were significantly more productive when they lived in close proximity to other composers. The most likely way of accounting for this is the inherent rivalry that arises when creative people encounter each other daily. - Ted Gioia

A Rusty Old Water Tank In The Australian Outback Becomes A Chapel Of Music And Light

Deep in the red-dirt semidesert of interior New South Wales, composer Georges Lentz and architect Glenn Murcutt created the Cobar Sound Chapel, visually a cross between Peter Zumthor and James Turrell, with a 24-hour "digital string quartet" by Lentz on loop. - T — The New York Times Style Magazine

Why Some Of The Earliest Depictions Of The Buddha Show Him Wearing Greek Tunics

Yes, it's ultimately because of Alexander the Great, but not directly. Among the unusual facts about this story is that many Greeks in ancient India adopted Buddhism and that Indian Greeks were the first to depict Siddhartha Gautama in human form. - Psyche

Virginia Museum Of Contemporary Art’s Building Is In Such Bad Shape, They’re Considering Leaving It

The building in Virginia Beach is aging, not particularly attractive, difficult to find, and very leaky; not for the first time, there's serious talk of moving. (But the main alternative is the city's Visitor Center, which is in the median of I-264.) - The Virginian-Pilot (Norfolk)

Painting, Thought To Be By Caravaggio, Will Get A Chance At Restoration

In March of 2021, the painting, which had been up for sale in Madrid and priced at a measly $1,800, was pulled from its auction after researchers determined that there was sufficient evidence to label The Crowning of Thorns as having been made by Caravaggio. - The Observer

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