According to a national survey in 2012, mainland China has more than 766,000 sites of immoveable cultural relics but only around 130,000 designated custodians. Short staffing means that some sites are left unguarded, while others are closed to the public. - The Art Newspaper
Museums everywhere have worked to excavate more complex truths in their collections for years. In the ongoing grind of a pandemic that has exposed every manner of social division and inequity, the demand is for that work to accelerate. - Boston Globe
In a new memoir, Arnold Lehman, who was director of the museum at the time, looks back at the culture-war media circus that broke out over the 1999 exhibition Sensation, and especially over Chris Ofili's painting The Holy Virgin Mary. - ARTnews
"Statues of a Roman man, woman and child have been uncovered by archaeologists at an abandoned medieval church on the route of the HS2 high-speed railway." - The Guardian
Monday Aigbe has a statue of his ancestor in the middle of his complex, where craftsmen continue to cast bronzes and carve sculptures and ornamented doors using traditional methods. He's eagerly awaiting the return of his great-grandfather's artwork. - BBC
The Alexander Palace in Tsarskoe Selo near St. Petersburg, where Nicholas, Alexandra, and their five children lived before being shipped off to Yekaterinburg to die. The decade-long restoration required an astonishing amount of detective work to determine the original colors and patterns. - The New York Times
So it’s an exhibition with a pointed moral agenda. But it’s not preachy or obvious. It’s smart, it’s thoughtful, and it’s visually compelling. - Washington Post
There's a "danger of treating the car as an art object in itself. It may be art, but it’s a very different kind of art than the art that is made about cars." - Washington Post
You know about the Benin Bronzes, looted by the British from what's now Nigeria and some of which are being returned there. These objects, the Abomey Treasures, were taken by the French army in 1892 from the Kingdom of Dahomey, present-day Benin, where they'll be shipped next month. - AP
"A sprawling villa in Rome containing the only ceiling mural ever painted by Caravaggio is up for sale for almost €500m. The 2.75-metre wide painting Jupiter, Neptune and Pluto was commissioned by Cardinal Francesco Maria Del Monte to adorn the ceiling in his alchemy laboratory." - The Guardian
"Art and restoration specialists presented the result in the Cornaro Chapel in St. Mary of the Victory Church (in Rome) on Thursday. The chapel's centerpiece is one of Bernini's most celebrated sculptures, depicting the mystical experience of St. Theresa of Avila." - AP
“For , it’s a site of antiquities, it’s heritage, but contemporary art is not appealing to them. We changed people’s mentality and now they actually say that the art makes these ancient walls speak.” - Artnet
A study by the National Autonomous University of Mexico found that "more than 75 percent of (responding museums) said they are facing financial insecurity; 63 percent said that a budget shortfall put them at risk of not being able to properly maintain their facilities." - ARTnews
"The initial restoration plan involved shutting down the Centre Pompidou for three years from the end of 2023 for essential maintenance work." The question now is whether the project can be completed in time for the museum's 50th anniversary in 2027. - The Art Newspaper
Eleven Pablo Picasso artworks that have been on display at a Las Vegas hotel for more than two decades have sold at auction for nearly $110m (£80m). The works, which were owned by MGM Resorts, featured in the Picasso Restaurant at the Bellagio Hotel. - BBC
