The Belgian government has turned over to the Democratic Republic of the Congo's prime minister an inventory list of 85,000 items in the country's Afrikamuseum, about 70% of the museum's entire collection. The two countries will work out which items should be repatriated. - The Brussels Times
Many of the workers who have recently joined unions have come from the curatorial, administrative and education staffs — white-collar office workers who often had not previously been represented by collective bargaining units. - The New York Times
Pompeii, the city buried by Vesuvius' eruption in the year 79 CE/AD, nearly lost its fame and fortune again in 2010 this time because of squabbling, corruption, and neglect that caused the excavated gladiator training hall to collapse. But Pompeii is now back - again. - Seattle Times (AP)
The artist Abdas do Nascimiento dreamed of a museum for Black art in his country, but "after years in exile during a military dictatorship in Brazil, he died in 2011." Now the Black Art Museum has a temporary, but powerful, home. - The New York Times
A Virginia museum has loaned the statue to Europe but won't loan it to a gallery in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, so that gallery has started to sell NFTs of images of the statue. The museum is not pleased. - The Guardian (UK)
In a "totally Kafkaesque" situation, one artist's show ran without the public ever being able to see it. "All facilities overseen by the city’s Department of Cultural Affairs (DCA) remain closed, with no timeline for reopening or even a roadmap for how to get there." - The Art Newspaper
"Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs, the IRS equivalent in the United Kingdom, announced earlier this week that it had seized three NFTs and about $6,800 worth of crypto from three individuals who are currently embroiled in a $1.9 million tax fraud case." (Hm. How would one seize an NFT?) - ARTnews
"Pursuing a more 'panoramic approach' to the painter’s oeuvre, the Madrid institution has placed Las Majas in a new gallery alongside two little-seen sketches of Saint Bernardino of Siena preaching to an Aragonese king, as well as a reclining Venus by Titan." - ARTnews
"The collection of 239 objects, encompassing Pueblo and Navajo pottery, textiles, and jewelry, is not well known, despite the fact that Barnes installed the textiles largely on the second floor of his (original) Merion gallery, where they eventually kept watch over the Matisse mural, The Dance." - MSN (The Philadelphia Inquirer)
Rex Whistler's wall painting includes depictions of black slaves on a leash and caricatures of Chinese figures. The room will no longer be used as a restaurant, as it had been for decades. Instead, Tate said the new installation would "be exhibited alongside and in dialogue with the mural, reframing the way the space is experienced". - BBC
Unfortunately, much of the language that surrounds their retroactive inclusion — through museum retrospectives, new biographies, and increasing market interest — makes it seem as if their systematic erasure has been a fluke of history, rather than an intentional sidelining. - Hyperallergic
Since 2001, there have been at least ten major archeological projects at or around Stonehenge, along with many smaller ones; many have involved techniques unavailable to previous researchers, such as high-precision radiocarbon dating, ground-penetrating radar, and isotope analysis. - The New Yorker
For 84 years the museum, built with private funds, paid $1 annual rent for land in a city park. But a new law calls for the museum to pay part of fair market rental value and to accept 60 days' notice for lease termination. The museum is resisting. - Idaho Statesman
After an outcry from those who thought the Courtauld was mocking mental illness and psychosis for fun and profit, the museum removed the erasers and the soap bar "for the tortured artist who enjoys fluffy bubbles" from its inventory. (The emotional first-aid kit remains in stock.) - Artnet
