The artwork spent 150 years at a school in the Blue Mountains that's now owned by the National Trust of Australia, which sent the painting for conservation. Once the varnish was removed, conservators discovered the signature of Gerrit Willemszoon Heda (1624-1649), and the painting is worth several million dollars. - Artnet
This week sees the release of a new film, Who Can He Be?, in which David Rolfe argues that, far from the shroud being a definite dud, new discoveries in the past few years have again opened the question of its authenticity. - The Guardian
An Italian court says the Piero della Francesca work must be returned to the hilltop church where it was painted in 1460. The mayor of the town says no way in hell is it going to live among 3,000 graves. - The Guardian (UK)
Devon Henry "has emerged as the go-to statue remover not only for , but for all of Virginia and other parts of the South." And there's a high price to pay, on a personal level. - The New York Times
Barry Joule "said he is so frustrated by the Tate’s failure to exhibit an earlier donation of the artist’s work that he has cancelled plans to donate hundreds more items to the gallery." - The Observer (UK)
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
