The marble sculptures create both a physical barrier for the trawlers’ nets and a unique underwater museum, open to anyone either through arranged scuba diving tours or their own dive. - National Geographic
Anna Leporskaya's Three Figures (1932-34) was on loan from the State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow to the Boris Yeltsin Presidential Center in Ekaterinburg when a new guard decided that two of those three figures should have eyes. - The Guardian
Christopher Bedford, director of the Baltimore Museum of Art since 2016, has been named the new director of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. - San Francisco Chronicle
It was not an object of veneration, it was not meant for public display, and it wasn't considered valuable in its day except to craftsmen. (If it were, it would probably have been destroyed in the wave of iconoclasm after the death of Nefertiti's husband, Akhenaten.) - Aeon
International co-operation and resolve is growing firmer, as seen most recently in December, when Greece’s resolution, “Return or restitution of cultural property to the countries of origin”, was unanimously adopted by the United Nations General Assembly. - The Art Newspaper
The new Taliban governor of Bamiyan province somehow heard a rumor that there's buried treasure under what used to be the large 6th-century statues (destroyed in 2001, the last time the Taliban were in power). He's having the site dug up and refused orders from Kabul to stop. - Artnet
“Thinking about the Getty Villa, the Getty , Dodger Stadium, the cliffs in Malibu or Laguna,” shaped the way the team thought about SoFi. - Los Angeles Times
The site — at Zhangjiakou, where most of the skiing and snowboarding events are being held — is believed to be the Taihe Palace, summer home of the late 12th-century emperor Zhangzong. Finds so far include walls, foundations, a moat, and a number of high-quality ceramics. - Artnet
Last year, to the surprise of many (including the Secretary General), the tapestry's owner, Nelson A. Rockefeller, Jr., had it taken from its place outside the Security Council. Turns out he was just having it cleaned and conserved. He has, however, announced a new ownership plan for the artwork. - Forbes
The treasury department did find evidence of money laundering in the high-value art market. A common theme is that criminals use shell companies to buy art and hide behind a corporate veil. - Toronto Star (AP)
Good question, though without the landlords' advocacy, the world might never have heard of the artist and his work. "Now distant relatives of Darger — tracked down by a collector of vintage photography — are making a legal claim to that legacy." - The New York Times
Can one plagiarize a painting of cherry blossoms? Perhaps. "English artist and writer Joe Machine ... says they look just like his own cherry blossom paintings." - The Observer (UK)
The Marcel Breuer-designed Geller House "embodied the optimistic, now-vanished values of postwar suburbia: technological progress and a lifestyle built around children’s needs." - The New York Times
It's climate change, dummy: "Activist artists are working to get humanity to change course before it’s too late. They are sculpting major artworks that highlight the serious environmental crises facing local water bodies, while at the same time providing new habitats for aquatic life." - MacLean's (Canada)
Doesn't need regulation ... for now, anyway. "It’s often the case that there are larger underlying issues at play, like the abuse of shell companies or the participation of complicit professionals, so we are tackling those first." - The New York Times
