The public sphere has been replaced with emotional outbursts and opportunities for consumption. Museums have followed suit, relinquishing their mission to enlighten and challenge the public and offering mere content instead. - ARTnews
With the post-Katrina levees and fortifications having done their job, the city's art institutions suffered no flood damage. The worry is how long the collections can tolerate Louisiana heat and humidity without electricity to run the climate control systems. - Artnet
The piece did enough to convince a buyer – confusingly named Pranksy – to pay the equivalent of hundreds of thousands of pounds only to have the currency returned after what appeared to be an elaborate hoax by a scammer. - The Guardian
Basquiat died in 1988 at 27, but in the last few days all sorts of people with various relationships to both him and his work have come out with their own theories on the painting’s origin story. - The New York Times
"Anyone who thinks works of art declared fake simply disappear in disgrace or are destroyed should talk to Jane Kallir, author of the catalog raisonné for Egon Schiele. She was offered the same fake Schiele watercolor for authentication 10 times by 10 different collectors." - The New York Times
Justin Davidson: "This is a landscape shaped by fear. It has been formed not only by the reasoned response to a documented threat but by an amorphous, open-ended anxiety. You can see that disquiet embedded in the architecture … a monument to overweening caution." - New York Magazine
The museum occupies two historic buildings, with a large piazza in between, effectively reconfiguring a significant part of Rimini’s downtown. - The New York Times
The Museo de Arte Contemporâneo Atchugarry, now under construction in the exclusive seaside resort town of Punta del Este, is being built and funded by Pablo Atchugarry, perhaps Uruguay's most prominent living artist. Opening is planned for early January. - Artnet
As a museum, it has always been a disaster. Ever since it opened, the New National Gallery has been dogged by cracking windows, heavy condensation and awkward display spaces, presenting a curatorial nightmare for its staff. - The Guardian
The art park (project? bioregion?) in France is a bit unclear right now. Luma "is a wonderland of good intentions. They certainly don’t pave the road to hell, but they do offer versions of desirability that are at odds with each other." - The Observer (UK)
Or was the graffiti artist after whom the NY Police Department sent a drone, a helicopter, and several cars actually the next potential Banksy or Basquiat? - Vice
Anna Härmälä: "I knew I needed to tell a story about this, but also I needed to survive. So the story has been bubbling inside for six years, and now it’s coming out." - The Guardian (UK)
John C. Calhoun's words about the Postal Service are, after complaints about the former VP's odious beliefs and a museum redesign, gone from the wall. All of the Smithsonian museums are doing a review, and "part of the review is looking at objects and wall labels, especially those that have been in place for many years." - Washington Post
