"On November 24, Ibe posted a drawing of a Black fetus in utero on social media, calling for more diversity in medical illustration. The drawing struck a chord with viewers, many of whom had never realized they had never seen a Black figure in medical diagrams." - Artnet
Michael Steinhardt gave up for repatriation 180 objects that he had purchased from dealers over the years. In exchange for his cooperation, including never again purchasing antiquities, authorities agreed not to prosecute. - The New York Times
"In a move that has been roundly criticized by members of the Polish art community, the Zachęta National Gallery of Art in Warsaw announced that its new director would be Janusz Janowski, a painter and musician who has never before run an art museum." - ARTnews
Toek Tik, the Cambodian man known as "The Lion," helped plunder ancient sites - then, recently, spent years telling police and cultural workers about the thefts. He has died, after contracting COVID-19, at 62. He said, "I want the gods to come home." - The New York Times
Thomas Gavin stashed stolen antique firearms "in his hideout — a cluttered, non-descript barn in rural Pennsylvania. Gavin's crime spree was so under the radar, no one caught on until 2018, when he tried to unload a rare, Revolutionary-era rifle to a local antiques dealer." - NPR
For fine arts students, the pandemic has been rough. Colleges including the Massachusetts College of Art and Design "sent home 'care packages' tailored to different majors and rejiggered curriculums to prioritize in-person studio time for the students who needed it most." - MSN (Boston Globe)
Not only artist Xxavier Carter but the curator and the fair were threatened with fines and long jail sentences. Ironically, perhaps, Carter's piece "reimagines the myth of Sisyphus to reflect on the violent legacy of colonialism." - Hyperallergic
In the online iteration of 2020, no African American galleries were included. But "over the past year, Art Basel changed its admission requirements and made a concerted effort to invite previously marginalized galleries to apply." - The New York Times
Boris Johnson wanted a span crossing a 300-m trench filled with munitions, but his bridge game is off after "a government feasibility study by a team of 'world-renowned technical advisers' that bears do, after all, shit in the woods." - The Guardian (UK)
The ramifications of what happened at the Art Institute will play out for years. Depending who’s talking, it’s about diversity, gratitude or merely the future of museums. - MSN (Chicago Tribune)
Using bricks and wood scavenged from building sites, shards of stained glass, and stacked oil drums for pillars, former monk Justo Gallego spent six decades constructing a church of his own design in outer Madrid. He died last weekend, but a nonprofit will finish the building. - Yahoo! (AFP)
At least two dozen of the 35 surviving paintings of Johannes Vermeer will be on display in the spring of 2023 at Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum, whose director says he expects to borrow every Vermeer that isn't too fragile to travel. - The Guardian
The UNESCO World Heritage Site and pilgrimage center has been one of the battlegrounds in the civil war between Ethiopia's central government and rebels from Tigray province, whose forces captured the town in August. - Al Jazeera
NFTs (and with them cryptocurrency and all that comes with it) have upended the art market, bringing contemporary art and millennial meme culture crashing together. - ArtReview
"The Greek Ministry of Culture and Sports has announced that Italy will return a fragment of the Parthenon Frieze, which has been on loan as part of a cultural exchange." - Artnet
