"Construction workers renovating an abandoned cinema in the northern Italian city of Verona have stumbled upon what's been dubbed a 'miniature Pompeii' during excavations of the building's basement. The ancient site was probably abandoned after a fire, but 'the environment was preserved intact, with the magnificent colors of the frescoed walls dating back to the second century,'" said the...
It could indeed happen. Christie's is owned by François Pinault, CEO of luxury-goods conglomerate Kering (which includes, among others Yves Saint-Laurent and Gucci) and major art collector; French media magnate Patrick Drahi purchased Sotheby's two years ago; mega-collector and LVMH chairman Bernard Arnault (a rival to Jeff Bezos for the title of world's richest man) is based in the...
National boundaries, it would seem, hold very little meaning at all. The squiggles hint at other political geographies, from the deeper past or some unimaginable future. - European Review of Books
In the months after the catastrophic 2019 blaze, more than €800 million was raised to reconstruct the 13th-century cathedral. Why is the Diocese of Paris now seeking €6 million more? Not long after the disaster, the French parliament passed a law that the first round of money raised may be used only for structural work and conservation; these new...
The five-person jury for the category picked the finalists but the larger Pulitzer Prize Board, which selects the winners for all the prizes in journalism and the arts, did not do so for cartooning because no consensus pick emerged. - Washington Post
In 2000 it had fewer than 1,200 of them. By the end of last year there were nearly five times as many. Helped by a decision in 2008 to allow free entry to most government-run ones, visits have also soared. - The Economist
"The Grand Palais Éphémère, the €40 million temporary building that will host the Fiac and Paris Photo art fairs in Paris while the Grand Palais undergoes renovation, is opening on Saturday on the Champ-de-Mars overlooking the Eiffel Tower." - Artnet
"The Italian press has dubbed it the 'sack of RAI.' Investigators believe disgruntled former staff members stole a trove of artworks worth an estimated $30 million from the Italian public broadcasting company Rai over a period of decades." - Artnet
It belongs to Alvin Hall, 68, a broadcaster, financial educator and author, who, through good timing, taste and a bit of luck, began collecting in the 1980s and has been able to buy masterpieces by artists whose work is now worth much more. - The New York Times
The $93 million building by Morphosis Architects, the 80-personstudio founded by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Thom Mayne, was designed to be many things: the new home for a contemporary art museum — more than a decade in the works — that will nearly double exhibition space and raise the institution’s profile, for one. - Los Angeles Times
About his research at the palace, Gregory Buchakjian told Hyperallergic, “It’s a big house. There are no labels. It’s not a museum … Some paintings had labels, but they were not necessarily correct.” - Hyperallergic
A few days ago, David Zucchino's book on the 1898 Wilmington Massacre won a Pulitzer Prize. Now, a new statue is about to go up on the North Carolina-Wilmington campus, acknowledging and permanently memorializing the coup and massacre. The challenge for artist Dare Coulter: "'How do you depict Black joy, resilience,"'but also convey the horror of the massacre." -...
Now, their plans are becoming reality. According to Christo's nephew, "A photo montage of how it would look was done but they never proposed actually doing it because they thought they would never get the necessary permission." They're both gone, but the permission has been given. - The Guardian (UK)
It's been an expensive and draining series of legal battles. "After three years of courtroom hostilities, the estate of the artist Robert Indiana and the artist’s former business partner said Friday that they had agreed to settle the legal disputes that cost the estate millions of dollars and clouded the market for a man known for such works as...
