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Drainage Workers In Malta Uncover A 2300-Year-Old Tomb

An archaeologist noticed small cuts in an ancient wall - and the reward was a tomb that was used from the 4th to the 1st century B.C.E. The tomb "contained two urns filled with cremated remains as well as the bones of an adult and the articulated skeleton of a young child laid on its back. Artifacts such as...

Pompidou Center To Open First U.S. Branch In — Wait, Where?

Jersey City, NJ — which would, if not for the state boundary, be like Brooklyn, since it is directly across the Hudson River from lower Manhattan, to which Jersey City is connected by subway trains. (In fact, this new museum will be right smack next to a station for those trains, so there's no excuse that it will be...

As Pandemic Lifts, US Museums Are In Less Dire Shape Than Feared

"A year ago, the outlook for U.S. museums appeared grim: a July 2020 survey conducted by the American Alliance of Museums (AAM) found that one-third of institutions across the country could close due to the devastating effects of the pandemic. But … a new report by AAM — the professional organization's third such survey since March of 2020 —...

The Independence Of UK Museums May Be In Danger

The government appears to be meddling in free speech on university campuses - and now in national museum decisions. "This came to a head recently when it refused to reappoint Aminul Hoque, a distinguished academic at Goldsmiths, who had been on the board of the Royal Museums Greenwich since 2016. Because his work focused on issues of decolonisation, the...

Gallery Assistants Aren’t Earning A Living Wage

Perhaps not a shocker, but in a 300-gallery survey, results painted "a portrait of an industry beset with income inequality." Assistants' top pay was about $35,000 a year, or $17 an hour - not a living wage in New York State. And that also means no overtime, no health benefits, no maternity leave, nothing that one might think galleries...

Mexico Forcibly Halts Illegal Construction Next To Teotihuacán

" sent in 250 National Guard troops and 60 police officers Monday to seize land next to the pre-Hispanic ruins of Teotihuacán where authorities have said bulldozers were destroying outlying parts of the archaeological site. … Officials reported last week that they had been trying since March to halt the private construction project, but work continued on what local...

Louvre Will Get New Department Of Byzantine And Coptic Art, Says New Director

"If that department comes to fruition, it would signify a break with the Louvre's president, Jean-Luc Martinez, who had deemed its formation unnecessary, and a willingness to expand the ways the museum presents religious art." - ARTnews

The Prado Is Taking Its Art To The Streets

In replica form, that is. "Exact replicas of masterpieces from the Prado museum, including paintings by Goya, El Greco, and Fra Angelico, have been installed behind tree branches, inside airport security stations, on the sides of buildings, and along wrought-iron fences." - Artnet

When ISIS Made Off With A Magritte Nude (Which Made It Back Intact!)

In 2009, a pair of thieves got into the René Magritte Museum in the Brussels suburb of Jette, located in the artist's former home, and stole Olympia, a reclining nude portrait of his wife. The painting was returned two years later, after what amounted to a ransom payment by the museum's insurer. The assumption had been that the robbers...

At 4,300 Years, This May The World’s Oldest War Memorial

"A huge burial mound holding the corpses of at least 30 warriors in Syria could be the oldest war memorial ever discovered, dating back at least 4,300 years at the now submerged site of Tell Banat, said a team of archaeologists. The memorial is also the first example of a particular type of monument described in ancient inscriptions from...

Ai Weiwei’s Thoughts On China, Colonialism, And Controversial Statues

On culture wars as a symbol of democracy: "It’s not only democracy, it’s about art as symbols of our existence. You know, whenever we talk about democracy, we’re never talking about a perfect state, but rather continuous questioning and argument. are about us, about those questions, not about any authority." - The Observer (UK)

Could Museums Become Like Libraries?

That is, welcoming to all, free, and more a central part of public life? There's a little problem with this idea, which former Queens Museum president and executive director Laura Raicovich pitches in a new book about politics and museums. "Museums lack 'public spirit' because museums are capitalist institutions," unlike public libraries. - The Nation

Why A Photographer Asked Her Subjects To Pose In Victorian Dress

Zimbabwe-based photographer Tamary Kudita has her contemporary subjects pose in Victorian outfits - often made with contemporary fabric, by designers - to show links between present and past, to combine the two strands of her family's history, and to immense visual effect. She says, "There are collective identities and there are also individual and incredibly diverse stories. All these together...

The Specialized Bacteria Cleaning Michelangelo’s Masterpieces

A top-secret project made the Medici Chapel gleam anew: "In the months leading up to Italy’s Covid-19 epidemic and then in some of the darkest days of its second wave as the virus raged outside, restorers and scientists quietly unleashed microbes with good taste and an enormous appetite on the marbles, intentionally turning the chapel into a bacterial smorgasbord."...

Barcelona’s City Council Rejects A Proposed Branch Of The Hermitage

It's not a simple no, however: "The port authority, which owns the site of the proposed museum, gave the green light but the council has objected on the grounds of location and fears the scheme will provide little value to local residents." - The Guardian (UK)

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