In custody is not a gang of thieves who planned a Hollywood-style heist, but a 49-year-old construction worker, with the Twitter name ArtFreak, who was arrested on Monday. - The New York Times
In early June in Milan, conceptual artist Salvatore Garau auctioned off an "immaterial sculpture" for €15,000. Now performance artist Tom Miller points out that he (with a crew of workers!) installed a similar work, titled Nothing, in a Gainesville park in 2016. He and his attorney have written Garau to seek a settlement. - Artnet
Banksy added an asterisk and a tiny bit of corporate-speak to the painting’s bottom right-hand corner: “*Subject to availability for a limited period only.” - Seattle Times
UK museums can hardly try to buy multi-million-pound works of art when they are making large numbers of staff redundant as a result of Covid-19. - The Art Newspaper
Last June Barbara Anderson founded Art on the Ave, which creates free exhibits in New York City neighborhoods by using empty storefronts as gallery space. - Christian Science Monitor
The two New York institutions have collaborated on The Looking Glass, an exhibition in which all the artworks are in augmented reality, and you point your smartphone at a QR code in order to see them. - The New York Times
"Particularly significant is the Dutch Government's new approach to 'heirless art.' … Now, in cases where no heirs can be identified, any artwork deemed to have been looted by Nazis will be transferred to an appropriate Jewish heritage institution." - Artnet
The two paintings are not obvious fakes. Indeed, one is considered a masterpiece, but they are unusual in the oeuvre of Vermeer: smaller than his other works, and painted on wooden panels instead of canvas. - The New York Times
Picasso's Head of a Woman and Mondrian's Stammer Windmill, taken from the National Gallery of Greece in 2012 in a seven-minute robbery, were seized in Keratea, a country town outside Athens. A suspect has been arrested and has reportedly confessed. - BBC
The Adoration of the Magi hanging in a country house near Rome was assumed to be a copy. But, five years ago, the owners sent it to restorer Antonella di Francesco after it suffered an "accidental trauma" — and, as she worked on the canvas, she gradually realized that it was the real thing. - CNN
The Obamas borrowed 142 pieces from the Smithsonian and the National Gallery of Art, the other recent occupants 12. The Bidens haven't started borrowing yet - but it will happen, and curators think they know what the couple will want. "Even as they embrace the Obamas’ modern and contemporary inclinations, the Bidens’ time as second family suggests their artistic...
Not sure there's any way to explain this except to just ... well: "In a dispute that pitted property rights against government rules and played out in international media, Florence Fang, a retired publisher, defended her colorful and bulbous house and its elaborate homage to The Flintstones family, featuring sculptures inspired by the 1960s cartoon along with aliens and...
