"The conceptual restructure, if it goes ahead as planned, will make the museum itself look curiously out of time, out of touch with the world and with its own history. If the planned changes to the V&A are a harbinger of what ‘Global Britain’ will look like, then a parochial, nostalgic future – marked by redundancies of vision as...
“The visitor experience this year will be phenomenal. It will be culture without crowds. You will be up close and personal with animals or art in a way you would never have experienced before and possibly won’t in the future. If you were ever going to have a holiday in Britain, this is the time to do it.” -...
As prices for the digital artworks soar, with payments made in Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies, some observers are throwing around words like "tulipmania." Says the CEO of a company that verifies NFTs, "We're in a frenzy of speculation. … We're living in a moment of collective hysteria." Especially now that the finance guys are moving in on the art...
"The counterfeit canvases came from a non-specialist collector based in the province of Toledo who had intended to sell the works as originals. … The asking price? A combined €12.5 million ($14.6 million). … Potential buyers had been lined up." - Artnet
The museum was conceived by the Empress Farah Diba Pahlavi, wife of Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, and opened to international acclaim in 1977. Just 15 months later, in the face of a massive popular uprising, the couple left the country on what was officially called a “vacation.” The revolution replaced the monarchy with an Islamic Republic weeks later. The...
This, of course, in contrast with the country's national museums, which have declined to repatriate the art. Evidently, the regionals have more flexibility in such decisions. "On Thursday, the University of Aberdeen confirmed it would repatriate a bust of an Oba, or king of Benin, which it has had since the 1950s, 'within weeks', a landmark move for a...
The French museum has released an online platform featuring all of the museum's artworks, consisting of more than 480,000 pieces, the Louvre announced Friday in a press release.Art lovers and researchers alike will now be able to view the entire Louvre collection online for free. - CNN
“NFTs have been a thing for years, but recently it's been exploding,” says Seattle-based digital sculptor Sam Clover, aka Planttdaddii. Clover started selling her artworks — GIFs and JPEGs of psychedelic flora and fauna — as NFTs in October last year. These days, her works routinely sell for 2 ETH (more than $3,000) on platforms like SuperRare and Foundation. - Crosscut
"In a major loss for the Andy Warhol Foundation, the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on Friday that the famed Pop artist did not make fair use of Lynn Goldsmith's 1981 portrait of Prince for his own 1984 series of similar-looking images. The decision effectively overturns one made in 2019 by the Southern District Court of New York,...
The $350 million development, called Angkor Lake of Wonder and planned for just beyond the temple complex's southern boundary, was to be "a Khmerfied Disneyland of sorts complete with multiple hotels, an indoor digital theme park, expansive botanical gardens, a network of touristic canals, and a 'Siem Reap China Town' entertainment and retail district." Developers struck a deal last...
Nearly 200 complaints have been filed on the BBB site against Fever, the ticketing company for the event, with at least two dozen about this specific exhibit. Customers have cited their frustration over mistaking Fever’s version for a similar exhibit from a different company, called “Immersive Van Gogh” and wanting a refund, but not being able to get one...
Wait, are palaces like Sandringham likely to host stolen cultural artifacts? We'll never know - at least not from the police, who are barred by a 2017 law from searching the royal residences. - The Guardian (UK)
The Museum of American War Letters is offering not just glimpses of the letters, but audio of tapes and other communications sent back home by soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines. Right now, it's mostly focused on Vietnam, but it plans to expand, and it's open to anyone who wants to visit, virtually. "The institution has no street address —...
Rania Andouni was targeted for her gender expression - and when she went to the police station to file a complaint, the police not only harassed her further, but charged her. A Tunisian "sentenced Amdouni to six months in prison on the charge of 'insulting a public officer during the performance of his duty,' which is punishable by up to one year...
It all comes down to the earring. "The arresting piece of jewellery, which bursts from the borders of itself with piercing radiance like a celestial orb, transforms the static action from a callous chronicle of recurring cruelty, however impeccably wrought, to something more sympathetically mythic: a meditation on the interconnectedness of all things" - and the supposed godlike powers...
