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Netherlands Is Creating Master Blueprint For Returning Artworks Looted From Colonies

" On 29 January, the government of prime minister Mark Rutte became the first in Europe to approve a central mechanism for repatriating colonial loot. … Now, a research consortium of nine museums and Amsterdam's Vrije Universiteit is preparing to launch a €4.5m project in June that will develop practical guidance for museums on colonial collections." - The Art...

$158 Million Restoration Of Air Force Academy Chapel Is Biggest Modernist Preservation Project Ever

Listed as a National Historic Landmark District, the Air Force Academy campus is still one of the most advanced fusions of technology, education, art, and architecture that the country has ever seen. At its heart, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill’s Walter Netsch Jr. designed an aluminum skinned chapel pointing straight up to the sky and the heavens beyond it. -...

Paris Biennale Is Permanently Discontinued

"The Paris Biennale, founded in 1962 and once the world's most prestigious art fair, is no more. After years of confusion, scandal and strife, the French union of antique dealers that ran the fair has announced its decision to 'turn the page of the Biennale, in order to set up a new event' in the city, scheduled for the...

DeepFake Technology That Animates Images (Really Creepy)

The AI family history app MyHeritage allows users to animate photographs from the past. Run a document through the app and it will seemingly bring it to life, making the subject’s eyes blink and look around. - The Conversation

Settlement In Copyright Suit Against Robert Indiana Estate

The settlement agreement brings the legal wrangling over the estate of the artist known for his iconic “LOVE” series closer to an end. - AP

Big Worries About The Met Museum’s Plans To Sell Art To Survive

"Critics of the new guidelines, including Hollein’s predecessor, Thomas P. Campbell, believe in the sanctity of public collections and want to maintain strict controls to protect them. They view the shift as the first step in a fundamental change in museum operations." - Washington Post

Why The Stonehenge Highway Tunnel Is Really A Good Idea

Archaeologist Timothy Darville: "Much of has been fuelled by negative publicity and misunderstandings about the processes by which archaeological concerns feed into planning and delivering development. But I want to offer a rather different perspective, and argue that this is the most ambitious conservation project ever undertaken to protect and enhance Britain's archaeological heritage." - Apollo

NY’s Iconic Metro Pictures Gallery Announces It Will Close

It wasn't "because of declining sales, co-founder Helene Winer said in an interview, but with a sense that reopening the gallery once the pandemic subsides would require more energy than she had to give at age 75. “We just feel like we did our thing,” she added. “I don’t think at my present age that I want to be...

Can Clubhouse Be The New Facilitator For Artworld Conversation?

"I thought it was about time I spent a day actually paying attention. What is the art world talking about on Clubhouse? Does the app replicate the usual exclusionary hierarchies or replace them? Will I get to hang out with artists I haven’t seen since the pandemic started?" - The Art Newspaper

Amy Sherald’s Portrait Of Breonna Taylor Will Find A Home In Louisville

Sherald, who painted the portrait for a Ta-Nehisi Coates-edited edition of Vanity Fair, decided that she wanted to sell the painting where Taylor lived and was killed by police. Stephen Reily, the director of the city's Speed Museum: "The killing of Breonna Taylor and a year of protests have really changed the course of Louisville, and we’re struggling. ......

The Coronavirus Has Become An Inspiration For Visual Artists

Some of it might seem tasteless as the pandemic rages on, but as one artist points out, there aren't exhibitions now - and artists make art. "One online art gallery, Singulart, is featuring collections of Covid-inspired art, with 300 pieces by artists from all over the world priced at up to £21,190. Co-founder Véra Kempf says they originally received...

The Planned V&A Restructuring Will Take Away Most Of The National Art Library’s Librarians

The details of what appears to be an outrageously short-sighted plan: "They are guardians of some of the nation’s most valued treasures, including Dickens’s manuscripts, a Shakespeare First Folio and five Leonardo notebooks. But librarians at the National Art Library in the Victoria and Albert Museum are feeling far from valued themselves, as two-thirds of them face losing their...

In Japan, ‘Disaster Art’ Is Saving People’s Lives

While dealing with emotional turmoil after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan, artist Kyohei Sakaguchi made a decision to merge his art and his life. First he published his phone number as a suicide hotline, and became more and more adept at helping others. "He wrote practical self-help books and answered phone calls, he painted abstract art and...

Lockdown Repainting In The Louvre Leads To A Lawsuit

Cy Twombly designed an Aegean sea-colored ceiling mural in the Salle des Bronzes at the Paris museum, which is undergoing various renovations while closed to the public - renovations including repainting the Salle des Bronzes' walls. "A debate about the suitability of the new wall color — precisely 'Marron Côte d’Azur,' a reddish and black shade — has been...

Sydney’s Museum Of Contemporary Art Is The Most Visited In The World

And Elizabeth Ann Macgregor, its director of 22 years, is leaving. "When Macgregor took over in 1999, the MCA was just eight years old and already on the verge of bankruptcy. Fewer than 100,000 people each year were visiting the converted Maritime Services Board art deco pile, which commands an imposing presence overlooking Circular Quay. Today more than 1...

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