"After a renovation of a storied gallery at the Louvre Museum in Paris, the Cy Twombly Foundation has claimed that a monumental ceiling painting by the late artist has been permanently altered, thanks to a new paint job on the surrounding walls and a change in lighting. … is demanding that the Salle des Bronzes be returned to...
"Museumgoers took to social media to complain about the institution’s failure to implement effective social-distancing measures in some of its most popular spaces last weekend, in particular those decorated with frescoes by Raphael and his workshop. … In an open letter to museum management posted on Facebook, that he was 'deeply ashamed and embarrassed' that he had led...
"We are sorry. We have made mistakes. We have let you down. We are ashamed of Newfields' leadership and of ourselves," the board said in a statement announcing the departure of Charles Venable in the wake of heavy criticism over a very unfortunately worded job listing. This was the latest in a series of controversies over Venable's leadership and...
A group of 85 Newfields employees and members of the Board of Governors released a public letter Tuesday that calls for president Charles Venable to step down after the arts campus apologized for the wording in its job description for a new director. - Indianapolis Star
An administrative court in Montpellier ruled that Louis Aliot, mayor of Perpignan (and Marine Le Pen's number-two in the far-right party National Rally, and also her ex-partner), could not place his orders above those of President Macron, who instituted the latest lockdown. (Note, however, that we have here a far-right politician who has tweeted publicly that "culture is an...
"A series of frescoes showing the life and death of John the Baptist in the cathedral of the Bavarian city of Augsburg have been recently dated to the first decade of the 11th century, ranking them among the oldest wall paintings in a medieval church north of the Alps." - The Art Newspaper
"'We are now where you will be in a few days,' wrote novelist Francesca Melandri in a piece for the Guardian newspaper in late March 2020. Her moving 'letter from your future' coincided with the beginning of the first pandemic wave in Italy. One year on, her words can be repeated – only this time with a more optimistic...
"If the postmodernism of the 1980s considered the museum to be in crisis and contemplated its “ruins,” today many see these same institutions as frustratingly intact, as bulwarks against change, citadels to be stormed. (Even ten years ago, the Left’s critique of museums was simply that they had transformed from civic sites to experiential fun houses. “The late-capitalist museum”...
Archaeologists "were hopeful of unearthing something of interest because the area has been occupied for more than 3,000 years. But nothing prepared them for the excitement of discovering an extended iron age settlement, with the remains of more than a dozen roundhouses dating from 400BC to 100BC – as well as an enormous Roman villa built in the late third to...
Not for nothing - for a new museum of contemporary art. But ... really? "'We invited the Department of Cultural Affairs,' Carrie Wood, a member of a campaign to save the mural called Keep Santa Fe Multicultural, said of the planned peaceful gathering that took place last weekend, 'but they didn’t respond to our email, or even take the time...
Or they might, soon. London needs "infrastructure week," but for real, and for much longer than a week. Take Hammersmith. "It’s obvious whom to blame: politicians are guilty to varying degrees of buck-passing, posturing, point-scoring, broken promises and inaction. The problem is that they are in different parties and different authorities." The results are disastrous. - The Guardian (UK)
Artists need studios, and usually studios with light ... and churches often have that. "Places of worship are typically built to outlast their parishioners. The steepled Protestant churches in upstate New York are often the oldest buildings in their towns — repositories of local memory, even as their congregations have dwindled." - The New York Times
In 2016, when the Seine flooded its banks, museum workers toiled 24 hours a day to haul thousands of artworks out of underground storage for their protection. Cut to now: "For more than 16 months, a stream of trucks has quietly hauled treasures from the museum’s central Paris basement, and other sites, to the Louvre Conservation Center, a fortress...
The problem isn't earned income lost to tourism (that is, no tourism). The problem is the trustees. "Met trustees established a special fund to deal with the pandemic crisis. So far, according to the museum’s spokesperson, the board has raised 'just north of $25 million.' That is, in a word, pathetic. Since the pandemic began, America’s billionaire class has...
Each lockdown has meant something different for the staff, especially of science and natural history museums. For instance, James Maclaine, senior fish curator at London's Natural History Museum, has to keep the flesh-eating beetles alive and make sure the freezers are running. "We have a lot of material in freezers which we haven't been able to process yet and...
