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Congress Passes New Controls On Antiquities In The Defense Authorization Bill

Regulators have long worried that the opacity of the antiquities trade, where buyers and sellers are seldom identified, even to the parties in a transaction, made it an easy way to shroud illicit transfers of money. The new legislation empowers federal regulators to design measures that would remove secrecy from transactions. - The New York Times

Study: Was Stonehenge Built As A Giant Amplifier?

The study found that people who spoke or played music inside the monument would have heard clear reverberations against the massive standing stones. Testing on the model also suggests that the stones increased the volume on interior sound, kept exterior sound out, and made it hard for anyone outside the structure to hear what was going on inside. -...

Star Museum Directors Talk The Future Of Museums

As the Ford Foundation’s president, Darren Walker, recently told me, “museums are in a crisis because America is in a crisis.” Museums shape narratives that matter, so it’s no surprise young people are passionate about pushing for change. It’s time now to do better—a lot better. That means looking at ourselves honestly and fixing a whole lot about the...

Uncovering – Literally – The Forgotten And Hidden Work Of Italy’s Women Artists

In Italy, for centuries, women weren't allowed to work as artists, but many did anyway. The group Advancing Women Artists has been working its detective magic to change the history. The group "has shed light on a forgotten part of the art world, identifying some 2,000 works by women artists that had been gathering dust in Italy's public museums...

Painting In Apocalyptic Times

The Canadian artist painting 2020 for a spot across from Salvador Dalí's Santiago El Grande, which includes a nuclear bomb going off: "I wanted the apocalypse I was creating to be different — different from traditional ending-of-the-world scenes where some people are being elevated and some people are being damned to hell." - CBC

A 33-Meter Hillside Vagina Sculpture Is Highlighting Brazil’s Cultural And Political Rifts

The artist, Juliana Notori, "said the scarlet hillside vulva was intended to 'question the relationship between nature and culture in our phallocentric and anthropocentric western society' and provoke debate over the 'problematisation of gender.'" Brazil's alarmingly right-wing government, and its supporters, seem to be provoked. - The Guardian (UK)

The Antiquities Trade Is About To Get Reined In

Or at least, that's the hope of the U.S. Congress. "Regulators have long worried that the opacity of the antiquities trade, where buyers and sellers are seldom identified, even to the parties in a transaction, made it an easy way to shroud illicit transfers of money. The new legislation empowers federal regulators to design measures that would remove secrecy...

The Louis Kahn Dorms Threatened For Destruction In India

To continue the Threatened Buildings theme: "A world-class architectural-preservation controversy is brewing in India, where the administration at the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad had announced plans to raze 14 of 18 student dormitory buildings designed by the architect Louis Kahn and built in the 1960s and 1970s." - The New York Times

Why Are England’s Brutalist Buildings Being Destroyed?

As regular ArtsJournal readers have probably noticed, brutalist buildings are at risk all over the world. But basically, in the north of England, brutalist architecture has met a deliberate lack of maintenance, and so "a mix of mismanagement and a general undervaluing of brutalism was leading to unnecessary demolition." - The Guardian (UK)

Creative Commons Is Truly A Great Resource, Until Scammers Pop Up

Kyle Cassidy uploaded a photo of Peter Sagal in 2013 to Wikimedia Commons, with the subject's permission, the correct attribution, and the correct info about what kind of camera he used. Years later, things got weird. With a little digging, he (and Wikimedia Commons) discovered that the weirdness was part of a widespread massive linkbait scam. - Hyperallergic

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