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...
The explanation of the current CEO and director of the Indianapolis Museum didn't, perhaps, help. Charles L. Venable said that "the decision to use 'white' had been intentional, and explained that it had been intended to indicate that the museum would not abandon its existing audience as part of its efforts toward greater diversity, equity and inclusion." -...
Women Artists for Revolution (W.A.R., of course) weren't shy about their rallying cry in 1969. "The group ignited a robust movement against gender discrimination within, and widespread exclusion from, New York City’s patriarchal art industry, particularly by galleries and museums who saw art made by women as inherently illegitimate and therefore ineligible for serious consideration." - Hyperallergic
Not that left-wing art-lovers can't sympathize (and a socialist mayor in another town is planning to defy the national orders as well), but ... well, honestly? This is another seemingly bizarre restriction. A member of the Louvre's board: "Right now, you can go and buy lingerie! ... But how come museums — something that is paramount for social cohesion,...
Dear Gavin Newsom, this makes no sense at all. Signed, a lot of LACMA and other art-lovers in California. Weirdly: "LACMA can open its Resnick Pavilion gift shop but not the galleries within the same Resnick Pavilion — even though the two share a front door and a ventilation system. The same goes at the Huntington Library, Art Museum...
Its diameter of 110m is identical to the ditch that encloses Stonehenge, and it is aligned on the midsummer solstice sunrise, just like the Wiltshire monument. A series of buried stone holes that follow the circle’s outline has been unearthed, with shapes that can be linked to Stonehenge’s bluestone pillars. One of them bears an imprint in its base that...
The site, which the City of Federal Way annexed in 1994, has been lauded over the years for the pioneering way it intertwines building and landscape. Today, it is caught up in controversy over plans to build massive warehouses that opponents say would disrupt the balance with nature but that the property’s new owner says are necessary to pay...
"Researchers discovered the breakfast area within the ruins , and it reveals how the emperor and his wife began each day with an impressive display of power. They believe the emperor would have sat on a raised marble platform, flanked by fountains. … Both Hadrian and his wife were positioned as if on thrones, with retractable bridges further setting...
"Museum of Contemporary Art Director Klaus Biesenbach will take on a new role as artistic director … will focus on programming, collections and exhibitions, international and digital outreach as well as fundraising and development. … The executive director … will steer daily management and operations at the museum, including 'establishing key strategic, institutional and capital priorities, long range...
Los Angeles, where the coronavirus pandemic has been particularly severe, is the largest city in the nation whose museums have yet to reopen even temporarily since the pandemic struck last March. - The New York Times
Fundraising for the project has been at a virtual standstill for the past two years, since Vancouver’s Chan family, headed by Burrard International Holdings founder Caleb Chan, committed $40 million toward the project now estimated to be worth $355 million, including a $50 million endowment fund. That total does not include the City of Vancouver’s gift of a 99-year...
"Almost nine years ago, two thieves carried out a near-perfect heist at the National Gallery in Athens, taking two works by modern masters Pablo Picasso and Piet Mondrian, as well as a a sketch by Italian Mannerist artist Guglielmo Caccia. … The case remains unsolved, but a new investigation suggests at least one work — Picasso's Head of a...
Even though it has a little more flair, I hope we can accept the Turkish monolith as a normal part of life in 2021. It is not a mystery — even though we don’t know who exactly put it there, we know human beings did it, and we know that they were undoubtedly inspired by the 100-plus other monoliths...
