According to the NYT, all is well: “The expansion is about as sensitive and deft as one could hope for. At moments, as in a voluptuous new marble staircase and airy auditorium, it approximates poetry.” - The New York Times
“The cost of fighting lawsuits and responding to an influx of inquiries during the coronavirus pandemic — when hundreds of people believed they had found an original van Gogh ... — has made the museum increasingly resistant to authentication requests.” - The New York Times
Is it time to move? "Flames came within feet of the building, and 17 courageous staff members who remained onsite went through 40 handheld fire extinguishers stamping them out.” - Los Angeles Times (MSN)
Artist Amanda Williams wanted to recreate George Washington Carver’s Prussian blue. “It’s a pigment that took Williams, together with two material science labs, three years to develop.” - The New York Times
A new California law changed a ruling that had seemed to be final last year, and now the painting, which is hanging at a museum in Madrid, is once again embroiled in lawsuits. - The New York Times
“What is red-chip art? … (It) comes in many guises, but certain visual patterns predominate: super-flat cartoons, a street art/graffiti aesthetic, and multi-colored chrome. Crucially, red-chip art is defined by its refusal to revere art history, perhaps as a part of a broader rejection of elite, specialized knowledge.” - Artnet
A house called RiverRock, based on the design plans that were on Wright’s drawing board when he died, was completed early this year in a Cleveland suburb, and the owner charges $800 a night for short-term rentals. Is this a legitimate Wright creation? The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation says no. - Artnet
“Archaeologists in Cambodia are celebrating an unexpected find at the country’s centuries-old Angkor temple complex: the torso of a statue of Buddha that matches a head found nearly a century ago at the same site. The torso, believed to be from the 12th or 13th century, was discovered ... last month.” - AP
The Italia Nostra heritage group warned that “downgrading interest in landscape” posed a “serious risk to the heritage of the widespread community”. - The Art Newspaper
The divergence of opinion between the museum's experts and those who doubt the work's authenticity opens a curious space in which to reflect on intriguing questions of artistic value and merit. Is there ever legitimacy in forgery? Can fakes be masterpieces? - BBC
The Grand Canal with San Simeone Piccolo (1737), housed at the Wallace Collection in London, has been reattributed to Bernardo Bellotto, who studied in his uncle’s workshop in the 1730s and early 1740s. - Artnet
“Madonna and Child by Antonio Solario was taken in 1973 from the civic museum in Belluno in northern Italy. Sometime later it was bought by Baron de Dozsa and taken to his Tudor manor house in eastern England. … It is now in the possession of Barbara de Dozsa, the late baron’s ex-wife.” - AP
Workers expressed fear that the cuts will threaten a collection of precious art housed in federal buildings across the country, including Alexander Calder’s 1974 “Flamingo” at the John C. Kluczynski Federal Building in Chicago and Michael Lantz’s 1942 “Man Controlling Trade” outside the Federal Trade Commission building in D.C. - Washington Post
Four works at The National Gallery - Alexandros Soutsos Museum in Athens were vandalised earlier this week, allegedly by a Greek member of parliament who described the contemporary pieces as “blasphemous” to Christianity. - The Art Newspaper
Armed with a warrant, Fort Worth police reportedly seized five photos from the exhibit and put them under lock and key—all because a few Republican officials and pearl-clutching Christian activists had taken offense. - The New Republic
