ArtsJournal: Arts, Culture, Ideas

VISUAL

The Palace Of Versailles Restored An Opulent Fountain Using 17th-Century Techniques

“The gold leaf had washed off the 350-year-old statues, leaving a behind dull, ruddy scene. Algae had spread across the 13 statues, leaving marks down Apollo’s dashing face that appeared like a trail of green tears. Things were not much better internally.” - Artnet

Concerned About Climate Risks, Getty Will Sell $500 Million In Bonds To Enhance Protection

The Getty maintains earthquake and fire insurance but, as expressed in the filing, there are concerns “such insurance could become unavailable at rates considered reasonable by the Getty Trust.” - ARTnews

Director Of The  National Museum of African American History and Culture In DC Put On Leave

Kevin Young’s leave came two weeks before Trump issued an executive order calling for the elimination of what he described as “improper, divisive or anti-American ideology” within the Smithsonian. - The Guardian

Texas Lawmaker Introduces Bill To Fine Museums Which Display “Obscene Material”

Following the attempted prosecution of the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth for child pornography over an exhibition of Sally Mann’s photography, a state representative has proposed a law that would fine a museum $500,000 per item per day for displaying anything deemed “obscene or harmful material.” - Fort Worth Report

Is Museums’ Social Media Use Dying?

While most of the 100 museums in the list grew their social media followings over the past year, this is despite almost all of them experiencing a decline in followers on X. - The Art Newspaper

Museums As Medical Therapy Prescriptions

Years after the pandemic sharpened issues around mental health, the practice has boomed, with doctors prescribing visits to museums from Montpellier to Massachusetts as a complement to more traditional treatments. - The Guardian

What We Could Learn About Accommodating Climate Change From Frank Lloyd Wright

“The man-made building heighten the beauty of the desert and the desert more beautiful because of the building,” Wright wrote in To Arizona. “A dream, but realization is coming.” - Bloomberg

Sudan’s National Museum Ransacked And Looted By Paramilitaries

“Videos of (the) museum showing empty rooms, piles of rubble and broken artefacts posted on social media after the Sudanese army recaptured the area from the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. … The museum held an estimated 100,000 artefacts from thousands of years of the country’s history.” - The Guardian

Small Nebraska Museum Says It Has Discovered Five Edvard Munches

Much like Munch’s iconic painting, this suite of five “never-before-seen” works made around 1893 all depict the main figure on a bridge alongside a pair in the background. In this case, the central character displays a range of emotions, from happiness to anger and boredom. - Hyperallergic

Historic Landmarks Damaged In Myanmar Earthquake

“The most significant damage to cultural heritage sites appears to have occurred in and around Mandalay, the country’s second-largest city and the home of many ancient monasteries and palaces.” - ARTnews

Visitors: Isn’t The Smithsonian Already Telling The Story Of America?

“There’s no way this is anti-American if it’s showing everything we’ve been through and what our nation is founded on. How is it divisive to educate people on what happened?” - Washington Post

If The Minnesota State Capitol Were On Fire, Its Historian Would Save This Painting

Why would historic site manager Brian Pease save The Battle of Nashville? The Capitol “was finished in 1905, only 40 years after the Civil War. The war was fresh in people’s minds, especially the state’s veterans, who had become politicians, governors and business leaders.” - MPR

In Berlin, Fine Tattoo Art Is Thriving

“Works on Skin sells artwork in numbered limited editions of 100, initially for €100 each but reaching up to €2,000 for the last remaining numbers. With their purchase, buyers acquire a signed fine-art print of the artwork.” - The Observer (UK)

Tate Britain Will Return A Nazi-Looted Work To The Family Of A Belgian Art Collector

“Painter Henry Gibbs' 1654 work, Aeneas And His Family Fleeing Burning Troy, was taken by the Nazis as 'an act of racial persecution,' said the Spoliation Advisory Panel, which which looks into cases of looted artworks.” - BBC

More Than A Century After It Was Taken By A Museum, An Indigenous Shrine Returns Home

Franz Boas "decided to acquire for the American Museum of Natural History in New York, where he was a curator. He was driven by a concept known as ‘salvage anthropology,’ in which researchers saw collecting Native cultural possessions as a way to safeguard them." - The New York Times

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