Giorgia Meloni's right-wing government is replacing the directors at the country's landmark museums — a number of which, such as the Uffizi, have highly professional but non-Italian directors. In the wake of changes at the national broadcaster, some cultural leaders worry about a return of Mussolini-style policies. - MSN (The Washington Post)
According to the PA news agency, the missing items are believed to have been taken over a "significant" period of time. Some of them reportedly ended up on eBay, being sold for considerably less than their actual estimated value. - BBC
Creating interactions in public space turns the urban space into a playful and social venue that could attract residents of all ages. However, there are challenges when designing interactive urban installations. - The Conversation
As was the case with the professor, photos uploaded to Christie’s oftentimes include GPS coordinates for where they were taken; those coordinates are so precise that they reveal not just a street address but can even indicate within a few feet exactly where inside a building a photo was taken. - Washington Post
A Chinese Min dynasty vase, valued at more than £2 million, was stolen in Geneva in 2019 by an international art theft ring that thought, so the UK's Metropolitan police say, that law enforcement couldn't cooperate internationally. Whoops! - The Guardian (UK)
Michael Barzman, after first lying to the FBI, "eventually admitted involved working with an associate to create between 20 and 30 fake pieces that were promoted for sale as if they were genuine." - The New York Times
The curators Paul Farber and Salamishah Tillet have asked six artists — three women and three men; three of them Black, one Asian, one Latino, one Native — to make “prototype monuments” for the west half of the Mall, from 12th Street to the Lincoln Memorial. - The New York Times
Called The Megiddo Mosaic, the 3rd-century work comes from the oldest surviving Christian place of worship, located near what's believed to be the site of Armageddon. Some scholars believe the mosaic shouldn't be moved at all yet, for the sake of research as well as the piece's safety. - AP
Speed Outdoors, as it will be called, will feature landscaping by Reed Hilderbrand and, in its initial installation in 2025, artworks by (among others) Sol LeWitt, Zaha Hadid, Kulapat Yantrasast, and Mark Handforth. - The Architects' Newspaper
Under the four-year agreement, the more than five hundred workers, who in January 2022 unionized under the auspices of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), will receive raises of between 12.25 and 16.25 percent, with the lowest-paid workers seeing the greatest gains. - ArtForum
Peter John Higgs is suspected to have operated for years without detection and to have spirited away uncategorised items from the museum’s collection before selling them on the e-commerce site eBay. - The Art Newspaper
"Representatives from Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam sent letters to the museum, via U.S. investigators, in May and June, saying the prized relics had no legal export permits to lawfully leave their countries. The museum, they said, did not respond." - The Denver Post
