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VISUAL

Hans Haacke, The First Artist To Confront American Museums With Politics

Before Haacke, museums were considered … 'genteel and politically marginal.' Robber barons might have donated to them to enhance their social clout, but such cultural largess was seldom questioned. Today, though, …, Haacke’s work is more than just relevant — it’s prophetic." - T — The New York Times Style Magazine

Manhattan DA Returns $8.3 Million Of Looted Antiquities To Turkey

The objects in question were linked to several ongoing investigations, among them, a trafficking network that systemically looted the ancient city of Bubon in Turkey and trafficked the works to New York. - ARTnews

The Imperative For Museums To Evolve Into Something New

For museums questioning how to make a sustained and long-term impact, the key factor is access. How do we define the public we’re aiming to serve, and is the current definition sufficiently equitable and global? - The Art Newspaper

Ace Auctioneer: 14 Factors That Make Art Valuable

"I have put together a list of 14 criteria that convey financial value to a work of art. While the first point is emotional, all other points are actually rational." - Artnet

Black Artists And Artisans In South Carolina Return To A Crop That Once Made The State Rich: Indigo

As with the Lowcountry's other 18th-century cash crop, rice, slavers deliberately abducted Africans skilled in growing and working with indigo and transported them to Charleston to cultivate it on the area's plantations. Now some of their descendants are reviving the craft of growing and dyeing with the plant. - The New York Times

LACMA Calls Off Plans For Satellite Museum In South L.A.

"The Los Angeles County Museum of Art has officially ended plans to establish a satellite campus at the South Los Angeles Wetlands Park in what was part of a 2017 project to 'de-center' the museum and expand reach to different parts of the city. The project suffered higher costs than anticipated." - ARTnews

Two Suspects Charged With Theft Of Banksy From London Gallery

"London's Metropolitan Police said Friday that Larry Fraser, 47, and James Love, 53, are alleged to have taken (a limited-edition print of) Girl with Balloon from the Grove Gallery on Sunday night." The piece, valued at over $350,000, has been recovered. - AP

Hollywood Mega-Agency UTA Closes Its Visual Art Division

United Talent Agency was, starting in 2015, the first major entertainment agency to expand into representing visual artists. The decision to shutter UTA Fine Arts (including galleries in Los Angeles and Atlanta) was taken due to the impending departure of its director; artist clients are still represented by UTA as a whole. - ARTnews

New Director Talks About How To Make The Overcrowded Uffizi Museum Enjoyable Again

Overcrowding makes for a miserable experience. Craning to see over rows of heads, one is jostled and swept along the galleries by such a crowd that the museum has had to surround the very fine statues with red ropes like the ones outside night clubs. - The Art Newspaper

Director Of Seattle’s Wing Luke Museum Steps Down After Staff Walkout

The walkout forced the museum to shut down for several days as its leaders and protesting employees discussed their demands, including having a “community review” of the exhibit and acknowledging its “limited perspectives.” - Seattle Times

“I’m Going To Lead The Biggest Transformation of Any Museum In The World,” Says British Museum’s New Director

Nicholas Cullinan: “Physically, our masterplan is a huge project. But intellectually, too, it’s an enormous challenge. Yes, fixing the roof is urgent. But if you’re going to address those physical problems you should also do something exciting with the collections and the way we present them to the public.” - The Times (UK)

Famous Feminist Harvard Square Mural At Risk

Joyce Kozloff’s homage to New England arts “features hundreds of interlocking hand-painted tiles containing scenes from New England’s landscape and motifs referencing the region’s history, like gravestones, weathervanes, sail boats, houses with steeply pitched roofs, and silhouettes of Indigenous individuals and European settlers.” - Hyperallergic

The Historian Who Understood Immediately That Putin’s Invasion Was A Threat To Ukraine’s Cultural Heritage

“Marushchak has achieved something quite extraordinary. He has organised the evacuation of dozens of museums across Ukraine’s frontline – packing, recording, logging and counting each item and sending them to secret, secure locations away from the combat zone." - The Guardian (UK)

How Two Robbers Broke Into A London Gallery To Steal A Banksy

Though the work has been recovered, the entire exhibit is now off the walls at Grove Gallery. - BBC

Who Will Succeed Glenn Lowry At MoMA? The Guessing Game Begins

One thing which these reporters seem confident of is that the Museum of Modern Art's next boss is unlikely to be a white man. Here's a look at five probable candidates. - ARTnews

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