The unit seized from museums and collectors 11 works by Egon Schiele; most were surrendered when agents proved the pieces had been looted by Nazis. But the Art Institute has gone to court, arguing that the Manhattan DA's unit not only is wrong about provenance but lacks jurisdiction. - The New York Times
Documents filed earlier this month indicate that, in 2020-21, agents at the airport impounded a vase, jars, figurines, and other items dating from roughly 2,500 to 5,000 years ago. Collectors had evidently purchased the items via eBay. - ARTnews
Close reading even such an unserious set of prompts and images offers clues about the scaffolding behind these operations, as well as broader insights into the clumsy, grab-bag way humans tend to deploy language when attempting to describe an image. - The Guardian
"Lebanese Culture Minister Mohammad Mortada has called for international action after an Israeli airstrike hit perilously close to Baalbek, a triad of Imperial Roman temples and UNESCO World Heritage Site in northern Lebanon. Local media reported that the strike landed only 500 meters away from the ruins." - ARTnews
"Its first show there will bring the museum full circle by focusing on the work of Tom Lloyd, the artist, educator and activist who was featured in the 1968 opening exhibition of the institution — which was then just a second-floor rented loft on upper Fifth Avenue." - The New York Times
Experts at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam say three paintings in private collections previously believed to be by the artist are fakes, including one that was authenticated by the museum and sold for nearly $1 million at Christie’s in 2011. - Hyperallergic
In an age of cold digital screens and AI-enhanced visual manipulation, we have been told that canvas, oil and pigment are becoming irrelevant, or somehow reactionary. But the public has never really noticed this. - New Statesman
The institution has launched a global competition as part of a larger rebranding for the museum, unfolding in 2025. The renovation, it hopes, will attract wider audiences, while establishing it as a more inclusive, community-focused destination. - Artnet
"If you go into a community to make a work and you try to follow the demands of the local people, which are never homogeneous anyway, you end up serving their interests more than your own. And usually their interests are transitory . . . So you have to hold fast to your work." - New Left Review
"A US magistrate (ruled) that a Jean-Michel Basquiat painting used by Philbrick in his illegal scheme belongs to a collector he misled — and not the high-profile art lender he also duped. The collector, Alexander Pesko, has been locking horns with the art lender. Athena Art Finance, for over five years. - ARTnews
"I think our houses are generally too big; they are, in design terms, a bit lazy in this sense. We’d benefit enormously by cutting maybe 20% out of most new builds, and I’d rather see smaller, more intensely designed homes that are personal and quirky than large spaces." - The Guardian
“What’s really surprising … is that there was an understanding of human impact on the environment much, much earlier than most people understand today.” - Smithsonian
Ahead of the 21st edition of the fair, which has now expanded to four cities around the world and brings week-long celebrations as well as sales, there has been a sense of doom and gloom about the state of the capital’s art market over the last 12 months. - The Guardian
The US Copyright Office ruled that content created using AI tools, including Midjourney, can't be copyrighted. However, Allen argues that "the Office ignore the essential element of human creativity required to create a work using the Midjourney program." -ARTnews
Stand back, PST: Here comes the Further Triennial. The name - in honor of Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters’ famous bus - “is about the connection to the past and a certain kind of openness, creativity, a disrespect for the way things have always been done.” - San Francisco Chronicle
