The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston have repeatedly rejected the heirs’ claims for paintings that were sold at the same auctions. - The New York Times
Two years ago in Germany's well-known Unicorn Cave, archaeologists discovered a deer knuckle with diagonal lines deliberately carved in it, Carbon dating has shown that the bone is 51,000 years old — before Homo sapiens arrived in Europe. But is it actually art? - National Geographic
Museum directors brought home an average annual salary of $320,600, compared to $317,500 in 2019. Meanwhile,visitor services associates, who were most impacted by job cuts, earned less in 2020: an average of $31,600 (full-time) compared to $32,600 in 2019. - Hyperallergic
Once the necropolis for the Pharaohs' capital city of Memphis, Saqqara has lately been the most exciting and productive archaeological site in Egypt. Here's an in-depth look at the location's riches and how they were found. - Smithsonian Magazine
In custody is not a gang of thieves who planned a Hollywood-style heist, but a 49-year-old construction worker, with the Twitter name ArtFreak, who was arrested on Monday. - The New York Times
In early June in Milan, conceptual artist Salvatore Garau auctioned off an "immaterial sculpture" for €15,000. Now performance artist Tom Miller points out that he (with a crew of workers!) installed a similar work, titled Nothing, in a Gainesville park in 2016. He and his attorney have written Garau to seek a settlement. - Artnet
Banksy added an asterisk and a tiny bit of corporate-speak to the painting’s bottom right-hand corner: “*Subject to availability for a limited period only.” - Seattle Times
UK museums can hardly try to buy multi-million-pound works of art when they are making large numbers of staff redundant as a result of Covid-19. - The Art Newspaper
Last June Barbara Anderson founded Art on the Ave, which creates free exhibits in New York City neighborhoods by using empty storefronts as gallery space. - Christian Science Monitor
The two New York institutions have collaborated on The Looking Glass, an exhibition in which all the artworks are in augmented reality, and you point your smartphone at a QR code in order to see them. - The New York Times
"Particularly significant is the Dutch Government's new approach to 'heirless art.' … Now, in cases where no heirs can be identified, any artwork deemed to have been looted by Nazis will be transferred to an appropriate Jewish heritage institution." - Artnet
The two paintings are not obvious fakes. Indeed, one is considered a masterpiece, but they are unusual in the oeuvre of Vermeer: smaller than his other works, and painted on wooden panels instead of canvas. - The New York Times
Picasso's Head of a Woman and Mondrian's Stammer Windmill, taken from the National Gallery of Greece in 2012 in a seven-minute robbery, were seized in Keratea, a country town outside Athens. A suspect has been arrested and has reportedly confessed. - BBC
The Adoration of the Magi hanging in a country house near Rome was assumed to be a copy. But, five years ago, the owners sent it to restorer Antonella di Francesco after it suffered an "accidental trauma" — and, as she worked on the canvas, she gradually realized that it was the real thing. - CNN
