For experts in museum ethics, LACMA’s handling of the situation — which partisans see as a proxy battle in a larger war over evolving ideas of power at the nexus of art, justice and globalism — is unsurprising yet unfortunate. To them, the prevailing ethos is catch-me-if-you-can. - The Hollywood Reporter
It's "a scourge of selfie-takers backing into paintings and other objects. As many visitors are increasingly more interested in stunting for the ’gram than having an ecstatic art experience, art insurers hope to promote more rigorous protections." - Hyperallergic
"We call it OpenROM, a transformative project that will both literally and figuratively open the museum up even more, creating a thriving cultural and civic hub in the heart of the city and province." - MSN (CP)
Last April, the Shirleys donated 48 works by Alexander Calder to the Seattle Art Museum (SAM). While Calders proliferate in museums across the globe, these are particularly major ones—the group of works was valued at $200 million by a Christie’s higher-up. - ARTnews
The painting, in the Basilica of St. Francis in Assisi, is of the Madonna and Child with angels and St. Francis himself. The project has restored some bright colors that were darkened in the painting's last conservation (1973) and repaired some damage suffered in the 1997 earthquakes. - Artnet
Many onlookers have been skeptical that The Line, Prince Muhammad bin Salman's planned glass-clad behemoth 170 kilometers long, 1,640 feet tall and only 660 feet wide, will ever really be built. But the project's CEO has now released photos of the initial excavation. - Dezeen
"We try to strike a careful balance between experimenting with TikTok and posting on Instagram, as Instagram remains our most reliably steadfast channel. It’s been our widest-reaching and most actively engaged audience for years, and accounts for around three quarters of our total video views." - The Art Newspaper
Andrei Molodkin claims to be sealing original works of art by Picasso, Rembrandt, Warhol, Sarah Lucas, Andres Serrano and more in a safe designed to destroy them all with acid. - The Guardian
“This was a giant building that a community of people is finding use in. It’s people making use of the things that others neglect or leave behind.” - Los Angeles Times
"Scaffolding surrounding the spire came down this week, revealing the restored structure in a landmark moment for the cathedral, which was ravaged by a fire in April 2019. The soaring spire, crowned with a cross and golden rooster, peeks out of a dense grid of support beams." - The Washington Post (MSN)
"Two activists from Last Generation pasted images of a flooded Tuscan town over the goddess's giant shell on the 15th-century work (at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence) before being escorted to a police station." - AFP (Yahoo!)
The show will include 50 works by Hals — but not Two Laughing Boys With a Mug of Beer, which was stolen (for the third time) from the Museum Hofje van Mevrouw van Aerden in Leerdam in August 2020. Rijksmuseum director Taco Dibbets has asked publicly for its return. - The Guardian
Declining enrollment— the main campus had 13,860 students in 2022, down from 15,479 in 2017—and inflated operating costs led to the multimillion-dollar deficit that resulted in eliminating 75 total jobs at the university, which included the art museum’s director and the three other staff members. - InsideHigherEd
"Van Gogh in Auvers-sur-Oise,' which closed last Sunday, brought … in a total 793,556 visitors, or an average of 7,181 each day. The show’s A.I. and immersive V.R. experiences were largely ridiculed in the press, but they proved persuasive to new audiences." - Artnet
On Saturday, two young women from an activist collective called Riposte Alimentaire ("food counterattack"), the group responsible for a similar assault on Mona Lisa at the Louvre last month, hurled golden-yellow potage at Monet's Le Printemps at Lyon's Musée des Beaux-Arts. - Le Monde (in English)
