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Spanish Police Make Mass Arrests After Climate Change Activists Assault On Museum

Per police statements, the 22 individuals arrested were linked to 65 climate demonstrations, including halting traffic and flinging paint and other viscous substances at federal property. - ARTnews

The Art Market Enters 2024 In A State Of Confusion

Many market players find themselves anxious and confused. There’s a growing fear about gallery closings and collectors dumping art. Younger dealers, who’ve never lived through a market hiccup, lament the drop in Instagram sales. Investors bristle at unsatisfactory returns on art assets. - Artnet

Why Do Museums Focus So Much On Getting Young People, When Older People Are A Natural Audience?

Why have museums not been more attentive to older people? Perhaps we feel anxious that the younger generation will not develop a lifelong habit of visiting museums. Or maybe it’s because the art museum is a mirror of social norms, which tend to favour the young, especially in the youth-obsessed United States. - The Art Newspaper

Laser Mapping Reveals The Amazon’s Hidden, Ancient Cities

The discoveries in Ecuador's Upano Valley "upend historical understandings of civilization in the Amazon: the largest city in the network is comparable in size to the Giza Plateau in Egypt or Teotihuacán in Mexico." - ARTnews

Britain’s Cooling Towers Deserve To Be Preserved, Just Like A Church Or Castle

"They are monuments of industry, built at the size (and more) of pyramids and cathedrals, graceful in their geometry, the perfect marriage of form and function, that come not alone but in concrete choirs of up to 12 in number." - The Observer (UK)

Palace Where Alexander The Great Was Crowned Finally Reopens To Tourists

"The crowning glory of what had once been the royal metropolis of Macedonia, the palace was not just a model building but 'an architectural manifesto of the ideal state.'" That idea dovetails with Greece's center-right government investing in the country's "cultural economy." - The Guardian (UK)

AI Is Making Mincemeat Out Of Art, And Intellectual Property As Well

"Tech companies scrape the work of artists and writers to their benefit without consent or compensation, turning anyone who has ever had the audacity to post anything to the internet — including a 6-year-old — into grist for their mill." - Los Angeles Times

The Rise And Spectacular Collapse Of Substack

The issues: "The company wanted to have it both ways: to exert the cultural influence of a major media company without shouldering any more responsibility (or economic burden) than is expected of a mere service provider, such as Gmail.-" The Atlantic

A Fire In Seattle’s Pioneer Square Damages Work By Rembrandt, Picasso

"The artworks by local and international artists, both contemporary and historical, span a time frame from the 1400s to today and are valued anywhere from $85 to more than $28,000. At least two etchings by Picasso and Rembrandt were among the damaged, perhaps destroyed, artworks." - Seattle Times

Can The Bloomsbury Group Please Get Its Art Back?

At Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant's Charleston, the house and many furnishings have been preserved, but a foundation would very much like the creators' art back. - The Guardian (UK)

Art Thief Arrested On Roof Of Arizona Gallery

Harpreet Singh was captured while trying to escape from American Fine Art in Scottsdale. He had taken works worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, including pieces by Picasso and Warhol, which were found scattered on the building's roof. - Artnet

In Response To Federal Regulations, Chicago’s Field Museum Has Covered Displays Of Native American Items

"The decision relates to a provision that requires institutions to 'obtain free, prior and informed consent' from tribes before exhibiting cultural items or human remains, or allowing research of them." The museum's announcement said the items were covered "pending consultation with the represented communities." - The New York Times

Want To Be The Next Director Of The British Museum? Here’s The Job

Applicants must have a “vision for the future of the British Museum and its purpose as a national and a global museum in the 21st century,” the job posting says. But they must also be able to deal with a host of problems affecting the august institution, the world’s third most visited museum. - The New York Times

The Audacious Scheme To Sell The World’s Most Expensive Painting Ever

Of the multiple schemes and fabrications attributed to Bouvier in court the most audacious involved Dmitry Rybolovlev’s acquisition of Leonardo Da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi, which set the record for the most expensive painting ever sold at $450.3 million in 2017 at Christie’s. - ARTnews

Fraught: Museums Are Changing How They Collect Antiquities

Acquiring older cultural objects through purchase or donation can be risky for museums if they suspect the art or artifacts might have to be returned to a foreign government at some point. - The Observer

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