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Global Art Sales Down In 2024

Global sales of art and antiques have fallen for a second consecutive year, declining by 12% in 2024 to an estimated $57.5 billion, according to the latest annual Art Market Report by Art Basel and UBS. - CNN

National Gallery Of Art To Loan Works To Museums Across The U.S.

“As part of its programming to mark the 250th anniversary of the United States next year, the NGA has launched ‘Across the Nation,’ which will see major works from its permanent collection loaned to partner institutions in (ten states). Each institution selected between one and ten works to borrow for its display.” - ARTnews

The Latest Discoveries At The Funeral Temple Of Ramses II

Archaeologists have finally found physical evidence for something they had long suspected: the temple complex included an educational institution, likely for training scribes and priests. They have also discovered a collection of tombs dating from several centuries after Ramses, indicating that the site was in use long after he died. - Artnet

Mexico City’s Maze Of Museums

Only one museum in Mexico, with comparable material, didn’t make me feel culturally exhausted or embarrassed by my ignorance in this way. - 3 Quarks Daily

Painter Of Trump Portrait He Criticized Says Her Career Is Threatened

Sarah Boardman won a nationwide “call for artists” by the Colorado state government to paint its official portraits of Obama and Trump. At the unveiling of Trump’s in August 2019, Boardman said she painted in the style of artist Lawrence Williams, who created 43 of the presidential portraits in the state building. - ARTnews

Some Of The Plainest Objects From Tutankhamun’s Tomb May Be Among The Most Interesting

“Call them what you like — mud trays, clay troughs, unbaked earthen dishes — but the four 3x1½-inch dull-colored things hardly get the pulses racing. … A new study … (suggests they were) objects used in the funerary rites of Osiris, the ancient Egyptian god of the afterlife.” - Artnet

How Will Trump’s Tariffs Affect The Art Markets?

 “Ordinarily, paintings and sculptures are exempt from customs duties,” says Nicholas M. O’Donnell, a partner in the Boston law firm Sullivan & Worcester, but “under the recently announced tariff it gets a little more complicated”. - The Art Newspaper

Texas Legislator Proposes Bill To Fine Museums For Content

On March 6, representative David Lowe filed House Bill 3958, which outlines a proposed civil penalty against any museum showing “certain obscene or harmful material.” The Texas Penal Code defines “obscene” as any kind of performance or material that depicts sexual acts without literary, artistic, political, or scientific value. - ARTnews

Three-Year-Old Girl Stumbles On 3,800-Year-Old Scarab Amulet

The find happened at Azekah, a site roughly 18 miles from Jerusalem. - Artnet

London’s National Gallery Offers A Sleepover In The Galleries Prize

For the first time in its history, the National Gallery in London is offering an overnight stay to the lucky person who wins its new prize draw, which has been launched before its public reopening next month. - The Guardian

Artist Lambasted By Trump Says Her Business Has Been Harmed

Sarah Boardman: “President Trump is entitled to comment freely, as we all are, but the additional allegations that I 'purposefully distorted' the portrait, and that I 'must have lost my talent as I got older' are now directly and negatively impacting my business.” - BBC

A Documentary About Art Hustler Thomas Kinkade Lionizes, And Extends, The Whole Scam

At least, that’s what Philip Kennicott thinks: “What will become of the one-man Kinkade business model if there is no Thomas Kinkade, or people lose interest in him? A stash of originals and secret works of tormented genius is a hedge against that.” - Washington Post (MSN)

Ireland Gets The Most Beautiful Sewage Treatment Plant In The World

Perhaps that’s not a long list, but still - its design is inspired by the Sydney Opera House, and the plant “stands like a pair of minty green pagodas on the edge of the Irish Sea.” - The Guardian (UK)

What To Do If You Wake Up With A Banksy On Your House

“You'll have to make a series of clever decisions to come out of it unscathed.” - BBC

Kevin Young, Head Of The Smithsonian’s National Museum Of African American History And Culture, Leaves His Post

“His departure comes as President Trump has targeted the Smithsonian Institution, and the National Museum of African American History and Culture, in an executive order,” though the museum’s official statement was that he wanted to focus more on his writing. - The New York Times

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