The British Museum scandal "is an opportunity to radically reimagine the mission and purpose of the universal museum — places like the Metropolitan Museum, the Louvre, the Prado and the British Museum — and what they owe to the world." - The New York Times
“Once we began the proper systematic survey, we realized we were facing a major cave art site, like the ones that can be found elsewhere in Cantabrian Spain, southern France or Andalusia, but that totally lack in this territory.” - Smithsonian
Two-thirds of museum workers are thinking about leaving their jobs, if not the field altogether, according to a survey out this month. The top reasons? Burnout and low pay. - The Art Newspaper
I have a confession to make: I have no idea what "placemaking" is. The more I hear the word, the less I understand it. What is placemaking? The word, for one, does not feature in any English dictionary and, until recently, was underlined by Microsoft Word as a spelling mistake. - Dezeen
"Allegations of sexual misconduct against David Adjaye ... sent shockwaves through the profession and led clients to cancel a string of projects. Now, his practice is making redundancies while former employees allege that a toxic culture permeated what was once one of the world's most revered architecture studios." - Architects' Journal
"The artworks were all previously owned by Fritz Grünbaum, a cabaret performer and songwriter who died at the Dachau concentration camp in 1941. (They were) seized Wednesday from the Art Institute of Chicago, the Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh and the Allen Memorial Art Museum at Oberlin College in Ohio." - AP
That's what French authorities are investigating. The two medallions were taken from the Paris cathedral during its last renovation, in 1862, and were sold to an unnamed buyer in 2015, 153 years later. The auction house says it did nothing illegal or improper. - MSN (AFP)
For nearly a dozen years, the adult ticket has been $25. But the museum has since dramatically expanded its footprint in Midtown Manhattan, adding 47,000 square feet of gallery space in 2019 at a cost of $450 million. - The New York Times
Wemding’s citizens are assembling at a rate of one six-by-four-foot block every decade. There are 116 more to add before the “Time Pyramid” will be complete, when it will stand 24 feet tall. That won’t be until 3183 A.D. - The New York Times
"Art dealer Robert Newland, who pleaded guilty last year to his role in a massive fraud scheme with imprisoned dealer Inigo Philbrick, has just filed bombshell new documents in a U.S. District Court ahead of his sentencing in New York next week." - Artnet
This tension—between changing the institution from the inside and protesting it from the outside—is not only a psychological conflict for young curators, often of color, but a structural feature of museums, as diversity efforts hoover in more eligible candidates with track records of socially motivated curatorial efforts. - Momus
"In one of the most significant repatriations of art to Cambodia from a private collection, the family of billionaire George Lindemann has agreed to turn over 33 ancient statues that officials say include stolen antiquities trafficked to the United States." - International Consortium of Investigative Journalists
Both studies used state-of-the art AI technology. Months after one study proclaimed that the so-called de Brécy Tondo, currently on display at Bradford council’s Cartwright Hall Art Gallery, is “undoubtedly” by Raphael, another has found that it cannot be by the Renaissance master. - The Guardian
The Parsonage Garden at Nuenen in Spring (1884) was taken from the Singer Laren Museum near Amsterdam in March 2020. A culprit was convicted in 2021, but the painting had been passed on to an organized crime group. It was recently returned to the well-known Dutch art detective Arthur Brand. - BBC
