“The plaintiffs” — local residents and a powerful labor union — “accuse the authorities of ‘grave negligence’, which they say exposed city dwellers, particularly children and those working to restore the cathedral, to dangerous levels of toxic lead dust.” – The Guardian

Alexandra Lange takes a look at the New York City congresswoman’s “ability to get her message across visually, through graphic design, through fashion, and through social media.” – Yahoo! (Los Angeles Times)

Sending the picture abroad was unanimously opposed by the expert team, who believed travel puts the prized work at grave risk. – Los Angeles Times

It’s not enough that he sold his own NFT for $69 million. The graphic artist and some even richer tech and entertainment types have launched WENEW, which sells NFT images of “iconic” athletes, artists, and such. The platform’s motto: “The Memory Palace of the Metaverse.” – Artnet

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

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

What I did not expect was how these installations would speak to one another, and to me, about the pandemic. – Artnet

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

Philip Kennicott: “The changes at the Philadelphia Museum are stunning”. – Washington Post

The exhibition will take over a “secret” location in L.A. to be disclosed to ticket holders in July. – Los Angeles Times

The Obamas borrowed 142 pieces from the Smithsonian and the National Gallery of Art, the other recent occupants 12. The Bidens haven’t started borrowing yet – but it will happen, and curators think they know what the couple will want. “Even as they embrace the Obamas’ modern and contemporary inclinations, the Bidens’ time as second family suggests their artistic sensibilities are less MoMA chic and, at times, more mom-and-pop.” – Washington Post

Not sure there’s any way to explain this except to just … well: “In a dispute that pitted property rights against government rules and played out in international media, Florence Fang, a retired publisher, defended her colorful and bulbous house and its elaborate homage to The Flintstones family, featuring sculptures inspired by the 1960s cartoon along with aliens and other oddities.” Fang (mostly) won. – The Guardian (UK)

The board of Kanal-Centre-Pompidou had decided to name a woman artistic director – and then added a male co-director. Nearly 800 European art dignitaries didn’t buy it. “‘Internationally renowned and appreciated, Kasia Redzisz has been selected by the jury for this job,’ the open letter said. ‘She is a competent and experienced woman and there is not the slightest doubt that she would not be perfectly capable of doing this job on her own. Teaming her up with an older man is an offensive act of sexism and a blatant insult to her expertise and capacities.'” – ArtNet

Artist John Sims, who was asleep when officers entered his apartment, says, “I could have easily been shot and killed that night. … Now what if I was armed legally and fired on the intruders not knowing if they were police? Would this ‘stand-your-ground’ law apply to me? … And more importantly, why are Black people consistently profiled to be a suspect, an intruder, a thief, in the wrong place, assumed to be guilty first?” – The Post and Courier (South Carolina)