“I believe that the basic lack of connoisseurial skills we are faced with in art history is weakening the foundations of the discipline. I may be selfishly delighted when major US museums accidentally de-accession works by Van Dyck or Rubens (it happens more often than you might think), but for the public’s trust in an institution it is a disaster.”

That’s what the Croatian city of Pula did eight of the mammoth machines. Lighting designer Dean Skira’s Lighting Giants uses 73 LED spotlights that can be programmed to make about 16,000 different patterns. (includes photo essay and video)

“Patrick Vialaneix is that rare being – a thief motivated by the love of art. He says he fell in love with the painting when he saw it at the age of 13 and regularly visited it from then onwards to stand rapt before the genius of Rembrandt. Finally, he worked out how he could use his skills as a security technician to steal it.”

“Laurent Le Bon, the director of the Centre Pompidou-Metz, is the new head of the Musée Picasso in Paris. The appointment … follows the dismissal of Anne Baldassari last month.”

Perhaps the “global” mega-exhibition, once consistently exciting, is fast becoming a tired art world trope.

The donors filed a court motion says that the donors took advantage of tax benefits by giving art and money to the nonprofit, and that they “could face potentially significant negative tax consequences” if the art were to remain with the city.

“Memorials are now sprawling both physically and conceptually—and becoming unnecessarily expensive in the bargain.”