“An unknown Italian man identifying himself as a retired art thief has contacted the police in the northern city of Piacenza demanding €150,000 ($163,000) for the safe return of a Gustav Klimt painting. … The artwork disappeared from the Galleria d’Arte Moderna Piacenza in February 1997 while the alarm system was incapacitated due to ongoing renovation work.”

“The answer involves everything from the rise of ascetic Protestantism, Soviet contrarianism, Zen reflection and the ever-unstoppable power of the dollar. The last one – market forces – goes a long way towards explaining the ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ attitude that fuels the white cube’s persistence.”

“For the past 17 months, the centuries-old fountain has been partly covered by scaffolding while it was undergoing badly-needed repairs. Today, the waters started flowing again.”

In his lifetime, Rodin struggled to maintain his palatial workplace, and the three-year renovation, which has cost 16m euros, is the most comprehensive since it was converted into a public museum in 1919.

Sylvie Patry, in a telephone interview from Paris, said she sought the job because she felt the Barnes was “a collection that is known but not so well known, which makes it a very interesting job for a curator.

“The design consumes less coveted park space than expected, while introducing a contemporary aesthetic that evokes Frank Gehry’s museum in Bilbao, Spain, in its undulating exterior and Turkey’s underground city of Cappadocia in its cavelike interior.”