"Created by Austrian artist Esther Strauß, Crowning drew intense ire from some conservative Christians who viewed the work as ‘blasphemous’ and ‘scandalous’ before an unknown party took matters into their own hands and sawed off Mary’s head.” - Hyperallergic
Andrea Munro yesterday wrote an essay for the Toronto Star detailing the abuse, her mother’s response, the ways her father (owner of Munro’s Books in Victoria) treated her, and the legal case she brought against her stepfather, who was found guilty. - The New York Times
“Natalie Miroshnyk was at the Warsaw Book Fair for Ukrainian publisher Vivat when she heard that a Russian missile had hit her country’s biggest printing house, killing seven workers, injuring 22 others and destroying 50,000 books.” - Irish Times
In Berlin, “although every program booklet had a portrait of a female composer on its cover, her piece was usually a small fraction of the total running time: Unfamiliar works by women were often eclipsed by large-scale, crowd-pleasing compositions by men.” - The New York Times
That September, officials from present-day Belgium and the Netherlands arrived at the Louvre to reclaim artworks plundered during the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars. "(It) is such a critical moment in art history that 200 years later it resurfaces again and again as debates over repatriation continue." - The New York Times
The Apprentice (not to be confused with Trump's old reality TV series) is a rather unflattering depiction of the young Trump's disciple-like relationship with notorious lawyer Roy Cohn. The film's lead US funder, a Trump donor, is reportedly furious over the film, though he denies deliberately blocking it. - The Washington Post (MSN)
"Cultural figures supporting the women" — director Yevgenia Berkovich and playwright Svetlana Petriychuk, two highly decorated fixtures of contemporary Russian theater — "say this is the first time in Russia’s post-Soviet era that a work of art is effectively being put on trial." - The New York Times
After a tribunal ruled that Tasmania's Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) may not restrict the conceptual art installation "Ladies Lounge" to "persons who identify as ladies," artist Kirsha Kaechele decided that "a few of the bathrooms in the museum could do with an update. Some Cubism in the cubicles." - CNN
“There was a customer on the phone who said something along the lines of 'Just throw out $20,000,' and reported to our staff member to shout that out into the room. And boy did it work, because the first time it came up, it stunned the room and silenced the room.” - Slate
Crumb’s “scores — created by hand and themselves works of art — are rife with exacting instructions to performers: how to thread paper between the strings of a harp, or how string players should use the thimbles on their fingers.” - The New York Times
"From 1882 to 1892 she was Rodin’s assistant, lover, muse, and, most importantly, co-creator. However, aside from assertions in pop culture, such as Bruno Nuytten’s impressive 1988 film Camille Claudel, their collaboration has yet to be widely acknowledged by the art world.” - Hyperallergic
A fleet of ten is now seven, of which a majority “carry fewer books and have to be loaded and unloaded. librarian, whose yellow van did not return from the garage in April, said: 'I am worried that the mobile library service will fizzle out and die.’” - The Scotsman
"Now, the future of the company that owns Paramount Pictures, CBS, Nickelodeon, MTV and Paramount+ is once again in question — with many of the players involved six months ago out of the picture, and some new names" — including potential buyers — "joining the fray." - The Hollywood Reporter
"Today, figures like Schomburg and … W.E.B. Du Bois are hailed as the founders of the 20th-century Black intellectual tradition. But increasingly, scholars are uncovering the important role of the women who often ran the libraries, where they built collections and — just as important — communities of readers." - The New York Times
Maria is a successful actor/singer/director in Britain, and Sonia is arguably London's leading producer. They've occasionally worked together before, but Merrily We Roll Along is their big passion project, which they did in England, Japan, and Boston before the New York production that just won four Tonys. - The New York Times
In 1996, a wealthy collector donated a trove of ancient Peruvian ceramics and textiles — items which had no clear provenance — to Texas Christian University, which turned out to be ill-equipped to handle them. By 2001, most of them had disappeared. - Texas Observer
Kunsthaus Zurich is finally facing up to the issue, that is: “There have long been suspicions about the provenance of works in the Emil Bührle Collection - named after a German-born arms dealer who made his fortune during World War Two by making and selling weapons to the Nazis.” - BBC
Can funding struggling theatre help solve our disconnect? Sarah Ruhl: "We are facing a public health emergency—and we need funding from the National Institutes of Health immediately. Let’s treat theatre as a proven method to stem the tide of debilitating isolation in this country.” - American Theatre
"As English fluency has increased in Europe, more readers have started buying American and British books in the original language, forgoing the translated versions that are published locally. This is especially true in Scandinavian countries, the Netherlands and, increasingly, Germany.” - The New York Times
It took about two days for this lavishly-praised maestro to lose or cancel all his future engagements, and he'll likely be fired from his positions. Yet why was Roth's behavior (sexting musicians) treated so much more harshly than, say, Gardiner's or Barenboim's (screaming and hitting them)? - Van
