Category: visual

“The Command for the Protection of Cultural Heritage, a branch of the Italian carabinieri responsible for combatting art and antiquities crimes, believe the suspects are members of an criminal gang operating in Calabria that trafficked ancient items, such as antique jars, jewellery and vases from the 4th and 2nd century BC and worth millions of euros. … [Agents searched] houses and buildings in four countries, including Britain, and arrested 23 people.” – The Guardian

MoMA’s endorsement of unending growth is central to the advancement of corporate values that lie at the heart of the existential crisis facing not just it and countless other cultural institutions, but the planet itself. For more than two decades, MoMA has been in a perpetual state of aggrandizement to anticipate the imagined needs of the twenty-first century and future generations yet unborn. – New York Review of Books

The artist “repeatedly entered into sexual relations with young girls, ‘marrying’ two of them and fathering children,” reads the wall text. “Gauguin undoubtedly exploited his position as a privileged Westerner to make the most of the sexual freedoms available to him.” – The New York Times

Though the Met is still perilously close to the percentage that so angered the Guerrilla Girls in 1985, things may be slowly changing – and they may be accelerated just before the U.S.’s presidential election by a concerted effort to show women artists. The plan is big, and growing by the day. “Initially, only 52 museums and art institutions were involved, but since launching their website last week, organizers have been flooded with emails from spaces asking to participate.” – The Guardian (UK)

Not when it’s in the hands of artists of color, especially Black women. The chief curator at Whitechapel Gallery says that, for many artists, “painting minority ethnic subjects was a way to redress the lack of diversity in major institutions and to experiment with the limits of the form.” – The Guardian (UK)

Did Banksy or Banksy’s associates re-steal the ‘kidnapped” statue? Why aren’t the police interested? And how did those who are selling it at Sotheby’s get into the artist’s garden? – The Observer (UK)

Art historian Chaédria LaBouvier, who was the first solo Black woman curator in the museum’s 80-year history, said that she was cut out of her own show, “Basquiat’s ‘Defacement’: The Untold Story.” Now the Guggenheim, without directly addressing LaBouvier’s claims, has hired the Brooklyn Museum’s Ashley James. James’s work “‘complements the Guggenheim’s mission to present the art of today,’ Nancy Spector, the Guggenheim’s artistic director and chief curator, said.” – The New York Times

The new laws also criminalize all kinds of antiquities theft. “Earlier this year, an Egyptian man climbed to the top of the Great Pyramid of Giza, removing parts of a 19th-century wooden mast that was installed to measure the height of the pyramid, and throwing stones at security forces.” Then there was the Danish couple that claimed to have, er, peaked on one of the peaks. – Hyperallergic

A small art nonprofit, LAXart’s mission includes social consciousness. The protesting workers were laid off after they unionized and the Marciano Art Foundation abruptly closed. They asked LAXart to tell board member Olivia Marciano, who had been the artistic director at the Marciano Art Foundation, either to explain or get off the board. – Los Angeles Times

Baltimore Museum of Art Christopher Bedford: “This how you raise awareness and shift the identity of an institution. …You don’t just purchase one painting by a female artist of color and hang it on the wall next to a painting by Mark Rothko. To rectify centuries of imbalance, you have to do something radical.” – The Baltimore Sun