Category: visual

That would be why the fire department in Cumberland County, Tennessee ordered it closed seven years ago. Horace Burgess, a landscape architect and ordained minister, began building the 97-foot-tall structure around a large white oak in 1992, after, he says, God showed him the design in a vision, and he spent the next 12 years constructing it across the oak and well over a dozen adjacent trees. – The New York Times

In June, Patrick Drahi, a French-Israeli telecommunications billionaire, took Sotheby’s private in a deal worth $3.7 billion. The purchase, by Mr. Drahi’s BidFair USA, returned the only publicly traded major auction house to private ownership after 31 years on the New York Stock Exchange. – The New York Times

Police came across the more than 80 objects by accident during a house search of an antiques dealer in a suburb of Buenos Aires. They include daggers with swastikas, a ouija board and magnifying glass that were said to have been used by Hitler himself. – Der Spiegel

An auctioneer spotted the painting in June while inspecting a woman’s house in Compiegne in northern France and suggested she bring it to experts for an evaluation. It hung on a wall between the kitchen and dining room. – Washington Post (AP)

Under Mayor Bill de Blasio and his wife, Chirlane McCray, the city is aiming to build monuments at an unusually rapid rate to honor women, people of color and others previously overlooked. But the effort has become far more contentious than expected, as a diverse, vocal and highly opinionated city fights over the legacy it should leave in bronze and stone. – The New York Times

James Russell: “MoMA has long built its origin story of Euro-American Modernism around its great holdings, but that story no longer consists of a single, mainly male, heroic narrative. Instead, the visitor discovers many stories braided together that now include many riveting works by women and people of color. These choices better recognize modernism (small m) as a global cultural and social force that at its best is democratizing and inclusive.” – CityLab

“The great news is that along with the rest of us, Diller Scofidio + Renfro were finally beaten down by the reality of just how messed-up and cramped the billion-dollar Taniguchi building was. They fixed some of the problems and tacked on a few fun extras, and added about five Gagosians’ worth of space. But it still amazes me that the suits who make the museum’s real-estate deals sold MoMA short again.” – New York Magazine

“A lot fewer people are buying to wear and a lot more people are buying to sell.” StockX, a high-end sneaker resale company based in Detroit, recently reached a jaw-dropping $1 billion US valuation, proving how robust the global market is. – CBC

In a tweet, art historian Maria Paphiti found that the 2,700-year-old vase had been sold at Christie’s auction house in May for nearly 7,000 euros ($7,700). The vase was given to Thatcher by former Cyprus President George Vassiliou three decades ago. – Washington Post (AP)

“All of the sudden performance seems to be the new authentic. When we can watch everything on Instagram and YouTube, it seems to be that people want to see [art] one-on-one — that’s what people are longing for.” – Los Angeles Times