Category: visual

The museum is facing a deficit of $45 million over the next year with the massive loss of ticket revenue – and that’s a big problem: “Earned revenue, mainly museum admissions, covers more than 95 percent of the memorial and museum’s annual expenses, the officials said.” – The New York Times

One suspects it might otherwise have been targeted for a less gentle removal. The museum says it’s the statue, not the man, that it objects to, but critics see TR “as an imperialist whose role leading troops fighting in the Caribbean ultimately resulted in American expansion into colonies there and in the Pacific including Puerto Rico, Hawaii, Guam, Cuba and the Philippines.” – The New York Times

John Wilson’s student mural The Incident made such an impression on David Siquieros that the famous muralist and head of Mexico’s Department for the Protection and Restoration of Murals requested it be preserved. It was, for a few years. Now, “with each passing day, it gains newfound relevance and newfound pain — its act of reckoning is far from done.” – Hyperallergic

It doesn’t seem clear what will happen until there’s a vaccine, but perhaps – “Museums will reopen, and galleries can stop pretending their online viewing rooms are actual shows. Exhibitions may be fewer, run longer, borrow less from abroad. Collections will be swapped, tours will be wider, perhaps there will be more slow-looking shows like the Courtauld’s Manetin 2004, which concentrated so deeply on one pair of paintings.” – The Observer (UK)

Chika Okeke-Agulu, professor of art history at Princeton, says that the sale of the two alusi would “perpetuate the violence” of the 1960s civil war, when the sculptures were “removed” from the Igbo areas of Nigeria that tried to create the state of Biafra. – The Guardian (UK)

But the smaller museums may not be interested in risking everything. The Underground Museum, “in L.A.’s Arlington Heights neighborhood, sounded a voice of caution about a pandemic that has hit Black and Latino populations disproportionately hard: ‘We are prioritizing the care of our community over calls to restart our economy. … Please stay safe, and if you can, stay home.'” – Los Angeles Times

Malcom Procter, street artist and clothing designer, as he paints the plywood covering Nordstrom’s in downtown Seattle: “Never did I think I’d get a canvas like this. … This is a dream spot for sure. I’m going to bring my grandma out.” – Los Angeles Times

After the murders in Charleston and in Charlottesville, the National Trust for Historic Preservation encouraged contextualization of monuments to the Confederacy. But now, “we thought long and hard about that and decided that it was really important for us to go ahead and make a firmer statement that when they’re used for the purpose of which they were intended — to glorify, promote and reinforce white supremacy overtly or implicitly, we support their removal.” – Los Angeles Times

The artist’s Parsonage Garden at Nuenen in Spring (1884) was taken by a robber from the Singer Laren Museum near Amsterdam on March 30. Now a “proof of life” photo, showing the painting between a May 30 newspaper and a biography of a (different) convicted Van Gogh thief, has been obtained by well-connected investigator Arthur Brand and turned over to authorities. – The New York Times

“Angela Gulbenkian, who married into one of Europe’s most prominent art families and allegedly leveraged their name to conduct fraudulent art deals, has been arrested in Portugal. The jet-setting art heiress is facing two charges of theft in the UK, including one in connection with the £1.1 million ($1.4 million) sale of a Yayoi Kusama pumpkin sculpture in 2017.” – Artnet