Priest Decides Painting In His Church Might Be By Michelangelo. Then It Disappears

“After confiding in just 20 trusted people of his suspicion that a painting in his church was a lost masterpiece, a priest in the small Flemish town of Zele, 45 miles north of Brussels, has had to call in the local police over its sudden disappearance. …The work, depicting Mary, Joseph and a sleeping baby Jesus, was due to be assessed within days by a respected Michelangelo expert.” — The Guardian

After His Anti-Gay Instagram Post, Sergei Polunin Gets Dropped By Paris Opera Ballet

It was only last Thursday that the company announced that Polunin would be making a guest appearance as Siegfried in Swan Lake. Saturday, artistic director Aurélie Dupont announced that he wouldn’t be appearing after all, because of certain “public statements … [that] didn’t correspond to her values or to those of the institution she represents.” — The New York Times

Miami Art Mogul Launches Award He Hopes Will Rival The Turner Prize

Jorge M. Pérez, the real estate developer whose lead gift for a new building inspired the renaming of what is now the Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM), has endowed the $50,000 Jorge and Darlene Pérez Prize, an unrestricted award to a living artist selected by PAMM. An additional grant of $25,000 will go to a young alumnus of the National YoungArts Foundation in Miami. — Artnet

Christians In Israel Protest Against ‘McJesus’ Scuplture

“Hundreds of Christians protested outside the Haifa Museum of Art in Israel on Friday against Jani Leinonen’s McJesus sculpture of a crucified Ronald McDonald, conflating the American fast-food chain with the crucifixion. Yet the Finnish artist insists that he requested the work be removed … last September and that it is on display against his wishes.” — The Art Newspaper

New Push To Locate Books Looted By Nazis

Given the scope of the looting, the task ahead remains mountainous. In Berlin, for example, at the Central and Regional Library, almost a third of the 3.5 million books are suspected to have been looted by the Nazis, according to Sebastian Finsterwalder, a provenance researcher there. “Most major German libraries have books stolen by the Nazis,” he said. – The New York Times