Tag: 06.13.00

A painting recovered in Izmir, Turkey, last week is believed to be a 1908 Picasso (“La Fermiere”) stolen from the Kuwaiti royal palace by an Iraqi army captain during the Gulf War. – Times of India (AP)

Museums have discovered that online sales of museum merchandise do better than giftshop sales in the museum. It’s a large an untapped market, say online retailers. “People are giving suboptimal gifts. We want them to give gifts based on the finest works of art in the world.” – New York Times

London’s Wallace Collection, a private museum of 18th-century furniture, ceramics, and Old Master paintings, has undergone a £10.6 million restoration and a modern facelift in the hopes of becoming the UK’s hub for the study of the 18th-century decorative arts. The new galleries open to the public next week. – The Telegraph (UK)

“It cost seven times more than the dome, was finished a year and a half late, and its teething problems have driven thousands of commuters round the twist. But all was forgiven yesterday when the sleek Jubilee Line extension won the title of millennium building of the year.” – The Guardian

Less than a month after its opening, London’s £18.2 million Millennium Bridge has closed to the public for engineering tests, due to reports by the crowds that the aluminum and steel bridge bounced and swayed dramatically. – The Guardian

The Art Institute of Chicago has announced the settlement of a claim to one of its sculptures by heirs of a prominent Jewish art collector in France whose holdings were auctioned by the French government during World War II. – Chicago Tribune

— of the 1990 $200 million art heist from Boston’s Gardner Museum. Newly-released documents identify FBI targets and strategies for solving the dramatic crime. – Boston Globe