“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
Author: Matthew Westphal
Kanye West Gives $10 Million Toward James Turrell’s Great Land Art Piece
The rapper decided to donate the money after making what he called an “art pilgrimage” last month to see Turrell’s Roden Crater in Arizona’s Painted Desert. Turrell has been working on the project since 1977. — The Art Newspaper
Why It Matters That The Met Opera’s Music Director Is Openly Gay
“While he hasn’t wanted to make what he called ‘a big fuss’ about his relationship, [Yannick] Nézet-Séguin sees himself and [partner Pierre] Tourville as symbolic of a widening conception of what a conductor can be.” — The New York Times
After 30 Years, Emily Mann To Retire From McCarter Theatre Center
“In her role at McCarter Theatre Center in Princeton, Mann has overseen more than 160 productions, including more than 40 world premieres, since she became [the artistic director and resident playwright] in 1990. In that time, the theater won a Tony Award for outstanding regional theater, and Mann was twice nominated for Tony Awards as a playwright and director, as well as winning a Peabody Award and numerous NAACP awards.” — NJ.com
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
Carol Channing, 97
“The blonde, saucer-eyed Broadway musical comedy star … was associated with one role — Dolly Gallagher Levi in Jerry Herman’s Hello Dolly! … Ms. Channing was said to have never missed a performance in Dolly during its first Broadway run beginning in 1964, and played the part countless other times over the years in a variety of national tours.” — Playbill
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
Artist/Self-Mutilator Pyotr Pavlensky Sentenced For Setting Fire To Bank Of France
The high-pain-threshold artist, who claimed political asylum in France in May 2017, ignited the façade of the country’s central bank the following October. A court has sentenced him to time served (a year) plus a two-year suspended sentence. His ex-girlfriend, who fled with him, received a 16-month suspended sentence. The pair was also fined more than €21,000, which they say they won’t pay. — Hyperallergic
Classical Recording Sales In UK Up By 10.2% (!)
“Furthermore, the figures – taken from the Official Charts Company data – show a 6.9 per cent increase in sales of classical CDs alone compared with 2017.” — Gramophone