The most common theory is that the 500-year-old artwork is sitting in storage in Switzerland — specifically in Geneva, where, according to The New York Times, more than a million works of art are kept in secretive tax-free warehouses by collectors and galleries. But last week, another theory emerged in an opinion piece by art dealer Kenny Schachter published on Artnet: that the last known privately-held Leonardo is on a luxury yacht owned by Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman. – CNN
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Too Many People Want To Go To Burning Man
Burning Man organizers had proposed raising the current 80,000 limit as high as 100,000 in coming years. But the Bureau of Land Management said in releasing the final environmental impact statement on Friday its preferred alternative for the proposed 10-year renewal of Burning Man’s special recreation would stick with the cap that’s been in place since 2017. – Washington Post
The Nine Movies And Operas That Defined Franco Zeffirelli’s Work
The critics sometimes found his work overstuffed, with more attention paid to décor than to human beings. But audiences ate it up for decades. – The New York Times
How Post-Modernism Has Shaped Our Culture (And Our Debates)
“In the era of Donald Trump — and YouTube — the most fevered version of the case against postmodernism has become increasingly visible. That is, the claim that a coalition of critical theorists, poststructuralists, multiculturalists, feminists, queer theorists, and African-American and other “studies” professors have successfully conspired to take over educational institutions, the media, and the U.S. government, and even to establish a new International World Order.” – Chronicle of Higher Education
Remembering Dr. John
Mac made every recording session, every gig, and every musical encounter better just by being there. He knew what to add. He knew what to subtract. He brought the best out of everyone in the room and did it with such casual grace and style that it seemed effortless. That same sense of ease pervaded his wardrobe. – Paris Review
Making Sense of The Complicated Havana Bienal
The Cuban government, which regularly arrests artists and journalists, also expected to welcome a record-breaking 5.1 million tourists this year. Cuba’s leaders are well aware that cultural capital is one of their nation’s major assets. Rage, pain, and dissent were not only openly on view in this Bienal but were featured and promoted with hashtags like #CubaEsCultura. – New York Review of Books
Northern Canadian Musicians Are Hot Right Now. But Remoteness Costs
In the past 10 years, northern and Indigenous music has been winning over bigger and bigger audiences, and some artists have leveraged that into international recognition. But the cost of making careers from the remote north are extraordinary. – CBC
A Massive Grandiose Digital Mural Seeks To “Explain” San Francisco
There’s an idea in vogue that if an artist or writer can just talk to enough different people about their experiences in the city, they can give us a clear vision of San Francisco as it is now, as it was, and perhaps even as it will be. We may approach something like the Platonic ideal of the city’s so-called “soul.” – The Baffler
Addicted To Your Phone? Unlikely – It’s Likely Social Norms…
The distinction is critical: Whereas addiction is something people experience mostly as individuals, social norms are shared mental states shaped by the views and beliefs of other members of the society and by our subjective perceptions of those beliefs. – Fast Company
Prize-winning Architects Pledge To Combat Climate Change
A whole host of Stirling Prize-winning architecture practices have declared an emergency in response to accelerating climate change. Calling for a “paradigm shift”, they unveiled 11 pledges to bring architectural practice in line with planetary limits and called on other UK designers to sign up. – dezeen