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Confederate Statues In Charlottesville Are Protected As War Memorials, Rules Judge

In 2016, the Charlottesville City Council voted to remove statues of Robert E. Lee and “Stonewall” Jackson that were erected in the 1920s. (It was this vote that the notorious 2017 Unite the Right rally was protesting.) A group called the Monument Fund sued to have the vote reversed, arguing that Virginia law forbids cities to remove war memorials; the city maintains the statues are, in effect, monuments to white supremacy. The state judge wrote in his ruling, “the statues to [Lee and Jackson] under the undisputed facts of this case still are monuments and memorials to them, as veterans of the Civil War. … It does no good pretending they are something other than what they actually are.” – The Daily Progress (Charlottesville)

Controversial Sponsor Withdraws From Turner Prize After One Day Of Criticism

Stagecoach South East, a bus company that offers service to the host city of this year’s prize exhibition (the seaside town of Margate), has for a chairman Sir Brian Souter, who spent heavily in campaigns to maintain bans on same-sex marriage and discussion on homosexuality in classrooms. The backlash against Stagecoach’s sponsorship was swift and effective. – The Guardian

One Of The Great Private Art Collections Of The 20th Century Opens To The Public This Weekend

The Cerruti Collection, worth more than €500 million and housed in a villa near Turin specially built for it by collector Francesco Federico Cerruti, “includes Medieval and Baroque masterpieces, Modern paintings by Giorgio de Chirico, Francis Bacon and Andy Warhol, as well as rare books and fine objects.” – The Art Newspaper

How Do You Get People To Line Up All Day For Your Theatre? Sell Tickets For 65 Cents

Well, since this is the UK, it’s 50p. Citizens Theatre in Glasgow offers 100 tickets at that price for every production, writes artistic director Dominic Hill — and there are also £2 tickets for neighborhood residents and the unemployed and £10 for people under 25. (Their top ticket price is only £26.50.) – Arts Professional

$4.7 Million Artemisia Gentileschi Painting Greets Patients In Doctor’s Waiting Room

The self-portrait of Gentileschi as St. Catherine of Alexandria, purchased by the UK’s National Gallery last year, is currently in a GP’s office in East Yorkshire; before that, it was at Glasgow Women’s Library. The painting is touring “as part of a scheme reminding people that the National Gallery’s collection belongs to the nation.” (How are they keeping it from getting stolen?) – The Telegraph (UK)