Category: visual

“Giacomo Medici, who Italian authorities say was a key conduit for looted ancient art that landed in museums, such as the Getty and New York’s Met, still faces prison and a $14-million fine after his 2004 conviction was upheld today by an appeals court in Rome. His sentence, however, was reduced from 10 years to eight.”

“The Georgia O’Keeffe Museum may represent the painter’s estate but has no right to an art collection she donated to Fisk University, Tennessee’s Court of Appeals has ruled. … The financially struggling university had asked a lower court for permission to sell two of the works” and to allow “a proposed $30 million arrangement to share the collection with the Crystal Bridges Museum in Bentonville, Ark. “

“It was Bastille Day. But I never really explained that. Nor did I exactly say that I was Marie Antoinette for the duration of my hour on the plinth. I hoped it would be clear. Or perhaps I hoped it would give people watching in Trafalgar Square or online something to wonder.”

“The National Portrait Gallery has threatened legal proceedings for breach of copyright against a man who downloaded thousands of high-resolution images from its website, and placed them in an archive of free-to-use images on Wikipedia. There has been no formal response from the internet encyclopedia but Derrick Coetzee, who downloaded the images, promptly uploaded the letter from the London lawyers Farrar and Co, ‘to enable public discourse on the issue’.”

The 176-page volume, whose full title is Art for Obama: Designing for Manifest Hope and the Campaign for Change, “will feature 150 full-color illustrations of art work that depicts or was inspired by Barack Obama and the 2008 presidential election. Some of the artists featured in the book are Ron English, David Choe, Kwaku Alston, Maya Hayuk, Justin Hampton, and Shel Starkman – and of course, work by Fairey.”

The Chicago Children’s Museum might not be headed to Grant Park after all. “A moribund economy now may have a better chance of blocking the project than lawsuits by parks activists and neighborhood opponents. Fundraising has foundered while projected costs have climbed by tens of millions to $150 million or more, Crain’s has learned.”

“The British Museum said it has raised two-thirds of the 135 million pounds ($220 million) needed to build a new wing, and, planning permission allowing, may start construction at the end of this year. … ‘We are shovel-ready to proceed in the autumn, but prudence also plays a part in this,’ said Chairman Niall FitzGerald, indicating that the project’s start required assurances that the final 45 million pounds would come through.”

The groves of mature London Plane trees that offered shade near the reflecting pool were sacrificed long ago to “the vast construction site that is Lincoln Center…. Now the 30 young trees in what is called the ‘Barclays Capital Grove’ are bordered by a hideous concrete bench that has all the aesthetic appeal of an off-ramp on I-95.” Does a similar fate await Damrosch Park?

“Bodyspacemotionthings,” a recently revived 1971 installation by Robert Morris, “has lost none of its potential for danger after clocking up a string of casualties during a special reappearance at Tate Modern this summer. The artwork, in which participants are invited to negotiate see-saws, a tightrope and other obstacles, left 23 people needing first aid in just over week.”

“The Associated Press, which sued artist Shepard Fairey for using an AP photograph as inspiration for a Barack Obama campaign poster, wrongfully copyrighted the image it seeks to protect, the photographer told a judge.” The photographer, Mannie Garcia, “is challenging both the AP and Fairey by trying to join the pending lawsuit between them.”