Category: visual

A year ago San Francisco had big plans for four vacant lots. The sites were awarded to architects and develops who won a design competition. But a year later, the empty lots remain…

Public art, by which I mean art that aspires to speak not to a limited gallery-going public but to the entire population, is the defining British art of our time. Week by week, spectacular new commissions of “landmark” art are announced.

“Called Honey Space by its creator, the gallery has sprung up in one of the last unused (and as yet undeveloped or demolished) old warehouses in the booming, polished Chelsea art district. No rent is paid by the gallery. There is no sign. The door on 11th Avenue between 21st and 22nd Streets looks a little like a breach in the wall.”

“A Darwin Awards aspirant in Germany got caught after he a) sprayed graffiti on a train at lunchtime in front of a cop and b) tried to hobble away on crutches. He didn’t get far.”

“Worldwide, experts say, anywhere between 250,000 and 600,000 pieces of art looted by the Nazis were never claimed and remain in the possession of museums, governments and private collectors.” A new show in Jerusalem displays artworks that “were stolen from museums and salons by the Nazis and never reclaimed because many of the rightful owners perished during World War II.”

It happened at Sotheby’s on Vaentine’s Day. “After being introduced by Bono performing an a cappella version of All You Need Is Love, it exceeded expectations, realising $42.9 million and breaking 25 artists’ records.”

Paintings stolen in one of Europe’s largest art thefts have been discovered in a parking lot in front of a psychiatric hospital in Zurich, Switzerland, according to local media.

“One thing art theft movies tend to have in common is that they dwell on the heist and not on the aftermath, for reasons that are probably more than cinematic: Art is an exceedingly dumb thing to steal.”

“Anyone can be an art dealer; you don’t need qualifications, background, or any fiddly stuff like that. All you need is capital, something that passes for charm and boundless stocks of windy guff. But “who dictates what an artwork is worth? What makes it valuable? How can anyone take seriously the drivel in auction catalogues about ‘meaningful white spaces’?”

“Art theft is big business. After drugs and weapons, it is the third most lucrative international criminal operation, according to the FBI, and it is thought to be worth around £3bn a year, and rising in line with the soaring value of art.”