Category: visual

On the eve of major renovations to the Sydney Opera House, fears are raised that the work might endanger the building’s listing on the World Heritage List. “In the first major change to the appearance of the building, a 45m verandah – or loggia – is to be built along the western wall facing the Sydney Harbour Bridge. The plans include the opening of nine large windows in the wall alongside the Drama Theatre, Studio and Playhouse to give theatre patrons million-dollar views of the harbour.”

Scientists tend to be far more focused on their work than on where they’re doing it, but a new generation of labs is embracing the idea that architecture can make for a more productive working environment. “[The new labs] are fun to work in and provocative purely as architecture,” but also take the very specific needs of the scientists who will work within them into account.

Perhaps no museum has done so much for the popularity of contemporary art as London’s Tate Modern. Open for only five years, the museum has racked up an astonishing 22 million visitors, far outdistancing its peers on the international art scene. “Of course, not charging for admission helps, but it has offered more than sensational architecture. And as a result, the Tate has changed the way that Britain sees art, and the way the world sees Britain.”

Beginning last summer a group of thieves began stealing art off the walls of Seattle galleries. The group thinks it’s making some sort of “statement” about art, though what that is is anyone’s guess. Friday the group gathered the art up at a gallery, and calling it the “Repo” Show, invited artists to retrieve their work.

Seattle Police show up at an event held to return stolen art to local artists. The art had been stolen out of galleries over the past year. “To add to the confusion, the Philistine Group deliberately mislabeled all the art on the outer wrapping.”

It’s an unpleasant fact that artwork by women consistently sells for less money than the work of men, particularly at contemporary art auctions. So are the auctions and those who participate in them biased? The truth is far more complicated, but not terribly comforting…

Sheikh Saud Al-Thani of Qatar went on an eight-year shopping spree that made the 38-year-old the biggest art buyer in the world. He bought more than $1 billion worth of art before he was done. But now? He’s under arrest, accused of mis-spending public money…

The announcement that the New York Public Library will sell off some of its art brings attention to the fact that New York’s public libraries have a lot of art in them…

Veteran Australian painter John Olsen has won the 2005 Archibald Prize for his painting Self Portrait Janus Faced.

A report says Edvard Munch’s “The Scream”, stolen from an Oslo museum last year, might have been burnt. “The newspaper Dagbladet, quoting a criminal source, reports that the paintings have been burnt, in order to destroy evidence. The police denies any knowledge of this, but the newspaper also quotes a confidential police report which allegedly confirms that the investigators also have the same information.”