Category: visual

“If you like airy, light-filled buildings, functional furniture, elegant, affordable design, sans-serif typography and clean-lined graphic design, you care about the Bauhaus. Equally, if you hate boxy, flat-roofed buildings, relentless standardization, the death of curves, ornament, the ironing out of cultural differences and overly rational planning, you care about the Bauhaus.” – Washington Post

“I often say about art fairs that they are a spectacle of art having sex with money in public. At Frieze, they went at it like a gaggle of pent-up bonobo monkeys. And the sex was good. Or so I’m told. I only watch — amazed, jealous, contemptuous, self-hating, you know the drill.” – Vulture

While demand for contemporary art from Africa is growing in the developed world, “the continent itself, with its reputation as a relatively high-risk business environment with a still nascent domestic collector base, remains unexplored by many international galleries. Is that changing? Yes, but slowly.” – The Art Newspaper

One example: Tornabuoni Art, a high-end dealership with galleries in six locations in Britain, France and Italy, now plans to close its current London exhibition of 20th-century abstracts by Alberto Burri and Lucio Fontana on March 9, three weeks earlier than scheduled. The 40 works in the show have a value of about 70 million euros, or $79 million, which would attract a tax bill of €7 million if shipped back to Italy after Britain drops out of the European Union’s free trade zone, because Italy levies 10 percent on artworks imported from outside the bloc. – The New York Times

A series of high-profile restitution claims have been received by institutions including the British Museum and the Natural History Museum in recent months. They include a call from the government of Gibraltar for the return of Neanderthal remains, including the first adult skull to be discovered by scientists, and a request from Chile for the repatriation of the remains of a now extinct giant ground sloth. – The Guardian

Castles, in particular, were instruments of war and occupying or levelling them was the goal of invading armies. In many cases, the castles were then taken over by the victors and re-purposed, but many were dismantled, particularly when the structure could no longer repel attacks by cannon.  – The Art Newspaper

The bigger question remains how fakes ended up in Abbot’s collection, and the original works resold on the market. If the company and law enforcement are right and the works were switched during conservation, the operation suggests a knowledge of the art world. – The Art Newspaper

“A sweeping resolution passed by the parliament on 17 January addresses colonial- and Nazi-era looted art, as well as art looted in recent Middle Eastern conflicts. It proposes a pan-European meta-database of looted art, funding for provenance research, the establishment of alternative dispute resolution mechanisms and exemptions from statutes of limitations for Nazi-looted art claims.” – The Art Newspaper

Last May, a drunken nationalist attacked Ilya Repin’s famous painting of the crazed tsar cradling the body of the son he just murdered. “The good news is that the specialists at the museum believe that they can fully restore the painting. The bad news is that it will take years.” – The Moscow Times

Where the Salvator Mundi is now, no one is quite sure. Locked away in a store room in the Abu Dhabi Louvre, perhaps?  Or being pored over in a laboratory somewhere by scientists and art experts determined to prove it is authentic? Or even hanging on the wall in a grand salon in a Saudi Palace, a reminder of a moment of madness. Many art lovers are left wondering if it will ever be seen again. – The Daily Mail (UK)