Category: visual

Earlier this year, archaeologists reported they may have found the mummy of Queen Nefertiti in Luxor. Now the claim is being disputed – in part because while Nefertiti was said to have had six children, the body found appeared not to have given birth. “The evidence does not at all support the finding of Nefertiti. It would be very obvious from any x-rays of the mummy whether it had given birth…there would be specific markings.”

“An ancient icon depicting Christ has been removed from display at the Hermitage museum in St. Petersburg after claims that its ‘energy field’ is killing staff.”

In a switch, Lincoln University now says it might consider a change in the its role governing the Barnes Foundation. “We recognize our responsibility to the Barnes Foundation and the community. But if Lincoln’s role is going to be disrupted, then we have to see how Lincoln can benefit from this. We’re willing to talk.”

A proposal to move the Barnes Collection from a suburb of Philadelphia to downtown is close to falling apart. “The plan is unraveling, not over where the prized collection of French impressionist art and other masterpieces should be located, but over whether nominating control of the Barnes board should remain with Lincoln University, the historically black university in Chester County.”

The world art auction business has been shrinking. Total sales are down as are total number of lots for sale. “Artprice also lists the top selling artists, by total value of works sold. The front-runner is Picasso, followed by Renoir, Warhol, Degas and Mantegna (in fifth place, up from 12,734th place) a suitably absurd piece of knowledge since there is unlikely to be another Mantegna on the market again, ever.”

45 years ago, General Mills made a conscious decision to invest in serious contemporary art as a way to liven up its blockish new Minnesota headquarters. “Today, in an era of corporate cutbacks and pressures to increase employee productivity, sales and profits, General Mills is a holdout in emphasizing the importance of art in its corporate culture. The company displays original art and limited edition prints throughout its headquarters, and encourages employees with offices to choose pieces they like for display in their workspace. General Mills even has a full-time curator to oversee acquisitions, sales and care of the collection.”

“Marion Oliver McCaw Hall, which opened in August, is one of the best-sounding opera houses in the country. With sonics vivid and full-bodied, the building seems to work well on both sides of the proscenium. It’s just too bad the building, inaugurated with a new Seattle Opera production of Wagner’s Parsifal, isn’t a better piece of architecture.” So says Dallas critic Scott Cantrell, scouting other cities for ideas to inspire Dallas’s own soon-to-be-built opera house. “Seattle’s approach certainly plays up clichés about the two cities. Dallas is supposed to be about dazzle and prestige, Seattle about living comfortably and not making a fuss.”

“In the dusty remote reaches of Uzbekistan, in a city so desolate that it served as the site of a Soviet chemical weapons factory, sits what may be one of the most important collections of 20th Century Soviet art in the world. This collection, virtually unknown during the Soviet era, has been revitalized by the attention of a group of art-loving expatriates whose efforts helped spur the completion in late 2002 of a long-stalled museum building, realizing the dream of its founder and the small cadre of dedicated women who for years kept the museum going under almost impossibly difficult conditions… However, although the security guards, curators and gift shop attendants all appear for work each day in the marble-clad edifice, the ‘new’ museum – designed in 1971 – remains shuttered.”

“The stereotypical image of the auction buyer as chief executive with a seven-figure salary isn’t the only customer that auction houses are considering important these days. Now they’re seeing a growing number of buyers with perhaps only a few thousand dollars to spend but who add up to a vitally lucrative market in their own right.”

In July carvings on rocks in Norfolk were discovered and archaeologists suggested they could be 2000 years old. “But the mystery was solved after the Great Yarmouth Mercury local newspaper reported the ‘potentially very important discovery’. Jobless construction worker Barry Luxton, 50, saw the report and a photograph of the rock and recognised it as one that he had engraved.” In 1995.