“A small square tile with the profile image of a beautiful angel has been claimed not only as the earliest surviving work by Leonardo da Vinci, but as his own self-portrait as the Archangel Gabriel. If genuine the tile has survived miraculously unbroken for more than 500 years, since the 18-year-old artist made it in 1471. The claim – dismissed out of hand by the world renowned Leonardo expert Martin Kemp – is certain to spark academic debate.”
Category: visual
Five-Year-Old Knocks Over And Breaks $132K Sculpture In Museum, And Insurer Says Parents Must Pay For It
“Surveillance video recorded last week at the Tomahawk Ridge Community Center in Overland Park, Kansas, shows two young boys running around and playing with each other while a group of adults sat and chatted nearby. It was all fun and games until one 5-year-old decided to stop and admire the art.”
Pasadena Museum Of California Art’s Board Votes To Close Down (Can It Be Saved?)
“The Pasadena Museum of California Art, that Modernist beacon that has swooped above East Union Street since 2002, will close its doors at the end of the current exhibition,” according to a slightly odd vote by the institution’s directors. Columnist Larry Wilson looks at the PMCA’s unusual situation and wonders if some individuals or institution might step in.
Twenty Curators Trying To Reinvent The Ways We Engage With Art
From major encyclopedic museums to university-run institutions, curators who are schooled in the art of ancient Mesopotamia, South Asia, Renaissance Italy, and many other eras and cultures across the globe are expanding and enriching how audiences experience art history. They’re also innovating the way that art is seen, understood, and disseminated.
The Neuroscientist On Staff At An Art Museum
Dr. Tedi Asher of the Peabody Essex Museum of Salem, Mass.: “When I first got to PEM,” says Asher, “we knew what the objective was, which was to create more compelling exhibitions for our visitors, by drawing on findings from the neuroscience literature, but we didn’t know exactly how to do that. … I see myself as very much like the mechanic. Like, how do we take all of these parts and work with them in a way that we’re facilitating engagement?”
Don’t Dig Up The Streets Looking For The Missing Ghent Altarpiece Fragment, Mayor Tells Public
“A panel of the 15th century painting Adoration of the Mystic Lamb disappeared from Ghent in 1934, and only a few clues were left behind. But on Friday, an engineer claimed that he had solved the riddle left behind after the disappearance. Gino Marchal, co-author of The Fourteenth Letter, claimed that the panel is hidden under a square in the Kalandeberg area of the city centre — where the mayor is now urging treasure hunters not to dig.”
Sculptor Anish Kapoor Sues NRA For Copyright Infringement
“Anish Kapoor is going after the National Rifle Association (NRA), filing a copyright infringement lawsuit in the US in response to a 2017 NRA ad featuring Cloud Gate, his famed public sculpture [known popularly as ‘The Bean’] in Chicago’s Millennium Park. … The NRA advertisement, titled ‘The Clenched Fist of Truth’ or ‘The Violence of Lies,’ denounced the US media and its “liberal agenda” in an effort to recruit new members and solicit donations.”
International Art Dealers Slam Proposed EU Import Licensing Rules
“The European Union is considering stringent new import licence regulations on cultural goods over 250 years old in order to help fight the funding of terrorism through illicit trade. The proposal as it stands is being fiercely opposed by international dealer associations, whose lobbyists argue that it is ill thought out and will damage the market.”
Is This Claim By Italian Authorities Of Looted Antiquities Bogus?
“Last month, the Carabinieri, Italy’s military police, unveiled a cache of antiquities seized from a Roman property developer. The objects, which include two Greek vases as well as a bull’s and a horse’s head, both in terracotta, are worth €900,000, the Carabinieri’s cultural protection squad says. … But when we sent this picture to five independent experts, all of them questioned the objects’ authenticity. Although the specialists said they could not offer a definitive opinion based on a photograph, all of them expressed grave doubts.”
Glasgow School Of Art Building Is Still “Structurally Solid” After Fire
“Our intention and our focus will be to try to save that building and to find a future for it but it is very, very early days.” Experts have estimated the cost of rebuilding the gutted Mackintosh Building would be at least £100 million, if anything can be salvaged at all.