Category: visual

UNESCO warnings about Palmyra go back as far as 2013, predating the rise of ISIS. Historian Eleanor Robson said that throughout the four-year Syrian civil war, the city’s antiquities have been imperiled by “members of the Assad regime, rebels, criminals, and opportunists.” She added, “It’s been chaos for years.”

“The resulting image shows the young Irish art student, the belt of his tweed overcoat flapping as he moves at speed, grappling with the heavy gilt frame containing Berthe Morisot’s Jour d’Eté and two large pieces of card attempting to cover the image of two French ladies on a boating lake. After jumping into a taxi, Mr Hogan realised he had no idea where to take his loot and instructed the driver to head to the only place he could think of – Piccadilly Circus.”

“Overall, controlling for things like a user’s follower count and the popularity of the larger stream in which a given photo sits, “filtered photos are 21% more likely to be viewed and 45% more likely to be commented on” than unfiltered ones. As for which filters have which effects, the authors examined five.”

“The provocative project, created inside a long-unused Catholic church, serves as Iceland’s national pavilion for the 56th Venice Biennale and was intended in part to highlight the absence of a mosque in the historic heart of Venice, a city whose art and architecture were deeply influenced by Islamic trade and culture.”

Right now, at the Gagosian Gallery in New York, you can purchase someone’s Instagram photo for around $100,000. The money won’t go to the photographer, however, it will go to “artist” Richard Prince, who has blown up and made prints of other people’s Instagram photos for his exhibit, “New Portraits.”

The city contains the ruins of what, according to UNESCO, “was one of the most important cultural centers of the ancient world” — an important Silk Road hub where East met West more 2,000 years ago. A World Heritage Site, Palmyra is heralded by experts as having some of the finest Roman-era ruins in existence.

“Palmyra is home to a UNESCO world heritage site and is famous for its 2,000-year-old ruins, including a Roman aqueduct and necropolises. Syria’s antiquities chief said on Saturday that the militants would destroy the ancient ruins if they took control of the city.”

“Once valued at $4.5 million, the house had been estimated to sell for up to $1.5 million. But after less than five minutes of lackluster bidding, auctioneer Richard Wright declared it “Sold” to a telephone bidder for $750,000, plus auction house fees.”

“The interior of the Four Seasons restaurant, a vision of Modernist elegance with its French walnut paneling and white marble pool of bubbling water, should not be changed, New York City’s Landmarks Preservation Commission decided on Tuesday.”

“The choice of Ms. Pasternak is unusual because she has never held a job in a museum. After a brief period working for a commercial art gallery, her career has unfolded entirely within the nonprofit world of up-by-your-bootstraps alternative spaces and nomadic arts groups. But at Creative Time, where she assumed the directorship in 1994, she had become well known for both her socially engaged programming and her skills in negotiating the shoals of New York City government, real estate and fund-raising, where she made artistic events accessible partly by removing them from museums.”