Category: visual

“Around 200 stolen artefacts, recovered since Egypt’s 2011 revolution, are now on show at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo in an exhibition that runs for three months. Most of the objects were recovered abroad, while some 60 were seized in Egypt before they could leave the country.”

In order to protect the actual 3,300-year-old tomb from the wear and tear of thousands of tourist visits, a team used high-resolution laser scanning and digital photography, high-density polyurethane and resins, and high-definition printers to “rematerialize the physical site”.

“Police shut down the Lucheng Museum, in the northeastern province of Liaoning, after finding that almost a third of the 8,000 items on display were not genuine.”

While Saudi art up to the present day will be included in the scheme, the emphasis is on archaeology. “‘Islam is a great religion and through its openness and sustain­ability it has enlightened the rest of the world,’ said Prince Sultan. ‘But if we only research the history of Saudi Arabia post 610AD and say nothing about our history before then, we are belittling Islam.'”

“The Newport Beach museum announced that it has named Todd DeShields Smith as its new chief executive and director. Smith has served as executive director of the Tampa Museum of Art in Florida for the last six years.”

Justin Davidson: “Raising the several hundred million dollars will be the easy part, compared with the battles to be waged with the Landmarks Preservation Commission, the Parks Department, neighbors, preservationists, and all those around the world who feel they have a stake in the Met, [Central Park], or New York.”

“With more than 10,000 objects, 23,000 images and 500 hours of film and video, the 110,000-square-foot Memorial Museum opens with a collection and square footage to match many substantial museums. That’s why the museum, along with the memorial, cost a staggering $700 million, requiring a $24 adult admission and a $60 million annual budget that’s far from fully endowed. At such a scale, it cannot entirely avoid grandiosity.”

“I do have a one-word suggestion about your future spaces — one shared by every artist I’ve spoken to. Rooms. Build rooms for art. Call them whatever you want to call them. Put rich people’s names high on the wall. Whatever. Just let the art live in the space.”

“We were looking for scholarship and a deep familiarity with the art market, so he could manage acquisitions. He had deep experience as a museum director, having run Minneapolis and the Morgan and was willing to be the public face of the museum, which includes fund-raising.”

“We are working with Turner Construction, the company that is responsible for building our new home downtown, to ensure that all construction workers who are contributing their time and effort to the project will be given complimentary admission for the first year that we are open.”