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The J. Paul Getty Museum, LA is returning ancient Greek sculptures that were illegally exported from Italy, the museum announced Thursday. The Getty will return a nearly life-size group of Greek terra-cotta sculptures known as "Orpheus and the Sirens," believed to date from the fourth century B.C., according to the museum. The sculpture group was purchased by J. Paul Getty in 1976 shortly before his death and had been on display for decades. However, the museum now believes they were illegally excavated and taken out of Italy, based on evidence uncovered by the Manhattan district attorney's office, the Getty said in a statement. The fragile sculptures will be sent to Rome in September to join collections designated by the Italian Ministry of Culture, the Getty
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A Roman 'Swiss Army Knife', complete with three-pronged fork, spatula, pick, spike, & knife - useful for eating on the go. It was probably a bit of a luxury item - it is made of silver - & was maybe used by a wealthy person on the move, some 1,700+ years ago. The gadget can be viewed at the The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge This folding eating gadget has a three-pronged fork, a spoon,a spatula,a pick, a spike and an iron knife that has eroded away. There is a hinge to allow each item to be folded out when it was needed, or folded away for ease of transporting it. The spike might of helped in extracting the meat from snails, and the spatula in scraping
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Police in Rio de Janeiro have recovered a stolen painting by one of the country's most celebrated artists, Tarsila do Amaral. Sol Poente (Setting Sun) was found as part of a haul of stolen art beneath the bed of a conman on Wednesday morning in a sting operation. Four suspects were arrested. The work is valued at almost £50m.
Source: TheGuardian
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London museum to return ownership of 12 Benin Bronzes in long-awaited repatriation. London’s Horniman Museum and Gardens said last week that it would return to Nigeria ownership of 12 plaques from the Benin Bronzes, a cache of objects seized from the Kingdom of Benin in 1897 by British soldiers. The museum said it was transferring ownership of these Benin Bronzes, plus 60 other objects that include an altar piece and brass bells, to Nigeria. However, it did not provide details about when—or whether—the objects themselves would be repatriated. In many circles, the Benin Bronzes have been considered painful symbols of a colonial conquest. The objects made their way to England after being stolen amid a bloody expedition that saw the killing of around 200 Africans.
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A significant repatriation of Moriori ancestral remains has been welcomed in a ceremony at Te Papa, bringing their descendants’ dream of a homecoming to Rēkohu one step closer after over 20 years of negotiations with the Natural History Museum, London One-hundred-and-eleven kōimi t’chakat Moriori, and two Māori ancestral remains were welcomed in a repatriation ceremony in Wellington on Friday. It’s the largest-ever return of ancestors belonging to a single tribe, returning to Aotearoa from London’s Natural History Museum. Moriori ancestral remains were taken from Rēkohu (Chatham Islands) in their hundreds for a number of reasons, including trade, exchange, and as curiosities. Collecting on the island began in the mid-1860s, with kōimi taken in such large numbers it’s believed they may represent the most collected people
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‘What is Mark Wahlberg doing there?’: An artist gave Prague’s iconic Orloj Clock a disturbing 21st-century ‘restoration’. A member of a Czech historic preservation group has filed an official complaint. In 2018, the iconic Orloj astronomical clock that has been the centerpiece of Prague’s Old Town Square for more than 600 years, was unveiled to the public after an extensive £2.1 million ($2.6 million) restoration. But one of its central paintings, a depiction of the months of the year as zodiac signs, doesn’t look right. A member of the monuments preservation organization Club for Old Prague has filed a complaint with the Czech ministry of culture alleging that the contemporary restoration of the painting, by the 19th-century Czech artist Josef Mánes, is a botched job.
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Documenta 15: Art exhibition chief resigns amid outrage over anti-Semitic works. Board expresses ‘profound dismay’ at exhibits German government and Jewish groups say went too far. The director general of Documenta, one of the world’s biggest art exhibitions, has been forced to resign following outrage over anti-Semitic exhibits upon opening in Germany last month. Documenta, which every five years turns the sleepy German city of Kassel into the centre of the art world, features more than 1,500 participants and – for the first time since its launch in 1955 – had been curated by a collective, Indonesia’s Ruangrupa. But on Saturday its supervisory board expressed “profound dismay” about “clearly anti-Semitic” content after the show opened in June, saying an agreement had been reached with Sabine
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An artist sued Maurizio Cattelan for allegedly copying his duct-taped banana artwork. A Miami judge just allowed the case to proceed. Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan failed to halt a lawsuit claiming that he copied another artist’s work in his viral sculpture of a banana duct-taped to a wall. 'Comedian' was exhibited to much fanfare—and derision—on Perrotin’s stand at Art Basel Miami Beach in 2019. According to legal documents, the gallery sold three copies of the work, as well as two proofs, for a combined total of more than $390,000. Joe Morford, who is representing himself, claims that Cattelan plagiarized and inappropriately copied 'Banana & Orange', which he registered with the U.S. Copyright Office in 2000. U.S. district judge Robert N. Scola, Jr., stated in his
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A fabulous grotesque Burgonet helmet for the armor of Guidobaldo della Rovvera, Duke of Urbino, attributed to Filippo Negroli, Milan, Italy, c.1535, housed at the Hermitage museum in Russia. This round helmet belongs to the type known as a burgonet and is rightly considered one of the masterpieces produced by the armourers of Renaissance Italy. Fashioned from a single piece of iron using a technique that had already been lost by the end of the 16th century, it is embellished with magnificent chasing, browning and gilding. Made in the Milanese workshop of the Negroli dynasty of armourers, this helmet belonged to Duke Guidobaldo II of Urbino (1514–1574), a member of the House of La Rovere. The Duke is depicted with this helmet in a portrait
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Campaigners from the group Just Stop Oil struck again, spray painting the walls of the Royal Academy of Arts and gluing themselves to a work of art from Leonardo Da Vinci's studio.
The activists glued their hands to the frame of a rendition of Leonardo Da Vinci’s 'The Last Supper', created in the 1500s and attributed to one of the artist’s pupils, Giampietrino.
It was the latest in a series of protests by the group targeting the art world, which it wants to do more to address the climate crisis.
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A 101-year-old Dutch woman has been reunited with a 17th-century painting that the Nazis looted from her family during World War II. The painting was purchased by Charlotte Bischoff van Heemskerck's father, the director of the local children's hospital and an amateur art collector who was forced into hiding after he refused to obey Nazi orders. For years, it hung in the family's dining room before they transferred it to a bank vault, hoping to protect it from looting. But in 1945, the Germans retreated, and researchers believe that Nazi leader Helmut Temmler stole it on his way out of town after organizing a bank robbery and blowing up the vault. From there, it passed from Nazi hands to a gallery in Düsseldorf before going
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‘The Benin Bronzes are returning home’: Germany and Nigeria sign historic restitution agreement More than 1,100 looted items will be transferred though some artefacts will remain on loan to German museums. The German government is powering forward with its ambitious restitution programme, signing a key agreement transferring ownership of more than 1,100 works to Nigeria. Two of the Benin bronze artefacts, a head of a king (or oba) and a 16th-century plaque, were handed over to the Nigerian representatives at a signing ceremony on 1 July. The agreement ends decades of wrangling over bronze and ivory artefacts (“Benin bronzes” also includes objects made of brass and ivory and not only bronze) looted by the British army from what is now southern Nigeria as part of
Museums News
Supporters of Just Stop Oil have once again superglued themselves to a significant artwork, this time on a masterpiece by John Constable in the National Gallery in London—whilst also sticking their own personal artwork on top of the painting. The activists covered the 1821 oil painting 'The Hay Wain' by John Constable with a dystopian reimagining of its bucolic scene, before supergluing themselves to its ornate gilt frame, prompting staff to evacuate the room of the assembled art lovers, tourists and schoolchildren. The activists said that their reimagined version of the painting “illustrates the impact of our addiction to fossil fuels on our countryside”. In Just Stop Oil’s version, the river is replaced by a road, smoke pours from factories on the horizon and the
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A basket woven from horsehair wins the 2022 Loewe Foundation Craft Prize in Seoul The world's most lucrative craft prize was awarded to Korean weaver Dahye Jeong. She won the €50,000 prize—the most lucrative for craft in the world—for her piece A Time of Sincerity (2021), a 30cm-high basket woven entirely from horsehair. According to Jeong, the use of horsehair is at least 500 years old. During Korea's Joseon Dynasty (14th to the early 20th century) the material was used for making men's headwear. "Although this work was done by myself alone, it is not solely my own. I have a 500 year old history behind me. This work is about the time that has accumulated, and because of this reference I am able to
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Just Stop Oil activists superglued themselves to another painting, a JMW Turner masterpiece at the Manchester Art Gallery Supporters of group say young people have ‘nothing to lose any more’ as they call for end to new oil and gas projects. Two young supporters of Just Stop Oil have glued themselves tothe frame of a JMW Turner painting at the Manchester Art Gallery. It is the third time this week that supporters of the group, which is calling for a government-imposed moratorium on new oil and gas extraction projects, have glued themselves to major works in UK galleries. On Thursday they glued themselves to the frame of a Vincent van Gogh painting at the Courtauld Gallery in London. On Wednesday they did the same to
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Climate change activists have superglued themselves to a Vincent van Gogh painting in The Courtauld Gallery in London. Louis McKechnie and Emily Brocklebank, who were dressed in orange t-shirts that said 'JUST STOP OIL', stuck themselves to the 'Peach Trees in Blossom' artwork in the Courtauld Gallery. They are a part of a climate activism group that is campaigning for the world to stop relying on oil. The Courtauld confirmed the incident took place mid-afternoon and prompted the closure of the gallery in which the painting hangs for the rest of Thursday. "We expect The Courtauld Gallery to reopen to the public as normal tomorrow," it added in a statement. McKechnie, a former engineering student who has already been arrested 20 times and spent six
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Artist Margaret Keane, whose paintings of big eyed children were incredibly popular in the ’50s and ’60s, died on Sunday at 94, the New York Times has reported.
Keane’s paintings were fabulously successful with the public, who not only bought her paintings, but the plates, prints, and a whole range of franchised home goods decorated in her signature style — waifs and children staring out mournfully with big, dark eyes, perhaps clutching at a small animal.
Keane’s life story is an exceptional one, so much so that it was told in the movie “Big Eyes” (2014), directed by Tim Burton, a long time collector of her work.
Source:ArtsNews
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FBI agents raided the Orlando Museum of Art on Friday and seized 25 paintings with a contested attribution to Jean-Michel Basquiat, the New York Times and the Associated Press have reported. According to the search warrant, the FBI's Art Crime Team had been investigating the authenticity of the works since the their discovery in a storage unit in Los Angeles in 2012. Scrutiny of the paintings intensified in February after they were unveiled to the public by the museum ahead of the opening of the exhibition “Heroes & Monsters: Jean-Michel Basquiat”. The museum’s spokesperson, Emilia Bourmas-Fry, wrote in an emailed statement to the Times that it would continue to cooperate with the agency’s investigation.
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Fischli/Weiss, were a Swiss artist duo that collaborated beginning in 1979. Their best-known work is the film Der Lauf der Dinge (The Way Things Go, 1987), described by The Guardian as being "post apocalyptic", as it concerned chain reactions and the ways in which objects flew, crashed and exploded across the studio in which it was shot. Fischli lives and works in Zürich; Weiss died on 27 April 2012.
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A massive sculpture of a guardian colossus erected in 1580. Shrouded within the park of Villa Demidoff (just north of Florence, Italy), there sits a gigantic 16th century sculpture known as Colosso dell'Appennino, or the Appennine Colossus. The brooding structure was first erected in 1580 by Italian sculptor Giambologna. Like a guardian of the pond in front of him, the giant is in an endless watchful pose, perched atop his earthy seat. At one point, the colossal figure stood amidst a number of other bronze statues, many of which have now gone lost or stolen. The massive brick and stone structure withstood centuries in the same spot, managing to maintain its figurative composition in all that time. The park that the colossus is situated in,
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Technologists are using AI to ‘expand’ famous works of art. With the right inputs, DALL-E can make bigger versions of classic paintings like the Mona Lisa. AI enthusiasts have been using DALL-E to “expand” classic works of art by using the machine learning model to imagine what they would look like if the canvas were larger or zoomed out. “It's like your phone keyboard trying to guess what the next word you would like to input and suggests it,” Denis Shiryaev, a YouTuber and CEO of the AI company neural.love, told Motherboard. “The same idea works with the image ‘prompt’—AI tries to finalize the image based on the source pixels provided, and the text prompt helps to manipulate that generating process.” Shiryaev says his experiment
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Laurie Anderson says Lou Reed archive won’t be housed in Texas “because of guns”. The exhibit will now take place in the NYPL The New York Public Library from June 2022 to March 2023. Laurie Anderson has shared why the her late husband's 'Lou Reed: Caught Between The Twisted Stars' exhibition was nearly held in Texas but ended up in New York City instead. The archive, which chronicles the life and work of Reed through images, voices, and music from the star and his collaborators, will be hosted at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts starting today (June 9). Anderson, Reed’s widow, recently told The New York Times that she’d first selected the Harry Ransom Center in Austin for the exhibit, but
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Man smashes ancient Greek artefacts worth $5m at the Dallas Museum of Art . A man broke into the Dallas Museum of Art and caused more than $5m in damage, including smashing three ancient Greek artefacts before he was arrested, police said. Brian Hernandez, 21, is charged with criminal mischief of more than or equal to $300,000, which is punishable by five years to life in prison. He was booked on Thursday into the Dallas county jail with bond set at $100,000. Jail records list no attorney for Hernandez. According to police, Hernandez used a metal chair to break into the museum about 9.45pm on Wednesday and began a destructive rampage. He broke into a display case and smashed a 6th century BC Greek amphora