Auctions A $3 Thrift Store Vase Turns Out to Be a Japanese Cloisonné Masterpiece That Could Rake in More Than $13,000 at Auction The vase is the handiwork of Namikawa Yasuyuki, a Meiji-era cloisonné artist and one-time samurai. By Adam Schrader, Jul 24, 2023
Crime Thieves Have Been Stealing the Weird Props From the Vermont Set of ‘Beetlejuice 2,’ Including a 150-Pound ‘Abstract Art Statue’ A lamppost with a pumpkin decoration has also gone missing from the set. By Adam Schrader, Jul 24, 2023
Crime German Police Have Arrested Four Men Suspected of Stealing 483 Ancient Celtic Coins in an Elaborate Museum Heist The men were found in possession of gold bars, likely made by melting down the stolen coins. By Adam Schrader, Jul 21, 2023
Museums & Institutions Rochester’s Strong Museum Is Now Home to the World’s Largest ‘Donkey Kong’ Arcade Game—and Yes, It’s Playable The 20-feet-tall arcade cabinet was created with input from Nintendo America as part of a museum expansion. By Adam Schrader, Jul 20, 2023
Art World An Artist Has Made Microscopic Vincent Van Gogh Replicas and Painstakingly Placed Them Inside a $190,000 Wristwatch The timepiece was made to commemorate the Van Gogh Museum's 50th anniversary. By Adam Schrader, Jul 20, 2023
NFTs Melania Trump Has Released an Apollo 11-Themed NFT That May Violate NASA’s Merchandising Policy The NFT features the iconic image of astronaut Buzz Aldrin walking on the surface of the moon. By Adam Schrader, Jul 20, 2023
Crime A Swiss Teen Was Caught Carving Her Name Into the Colosseum, in Yet Another Case of Vandalism at the Amphitheater The Swiss teen, who has not been identified, was on vacation with her family. By Adam Schrader, Jul 18, 2023
Law & Politics After His Landmark $120 Million Counterfeiting Victory, Artist Michael Moebius Is Now Suing Fast-Fashion Retail Giant Shein Moebius has alleged that Shein used U.S.-based servers to market copyright-infringing clothing globally. By Adam Schrader, Jul 18, 2023
Art & Tech Meta Is Expanding Its Generative A.I. Arsenal With a New Tool It’s Touting as a ‘State-of-the-Art’ Breakthrough CM3leon recognizes both text and visuals, allowing both image-to-text and text-to-image generation. By Adam Schrader, Jul 17, 2023
Art & Tech An Australian Photographer Was Disqualified From a Photo Contest After Her Submission Was Mistakenly Deemed A.I.-Generated The contest organizers were apologetic, but "paranoid about A.I.," said Suzi Dougherty. By Adam Schrader, Jul 17, 2023
Crime Italian Police Have Arrested a Man Suspected of Burning Down a Prized Arte Povera Installation in Naples The suspect was identified as a 32-year-old homeless man. By Adam Schrader, Jul 14, 2023
Law & Politics A Group of Artists Is Suing Fast-Fashion Giant Shein, Claiming It Used a ‘Secretive Algorithm’ to Identify and Steal Their Work The lawsuit labels Shein 'a greater societal threat than TikTok.' By Adam Schrader, Jul 14, 2023
Museums & Institutions An Art Collective Has ‘Hacked’ Kunsthaus Zurich’s Exhibition of Works Gifted by an Industrialist With Nazi Ties The group swapped the QR codes that accompanied each painting to point visitors toward information about Bührle's past. By Adam Schrader, Jul 13, 2023
Auctions Rolling Stones Drummer Charlie Watts’s Jazz-Age Collection Heads to Auction, Led by an Inscribed Copy of ‘The Great Gatsby’ His bandmates called him “totally unique and devoted to jazz and literature from boyhood.” By Adam Schrader, Jul 13, 2023
Law & Politics The FTC Has Launched an Investigation Into OpenAI, Creator of Image Generator DALL-E, Over Its Data Security Practices The probe is seeking information on 'each large language model product' the company offers. By Adam Schrader, Jul 13, 2023