Art World A Bored Russian Museum Guard Damaged a Prized Avant-Garde Painting by Doodling Cartoon Eyes Onto Two Faceless Figures The guard, who was employed by a private company, used a museum-branded pen on the painting, which is valued at $1 million. By Taylor Dafoe, Feb 10, 2022
Museums & Institutions SFMOMA Has Named Christopher Bedford, Headline-Grabbing Leader of the Baltimore Museum of Art, as Its New Director Bedford succeeds longtime leader Neal Benezra, who stepped down a year ago during a challenging time for the museum. By Taylor Dafoe, Feb 9, 2022
Law & Politics Pussy Riot Member Masha Alyokhina Has Been Arrested in Moscow for the Second Time in Three Months The activist will serve 15 days in jail. By Taylor Dafoe, Feb 9, 2022
Politics The Abrupt Removal of the U.N.’s 25-Foot Tapestry of Picasso’s ‘Guernica’ Caused an Uproar. Now, the Mystery Has Been Solved The tapestry was commissioned by Nelson Rockefeller in 1955 and has lived at the UN on loan since 1984. By Taylor Dafoe, Feb 8, 2022
Art & Exhibitions The Whitney Museum Will Stage a Landmark Show of Puerto Rican Art Made in the Five Years Since Hurricane Maria It’s the first major exhibition of Puerto Rican art to be organized at a U.S. institution in five decades. By Taylor Dafoe, Feb 8, 2022
NFTs Buzzfeed Exposed the Identities of Two Bored Ape Yacht Club Creators, Touching Off a Heated Debate About Pseudonymity in Crypto Investors are circling the company behind the trendy collection of NFT avatars, which could be valued north of $4 billion. By Taylor Dafoe, Feb 7, 2022
On View What Can a Family of Simulated Orks in an Art Gallery Teach Us About Life in Mark Zuckerberg’s Metaverse? A Lot, Actually Theo Triantafyllidis's show includes two live simulations and an opera based on Mark Zuckerberg’s eerie Meta video. By Taylor Dafoe, Feb 4, 2022
Art World See Theaster Gates’s Plan for the Next Serpentine Pavilion: A Timber Chapel Inspired by Historic English Kilns Details of the artist’s design, revealed by the Serpentine today, include an oculus and a salvaged church bell from Chicago’s South Side. By Taylor Dafoe, Feb 3, 2022
Law & Politics More Than 1,600 Works of Art—Including Major Pieces by Banksy—Were Secretly Shuffled Through Shell Companies, Pandora Papers Reveal A new report shows how the wealthy exploited the relatively unregulated art market to protect their money. By Taylor Dafoe, Feb 2, 2022
Museums & Institutions After Almost Two Years, L.A.’s Underground Museum Reopens With New Leadership and an Emotional Tribute to Its Late Founder On view is a survey of work by painter Noah Davis, who founded the museum a decade ago—just three years before his untimely death. By Taylor Dafoe, Feb 1, 2022
Politics U.S. President Biden Has Reversed a Trump-Era Rule Requiring Pro-American Art in Federal Buildings Trump’s previous policy required that federal art “illustrate the ideals upon which our nation was founded.” By Taylor Dafoe, Feb 1, 2022
Art World Candice Breitz and Other Berlin-Based Artists Are Calling for a Boycott of a New Art Space at the Historic Tempelhof Airport Boycotters have taken issue with its financial backer, Walter Smerling. By Taylor Dafoe, Jan 31, 2022
Auctions Bonhams Hoped to Pull in $60,000 From an Auction of Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s Library. The Sale Made $2.4 Million Every single lot in the auction sold above its high estimate. By Taylor Dafoe, Jan 28, 2022
Museums & Institutions In a Sign of the Times, Experts Across the Smithsonian Have Drafted Its First Institution-Wide Restitution Policy The new policy for returning objects of cultural heritage determined to have been unethically sourced will be made public this spring. By Taylor Dafoe, Jan 28, 2022
Law & Politics In a ‘Historic’ Move, France’s National Assembly Just Unanimously Voted to Return 15 Artworks Stolen During World War II Paintings by Klimt and Chagall are among those likely headed back to the descendants of Jewish families. By Taylor Dafoe, Jan 27, 2022