Law Lawmakers in Congress Want to Put Unemployed Artists Back to Work With a $300 Million Bill to Fund Public Cultural Projects The bill was inspired by the New Deal's Works Progress Administration. By Taylor Dafoe, Oct 4, 2021
Art History Munch Created a Chaste Version of His Infamous ‘Madonna’ Painting Hidden Beneath the Racy One He’s Famous For The artist’s erotic depiction of the Virgin Mary was more conventional at first, it turns out. By Taylor Dafoe, Oct 4, 2021
Pop Culture For Two Decades, Filmmaker Jim Jarmusch Has Quietly Been Making Quirky, Creepy Collage Art. Here’s What They Look Like The filmmaker's creations are the subject of a new book and exhibition, both of which launched this week. By Taylor Dafoe, Oct 4, 2021
Museums 7 Exhibits From L.A.’s Academy Museum That Show How It Rethinks Hollywood History, From Boundary-Breaking Oscar Fashion to Problematic Makeup Collections curator Nathalie Morris explains the stories of some of the carefully considered objects on display. By Taylor Dafoe, Oct 1, 2021
Pop Culture Did Snoop Dogg Really Buy Crypto Artworks Worth $17 Million Under the Moniker ‘Cozomo de’ Medici’? The predictably unpredictable rapper recently outed himself as the Twitterverse's favorite anonymous NFT influencer. Or did he? By Taylor Dafoe, Sep 29, 2021
Politics Half of the Top 50 Most Memorialized Figures in the United States Owned Slaves, According to a New Survey of the Country’s Monuments Published by Philadelphia-based non-profit Monument Lab, the report was funded by a $4 million grant from the Mellon Foundation. By Taylor Dafoe, Sep 29, 2021
Art World A Danish Museum Lent an Artist $84,000 to Reproduce an Old Work About Labor. Instead, He Pocketed It and Called It Conceptual Art The museum said it will eventually want its money back, but the artist, Jens Haaning, has no plans to acquiesce. By Taylor Dafoe, Sep 27, 2021
Crime A Serial Art Thief Has Been Sentenced to Eight Years in Prison for Stealing a Van Gogh and Frans Hals Worth a Combined $20 Million Neither painting has been recovered, a factor that played into judges' decision to give the maximum sentence. By Taylor Dafoe, Sep 27, 2021
Pop Culture Legendary Cinematographer Roger Deakins on Getting Rejected from Film School and Releasing His First Book of Photographs at 72 The Oscar winner behind films for the Coen brothers and Denis Villeneuve has published five decades’ worth of never-before-seen photos. By Taylor Dafoe, Sep 27, 2021
Pop Culture A Rockefeller Center Developer Wants to Build an Attraction for Tourists to Recreate the Famous ‘Lunch Atop a Skyscraper’ Photo The attraction will pack guests on a replica steel beam, elevate them into the air, and then rotate around to provide panoramic views. By Taylor Dafoe, Sep 24, 2021
Auctions A Hat That Napoleon Wore During the Battle of Jena Just Sold for $1.4 Million at Sotheby’s It’s the first of two hats worn by the emperor appearing at auction this fall. By Taylor Dafoe, Sep 23, 2021
Museums A Group of Nigerian Artists Have an Offer for the British Museum: Return the Benin Bronzes and We’ll Give You New Ones in Exchange The British Museum has been noncommittal in its stance on repatriating the historic artifacts. By Taylor Dafoe, Sep 23, 2021
Auctions A Frida Kahlo Self-Portrait Could Fetch Over $30 Million at Sotheby’s—and Become the Priciest Work by a Female Artist Ever Sold The painting, titled “Diego y yo (Diego and I),” would handily smash the record for Kahlo. By Taylor Dafoe, Sep 22, 2021
Auctions Six Paintings by Radiohead’s Cover Artist Are Going Up for Sale at Christie’s London—See Them Here They were made by Stanley Donwood, the English artist responsible for the band’s covers since 1994. By Taylor Dafoe, Sep 21, 2021
Market An NFT Marketplace Exec’s CryptoPunk Avatar Helped Web Sleuths Bust Him for Insider Trading Nate Chastain has stepped down from his role at OpenSea, the world's largest NFT trading platform. By Taylor Dafoe, Sep 17, 2021
