Crime A Michigan Photography Dealer Has Pled Guilty to Defrauding Multiple Collectors Out of an Estimated $1.5 Million Wendy Halstead Beard faked health conditions and invented employees to dodge clients. By Taylor Dafoe, Jul 18, 2023
Museums & Institutions A Belgian Magazine Is Threatening to Sue the Newly Rebranded Hermitage Amsterdam Museum for Cribbing Its Brand Identity The logo for the H’ART Museum, as the institution will soon be called, looks suspiciously similar to that of HART magazine. By Taylor Dafoe, Jul 17, 2023
Art World Famed Art Dealer Massimo De Carlo Has Revealed Plans for a Monumental Private Art Foundation in Italy. Here’s What We Know The center has been “dream in the making for many years.” By Taylor Dafoe, Jul 17, 2023
Politics France Has Adopted a New Bill That Will Fast-Track the Return of Artworks Looted During World War II The law is the first of three new proposed amendments to French restitution laws expected to be introduced this year. By Taylor Dafoe, Jul 14, 2023
Politics Jailed Artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara Has Penned an Op-Ed Calling for Support in the ‘Just’ Fight Against the Cuban Government Otero Alcántara is currently serving a five-year prison sentence for using “insulting symbols of the homeland” in his work. By Taylor Dafoe, Jul 12, 2023
On View For Their First U.S. Museum Show, Artist Wynnie Mynerva Has Reimagined the Creation Myth as an Act of Rebellion Against the Patriarchy On view at the New Museum is a 65-foot-long painting and the artist’s own surgically removed rib. By Taylor Dafoe, Jul 10, 2023
Museums & Institutions Australia Has ‘Paused’ Its Prominent Public Art Program, Scrapping Sculptor Alex Seton’s Commission for Hyde Park Barracks Seton was 18 months into work on the program’s next commission when his project was canceled. By Taylor Dafoe, Jul 10, 2023
Museums & Institutions LGBTQ+ Communities Are Calling Out London’s V&A Museum for Removing Trans-Affirming Material from Its New Children’s Center Museum director Tristram Hunt removed two books and a poster that read “Some people are Trans. Get over it!” By Taylor Dafoe, Jul 7, 2023
Politics A Group Led by Artist Lawrence Abu Hamdan Is Analyzing an Audio Recording of a French Teen’s Fatal Encounter With Police The group, Earshot, has unearthed new details about the incident by enhancing the audio from a witness's video. By Taylor Dafoe, Jul 6, 2023
People Photographer Paolo Di Paolo, Who Captured Silver Screen Stars and Postwar Italy, Has Died at Age 98 For decades, the artist’s archives sat in basement boxes until his daughter discovered them by chance. By Taylor Dafoe, Jul 6, 2023
Art World Black Rock Senegal, Kehinde Wiley’s Closely Watched Artist Residency, Has Welcomed a New Class of 16 Artists—Meet Them Here The program received a record number of applicants for its fourth year. By Taylor Dafoe, Jul 5, 2023
Politics UNESCO’s Member States Have Overwhelmingly Voted to Readmit the U.S. After Trump’s 2019 Withdrawal The Trump administration left the organization due to its “anti-Israeli bias.” By Taylor Dafoe, Jul 3, 2023
Politics Historians Are Calling Out Philadelphia’s Museum of the American Revolution for Hosting a ‘Dangerous’ Right-Wing Group The museum has rented its space to Moms for Liberty, an organization that supports book bans and anti-LGBTQ curriculums. By Taylor Dafoe, Jun 29, 2023
Crime French Artist Claude Lévêque Has Been Indicted as More Accusers Come Forward Alleging the Artist Sexually Assaulted Them as Minors The charges mark the latest chapter in a multi-year investigation into Lévêque, who has been accused of abuse by as many as 10 victims. By Taylor Dafoe, Jun 28, 2023
Politics Climate Activists Gathered at the Met to Protest the ‘Unjustifiably Harsh’ Charges Facing a Pair of Fellow Demonstrators The group painted their palms, wore tape on their mouths, and encircled a Degas sculpture. By Taylor Dafoe, Jun 28, 2023