Law Reversing a Trump Order, President Biden Has Reinstated Federal Protection for Two Natural Landmarks in the Utah Desert The move expands the sites of Bears Ears Grand Staircase-Escalante once again. By Taylor Dafoe, Oct 13, 2021
Politics In a Reversal, London Will Keep Two Statues of Slaveowners on View (But With Explanatory Texts) Plaques will now be installed alongside the memorials of William Beckford and Sir John Cass. By Taylor Dafoe, Oct 12, 2021
Archaeology What Did Egyptian Mummies Really Look Like? A Gene-Tech Company Has Unwrapped the Mystery, Creating Hyper-Realistic Portraits The renderings show that ancient Egyptians share many physical traits with modern-day peoples of the Mediterranean and Middle East. By Artnet News, Oct 6, 2021
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
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
Politics Afghan Artists Watch, and Worry, as Taliban Promises a Framework Rooted in Islamic Law to Evaluate Cultural Production Per international reports, artists are hiding, and even destroying, their work for fear that they might be raided by enforcers. By Artnet News, Sep 30, 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
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
Art History Finally Stabilized After a Catastrophic Fire, Notre Dame Cathedral Is Ready to Be Rebuilt—Maybe in Time for the 2024 Summer Olympics Construction and interior cleaning of the 850-year-old Paris landmark are expected to begin in the coming months. By Artnet News, Sep 20, 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
Archaeology ‘Like Auctioning Off the Sistine Chapel’: An Auction House Sold an Osage Cave Containing Important Prehistoric Art for $2.2 Million The tribe, which had previously tried to buy the land, called the sale “truly heartbreaking.” By Artnet News, Sep 16, 2021
Art World Pedro Reyes Is Designing a Monument to Indigenous Women in Mexico City That Will Replace a 150-Year-Old Christopher Columbus Statue “If someone can teach us how to take care of this planet, it is our native peoples," Reyes said. By Taylor Dafoe, Sep 7, 2021
Museums L.A. MOCA Names Johanna Burton Executive Director, Creating a New Position That Splits Duties With Klaus Biesenbach The museum hopes to turn the page on its track record of embattled leadership in recent years. By Taylor Dafoe, Sep 2, 2021
Art World The Bank of England Has Removed 10 Portraits Depicting Former Directors Connected to the Slave Trade Eight oil paintings and two busts were taken down from view after a year-long internal review. By Taylor Dafoe, Aug 30, 2021
Auctions Lawyer Tom Girardi, Made Famous on Bravo, Is Auctioning the Art Off His Firm’s Walls (Along With Everything Else) to Pay Down Debts In 2018, the lawyer was sued by former clients for allegedly embezzling millions in settlement money from them. By Artnet News, Aug 17, 2021
