This week in art news: Syrian troops were accused of looting the ancient city of Palmyra after recapturing it from ISIS, Spain refused to extradite a suspect in the Knoedler forgery scheme, and artist Ciara Phillips paid homage to the razzle dazzle camouflage designs of WWI.
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Tax Law Too Lax? IRS Receives Results of Private Museum Investigation
Last November, Senate Finance Committee chairman Senator Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) sent a letter to the founders of 11 private museums across the US to investigate whether the institutions operate in a way that benefits the public enough to warrant receiving tax-exempt status.
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The Bushwick Art Community Gathers for a Group Portrait
Calling puppet-makers at Castle Braid, Myrtle Avenue storage unit-dwellers, cosmic puke sculptors, and Matthew Silver: The Bushwick Documentation Project wants you to gather for a group portrait this weekend.
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The Louvre and Musée d’Orsay Shut Down as Seine River Floods [UPDATED]
Record rainfall in Paris has caused intense and dangerous flooding of the Seine River to the extent that the Louvre and the Musée d’Orsay are closing temporarily to safeguard their collections.
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Astronomers Attempt to Date Sappho’s “Midnight Poem” Using the Stars
For centuries, scholars have mined the verse of Greek lyric poet Sappho, Plato’s “tenth Muse,” for clues about her life.
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New Google Project Aims to Put the AI in “Artist”
Can artificial intelligence create art?
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Trove of 14,000-Year-Old Animal Paintings Found in Spanish Cave
Archaeologists in Spain have come across an extraordinary series of Paleolithic-era paintings in Basque Country’s Atxurra cave that they estimate date as far back as 14,000 years.
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Explore 3D Scans of Europe’s Highest-Altitude Prehistoric Animal Art
Using car batteries as their only source of power, archaeologists from the University of York created a striking 3D scan of prehistoric paintings found in the Southern French Alps.
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Bronze Sculpture of Selfie-Snappers Stirs a Storm in Sugar Land
It may very well be the first public sculpture that commemorates the act of taking a selfie.
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Crimes of the Art
On this week’s art crime blotter: Spanish police arrested seven people for Francis Bacon heist, a Picasso thief preyed on a Chelsea gallery, and an artist lost his head after someone stole his guillotine sculpture.
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Despite Protests, Paris Auction of Sacred Native American Objects Goes Ahead
Despite calls for a halt from US government officials and tribal leaders, EVE (Estimations Ventes aux Enchères) auction house went forward yesterday at Drouot Richelieu in Paris with a sale that included contested indigenous sacred objects and human remains.
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UNESCO Report Details How Climate Change Threatens World Heritage Sites
The Statue of Liberty is a favorite victim of Hollywood’s climate change disaster scenarios.
