Art history is very much a haunted field, with the specters of works obliterated, lost, hidden, or just vanished floating around it. Our visual culture is defined as much by destruction as it is by creation.
Art Theft
Three Arrests Made in Major Holland Art Heist
In October, seven works of art worth tens of millions of dollars, by artists ranging from Picasso to Matisse, Gauguin, and Lucian Freud, were stolen from the Kunsthal Rotterdam in Holland at 3 am. Three people have now been arrested in connection with the heist.
A New Possible Lead in Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Theft [UPDATED]
The Hartford Courant reports that one of the world’s great unsolved art thefts may have a new lead.
Required Reading
This week … insights into Ai Weiwei’s photos, photos of Japan’s gangs, aesthetics of interactive space, William Gibson on cities, fake Guggenheims, superhero costumes, art thefts in Toronto, vintage street art & graffiti spots in New York.
Thief Steals Artifacts From Forbidden City
Think Beijing’s historic Forbidden City is pretty well guarded? Well, you’d be right, the place is infested with security. Yet that didn’t stop a thief from grabbing $1.5 million worth of artifacts from the Palace Museum in the Forbidden City.