Arts news

• One Suspect in Louvre Museum Heist is a Former Museum Guard and Social Media Influencer

  06-11-2025 21:55 via artnews.com
  The public is learning more about the four suspects arrested for allegedly stealing the French crown jewels from the Louvre Museum last month. One suspect in particular has garnered attention as a social media star known for his motocross stunts, according to Le Parisien.The 39-year-old man, identified by officials as Abdoulaye N., was arrested at his home in the Parisian suburb Aubervilliers, six days after the October 19 heist. His DNA was reportedly found on display cases and other abandoned
  
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• Key Louvre Security Password at Time of Heist Was Reportedly ‘Louvre’

  06-11-2025 21:51 via artnews.com
  It’s yet unclear what tone the cinematic retelling of the Louvre jewel heist will take, but the latest revelation from Paris suggests a farce. A French court released a scathing report on Thursday detailing how leadership at the Louvre—home to some of the world’s most famous artworks—prioritized high-profile acquisitions and renovation projects over recommended security upgrades. Adding humiliation to injury, allegations emerged today that at the time of the heist, w
  
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• Switzerland Asks UNESCO To Officially Recognize Yodeling

  06-11-2025 21:03
  
  The country’s government has requested that the UN agency designate yodeling as Intangible Cultural Heritage. UNESCO’s committee for Intangible Heritage will decide at its mid-December meeting in New Delhi. – AP
  
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• What Margaret Atwood Left Out Of Her Memoir

  06-11-2025 20:31
  
  By telling a straightforward tale about her life in which she is the unquestionable hero, Atwood leaves little space for truly literary tensions but plenty of space for gossipy ones. – The Walrus
  
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• Sara Friedlander Promoted to Chairman of Post-War & Contemporary Art, Americas at Christie’s

  06-11-2025 20:30 via artnews.com
  The auction world’s cliché about taste is that it follows the money. Sara Friedlander would like to flip the script. “You want to know my hierarchy?” she asked me as we stood in arms reach of the second “nurse” painting Richard Prince ever made and just a few feet away from a blazing yellow Warhol Last Supper, both part of the Edlis | Neeson Collection that will anchor Christie’s 21st Century Sale. “Client first. Art second. Market…dis
  
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• The Idea Of An Anthropocene Era Has Been Declared Dead

  06-11-2025 20:01
  
  In 2016, the group made its recommendation that the Anthropocene should be considered as the new epoch. This recommendation was later forwarded to higher ICS organs for consideration and voting. A series of votes was expected, but the proposal was rejected early on in the process in March 2024. – Aeon
  
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• Doomerism as A Philosophy

  06-11-2025 19:44
  
  As a wide range of social scientists, pollsters, and trendspotters have observed, a sense of fatalism has increasingly suffused the attitudes of many millennials and zoomers.  – Drift Magazine
  
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• Sculptor Alma Allen Reportedly Picked to Represent United States at 2026 Venice Biennale

  06-11-2025 19:37 via artnews.com
  According to ARTnews‘s sources, Utah-born, Mexico-based sculptor Alma Allen has been picked to represent the United States at the 2026 Venice Biennale, which is set to open next May. The pavilion’s commissioning curator is Jeffrey Uslip, according to sources, who say the official announcement cannot be made until after the government shutdown has ended.The Baer Faxt newsletter first reported the news. It wasn’t immediately clear whether Allen and Uslip were working with a commi
  
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• The Old Whitney Museum Is About To Reopen As Sotheby’s. Here’s What’s Been Done To It

  06-11-2025 19:29
  
  The renovation is thoughtful and deeply respectful, with a stress on materiality and crisp detail that is typical of Herzog & de Meuron. – The New York Times
  
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• Louvre Security Issues Will Take ‘Several’ Years to Fix, State Audit Finds

  06-11-2025 19:17 via artnews.com
  The French national audit has published its report on the Louvre’s security, excerpts of which were leaked to press shortly after a trove of crown jewel were stolen from the museum.The report, known as the Cour des Comptes, found that only 39 percent of the museum’s rooms had cameras as of 2024. A security audit begun in 2015 determined the museum was not prepared for an emergency, only resulted in a tender for system upgrades at the end of last year.“It will take several years
  
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• Opera In Decline? Maybe Not In Australia, Suggest Recent Data

  06-11-2025 19:15
  
  ‘Both our Sydney summer and winter 2025 seasons recorded their highest ever number of first-time purchasers, while repeat purchasers also grew. This increase in first-time attendees shows growing interest among younger, culturally curious, and tourism-driven audiences.’ – ArtsHub
  
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• “India’s Picasso,” The Country’s Most Admired And Reviled Artist

  06-11-2025 19:06
  
  In March, a painting by M.F. Husain became the highest-priced modern Indian artwork ever; in June, an auction of his work in Mumbai was nearly cancelled after Hindu extremists threatened it. Last January, an Indian court ordered impoundment of two “offensive” Husain paintings; in October, Qatar announced an entire museum for his work. – CNN
  
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• To Get More Patrons, San Francisco Plans To Allow Movies Theatres To Serve Alcohol

  06-11-2025 18:44
  
  “You have to basically be a restaurant, which movie theaters are not. This is going to make it easier for movie theaters to have sustainable business models.” – San Francisco Chronicle (Yahoo)
  
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• LACMA Declines to Voluntarily Recognize Union Formed by Hundreds of Workers

  06-11-2025 18:33 via artnews.com
  Los Angeles County Museum of Art leadership has declined to voluntarily recognize LACMA United, the union that hundreds of its staff voted to form last week, opting instead to pursue a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) election. The decision effectively delays the unionization effort, as NLRB elections are paused during the federal government shutdown, the union noted in a statement released today.In late October, LACMA employees across departments formed a union in association with the AFSC
  
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• The Tax Scams Behind UK Movies

  06-11-2025 18:31
  
  For Love or Money had a budget of £4.3m and claimed tax credits of £994,353 – or 23% of the budget. If you actually sit through the 95 minutes of the film, you might ask if the product really cost that much, given its budget feel and the calibre of the script. – The Guardian
  
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• Legendary ‘Florentine Diamond,’ Lost for a Century, Found in a Vault in Canada

  06-11-2025 18:23 via artnews.com
  A 137-carat diamond owned by the Medicis and the Habsburgs and long thought to have vanished has spent decades in a bank vault in Canada, according to The New York Times. The so-called Florentine Diamond was secreted away when the Habsburg family fled to Canada during World War II, and questions about it in the years since were deflected—until the terms of a 100-year vow were met and the family decided to divulge details of the treasure.“The less people know about it, the bigger the
  
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• AI Hallucinations Mimic The Traits Of Narcissism

  06-11-2025 18:16
  
  To understand why they persist, it helps to see them not as acts of deception, but as predictable behaviours of systems built to be fluent. – Psyche
  
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• Why Robotics Companies Are Working With Dancers

  06-11-2025 18:04
  
  “As moving machines like drones and self-driving cars become more integrated into our daily lives, the tech companies behind them are realizing they need experts who understand motion through space and time, and how the nuances of that motion affect the way we feel about their products. Translation: They need dance artists.” – Dance Magazine
  
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• James Gaffigan Appointed Music Director Of Houston Grand Opera

  06-11-2025 17:44
  
  The New York-born, Houston-trained conductor is currently general music director of the Komische Oper Berlin and just completed a term leading Valencia’s Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía. Gaffigan succeeds Patrick Summers, who departs at the end of this season. – CultureMap Houston
  
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• When Dance Movement Is Constrained By Costumes

  06-11-2025 17:31
  
  Josephine Flos was rehearsing the opening of “Figure,” a new dance piece created by the fashion designer Lisa Konno in collaboration with the choreographer Peter Leung, that tries to answer a simple question: What if choreography starts with the costumes? – The New York Times
  
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• Man Returns Piece Of The Acropolis Hist Father Took In 1930

  06-11-2025 17:15
  
  Back in 1930, Gaetano visited Athens with the Italian Navy. And at the Acropolis—the Greek capital’s hilltop covered in ancient architecture—he picked up a small piece of carved marble near the base of the Parthenon, a temple built for the goddess Athena in the fifth century B.C.E. – Smithsonian
  
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• Chicago Arts Funding Could Shrink Next Year

  06-11-2025 17:02
  
  “(Mayor Brandon) Johnson’s proposed budget allocates just north of $62 million for (the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events) for next year. That’s a 15% decrease from the nearly $73 million allocated in last year’s budget.” – WBEZ (Chicago)
  
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• Have Leading Arts Organizations Fulfilled Their Diversity Promises? In Chicago, The Answer Is …

  06-11-2025 16:36
  
  … in effect, “no comment.” Of 21 organizations WBEZ and the Chicago Sun-Times approached, only seven completed the survey. One answered part of it, three sent statements, and ten declined to participate or simply didn’t respond. – WBEZ (Chicago)
  
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• Teen Tourist Faces Charges After Dousing Met Museum Masterpiece

  06-11-2025 16:20 via artnews.com
  A teenage tourist is facing charges for allegedly vandalizing centuries-old artworks and tearing tapestries at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.Authorities said 19-year-old Joshua Vaurin hurled water at the 19th century French oil painting The Princess de Broglie by French portraitist Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres—described as a “masterpiece’’ by the Met’s online catalog—around 4:30 p.m. on Monday, November 3. Vaurin’s misguided museum tour the
  
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• Doug Aitken’s First Exhibition in India to Open Next Month

  06-11-2025 16:04 via artnews.com
  Multimedia artist and filmmaker Doug Aitken’s first exhibition in India is expected to open on Saturday, December 6. The exhibition, titled “Under the Sun”, will debut at the Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre (NMACC) in Mumbai.Aitken, who is known for his boundary-pushing installations situated between art, film, sound, and architecture, will debut a new site-specific work as part of the show that was commissioned by the NMACC, in collaboration with more than a dozen
  
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• Hunger: Inside David Ellison’s First 100 Days Running Paramount

  06-11-2025 16:03
  
  “By the accounts of many industry insiders, Ellison has been leveraging his family’s extraordinary wealth and access to President Trump to prepare for a buying spree. With the help of his father, Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison (the world’s second-richest person), the Silicon Valley scion wants to take on Netflix, Amazon and Apple.” – Variety
  
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• Frieze Promotes Kate Sierzputowski to Director of Expo Chicago Fair

  06-11-2025 16:00 via artnews.com
  Frieze announced that Kate Sierzputowski will be the next director of Expo Chicago. She succeeds Tony Karman, one of the fair’s cofounders who stepped down from the role in May.The company also announced that it has hired independent curator Essence Harden in the role of curator for Expo Chicago. Sierzputowski and Harden will both assume in their roles beginning November 6. Karman will continue as president of the fair, serving in an advisory capacity.A release also noted additional change
  
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• So, Who’s Really Looking To Buy Warner Bros. Discovery (Or Pieces Of It)?

  06-11-2025 15:31
  
  “That’s the question on the minds of Hollywood and Wall Street after the company put itself up for sale, citing ‘unsolicited interest’ from ‘multiple parties.’” – TheWrap (Yahoo!)
  
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• “Vibe Coding” Is Collins Dictionary’s 2025 Word Of The Year

  06-11-2025 15:06
  
  “’Vibe coding,’ an emerging software development that turns natural language into computer code using artificial intelligence, … was coined … to describe how artificial intelligence can enable someone to create a new app while being able to ‘forget that the code even exists’.” – The Guardian
  
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• FLAG Art Foundation and Parrish Art Museum Plan New Exhibition Partnership

  06-11-2025 15:00 via artnews.com
  The New York–based FLAG Art Foundation and the Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill, New York, have announced a new partnership that will see the two organizations collaborate on three exhibitions annually beginning next year and extending until 2030.The exhibitions will be jointly organized by the Parrish’s curatorial team and that of the FLAG Foundation and will be staged in two adjoining galleries at the Hamptons museum. The inaugural exhibition, a solo exhibition for Ellsworth Kelly
  
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• Art Basel Launches Zero 10, a New Digital Art Platform, at Miami Beach Fair

  06-11-2025 14:59 via artnews.com
  Art Basel will debut Zero 10, a new curated platform dedicated to art of the digital era, at its Miami Beach edition this December. The initiative, supported by OpenSea, marks the fair’s most significant push yet into digital art, linking emerging creators and tech-native studios with traditional art market structures.Curated by digital art strategist Eli Scheinman, the inaugural presentation will feature 12 international exhibitors, including Art Blocks, bitforms gallery, Beeple Stud
  
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• US Venice Biennale Plans Collapse, Gagosian and Wes Anderson Join Forces for Joseph Cornell Show, and More: Morning Links for November 6, 2025

  06-11-2025 14:50 via artnews.com
  To receive Morning Links in your inbox every weekday, sign up for our Breakfast with ARTnews newsletter.THE HEADLINES A LOOK INSIDE REVAMPED JEWISH MUSEUM. In 2018, when an old house in Prague was demolished, nearly 700 hidden artworks by Gertrud Kauders were discovered inside its walls, more than 70 years after she perished in a Nazi extermination camp. Some of these long lost pieces are now on view at the Jewish Museum in New York, where recently renovated ga
  
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• Staffers At Detroit Institute Of Arts Prepare To Unionize

  06-11-2025 14:34
  
  “DIA staff are seeking to unionize with AFSCME Cultural Workers United (AFSCME Michigan), a division of the national AFSCME union that represents workers at cultural institutions including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Art Institute of Chicago, and Philadelphia Museum of Art (sic).” – ARTnews
  
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• US Pavilion at Venice Biennale Uncertain After Robert Lazzarini Proposal Falls Through

  06-11-2025 14:01 via artnews.com
  The United States Pavilion at the upcoming Venice Biennale is in a precarious position after a proposal by artist Robert Lazzarini and independent curator John Ravenal fell through, according to a report in the Washington Post.Ravenal had received an email and a phone call in early September from the US State Department, which handles the calls for proposals for the American contribution to the Biennale, informing him that their proposal had been selected.Ravenal and Lazzarini collaborated toget
  
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• Atlanta Symphony Extends Nathalie Stutzmann’s Contract As Music Director

  06-11-2025 13:59
  
  Her term will run for three additional years, going through the end of the 2028-29 season. – ArtsATL
  
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• Gagosian Teams Up with Movie Director Wes Anderson to Reimagine Joseph Cornell’s New York Studio

  06-11-2025 11:52 via artnews.com
  Gagosian has teamed up with move director Wes Anderson to recreate the New York studio of American artist Joseph Cornell at the mega-gallery’s Paris HQ. It will be part of an exhibition curated by Jasper Sharp and titled “The House of Utopia Parkway,” which is slated to run from December 16 to March 14, 2026.The gallery’s storefront gallery at 9 rue de Castiglione will be transformed into “a meticulously staged tableau, part time capsule, part life-size shadow box,
  
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• Gagosian Teams Up with Movie Director Wes Anderson to Reimagine Joseph Cornell’s New York Studio in Paris

  06-11-2025 11:52 via artnews.com
  Gagosian has teamed up with move director Wes Anderson to recreate the New York studio of American artist Joseph Cornell at the mega-gallery’s Paris HQ. It will be part of an exhibition curated by Jasper Sharp and titled “The House of Utopia Parkway,” which is slated to run from December 16 to March 14, 2026.The gallery’s storefront gallery at 9 rue de Castiglione will be transformed into “a meticulously staged tableau, part time capsule, part life-size shadow box,
  
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• ‘We can have art and greenery’: Black Muse festival marks opening of sculpture park in Benin City

  06-11-2025 11:00
  Project in southern Nigeria to honour the city’s centuries-old artistic traditions and bring a new audience to contemporary artFor weeks, residents of Iyekogba in Benin City have seen a 15-metre-high tower rising up in the middle of their quiet, residential neighbourhood. On 8 November, the building, a domed bamboo pavilion, will finally be unveiled at the start of Nigeria’s inaugural Black Muse art festival.Designed by the renowned Nigerian architect James Inedu-George, the pavilion
  
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• Malick Sidibé Was an Architect of Utopia and Purveyor of Nostalgia

  06-11-2025 11:00 via artnews.com
  THE STUDIO MIGHT reasonably be described as the ground zero of West African photography. There, trained professionals, typically men who had chanced on studio photography as a career, devoted themselves to picturing their clientele with ardor and originality. Malick Sidibé is the epitome of this model. The late Malian photographer made images of his Malian country-people that have, since the 1990s, become venerated as art objects, less as the individual keepsakes they were initially meant
  
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• David Hockney: Some Very, Very, Very New Paintings Not Yet Shown in Paris - review: still innovating, still fascinating

  06-11-2025 07:00
  Annely Juda Fine Art, London
  With this new collection of bright and bold still lifes, iPad experiments and splotchy portraits, the art-world titan is beginning to show his age in intriguing, unsteady ways that remain inimitably HockneyHe’s still at it, is David Hockney. At 88 years old, and more than 60 years into a career that has seen him rise to the very top of the contemporary art pile, Hockney is still painting, still experimenting, still innovating, and still having shows.This exhibi
  
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• Good Morning. Librarians and the AI back door

  06-11-2025 03:33
  Here are today’s AJ highlights.AI’s appetite spills into culture as The Atlantic reports Common Crawl feeding paywalled journalism to models. Legacy media gets a cold bath — the BBC is a “Titanic” unless it pivots, warns The Guardian.Dance has some rare good news: Marseille surges, says Dance Magazine; New York’s Joyce gets a $15M lifeline, reports The New York Times. And in the attention economy, interiority itself feels squeezed, argues Commonweal.More of th
  
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