Arts news

• Phoenix Symphony Is Back Onstage For Now, But Its Problems Aren’t Over

  12-11-2026 18:01 via ArtsJournal
  
  The $2 million raised in an emergency campaign after the orchestra was abruptly furloughed last month is only enough, according to the musicians, to keep the Symphony running through the end of 2026. An 11-member commission of musicians, management, and civic leaders is trying to develop a “sustainable” plan to keep the PSO operating. – Phoenix New Times
  
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• Monumental Equestrian Statue of Roman Emperor Once Stood in Second Century Scotland

  12-11-2026 21:27 via ARTnews.com
  
  Once part of a monumental Roman-era equestrian statue, a gilded bronze lower leg and foot found in a bog in Milsington, Scotland, in 1820 will be a highlight of a new show at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh. The artifact, which dates to approximately 140 CE, was originally thought to have been looted by Scottish tribes from a site further south. But experts new believe that it came from a sculpture erected locally by Roman conquerors.A study of statue fragments from Roman Scotland h
  
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• Tenor Antonello Palombi, 58, Found Dead In Hotel Room

  12-11-2026 21:02 via ArtsJournal
  
  Though he had an active career spanning four continents, he’s best known for stepping in mid-performance as Radames in Aida at La Scala after Roberto Alagna stormed off the stage because he was booed. Palombi’s body was found during a wellness check after he failed to show up for rehearsal in Mainz, Germany. – OperaWire
  
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• Vienna Actionism Museum to Cease Exhibition Program Following Controversial Otto Muehl Show

  12-11-2026 20:49 via ARTnews.com
  
  The Vienna Actionism Museum will end its exhibition program in 2027 and transition into a research institution dedicated to the transgressive postwar art movement, Monopol reports. The research institution will be open to the public by appointment only.The privately owned institution has been a controversial presence in Austria’s art scene since opening in 2024, owing to its focus on a movement known for violent, visceral performances that often used blood and excrement as materials. But publi
  
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• American Novelist and Four Others to Stand Trial Over Sale of Gold Looted from Shipwreck

  12-11-2026 20:44 via ARTnews.com
  
  In a story that sounds ripped from the pages of a novel, an American novelist, her husband, and three French nationals are set to stand trial in France next May for their alleged involvement in the resale of gold bars looted from an 18th-century shipwreck decades ago.Eleanor “Gay” Courter, 82, an author of best-selling fiction, nonfiction, and memoir; her husband, Philip Courter, 84, a film director; Yves Gladu, 79, a professional underwater photographer; his wife, Brigitte Gladu, 76; and hi
  
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• Chicago’s Viral ‘Bean’ Stunt Inspires Londoners to Move the Marble Arch

  12-11-2026 20:38 via ARTnews.com
  
  Londoners want to get in on the viral stunt of the Bean, British Indian artist Anish Kapoor’s silvery sculpture Cloud Gate (2006), by wanting to move the Marble Arch, designed by John Nash in 1827.“Bean there, done that,” as Ocula reports, responding to a public listing on the platform Partiful planned for Saturday, inviting people to move the 19th-century white marble-faced triumphal arch 17.78 cm (7 inches) to the left, the same distance that Chicagoans recently tried to push Kapoor’s
  
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• Postcards Were Social Media Before Social Media

  12-11-2026 20:31 via ArtsJournal
  
  People themselves made the choices. They selected the postcards they bought, the people they wrote to, and the images they collected. More than a century before platforms started automating this process, political communities were already creating selective environments of their own. – Eurozine
  
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• Alden Ehrenreich’s Huron Station Playhouse Is The “Coolest New Theater Venue” In L.A.

  12-11-2026 20:03 via ArtsJournal
  “Artistic director Alden Ehrenreich turned a historic 1906 Pacific Electric Railway power station into an artistic playground with hipster vibes, alluring music, a younger-than-usual audience and high-end soap in the bathroom.” – Los Angeles Times (MSN)
  
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• The Connections Between Rock Music And Fascism

  12-11-2026 19:44 via ArtsJournal
  
  Such a superhuman magnification of the individual is unsettling to behold at close range. I witnessed the internal mechanics when I followed Radiohead on tour in 2000. Members of the band were variously thrilled, unnerved, and scared by what they were unleashing—a healthily complex reaction. – The New Yorker
  
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• In Medieval Times, Curiosity Was A Negative

  12-11-2026 19:31 via ArtsJournal
  Curiosity was seen as a largely vacuous interest in novel or forbidden information. The curious person was thought to reach for what was hidden and secret, beyond their proper purview, and thereby isolate themselves from spiritual and social community. – MIT Reader
  
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• On Poets And Reputations

  12-11-2026 19:15 via ArtsJournal
  The maker of an anthology can’t help being aware of the contemporary reputation of poets. But he knows, too, that this enterprise, this book, will be a chance to amend that reputation. – Hudson Review
  
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• Christie’s Posts Highest Watch Total Ever and Sells Bulgari Pink Diamond for $14 M.

  12-11-2026 19:13 via ARTnews.com
  
  The luxury market continues to be a major area of growth for the auction houses. Christie’s is holding its luxury sales week in Geneva, its biggest such event for jewelry and watches, and while the house hasn’t released its final totals for the week, early returns appear promising.On Monday, Christie’s reported that its Rare Watches sale, held at the Four Seasons Hotel des Bergues, generated $58.7 million on 218 lots with a 100 percent sell-through rate by lot. That’s more than double th
  
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• San Francisco Ballet Is Releasing A Virtual-Reality “Nutcracker”

  12-11-2026 19:04 via ArtsJournal
  In a partnership with Google, immersive media company YB and augmented reality company XREAL, SFB is presenting Nutcracker: The Immersive Experience, a specially recorded performance of the company’s production (choreography by Helgi Tomasson) for home viewing on VR platforms. – San Francisco Chronicle (MSN)
  
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• Newark Museum Is Latest Art Institution to Transfer Ownership of David Drake Vessel

  12-11-2026 18:57 via ARTnews.com
  
  The latest institution to transfer its ownership of a David Drake vessel in its collection is New Jersey’s Newark Museum of Art, which said on Thursday that the artist’s descendants were given possession of an 1852 jug.Other museums have undertaken a similar measure, from the Museum of Fine Arts Boston to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. But the Newark Museum said in its release that, unlike past ownership transfers, this one was initiated by the institution, which reached out to Drake’s
  
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• ‘Secret’ Location of a Vandalized and Rescued Banksy Revealed

  12-11-2026 18:54 via ARTnews.com
  
  A Banksy mural with a checkered past has been located by sleuths at the British Broadcasting Service (BBC). The semi-anonymous artist painted the piece in 2018 on Scott Street Bridge in Hull, a port city in East Yorkshire, England. The BBC has discovered that it is being kept in storage in Norfolk, more than 120 miles away, and that its future is unknown.The mural shows a young boy, apparently dressed for battle in a helmet and raising wooden sword with a pencil attacked to its tip. He cries out
  
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• Soldier Designs Limited-Edition Hublot Timepieces in Latest Artist Collaboration

  12-11-2026 18:48 via ARTnews.com
  
  Swiss luxury watchmaker Hublot is expanding its roster of artist collaborations. Its latest partnership is with Soldier (born Leonard Iheagwam), a Nigerian-born, London-based visual artist, designer and skateboarder.Soldier has created 50 timepieces for Hublot in black ceramic and black-plated titanium adorned with little toy sliders and a cross. They’re a recurring motif in the artist’s work, which he first debuted in 2024 with Angelica Mara Jopling of Incubator. The dial of the 42 mm chron
  
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• Why Do Things Exist?

  12-11-2026 18:44 via ArtsJournal
  This very obvious fact about the world – that things exist – can shift from seeming mundane and trivial to very surprising, even downright weird.  – Aeon
  
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• As Art Week NYC Kicks Off, Galleries Have Millions of Dollars of Art to Sell—And No Shortage of Naras

  12-11-2026 18:39 via ARTnews.com
  
  Anyone shopping for a Yoshitomo Nara in New York this month has an embarrassment of riches. David Zwirner has filled two Chelsea galleries with the Japanese artist’s paintings. On opening night in Chelsea last week, hours-long lines stretched like highway caravans down 19th and 20th streets, leading to a deluge of posts similarly clogging up the art world’s Instagram feed. The shows have drawings, sculptures, and large new canvases priced as high as $6 million. But bring your checkbook and y
  
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• How America Developed A Culture Of The Telephone

  12-11-2026 18:31 via ArtsJournal
  
  Advertising could turn people into customers, but helping phone owners form what Bell called a “telephone habit” required a different tool.  – JStor
  
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• Frida Kahlo’s Image Has Become a Global Brand. A Viral AI-Generated Ad Makes Things Worse.

  12-11-2026 18:29 via ARTnews.com
  
  In our Frida Kahlo–obsessed moment, it’s may be difficult for some to remember that the Mexican artist almost died before she could change art history. In 1925, when she was just 18 years old, she was riding a bus that collided with a trolley, an accident that severely injured her pelvis, abdomen, and uterus. During the painful recovery, she took up painting. “I am not sick,” she said. “I am broken. But, I am happy to be alive as long as I can paint.”A little over a century after the
  
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• New Play Festival Says It Will Now Program Year-Round

  12-11-2026 18:15 via ArtsJournal
  The South Carolina New Play Festival (SCNPF) announced that it will move from a summer-only festival to a year-round festival with a summer and winter season. – Greenville Business Magazine
  
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• Can These Economists Build A Better Case For Public Arts Support?

  12-11-2026 17:35 via ArtsJournal
  These discussions, championed by at least one economics research and advisory firm in partnership with a major Australian arts festival, are instead thinking about the arts activities as powerful economic ‘enablers’ and strategic assets which help facilitate wider cultural, economic and social objectives. – ArtsHub
  
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• Theft at Art Cologne, Five Suspects to Stand Trial for Looted Gold Bars From an 18th-Century Shipwreck, and More: Morning Links for November 12, 2026

  12-11-2026 17:29 via ARTnews.com
  
  To receive Morning Links in your inbox every weekday, sign up for our Breakfast with ARTnews newsletter.Good Morning!
  A 1962 gold-colored bronze sculpture by Jean Arp, priced at $160,800, was stolen from the booth of Ludorff Gallery on November 8, the final day of the Art Cologne fair.Five suspects, including two US citizens, involved in the case of looted gold bars from an 18th-century shipwreck, are due to stand trial in Brest, western France, in May, 2027.A memorial mural in Milan depicting H
  
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• Jean ARP Bronze Sculpture Stolen From Art Cologne Booth, Five Suspects to Stand Trial for Looted Gold Bars From an 18th-Century Shipwreck, and More: Morning Links for November 12, 2026

  12-11-2026 17:29 via ARTnews.com
  
  To receive Morning Links in your inbox every weekday, sign up for our Breakfast with ARTnews newsletter.Good Morning!
  A 1962 gold-colored bronze sculpture by Jean Arp, priced at $160,800, was stolen from the booth of Ludorff Gallery on November 8, the final day of the Art Cologne fair.Five suspects, including two US citizens, involved in the case of looted gold bars from an 18th-century shipwreck, are due to stand trial in Brest, western France, in May, 2027.A memorial mural in Milan depicting H
  
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• The Case For Humanities

  12-11-2026 17:15 via ArtsJournal
  
  Encompassing history, literature, philosophy, art, and more, the humanities provide a lens through which one can view one’s personal experiences—making the universal personal and the personal universal. – Jstor
  
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• Russia Is Requiring Theaters To Hire Ukraine War Veterans As Ballet Dancers And Choir Singers

  12-11-2026 17:03 via ArtsJournal
  
  Laws passed in various regions of the country are requiring state-funded employers such as schools, universities, and performing arts institutions to hire veterans of the “special military operation” as instructors ranging from kindergarten to college-level, ballet dancers, choristers, and piano accompanists. (And they’re forbidden to ask about PTSD.) – Meduza
  
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• Losing Candidate For U.S. Senate Seat Sues Two Leading Radio Hosts

  12-11-2026 16:34 via ArtsJournal
  
  Yoshi D. Matthews, who came 9th of 10 candidates in the Tennessee race won by GOP incumbent Bill Hagerty, is suing nationally syndicated hosts Steve Harvey and D.L. Hughley, alleging that comments on their shows damaged her business career and political ambitions. But she’s got a big problem in proving her case. – Inside Radio
  
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• $160K Jean Arp Sculpture Stolen from Art Cologne Booth

  12-11-2026 16:30 via ARTnews.com
  
  Dusseldorf’s Gallery Ludorff is appealing to the public for any information about a gold-colored bronze sculpture by Jean Arp that was stolen from its booth at Art Cologne on Sunday, November 8, the last day of the fair.“If you visited our booth during this period and took any photographs, we would be very grateful if you could share them with us,” states the gallery on its website. “If you are being offered for sale the work … or if you have any information regarding its whereabouts,
  
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• The Onion Is Looking To Sponsor A College Football Bowl Game (Yes, Really)

  12-11-2026 16:02 via ArtsJournal
  The satirical publication is looking to break the 100,000-subscriber mark, which would make it, by circulation, the fourth-largest print newspaper in the U.S. As a marketing effort, it’s looking to buy naming rights to one of the numerous bowl games that happen around New Year’s. Wouldn’t you watch The Onion Bowl? – Nieman Lab
  
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• SITE Santa Fe Announces Theme and Artist List for 13th International Biennial

  12-11-2026 16:00 via ARTnews.com
  
  SITE Santa Fe in New Mexico has announced the theme and artist list for the upcoming 13th International Biennial, which will open next June.The exhibition’s curator, Ekow Eshun, has chosen the title “There Are Other Worlds,” which posits that “other worlds already exist within the one we inhabit—whether they are hidden in plain sight, found in refusal of the status quo, or brought into being through acts of imagination,” according to a release.Additionally, the exhibition will featur
  
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