Art

‘A vast underwater museum’: Greece plans to open shipwrecks and other submerged heritage sites for visitors to explore

Submerged ancient cities, rows of amphorae from the fifth century BC, anchors from Byzantine shipwrecks, Second World War aircrafts: Greek seas harbour a unique heritage that is gradually becoming accessible to the public, experienced divers and casual bathers alike. In March, the Greek Ministry of Culture and Sports announced plans to open 91 shipwrecks—dating from…

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Looted Libyan sculpture seized at Heathrow Airport heads back home with help from the British Museum

A statue looted from Libya in 2011 has been handed over to the Libyan Embassy in London after experts from the British Museum (BM) helped identify the piece. The funerary sculpture, taken from Cyrene in north eastern Libya, was seized by Border officials at Heathrow airport in London after being brought into the UK from…

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Unable to run in its usual format, 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair moves into Christie’s for bijou showcase

With Frieze now well underway, New York has a taste again for art fairs—those not on a screen. And the next opportunity is around the corner: a potted edition of the 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair New York will run from 15 to 26 May in the lobby gallery at Christie’s, with a larger selection…

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Rare medieval reliquary—stolen near Siena 32 years ago—discovered at collector’s home in Sicily

Italy’s police force specialising in stolen art, the Comando Carabinieri Tutela Patrimonio Culturalehas, has located a 14th-century reliquary that was stolen near Siena 32 years ago. Arts luminaries have celebrated the rare find, with the Vatican Museums director Barabara Jatta saying the rediscovery is of “unprecedented importance for the value of the objects”. Details of…

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Penn Museum apologizes for allowing the use of human remains of Black Philadelphians in an online class

This month the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology outlined a series of recommendations for the repatriation and reburial of human remains in the Samuel G. Morton Cranial Collection, consisting more than 1,000 human skulls amassed in the 1830s-40s by a natural scientist and anatomy lecturer who used them to compare the brain…

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The places you can’t go: Ellen Harvey recreates lost places

The Brooklyn-based conceptual artist Ellen Harvey started her Disappointed Tourist project in 2019, well before the pandemic. She was considering the political situation and the notion of nostalgia, and sensed that people were feeling traumatised. Her own neighbourhood was also becoming gentrified. “It was about what they were missing,” Harvey said in a recent interview….

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US returns over 500 smuggled pre-Hispanic-era artifacts to Mexican officials

The investigations arm of the US Department of Homeland Security (HSI) has returned 523 artifacts predating the Spanish conquest to Mexico in a repatriation ceremony at the Mexican Consulate in El Paso, Texas, officials say. The pieces were seized in August 2016 after an investigation that was triggered months earlier by the discovery of some…

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Portrait of veiled mother of nine fishing in Yemen wins World Press Photo award

A portrait of Fatima, a Yemeni mother of nine children, fully veiled in a Hijab as she flings a fishing net into the waters below, has earned the Argentinian photojournalist Pablo Tosco first prize in the contemporary issues category of the World Press Photo Awards, which were announced today. The image was taken on 12…

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Frieze New York to pay tribute to Vision & Justice Project

When a news photographer shoots multiple rolls of film, or fills up a handful of SD cards, how is the photograph that will be used on the front page chosen and why? What does the image say about the person or society doing the choosing? For Sarah Elizabeth Lewis, an associate professor at Harvard University…

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After a $20m renovation, Dia is poised to re-emerge as a force in Chelsea

Re-emerging as a force in Chelsea after a two-year, $20m renovation, the Dia Art Foundation’s space there will reopen on Friday (16 April) with a renewed purpose: to champion under-recognised artists and to serve as an information hub for all 11 of Dia’s long-term art sites. The foundation’s Chelsea renovation unites its three contiguous buildings…

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