Apparently, in Italy, museum directorships are held in the public trust

See here.

Sauce for the goose

"Pissed-off artist adds statue of urinating dog next to ‘Fearless Girl.'"

"Gardner Museum Doubles Reward for Recovery of Stolen Masterpieces"

To $10 million.   I'm trying to imagine the person who had relevant information who wasn't interested in sharing it for $5 million, but now, for $10 million, is finally ready to speak up, but I guess you never know.

An effective altruism analysis of Mike Bloomberg's $75 million donation to The Shed

From Felix Salmon.

"Often you never really know which art pieces are genuine and which are not."

A museum of fakes, in the Netherlands.

"There’s no officially sanctioned art-industry watchdog in the vein of the SEC, or even a universally accepted set of best practices for sellers and representatives to abide by."

"Yet all of the normal laws of commercial transactions still apply."

Tim Schneider on the myth that the art market is "unregulated."

Fair Enough

Sergio Muñoz Sarmiento calls attention to an interesting student note on the College Art Association's "Code of Best Practices in Fair Use."

I had some thoughts on the usefulness of the Code here.

Fake News

Vanity Fair:  The Art Market’s Modigliani Forgery Epidemic.

"On it's face, it's extremely suspicious. There has to be a reason someone would want to destroy this painting."

Suspicious man uses knife to destroy $3 million painting in Aspen gallery.

"If what di Modica is proposing that the city do seems familiar, it is because there is a succinct term for it: censorship."

Nicholas O'Donnell in Apollo magazine: Why this fearless girl should stand her ground.

Recommended

The Met has recommended suggested "filed a formal proposal" with the city to begin charging admission to out-of-state visitors.  Robin Pogrebin has the story here.  For background, I recommend suggest you start here and here.