art museum news stories on Newser

Museum Keeps Burning Art to Protest Italy Budget Cuts

Mary Papenfuss — Tue, 22 May 2012 01:41:00 CDT

It's an incendiary protest. More than a month after an Italian museum director first burned art to protest budget cuts, Antonio Manfredi is still regularly incinerating works at his Casoria Contemporary Art Museum. "This is war for the arts," Manfredi explains. "We want the institutions in Italy and around the...

Rare Chinese Artifacts Stolen in Museum Heist

Rob Quinn — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 01:30:00 CDT

A gang who broke into a Cambridge University museum after hours made off with some small but incredibly valuable Chinese artifacts. The 18 items stolen, most of them made of jade, were worth close to $30 million in total, the Daily Mail reports. The items, including a 16th-century carved buffalo,...

Confused Cleaner Scrubs 'Stain' Off $1.1M Sculpture

Matt Cantor — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 13:21:07 CDT

She thought she was just doing her job; instead, she was forever altering a $1.1 million artwork. A cleaner in a German museum spotted what she thought was an unintended stain on a sculpture and decided to wash it off. The piece by the late Martin Kippenberger, “When It...

Wal-Mart Family Donates $800M to Art Museum

Matt Cantor — Fri, 06 May 2011 08:30:05 CDT

Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton’s family will give a record $800 million to his daughter’s new art museum, marking the biggest-ever cash donation to an art museum in the US. It’s a gift that reflects the family's high hopes for Alice Walton’s 201,000-square-foot Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, which...

To Flee Mob, Italian Museum Seeks Asylum in Germany

Rob Quinn — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 03:37:55 CST

The director of a Naples museum is urging Germany to grant asylum to the museum and its staff seeking to flee the mob. Antonio Manfredi says the contemporary art museum has been plagued by vandalism and threats from the local Mafia. The museum has put on exhibitions dealing with social...

Italians Battle Over David

Sarah Quinn — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 15:49:00 CDT

Italy and the city of Florence are tussling over who owns Michelangelo's David, the Telegraph reports. Each year, 1.5 million visitors pay more than $12 million to see the 17-foot marble statue, which stands in Florence's Accademia gallery. Lawyers for the Italian Ministry of Culture say that because the...

The 20th Century's Biggest Art Heists

Evann Gastaldo — Fri, 21 May 2010 12:15:00 CDT

Yesterday’s massive theft from the Paris Museum of Modern Art is already being called the “heist of the century,” although we have a few years yet to see how it holds up. The Independent looked over the 20th century and compiled a list of 10 major art thefts. View a...

Ansel Adams' Family Sues Museum Over Prints

Kevin Spak — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 13:02:00 CST

Ansel Adams’ family is suing the bankrupt Fresno Metropolitan Museum over its attempts to auction off six prints the photographer donated before he died. The museum closed in January and is now furiously trying to sell off artwork to pay off its estimated $4 million in debt. But Adams' relatives...

9 Other Pricey Art Mishaps

Evann Gastaldo — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 12:37:43 CST

The art student who tripped and tore a hole in a Picasso painting is probably fairly embarrassed—but will, perhaps, feel better knowing others can sympathize. The Independent lists nine other art catastrophes, some accidental and some not: Cy Twombly : A woman kissed one of his paintings, leaving it smeared...