– Obama Disses Art History Majors: In a post-State of the Union speech stop in Wisconsin, President Barack Obama angered some art history majors (and, oddly enough, a bunch of political bloggers) when he suggested that an art history degree might not be that lucrative. “A lot of young people no longer see the trades and skilled manufacturing as a viable career,” the president said, “but I promise you, folks can make a lot more potentially with skilled manufacturing or the trades than they might with an art history degree.” Maybe regretting his comparison, Obama followed up: “Nothing wrong with art history degree... I love art history. I don’t want to get a bunch of emails from everybody.” [Politico, WP]
– Reporter Rescues Nazi Loot: New York Times writer Doreen Carvajal shares her experience of helping French authorities to track down heirs of Jewish collectors whose artworks were stolen during WWII and now hang in French museums, including successfully reconnecting a Gustave Courbet painting at the Musée d’Orsay with a potential owner. “Several times,” she recounts, “I found what I thought were the families listed in the records only to be proved wrong, or to encounter people with no interest in pursuing whether they were indeed related and heirs to a masterwork.” [NYT]
– Brazilian Art Collective Supports Protestors: The Brazilian artist collective Aldeia Gentil (which means “gentle village”), co-founded by Ernesto Neto, has taken up the cause of demonstrators who took to the streets of Rio last year — many of them brandishing placards painted in Neto’s studio — participating in protests and holding open forums in their gallery on topics ranging from politics and activism to art history. “All these demonstrations are necessary,” said Neto. “They are expressing the refusal of police violence. They reject the police, who aim to pacify the favelas by military means, supposedly in order to do away with poverty. They condemn the authorities who are imposing western-style standardisation, in the name of criteria set by the country’s elite. But it doesn’t work. The people of Brazil want something else.” [Guardian]
– Portugal to Sell Miros: Portugal is selling off $50 million worth of Joan Miro paintings (formerly owned by a bank seized by the state) to pay down its debt. [Bloomberg]
– Street Art Festival Launches in India: The inaugural edition of St.Art, a street art festival in the urban villages of Delhi, will put artworks on dozens of gray cement walls. [NYT]
– Meet the two men leading the charge to save Pompeii: A police general, and the grandson of Italy’s last king (who is also a winning contestant on Italy’s “Dancing With the Stars”). [WSJ]
– The Museum of London will open an exhibition of erotic tiles from the 18th century just in time for Valentine's Day. [Independent]
– Lucian Freud had the hand-writing of a 5-year-old, at least judging by a letter he sent to one of his students in 1996, which is hitting the auction block at Bonhams London with a £2,000-3,000 estimate. [Press release]
– “Oh, Canada,” Mass MoCA’s survey of contemporary art from Canada, will travel to Canada — it will span galleries in Calgary and Canada’s maritime provinces in two separate presentations. [Globe and Mail]
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