— Boy Trips and Punches $1.5M Painting: A 12-year-old Taiwanese boy recently lived out a field-trip nightmare when he tripped and fell into a $1.5 million Paolo Porpora oil painting at an exhibition in Taipei, leaving a fist-sized hole in his wake. Despite a wonderfully passive aggressive statement posted to the exhibition’s Facebook page (“All 55 paintings in the venue are authentic pieces and they are very rare and precious. Once these works are damaged, they are permanently damaged”), it does not appear that the boy and his family will be responsible for restorative costs. Apparently there’s something in the air, because on Sunday, a young girl broke a vase at the Israel Museum. The museum reports, however, that the vase is already repaired and in better shape than it was before. [Guardian, Independent, Slate, Haaretz]
— Staff at National Museum of Scotland Strike: Another museum strike, this time not at the National Gallery in London: Staff at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh are staging a seven-day action over the withdrawal of a weekend allowance. Around 120 members are participating, disturbing the schedule at both the National Museum of Scotland and the National War Museum during the high season of the Edinburgh Festival. Alan Brown, industrial officer for Public and Commercial Services union in Scotland, said: “This has been an 18-month long dispute now and essentially it’s about fair pay. If someone was employed by the National Museum of Scotland in December 2010 and worked weekends then they earn between £2,000 and £3,000 more than a colleague working beside them if they joined in January 2011, so it’s wrong that this is the case. We’ve been taking action to get both the National Museum of Scotland and the Scottish government to accept responsibility for this and do something about it and to end this two-tier workforce that exists.” Meanwhile, a Scottish government spokeswoman called the strike “deeply regrettable.” [BBC]
— UNESCO Deems Baal Shamin Bombing “War Crime”: On Sunday, ISIS detonated a number of explosives in the UNESCOWorld Heritage site of Palmyra’s Baal Shamin temple — and now, their actions have been deemed a war crime. A statement from UNESCO also referred to the act as “cultural cleansing,” citing ISIS’s ongoing pattern of cultural demolition in the region. “The systematic destruction of cultural symbols embodying Syrian cultural diversity reveals the true intent of such attacks, which is to deprive the Syrian people of its knowledge, its identity, and history,” said UNESCO director Irina Bokova, adding that those responsible “must be accountable for their actions.” [BBC]
— Singapore Unfreezes Bouvier’s Assets: The Singapore Court of Appeal has unfrozen the assets of Yves Bouvier, the Swiss dealer accused by Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev of hiking up prices on artworks by Modigliani and Picasso, among others. (The dispute was sparked by a marked-up Modigliani painting, which Rybolovlev overpaid for by around $20 million.) “We are satisfied that it was deployed as an instrument of oppression to inflict commercial prejudice on Mr Bouvier,” Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon wrote on Friday of the injunction. The freeze was lifted because the court believes there is no possibility of Bouvier distributing his assets. [Artnet]
— Kazuo Ishiguro Archives to Texas: The Harry Ransom Center at University of Texas will acquire the archive of novelist Kazuo Ishiguro. The archive of the author’s notes for his seven novels appears to be extensive: “I’d originally started this box-under-the-desk system not because I’d anticipated one day preparing an archive, but because I was nervous I’d throw out work I’d need later,” Ishiguro said. [AD]
— Philly Museums Ready for Pope’s Visit: It is like “a combination of the president coming and the Olympics,’” said a spokeswoman for Rosenbach Museum in Philadelphia, referring to an upcoming visit by Pope Francis for the World Meeting of Families (September 22-27). The Catholic triennial event will draw in 1.5 to 2 million visitors, and museums around the city are plotting to lure them in with religious-themed exhibitions. [TAN]
— The World Erotic Art Museum may move its collection to Germany, restoring the “degenerate art” pieces banned from the country under Nazi rule. [NY Daily News]
— California art dealer Lumsden Quan has pled guilty to violating the Lacey and Endangered Species Act after selling two rhinoceros horns in Las Vegas last year. He faces five years in prison. [Courthouse News]
— Former investment banker John La Gatta has donated $2 million to the Nevada Museum of Art. [ARTnews, Artforum]
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