— Gaudi’s First House Will Be a Museum: Barcelona’s Casa Vicens, designed by Antoni Gaudi in 1888, was the Spanish architect’s first house — and now it’s on its way to becoming a museum, with a projected opening date of fall 2016. A UNESCO World Heritage site since 1984, the house remained primarily under the purview of the Herrero-Jover family, who acquired the property from Vicens’s widow and used it as a residence from 1899 to 2014, before selling to Andorran bank MoraBanc. Despite planned restorations, a number of irreparable changes were made to the structure over the years. Still, according to Mercedes Mora, of the MoraBanc family, who will serve as executive director of the museum, the house represents “an essential work for understanding his unique architectural language and the development of Modernism in Barcelona.” [TAN]
— Archaeologists Safeguard Against ISIS With 3D Cameras: Oxford and Harvard archaeologists with the Institute for Digital Archaeology will team up to give 5,000 3D cameras to residents in conflict zones across the Middle East, in hopes that they will capture around one million images of at-risk sites and artifacts by 2016. More than regular photographs, 3D images could allow the objects to be recreated in the future. “This is a race against time,” said executive director Roger Michel. “We’ve changed our timetable in recognition of the places being destroyed.” He added: “Digital archaeology, in my view, is the best hope that we have for preserving the architecture, the art history, of these sites. All around the Middle East, they feel so strongly about their local identity and history that they’re willing to help.” Actual distribution of all the cameras, however, is the next big hurdle. [BBC]
— Priced-Out Galleries Are Leaving Chelsea: Only two of the seven galleries that initially transformed Chelsea into an art district remain in the Manhattan neighborhood, after being priced out by escalating rent. Now, even the two stalwarts doubt they will renew their leases come November. “It’s time to move to a new area and be part of a new story,” said Michael Gillespie, owner of Foxy Production, one of the two galleries. “Chelsea feels more blue-chip and less an area where you come to discover new artists.” While Gagosian Gallery, Gladstone Gallery, David Zwirner remain, many art dealers have decamped to Chinatown or the Lower East Side, where the number of galleries has nearly doubled since 2010, leaping from 63 to 124. “Just like in Soho, galleries are the victims of their own success,” said Stuart Siegel, senior vice president at real-estate firm CBRE Group Inc.. “The galleries put Chelsea on the map. Then the world followed them.” [Bloomberg]
— Frank Lloyd Wright House Relocated to Crystal Bridges: The Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art is moving a Frank Lloyd Wright building, originally built in New Jersey, to Bentonville, Arkansas. The Bachman-Wilson House, built in 1954, is scheduled to open on November 11. [Observer, Artnet]
— Nazi Gold Train a Deathbed Revelation: Specialists believe that the location of a lost Nazi train containing a looted trove of gold and art has been found in Western Poland, after one of the men who helped hide the treasures disclosed its location on his deathbed. “The train is 100 metres long and is protected. The fact that it is armoured indicates it has a special cargo. We do not know what is inside the train. Probably military equipment but also possibly jewellery, works of art and archive documents,” said Piotr Zuchowski, head of conservation at Poland's culture ministry. [Telegraph, Independent, NYT]
— Black Portraits at Harvard: A show of rare portraits picturing black individuals in Victorian-era England is opening at Harvard University’s Cooper Gallery of African & African-American Art. “There’s a healing aspect to seeing these exquisite images,” said Vera Ingrid Grant, the gallery director. [WashPo]
— Russian police have found pieces of a 100-year-old bas relief believed to have been removed from its building by a conservative group claiming they acted out against a “cult of Satan.” [WP]
— RIP Noah Davis, 32-year-old painter and founder of the Underground Museum; Nelson Shanks, president and royal portrait painter; Gary Keys, filmmaker who documented jazz greats; and horror legend Wes Craven. [ARTnews, WP, NYT, LAT]
— Japan’s leading toilet company has opened a museum dedicated to “a century of lavatories.” [ArtDaily]
