ArtCurious News This Week: March 10, 2023
Hello and how are you, ArtCurious listeners! This is ArtCurious News this Week, our new short-form Friday roundup of my favorite art history updates and interesting news tidbits. Today is Friday, March 10, 2023.
This week’s stories:
The Art Newspaper: Vatican returns Parthenon sculptures to Greece in 'historic event'
The Art Newspaper: Notre Dame to reopen in December 2024
ArtNews: University Faculty Vote Against Plan to Deaccession Paintings at Brauer Museum of Art
The Art Newspaper: Archaeologists discover ancient tunnel at Great Pyramid of Giza that may lead to King Khufu’s tomb
ArtNews: Egyptian Archaeologists Uncover Roman Era Mini-Sphinx Statue
ArtNews: Climate Activist Group Protests at Rembrandt’s Night Watch at Rijksmuseum
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Episode Transcript
Hi there, everyone, hello, hello, and welcome to ArtCurious News This Week, coming to you with your short-form news roundup meant to bring you up to date on some of the latest goings-on in the realm of art history. I’m your host, Jennifer Dasal, and today is Friday, March 10, 2023. And we’ve gotta get to it, because whoa, I’ve got a bunch of stories, both big and small, to share with you today. If you listened in last week, you might remember that I said that it felt like a slow-news week. This will not be that. There’s a lot to report here today!
First up, it’s big news. Though the British Museum is still thought to be in talks regarding the status of their Parthenon Marbles, the Vatican this week signed an agreement that they will be returning their very own Parthenon sculpture fragments to Greece, potentially sending them to Athens as soon as late this month. These are three fragments, approximately 2,500 years old, that have been part of the Vatican Museum Collection for two hundred years. This plan was previous announced in December after Pope Francis met with the head of the Greek Orthodox Church, and many are hopeful that this high-profile return from one of the most important collections of art will set a precedent that cannot be ignored. As I mentioned in previous news episodes, the debates over restitution of artworks has truly ramped up in the past couple of years, and the Parthenon Marbles have been at the center of these debates. I don’t have any insider knowledge, but my best guess is that we’re heading closer and closer to a final decision from the British Museum, which makes me very happy and very excited to know what’s coming next.
Speaking of happy, exciting news, here’s another great announcement that I’m thrilled to share with you: this week, the collective Friends of Notre Dame de Paris, a group who is spearheading the conservation and restoration of the Cathedral of Notre Dame, announced this week that the iconic building is set to reopen to the public next year—2024. They have noted that the building has moved out of the so-called “safety phase,” where workers have been able to make sure that the space is inhabitable again. Over the past 4 years, since the terrible fire in 2019 that destroyed large segments of this incredible building, conservation and construction teams have reinforced the cathedral’s iconic flying buttresses, removed burned scaffolding, fortified the roof, and have covered and protected its famed gargoyles. Now that the building is, in the words of Friends of Notre Dame de Paris president Jean-Louis Georgelin, quote, “saved, solid on its pillars, that its walls are solid, we’ll be able to firmly go ahead with the phase of restoring and rebuilding the parts destroyed by the fire, so that it's ready to reopen for services and public visits in 2024.” Unquote. This is excellent news. It doesn’t mean that construction and restoration will be complete by next year, but it does mean that enough will have occurred that we, as citizens of the world, should be able to enter once again.
What’s that, you say? You want more good news? Well, I’m happy to oblige, my friends. And this one is yet another follow-up to another recent ArtCurious News This Week. Early this week, the Chicago Tribune reported that a faculty group at Valparaiso University, in Indiana, voted to stop a planned sale from the Brauer Museum of Art, the university’s on-campus art institution. AS I mentioned previously, the sale of three artworks by American artists Georgia O’Keeffe, Frederic Church, and Childe Hassam—was part of a deaccessioning plan to raise funds for the updating of some campus buildings. The group of faculty voted that the university stop the sale and look for alternative sources of funding. All of this comes as the university has been struggling with both student retention and financial issues, and look, I get it. Keeping universities going is hard stuff, and selling art can bring in a bunch of money, fast. The estimate for the three works of art currently at the Brauer Museum is around $21 million. But thankfully, this proposed sale has been met with significant pushback, not the least from the Association of Art Museum Directors, who have threatened to sanction the Brauer Museum, meaning that it may suffer from a damaged reputation, which can trickle down to nearly every facet of museum life, from purchasing power of new works of art, to requesting loans for special exhibitions, to retaining staff members. So this story is still ongoing, but at least one more group—and one at least associated with Valparaiso—has stepped forward to condemn the idea. Even if they don’t have the power to stop the sale, they might very well assert enough pressure collectively—with students, funders, and outside supporters—to keep these works of art in their home.
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Welcome back to ArtCurious, and our News this Week. I’ve got a few more updates for you today. First, it’s yet another Egyptological double-whammy! This week, archaeologists announced the discovery of a long-hidden tunnel near the entrance to the Great Pyramid of Giza, estimated to be around 9 meters, or about 30 feet long, which some believe might lead to the burial chamber of King Khufu, the pharaoh celebrated and commemorated by the Great Pyramid, who ruled in the third millennia BCE. The discovery was made by a consortium of university researchers from five different countries—France, Canada, Germany, Japan, and Egypt, working under the name ScanPyramids, who used non-invasive technology-especially radiography—to look inside the Great Pyramid, allowing them to detect hidden chambers. An endoscopic camera—the kind used during medical procedures—was then used to photograph the newly-discovered tunnel, which was described in the journal Nature as a quote “stone slab with a gabled structure called the ‘chevron’…located at the top of the entrance connected to the descending corridor made at the time the pyramid was built”. Egypt’s former antiquities minister, Zahi Hawass, spoke at a press conference, where he proclaimed the tunnel as, quote, “the most important discovery of the century,” unquote, noting that not much has been found of King Khufu’s reign. If his burial chamber and tomb are still within the Great Pyramid, then there might be lots of excitement ahead indeed, one that makes Hawass’s proclamation worthwhile. So watch this space!
And also this week, another group of archaeologists announced the discovery of a little teeny tiny sphinx sculpture, what they’re referring to as a “mini-sphinx,” that dates from the era of the Roman Emperor Claudius, who controlled North Africa in the period around 50 CE. This mini-sphinx is believed to represent Claudius, and features a smile and dimples. I mean, if you weren’t already excited by the term “mini-sphinx,” then perhaps a picture of the sculpture will grab your heart. I’ll post a link, as always, in the notes section for this episode on your podcast app, and you can also check it out and see pictures on my website: artcuriouspodcast.com.
One last update for you. This week, we got another art-related climate protest, this time at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, which has been at the center of the art world for the past month with the premiere of its record-breaking Vermeer exhibition. That this protest group, the youth segment of the organization Extinction Rebellion, chose this busy museum for their event makes perfect sense, since its busy spring schedule would ensure attention. They didn’t use Vermeer as a focal point, but chose instead the Rijksmuseum’s most famous work: Rembrandt’s The Night Watch. Protesters entered the gallery where this large painting is hung and many of them sat or stood in front of it, while two protesters held up a sign with the Extinction Rebellion logo, and a modified image of the famous Dutch painting, showing the night watchmen submerged in water, one that referred to the group’s slogan: “There is no art on a flooded planet”. The good news is that this, and their words and protest t-shirts, seem to have been the extent of their actions, as no food or drink or objects of any sort were thrown at the Rembrandt. To which I say: GOOD! Of course any and all protests at art museums will still continue to have big effects for security and visitorship, but at least we don’t have to worry quite so much about accidental damage to artworks if there aren’t any cans of tomato soup or pieces of birthday cake flying around. All in all, I think you’ll agree that, for the art world, this was a pretty darn good week.
That’s all I have for you today for our weekly roundup—ArtCurious News This Week. Thank you so much for listening to ArtCurious News This Week! I’ll be back with you next week for another round of art news, and on April 3, we’ll be back to you with an all-new season of our show, and a bunch of all-new episodes. Yay! So I’d like to thank you all for your support, your patronage, and for listening today—until next time, stay curious.
