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Pope Francis will send back to Greece the three fragments of the Parthenon Sculptures that the Vatican Museums have held for two centuries, in the latest case of a Western museum bowing to demands for restitution of artifacts to their countries of origin. — AP
The bequest was labeled a “donation” from the Vatican by Pope Francis, who also called it “a concrete sign of [his] sincere desire to follow in the ecumenical path of truth.” The British Museum, meanwhile, is also reportedly in talks with Greece to return parts of its argued-over... View full entry
The January 2021 issue of Architectural Digest featured a remodeled $42 million San Francisco residence described as a Spanish Renaissance Revival palacio. [...] ...shows ancient Khmer sculptures resting on the same pedestals.
The Cambodian government says those stone relics, depicting the heads of gods and demons, match a set that was looted years ago from one of the nation’s sacred sites.
— The Washington Post
The tony $42 million Peter Marino-designed San Francisco manse was the subject of a multi-page spread in the January 2021 edition of the magazine. A spokesperson for Architectural Digest said that photoshopping was required by “unresolved publication rights around select artworks,” but an... View full entry
A historic new museum is set to take shape in West Africa, the vision of the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation and designer Mariam Kamara of Niger’s atelier masōmī. Bët-bi is said to be the first institution dedicated to the (temporary) collection and display of repatriated objects taken from... View full entry
The fate of the British Museum’s heavily contested Parthenon Marbles (also referred to as the Elgin Marbles) has once again come under clout after the UK decided to reject UNESCO’s request to reassess its position on repatriating the 2,500-year-old relics to their country of origin. The... View full entry
Architect David Adjaye has been selected to design a new museum in Nigeria that may one day hold cultural and artistic works that were previously looted from the region by colonial powers. Adjaye Associates, who helped design the National Museum of African American History and Culture in... View full entry
Located on the former site of a Unilever palm oil plantation in the Congolese forest, the Lusanga International Research Centre on Art and Economic Inequality, or LIRCAEI, is a new white cube museum space dedicated to “the transformation of former plantation spaces into areas for artistic... View full entry
Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump may have a lot of differences in temperament and policy, but common to both campaigns are promises to invest heavily in the country’s crumbling infrastructure. It’ll be a hard task to get the bill through a Republican-controlled, miserly House — particularly... View full entry
