Monday, December 26, 2022

10 of the Most Outrageous Art Stories of 2022

 


December 26, 2022
A Disgruntled Tourist Smashed Two 2,000-Year-Old Statues in the Vatican Because He Was Denied a Meeting With Pope Francis
Crime
A Disgruntled Tourist Smashed Two 2,000-Year-Old Statues in the Vatican Because He Was Denied a Meeting With Pope Francis
By Vittoria Benzine

Around noon in Rome today, an American tourist requested an audience with Pope Francis while visiting the Vatican’s Chiaramonti Museum. When his request was denied, the man, in his 50s, directed his ire at the nearest ancient bust—and sent it crashing to the floor. As the perpetrator tried to flee the scene, another sculpture was smashed in his wake.

“The person who knocked down the statues was stopped by the Vatican police and has been handed over to the Italian authorities,” an official statement from the Vatican read.






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A Senior Citizen Stole a Jacket Artwork on Display at the Musée Picasso and Then Had a Tailor Alter It to Fit Her
Art World
A Senior Citizen Stole a Jacket Artwork on Display at the Musée Picasso and Then Had a Tailor Alter It to Fit Her
By Anna Sansom
How a British Politician Devised an Elaborate Ruse to Seduce Women at Tate Britain
Books
How a British Politician Devised an Elaborate Ruse to Seduce Women at Tate Britain
By Sarah Cascone
Thieves Stole an Ancient Copper Relic Said to Contain the Blood of Jesus. Then It Turned Up on the Doorstep of a Dutch Art Detective
Crime
Thieves Stole an Ancient Copper Relic Said to Contain the Blood of Jesus. Then It Turned Up on the Doorstep of a Dutch Art Detective
By Vittoria Benzine
‘What Is Mark Wahlberg Doing There?’: An Artist Gave Prague’s Iconic Orloj Clock a Disturbing 21st-Century ‘Restoration’
Art World
‘What Is Mark Wahlberg Doing There?’: An Artist Gave Prague’s Iconic Orloj Clock a Disturbing 21st-Century ‘Restoration’
By Caroline Goldstein
In a 17th-Century Polish Grave, Archaeologists Have Discovered the Shackled Bones of a Woman Once Believed to Be a Vampire
Archaeology
In a 17th-Century Polish Grave, Archaeologists Have Discovered the Shackled Bones of a Woman Once Believed to Be a Vampire
By Sarah Cascone
Kim Kardashian’s Met Gala Dress Angered Conservators So Much That the International Council of Museums Had to Make a Statement
Art World
Kim Kardashian’s Met Gala Dress Angered Conservators So Much That the International Council of Museums Had to Make a Statement
By Amah-Rose Abrams
A Man Broke Into the Dallas Museum of Art and Smashed Ancient Greek Artifacts Because He Was ‘Mad at His Girl’
Crime
A Man Broke Into the Dallas Museum of Art and Smashed Ancient Greek Artifacts Because He Was ‘Mad at His Girl’
By Eileen Kinsella
A Mysterious Georgia Rock Art Sculpture—Considered by Some the ‘American Stonehenge’ and by Others the Work of Satan—Has Been Bombed
Politics
A Mysterious Georgia Rock Art Sculpture—Considered by Some the ‘American Stonehenge’ and by Others the Work of Satan—Has Been Bombed
By Sarah Cascone
A Physicist’s Awe-Inspiring Photo of a Distant Red Star Went Viral on Twitter. Then He Revealed It Was a Slice of Chorizo
Science & Tech
A Physicist’s Awe-Inspiring Photo of a Distant Red Star Went Viral on Twitter. Then He Revealed It Was a Slice of Chorizo
By Artnet News
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Upon returning to the museum to revisit the show a few days later, the woman—who had been captured on surveillance camera putting the jacket into her bag—was arrested by the police, who happened to be at the museum looking for evidence.

While in custody, the retiree—who was reportedly “passionate” about art, according to Le Parisien—immediately confessed to stealing the jacket but claimed not to have realized it was an artwork. Police searched her home, where they found it with shortened sleeves.



Artist Oriol Vilanova's jacket artwork in the exhibition. 

Artist Oriol Vilanova’s jacket artwork in the exhibition

The jacket in question.

The jacket in question.
A collection of ancient busts in the Chiaramonti museum on March 28th, 2000. (Photo by Eric VANDEVILLE/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images)

The Museo Chiaramonti in Vatican City. Photo: Lothar M. Peter/ullstein bild via Getty Images.


A British member of parliament (MP) who fancied himself a pickup artist allegedly used the galleries of London’s Tate Britain as the hunting grounds to meet women.

He is said to have prowled the museum in search of attractive tourists, striking up conversations using his knowledge of art history as an opener before revealing his political career and leveraging it for a meeting later in the day.

If all went according to plan, reports the Independent, the unidentified MP would take the women out to dinner and then home to his apartment for an amorous encounter.


A woman looks at Mark Rothko's The Seagram Murals at Tate Britain in London in 2020. Photo by John Phillips/Getty Images.


This is how the book lays out the MP’s seduction game:

Early each Wednesday morning he would take himself off to the Tate Britain art gallery, along the Embankment from the Palace of Westminster, where he would study at length and assiduously the dominating work of art that featured on that day.

Armed with a coffee, he would then sit and wait until an attractive tourist – usually American—hove into view and started gazing approvingly at the picture.

Moving up behind her, he’d point out the beauty of the brushwork and praise the exhibit as one of the artist’s most characteristic pieces.

Thoroughly engaged, the woman would marvel at the MP’s knowledge of art, enquiring whether he was an art critic. “Not at all,” he’d say, “I’m a member of the House of Commons.

Eyes wide, the woman would then find herself invited to the mother of parliaments: “I happen to have a spare ticket for Prime Minister’s Questions today. Might you be free to come and watch?”

And along she would come.

The women would originally expect to meet their new friend afterward, but then he’d be whisked away to an urgent meeting with the party leader, and suggest dinner instead.

“And so matters would take their course,” Mitchell wrote. “Our American would be wined and dined in the splendor of the Commons Churchill Room restaurant, heading off afterwards to the honorable member’s well-appointed Westminster pad, conveniently situated close to the house, for a nightcap.”

The next day, he would head back home, Mitchell said, with “a contented smile.”



A women visits the UK's largest ever retrospective dedicated to Portuguese visual artist Paula Rego at the Tate Britain in London. Photo by Tim P. Whitby/Getty Images.

A woman visits the U.K.’s largest-ever retrospective dedicated to Portuguese visual artist Paula Rego at the Tate Britain in London. Photo by Tim P. Whitby/Getty Images.



On the night of June 1, thieves made off with ancient relics held in Normandy’s Fécamp Abbey—including two vials said to hold the blood of Jesus Christ, collected in the Holy Grail during his crucifixion.

Historically, people prayed to these objects for their children to return home from the Crusades, and for their loved ones to recover from the plague. Whether the thieves knew it or not, they’d scooped an artifact that Catholics have made pilgrimages to see for the past 1,000 years.

Brand holds a recovered relic before an image of Picasso's painting of Dora Maar, which Brand also rescued in 2019. All photos courtesy of Arthur Brand.

Shortly after the theft, the 52-year-old art detective received an email from an anonymous writer claiming they had the precious loot in their possession.

Brand, who is well known in art recovery circles, has been dubbed the “Indiana Jones of the art world.” For his most recent case, in February, he helped return a Roman statue to France 50 years after it was stolen.

Bodily fluids aren’t usually in Brand’s purview, but the objects in question also included liturgical dishes and an ornate container about eleven inches high, “a heavily gilded copper box with encrusted precious stones and depictions of Christ on the cross and other saints,” according to the AFP. And, as a Catholic himself, Brand knew he had to take this one on.

A selection of liturgical dishes also recovered.

Prague astronomical clock is seen in Prague, Czech Republic. (Photo by Lukas Kabon/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

In his 18-page complaint, Milan Patka argues that the artist hired to restore the work, Stanislav Jirčík, has diverged so far from the original as to replace some of faces with likenesses of his own friends, and in other cases changed the ages, genders, and clothing of the figures. In one case, a scene depicting a man with auburn hair in a green coat transformed into a man with jet black locks and a new bushy mustache; a dog in the scene that was once a black mutt, is now a brown-and-white shepherd.

More examples of the original painting and the new version. Courtesy of Prague City Hall.

More examples of the original painting and the new version. Courtesy of Prague City Hall.

Excavations of the

Excavations of the "vampire" skeleton at at Polish cemetery. Photo by Beata Zielińska-Gołembiewska.


Citizens of a 17th-century Polish town weren’t taking any chances when they laid to rest a woman they believed to be a vampire: She was buried with a sickle blade laid across her neck, intended to decapitate her should she attempt to rise from the grave.

Archaeologists from Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, Poland, discovered the grave during excavations of a cemetery in the southern village of Pien. The unusual burial reflects superstitions surrounding vampires, thought to be undead monsters who subsisted on drinking the blood of humans.

Archaeologists in Poland discovered a "vampire" skeleton with a sickle over the throat. Photo by Mirosław Blicharski/Aleksander Poznań.

Archaeologists in Poland discovered a “vampire” skeleton with a sickle over the throat. Photo by Mirosław Blicharski/Aleksander Poznań.


“She was neither ritually murdered nor was she one of the convicted in a witchcraft trial,” Poliński told Newsweek. “Those individuals were treated in a different way and, usually, they were thrown into provisional graves,” such as gallows.

It’s possible, he speculated, that the deceased had experienced some hardship or misfortune that led the town to fear that she would return from the dead to seek revenge.


Kim Kardashian attends The 2022 Met Gala. (Photo by Gotham/Getty Images)

Kim Kardashian attends The 2022 Met Gala. Photo by Gotham/Getty Images.

“When I was the head of the Costume Institute’s conservation lab, I had to swat off requests by people (including Anna Wintour) to have irreplaceable objects in the collection be worn by models and celebrities,” Scarturro said.

Now, ICOM has stepped in.

“Historic garments should not be worn by anybody, public or private figures,” the organization said in a statement following the uproar. “Prevention is better than cure. Wrong treatment will destroy an object forever.”




Marilyn Monroe and writer Jose Bolanos sit at a dining table during the Golden Globes. Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Marilyn Monroe and writer Jose Bolanos sit at a dining table during the Golden Globes. Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images.

Actress Marilyn Monroe sings "Happy Birthday" to President John F. Kennedy at Madison Square Garden, for his upcoming 45th birthday, on May 20, 1962. Photo from Bettman via Getty Images.

Actress Marilyn Monroe sings for President John F. Kennedy at Madison Square Garden on his 45th birthday, on May 20, 1962. Photo: Bettman via Getty Images.

Image Thomas Hawk via Flickr.

Image Thomas Hawk via Flickr.

The Dallas Museum of Art is assessing the damage to several ancient objects after a man reportedly broke into the museum on Wednesday night and smashed them.

The suspect has been identified as 21-year-old Brian Hernandez, who broke in around 10 p.m. because, he told authorities, he was “mad at his girl.”

A representative for the Dallas police department confirmed to Artnet News via email that officers “responded to a burglary in progress” at the museum and that the suspect “damaged several ancient artifacts.” Hernandez left the museum and was later located and taken into custody.


The Georgia Guidestones before the bombing. Photo courtesy of the Elbert County Chamber of Commerce.
The Georgia Guidestones before the bombing. Photo courtesy of the Elbert County Chamber of Commerce.

The Georgia Guidestones, a mysterious public artwork sometimes called the “American Stonehenge,” are no more. In the early hours on Wednesday, unknown individuals detonated a bomb that severely damaged the sculpture that stood in Elberton, Georgia for more than 40 years.

In the wake of the attack, and citing safety concerns, the government demolished what remained of the work, which had inspired many conspiracy theories. Kandiss Taylor, a Republican candidate for governor in Georgia, had recently promised to destroy them due to fears they were the work of a satanic New World Order.

The <em>Georgia Guidestones</em> following the bombing. Photo courtesy of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.

The Georgia Guidestones following the bombing. Photo courtesy of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.

A chorizo sausage that is not a star. Courtesy of Etienne Klein via Twitter.

“This level of detail… A new world is revealed day after day,” the scientist, Etienne Klein, wrote in the July 31 post.  

But the scientist’s image, it turns out, was just a photograph of a slice of chorizo sausage on a black background—a fact he only disclosed after the post scored thousands of views, likes, and retweets. 


artnetDecember 26, 2022