Phil Collins’s large collection of artifacts from the Battle of Alamo is now under heightened scrutiny as several of Collins’s objects lack the provenance to prove they are authentic artifacts from the Battle of Alamo. Despite this controversy, Alamo senior curator Ernesto Rodriguez assures that Collins’s collection is valid.
Internationally recognized artist Hito Steyerl will not receive the Hugo Ball Prize this year as the artists, and nominating committee discuss the possibility of renaming the prize due to Hugo Ball’s antisemitism. Ball was a seminal figure in the German Dada scene, but he also penned a treatise blaming Jewish people for Germany’s cultural decline in 1919. Germany’s art world is still enveloped in the anti-semitism controversy at Documenta 15 in Kassell, which Steyerl pulled her artwork from.
A Digital artist was banned from the subreddit r/Art because moderators thought his artwork was produced by Artificial intelligence. Though the artist has garnered support from other reddit users, the moderators continued to insist the work was generated by AI. The action comes on the heels of weeks of AI art controversy on the internet, and an AI-generated artwork winning first place at the Colorado state fair.
Amid Crypto Winter, even Major NFT Platforms, such as SuperRare, are downsizing. In 2021, SuperRare made between 10-30 million per month in sales, while recent numbers dropped to the hundreds of thousands. Though some downsizing is to be expected, the NFT community worries the market will not rebalance after a sharp 6-month-long drop.
The Japanese insurer Sompo Holdings is being sued for possessing a Sunflowers painting by Vincent Van Gogh. The descendants of the painting’s former owner are seeking the painting’s return, or its financial equivalent and $750 million dollars in damage. The plaintiffs believe their ancestor was forced to sell the painting under duress during the Nazi occupation of Europe in the 1930s.
Following the reports of Russian troops looting cultural institutions in Kherson, archeologists are speaking out against the destruction of Ukraine’s archeological heritage caused by Russia’s attacks. According to a researcher at the National University of Kyiv, targeting Ukranians’ heritage erases public memory of their history as a people separate from Russians.
The Louvre in France is considering limiting the number of entries per day to 30, 000. Prior to the pandemic, the 60,000 square meters institution welcomed 45, 000 visitors per day, many of whom waited hours outside the museum for their tickets.
United States officials gave back a 2700-year-old cosmetic ivory spoon to the Palestinian Authority in Bethlehem. This is the first time the United States has ever repatriated an object to the Palestinian government. The object was seized in 2021 during a raid of venture capitalist Michael Steinhardt’s collection. The collector is serving a lifelong ban from acquiring antiquities.
Finally, an adjunct Art History professor at Hamline University in Minnesota was dismissed after showing her “global art histories” class a 14th-century painting depicting the Prophet Muhammad. The painting is one of the earliest illustrations of Islamic history in the world. The incident has sparked a fraught debate between advocates for academic freedom and Muslims in Hamline’s community who believe showing an image of the Prophet Muhammed is always sacrilegious.