A lot went down last week in the weird and wild world of Art. Some things were more scandalous than others, some were just plain wacky—but all of them are worth knowing about. Without further ado: + Art historian Ivy Cooper and the artist Ilene Berman launched a petition calling for the St. Louis Art Museum to recall their loan of George Caleb Bingham’s painting “The Verdict of the People” (1854-1855) to Donald Trump’s inaugural luncheon. [Change.org]
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+ Cindy Sherman, Richard Serra, Louise Lawler, Joan Jonas and Julie Mehretu are among the more than 130 artists and critics in support of the J20 art strike calling on cultural institutions to close on Friday, Jan. 20, the day of President-elect Donald J. Trump’s inauguration. [The Huffington Post]+ A 250' long wind turbine blade from multimedia artist Nayan Kulkarni is being erected at Queen Victoria Square in Birmingham. [The Independent]+ French authorities have a put an export ban on a rare double sided drawing by Leonardo da Vinci, valued at roughly $18 million, claiming the work as a “natural treasure.” [The Art Newspaper]+ Artspace, a five-year-old startup that helps facilitate gallery sales online, laid off nearly all of its employees this week. [Art News]
+ Hanksy’s ‘Dump Trump’ mural has been taken down from a wall in the Lower East Side. [Gothamist]+ In the wake of a flood, a fire, and recent acts of terror, the Louvre’s number of annual visitors fell by 15% in 2016. [Le Figaro]+ A fall in revenue from tourism has begun to impact Egypt’s effort to restore and maintain cultural heritage sites. [Art Daily]+ Duchess of Cambridge, Kate Middleton, has been honored by the Royal Photographic Society for her family portraits and tour photos. [BBC]+ George Lucas is searching for a location to place his $1.5 billon art museum. [Bloomberg]
+ J.K. Rowling tweeted a picture of Dutch painter Harmen Steenwyck‘s Still Life: An Allegory of the Vanities of Human Life as a clue to upcoming work. [Twitter]
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+ Leonardo DiCaprio spent $125,000 on a custom artwork by Ed Ruscha at a charity auction gala for Sean Penn's J/P HRO Haitian Relief Organization. [CBS 8]+ Three Iranian cultural workers were shot in a Kurdistan Province of Iran while inspecting a site of suspected looting. [Azad News Agency]
+ Dippy the Dinosaur, a 21.3 meters long skeleton of a Diplodocus, is leaving London’s Natural History Museum after 112 Years. [Art Daily]+ Damien Hirst was forced out of his plans to build a massive housing development near his childhood home after he had a disagreement with developers. [Daily Mail]+ Mayor of Berlin, Michael Müller, says the truck that was driven through the Christmas market outside the Kaiser-Wilhelm Memorial Church should not be put in a museum. [Tagesspiegel]+ A bomb scare forced visitors at the the Victoria and Albert Museum to evacuate last Tuesday. [The Mirror]
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