ViaA lot went down this 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: + This week was marked by one "Oh, Shit!" moment after the next. First, the National Poo Museum, an exhibition of feces from animals and humans alike, opened to the public. [BBC]+ Then, this week’s explosive release of the Panama Papers shed harsh light on many questionable offshore art market affairs. To name a few: the truth behind the record-breaking Picasso sale in 1997, the high-grossing dealings of the Panama-based International Art Center company, the activities of prominent Russian collector Dmitry Rybolovlev, and a slew of other suspicious transactions from the recent years’ booming art economy. [VICE News]
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+ Finally, Whoopi Goldberg announced a line of cannabis products designed for women. [Eater]
+ In other news, Mark Rylance, Emma Thompson, and Vivienne Westwood are just a few among the many artists, academics, and public officials calling for the British Museum’s new director to veto a renewed contract with BP, the oil giant that has supported the museum for the past ten years. [The Telegraph]+ Meet the first ever artist-run super PAC, For Freedoms.+ Prints of Andy Warhol’s Cambell’s Soup series were stolen from the Springfield Art Museum in Missouri. [The News Tribune]+ Marina Abramovic hopes to reenact seven tragic death scenes of heroines portrayed by Maria Callas as a tribute to the late opera diva. The project, Seven Deaths, is projected to take part through a series of seven ten-minute videos. The process itself will be the subject of a documentary called Living Seven Deaths.[The Art Newspaper]+ Artist James R. Miller filed a multimillion-dollar copyright lawsuit against the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation on Tuesday, claiming that four of Mapplethorpe’s self-portraits were taken, in fact, by him. [Hyperallergic]
+ Trump donated $100,000 to the 9/11 Memorial after his visit to the site this Saturday. [NBC News]+ The Leopold Museum in Vienna will return two artworks looted by Nazis to the artist's 95-year-old descendent. [Smithsonian Magazine]+ Ai Weiwei’s exhibition at The Museum of Cycladic Art in Athens this May will debut several works made in response to the refugee crisis—a subject that has consumed the artist for the past several months. 10% of profits will also go to specific NGOs working with refugees throughout the country. [The Art Newspaper]
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+ Sweden is suing Wikimedia Sweden for their public artworks database and interactive map, Offentlig Konst, under the country’s copyright laws. [BBC]
Via+ The last six members of the 14-man art heist gang responsible for $80.5 million in stolen jade, rhino horn, and more from museums across England in 2011 and 2012 were jailed this week. [BBC]+ A $44,500 Confederate jacket bought by an Alabama resident is now thought to be the stolen property of the New Orleans Confederate Memorial Hall Museum. [Nola]+ Twisted tales from the “Voyeurs Motel.” [The New Yorker]+ Paul Slocum is the reigning champion of the Internet artist clubs known as surf clubs. [Art News]
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