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The Headlines
HISTORY RESTORED. Following an outcry, the National Park Services restored a website about the history of the Underground Railroad, including a photo of abolitionist Harriet Tubman, to what appears to be its original form, reports The Washington Post. Earlier this week, the same publication revealed that the NPS had edited dozens of webpages it operates, following President Trump’s inauguration, seemingly to remove or soften references to slavery, racial division, the civil rights struggle, and more. However, public backlash was strong against the erasure of a prominent photo of Tubman and texts about slavery. “Trump is trying to rewrite the history of the Underground Railroad,” Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Maryland) said in a social media post Monday. “We cannot let him whitewash it as part of his larger effort to erase our history.”
Related Articles
GLOBAL ART SALES CONTRACTED by 12 percent to $57.5 billion in 2024 according to the annual Art Basel and UBS Global Art Market Report, writes Daniel Cassady for ARTnews. While closing an art sale was relatively easy over two years ago, “in today’s cooling market, the decision process is longer and more fraught, with plenty of time to bail out or head for the safer waters of more established post-war artists,” Cassady reports. This is the second consecutive year of decline after a post-pandemic optimism propelled the market to $68.1 billion in 2022.
The Digest
The city of Dublin is going to station guards around a popular bronze statue of Molley Malone, a legendary local who sold shellfish, following complaints of people constantly groping her breasts, which have been damaged and discolored as a result. The city council also announced plans to “re-patinate” the statue created by Jeanne Rynhart, first erected in 1988. [BBC]
Spain-based artist Acaymo S. Cuesta has refused the Excellens sculpture prize from the Royal Canarian Academy of Fine Arts San Miguel Arcángel, because the organization has defended the protection of a controversial 1966 monument to former dictator Francisco Franco. Cuesta sent a letter refusing the prize, because the organization’s position on the Franco monument by Juan de Avalos is “contrary to democratic principles.” [El Salto and Le Journal des Arts]
A trove of Abraham Lincoln memorabilia owned by the financially strapped Lincoln Presidential Foundation is headed to auction in Chicago, estimated to be worth about $4 million. Artifacts date from Lincoln’s childhood, through to the end of his life, including the blood-stained gloves he had in his breast pocket when he was assassinated in 1865. [Puck]
Italian authorities have accused several ticketing companies of scamming tourists attempting to purchase tickets to the Colosseum in Rome and have slapped them with a 20 million euro fine. The ticket providers allegedly made it appear as though lower, normally priced tickets were sold out, when this was not the case, forcing the public to purchase more expensive tickets that included various perks. [AFP and Le Figaro]
American philosopher Donna Haraway and the late Italian designer Italo Rota were awarded the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement and the Special Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement in Memoriam of the 19thVenice Biennale of Architecture. [ArtReview]
The Kicker
NO SMOKING. There is much ado about David Hockney’s largest retrospective opening tomorrow at the Fondation Louis Vuitton, but the chatter isn’t limited to what is hanging on the Frank Gehry-designed walls. It includes what dangles from the artist’s lips and hands. Hockney famously refuses to give up smoking, even at age 87, but it was nevertheless a surprise to learn the Paris metro pulled an advertisement for his show because it showed the artist holding a cigarette, reported Independent. The poster also showed Hockney’s self-portrait, in which he is seen smoking, something the Paris authorities said would have been fine on its own. Wearing his “End bossiness soon” pin at the opening this week, Hockney nevertheless seems to have had the last laugh. Apollo Magazine reminds us that in 2020 he told reporters he’s had three doctors in the past 40 years, and “they all told me to give up smoking and now they’re all dead.”