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The Headlines
FRENCH MUSEUM BLOCKADE. As ‘Block Everything’ national protests are held throughout France, and new Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu is appointed, several cultural sites have reportedly been blocked or closed. The Louvre was partially open this afternoon, while the Musée d’Orsay, the Musée Delacroix and the Arc de Triomphe were among the arts locations closed today due to the strikes. Others, like France’s national library and museum, the BnF, located in the 2nd arrondissement, saw their entrances blocked by about 100 protesters, according to the French union CGT-Culture. Three unions representing French cultural workers, CGT, FSU, and SUD, said in a statement that they were protesting in a bid for “social and fiscal justice, an increase in salaries, pensions, and minimum social benefits … and a real cultural public policy that will do away with inequality, social and cultural divisions,” among others. Le Monde reported 145 arrests were made by noon today.
PARTHENON POLL. A recent poll shows that British support is growing for the return of the Parthenon Marbles, also known as the Elgin Marbles, from the British Museum to Greece, reports The Times. Plus, according to a poll commissioned by JL Partners for the Parthenon Project, almost one in three individuals said they want all looted and controversial artworks kept in the UK to be restituted. This organization campaigns for returning the marbles. Fifty-six percent of those polled, versus 53 percent in a similar survey held last year, said they would opt for returning the marbles to Athens when the British museum launches its forthcoming renovation. Only 22 percent said they would vote to keep the marbles in the British Museum. “Support for the return of the Parthenon sculptures isn’t confined to one part of society—it cuts across age, region, and political affiliation,” said Lord Vaizey of Didcot, a Conservative peer and co-chair of the Parthenon Project.
The Digest
Investigators from the Manhattan district attorney’s office claim that collector Aaron Mendelsohn was aware that a nude Roman sculpture of an emperor that he purchased for $1.3 million was looted from Bubon in Turkey. Mendelsohn has refuted that charge in a rare case of the New York bureau pursuing a collector for criminal possession of an artifact. [The New York Times]
The New Museum in New York is teaming up with Italian art collector Patrizia Sandretto Re Rebaudengo on its “New Futures” project, which aims to showcase new works by a selection of international artists. [The Art Newspaper]
A five-year-old girl damaged a gold sculpture by Carlo Pecorelli of a spider after she climbed on it in the Italian GalleriaOrler. One of the spider’s legs broke off the artwork, worth an estimated 30,000 euros ($35,000), as it buckled under the child’s weight. [Corriere della Sera]
More discoveries are surfacing about musical icon DavidBowie, thanks to the opening of his archives at the V&A Storehouse in London. One reporter has discovered the artist’s personal playlist, and notes on what is ‘in and ‘out.’ In typical Bowie style, he put himself in both categories. [The Times]
The Kicker
SURVEYING LEE BUL. Korean artist Lee Bul has a mid-career survey at Seoul’s Leeum Museum of Art that heads to Hong Kong in 2026, reports The Korea Times and South China Morning Post. The new show of over 150 multi-media works titled “Lee Bul: From 1998 to Now,” doesn’t include the artist’s more sensational beginnings, that included pieces like Majestic Splendor, first shown in 1997. That artwork comprised rows of dead fish and sequins sealed in plastic bags, and due to the stench, had to be taken down early from New York’s Museum of Modern Art. By focusing on the last three decades, curator Kwak June-young “wondered whether we have truly grasped the scope of her practice.” Likely not. “As we grow, our concerns widen—from the self to those around us, and at last to the time and world we inhabit,” Lee has said. “My work has unfolded in much the same way.”
