To receive Morning Links in your inbox every weekday, sign up for our Breakfast with ARTnews newsletter.
The Headlines
SUSPECTS NABBED AFTER DUTCH MUSEUM HEIST. Three suspects have been arrested after the theft of ancient gold Romanian artifacts form a Dutch museum, reports Karen K. Ho for ARTnews. The Drents Museum in Assen in the Netherlands announced the arrests Wednesday afternoon, after Dutch police released images of one of the suspects. On January 24th, thieves blew the doors off the museum hosting the exhibition “Dacia-Empire of Gold and Silver,” featuring some of Romania’s most precious cultural artifacts, including a gold Cotofenesti helmet from 450 BCE valued at €4.3 million. The theft also prompted Romanian Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu to reportedly state that, “like all Romanians, I am outraged that objects from the Romanian Treasures collection were stolen from a Dutch museum that had no guards… I strongly believe we cannot accept this.”
AI WEIWEI RESPONDS TO DEEPSEEK CENSORSHIP. Ai Weiwei has spoken out in response to findings that the Chinese-owned Ai chatbot DeepSeek is biased in favor of the ruling Chinese Communist Party after it evaded questions about the dissident artist and other historically sensitive topics implicating the Chinese government. In a statement to Hyperallergic, Ai Weiwei said, “Ultimately, no matter how much China develops, strengthens, or even hypothetically becomes the world’s leading power, which is likely, the values it upholds will continue to suffer from a profound and inescapable flaw in its ideological immune system: an inability to tolerate dissent, debate, or the emergence of new value systems.” The Chinese-run AI assistant has shocked Silicon Valley giants with its surprisingly more efficient and less costly application, sending US stocks into a state of panic earlier this week. It has also already dethroned ChatGPT as the number-one free app on Apple’s App Store. Yet, in response to a series of questions asked by Hyperallergic about topics such as dissident artists, including Ai Weiwei, cultural institutions in Taiwan and Tibet, and the destruction of mosques in the Xinjiang region, the Chinese app expressed trust in the country’s “judicial organs,” and said creative projects were “thriving under the leadership of the Party and government.”
The Digest
A painting purchased at a Minnesota garage sale for less than $50 may be a lost work by Vincent van Gogh, according to a team experts gathered by the New York-based art-research firm LMI Group International. The painting titled Elimar (1889) depicts a fisherman with a pipe in his mouth. It’s believed it was created while the artist was at the Saint-Paul psychiatric sanitarium in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, France. [ARTnews]
A controversial statue of the Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro González was re-installed in Lima’s city center after it was taken down in 2003 following widespread criticism. Known as a conqueror of the Inca Empire, Pizarro is credited with founding the Peruvian capital city in 1536. Installed in 1935, the statue by Charles Rumsey was recently returned to its original pedestal and unveiled in commemoration of Lima’s 490th anniversary in the presence of the city’s far-right leaning mayor, Rafael López Aliaga. The event sparked a protest from opponents who called it an “offense to all Indigenous people of Peru.” [Le Journal des Arts]
The 153-year-old California Historical Society (CHS), which contains artifacts and archives dating back to the 18th century, announced it is dissolving and transferring its collection to Stanford University. The nonprofit has been struggling financially, largely due to the pandemic, and receives no operating funds from the state. [KQED]
United States Artists has announced its 2025 USA Fellows, a cohort of 50 artists and collectives from varied disciplines, who will each receive $50,000. The unrestricted award comes with professional services and goes to four native Hawaiian and 12 Indigenous artists and collective groups. Recipients of this year’s Traditional Arts and Visual Art category include Cesar Viveros, Dalani Tanahy, Theresa Secord, Caroline Kent, Gala Porras-Kim, Kahlil Robert Irving, Karyn Olivier, Sadie Barnette, and Sherrill Roland. [Press release and United States Artists]
The Kicker
ISRAELI MUSEUM SPOTLIGHTS PALESTINIAN ARTIST. The Palestinian photographer Karimeh Abbud (1893-1940) is being celebrated with her largest institutional exhibition to date at Tel Aviv’s Eretz Israel Museum, reports The Art Newspaper. The current show, titled “Karimeh Abbud: Sacred Souvenirs,” was planned before the current war in the region, and includes photographs of landscapes and daily Palestinian life, as well as highlighting the artist’s position as one of the earliest female Palestinian photographers. “Without these photographs taken by Karimeh Abbud, we wouldn’t have these views of villages,” said Mustafa Kabha, a scholar at the Open University of Israel, speaking in an exhibition film. “We see less of an artificial picture and more of a true image that expresses the identity of this place.” Some scholars disagree over the photographer’s practice and areas of focus. Still, a member of Abbud’s family, D’aibes Abbud, spoke at the exhibition opening in December, expressing gratitude that “in days such as these, when hatred is rampant and the air is saturated with hatred, someone sees fit to take on the subject of a female Palestinian photographer.”
