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Good Morning
- A fire broke out near the roof of the forthcoming Kanal–Centre Pompidou museum in Brussels on Monday evening.
- The American Museum of Natural History is repatriating Indigenous hair clippings that should have been returned under a 1990 federal law.
- Twenty-seven pieces of jewelry were stolen from France’s Musée Lalique on July 5, the museum has revealed.
The Headlines
WE DIDN’T START THE FIRE. A fire broke out near the roof of the forthcoming Kanal–Centre Pompidou museum in Brussels on Monday, around 6 p.m., and was entirely extinguished by 9 p.m., with no injuries, according to Le Soir. The cause of the fire, which took place in the air-conditioning system of a building dedicated to architecture, is still under investigation, as is the full extent of the damage. According to local news outlets, the incident will impact the planned November 28 opening of the Kanal Architecture building, but not of the entire museum. The latter is one of several renovated and new structures within the museum campus, which spans 40,000 square meters. “It’s a huge blow at this final stretch before the opening, because everything was on schedule, exactly as planned by all the teams,” said Yves Goldstein, general director of the museum. “Luckily, the damage is limited to one part of the building. Most importantly, Kanal’s opening, scheduled for November 28, is not in jeopardy.” The incident is the latest setback for Kanal, as it is often called, which has been plagued by serious government funding cuts and criticism that the project — billed as the largest new museum to open in Europe and built in a former Citroën garage — will not have the financial means to operate its ambitious program as planned.
HANGING BY A HAIR. The American Museum of Natural History is repatriating Indigenous hair clippings that should have been returned under a 1990 federal law, the New York Times reports. For decades, some museums interpreted the law as applying to human bones but not necessarily hair, despite protests from Native groups. A 2024 update to the law clarified the matter: all human remains must be repatriated, unless freely given or naturally shed. The museum is now revising its inventory and plans to return more than 2,700 hair samples originally collected for the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. But the revelation of the hair samples has been a “setback” to cooperation with Indigenous groups, said Shannon O’Loughlin, a lawyer for the Association on American Indian Affairs. “The fact that there has been no transparency, even after 30 years of knowing the hair samples were part of the collection, is going to raise trust issues,” O’Loughlin added.
The Digest
Following an order form Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbot, the state has covered up a “Black Artists Matter” street mural in Austin. [Hyperallergic]
The German government is boosting financial support for Yad Vashem, Israel’s largest Holocaust memorial, from one million euros to five million euros annually. [dpa]
Post-Fair, founded last year in Santa Monica by Chris Sharp, is debuting in Paris October 19-24, during Art Basel Paris, with 34 participating galleries. [Artnet News]
A British man was sentenced to two years in prison for trying to sell statuettes he claimed were Cycladic antiquities with fake provenance documents through Sotheby’s, which was the first to alert police. [The Art Newspaper]
The Kicker
‘THIS IS NOT A JERSEY.’ Not all news coming out of Belgium is bad today. As Hyperallergic reports, the country’s national soccer team, the Red Devils, which advanced to the World Cup quarterfinals after beating the U.S., has a jersey design inspired by none other than the Surrealist painter René Magritte. Most will recognize the artist’s famous painting La Trahison des images (The Treachery of Images, 1929), which depicts a tobacco pipe — or so it would seem. Beneath it, an inscription reads, “Ceci n’est pas une pipe” (“This is not a pipe”). Enter the Belgian soccer team’s jersey, designed by Adidas, with an inscription on the inside — where the label would go — that reads: “Ceci n’est pas un maillot” (“This is not a jersey.”) Hats off — or, chapeaux — to the designers. The jersey’s circular motif was also directly inspired by Magritte’s La Voix des airs (Voice of Space, 1931), which depicts metallic spheres floating in a clear blue sky over a grassy landscape.
