The 16-page letter, dated to July 23, accuses Black, former Museum of Modern Art chairman, of  withholding information regarding his dealings with Epstein. 

“As you are aware, the Committee is investigating the $158 million in payments you made to Epstein for services related to a variety of tax and estate planning matters. In particular, the Committee seeks information on Epstein’s participation in structuring trusts and other complex transactions designed to avoid federal gift and estate taxes on as much as $2 billion in wealth transferred to your children,” the letter reads. The committee also requested more information involving Epstein’s “extraordinary compensation scheme, which involved amounts that far exceeded those paid to other professional advisors” employed by Black.

A spokesperson for Black told Artnet News in an emailed statement: “Mr. Black has cooperated extensively with the Committee, providing detailed information about the matters under review. The transactions referenced in the Committee’s letter were lawful in all respects, were conceived of, vetted and implemented by reputable law firms and tax and other advisors, and Mr. Black has fully paid all taxes owed to the government.”

At the center of the investigation is Black’s art holdings, the management of which, Wyden writes, received “substantial advice” from Epstein. Toward the end of the letter, Wyden notes that in a briefing to the committee on August 1, 2022, Black’s outside counsel “indicated that Epstein provided substantial advice related to your private art collection, which is worth over $1 billion.”

“This advice reportedly included helping you form a new art partnership as well as assistance in connection with the sale of certain pieces of artwork,” reads the letter. Wyden also requests more information on the “purpose” of the new art partnership, as well as “any art loans that involved Epstein, including Epstein’s role related to those loans.”

Finally, he asked for a list of “any like-kind exchange transactions” involving artworks valued at over $1 million. A “like-kind” exchange—or a “1031,” a term named after a tax provision in the Internal Revenue Code—allows investors to defer capital gain taxes by using the proceeds from the sale of like-valued assets held for investment purposes.

The provision was popular with art flippers looking to dodge the high capital gains rate (28 percent) that blue-chip artworks occur. Congress killed 1031 exchanges as they apply to art in 2018. Wyden asked for a detailed breakdown of each like-kind exchange transaction between Black and Epstein. 

Wyden’s letter was sent shortly after the embattled collector finalized a deal with the US Virgin Islands— where Epstein conducted most of his sordid business—to avoid a potential lawsuit over his dealings with Epstein. The New York Times reported that Black agreed to pay $62.5 million to the US Virgin Islands in January 2023 to settle claims that may arise during the territory’s investigation into Epstein’s sex trafficking operation. Black’s settlement came after the Virgin Islands struck a $105 million deal in November 2022 with Epstein’s estate.

A team of Australian scientists used radiocarbon dating to conduct what they have hailed as the first chronometric age study of Malaysian rock art. Their findings were first reported on Wednesday in the peer-reviewed science and medical journal PLOS One.

The study helps illuminate “the social contexts of the Gua Sireh art production, as well as the opportunities and challenges of dating rock art associated with the Malay/Austronesian diasporas in Southeast Asia more generally,” the team wrote.

The cave system is home to large charcoal drawings of human figures made by the Indigenous Bidayuh people of the Sarawak region, now known as Borneo. They paint a dramatic scene: the towering figures brandish knives or spears, and wear elaborate headdresses. The Bidayuh did not maintain a written record of their history, making the cave art a precious—if worn—guide to their varied (and tense) geopolitical position.

More than 300 images decorate the walls, however the team focused on two anthropomorphic figures: one, identified as GS3, has a round torso and wears what looks like a jagged cloak or long, plumed headpiece. The other figure, called GS4, has a triangular body and is sparsely adorned, save for the sheathed knife in their right hand. Smaller figures surround the pair, suggesting they may symbolize “big and/or powerful warriors”, according to the study.

The radiocarbon dating estimates GS3 was created between 1670-1710 while GS4 dates to 1800-1830.

“When the older anthropomorph was drawn, the Bidayuh were dominated by Malay elites, whereas the second large anthropomorph would have been made during a period of increasing conflict between Bidayuh and both Iban and Brunei Malay rulers,” the scientists wrote. “During this period many Indigenous Sarawakians moved into the upland interior, including the Gua Sireh area, to escape persecution.”

The study further posits that despite their approximately 160-year age gap, both artworks were likely produced during periods of conflict, given the prominence of weaponry and other battle adornments.

“The radiocarbon age determinations reported here sit neatly alongside other recently published numeric ages for the distinctive black drawings associated with the migration of Austronesian people across Southeast Asia,” the researchers said.

The Bidayuh people occupied present-day Borneo for some 2,000 years and, per historical records, flourished in relative autonomy until a 200-year period when the region was governed by Malay’s Brunei Sultanate. Per historical records, the Indigenous people suffered exploitation and violence under the long rule. During that period, Bidayuh tribes also clashed the Iban, another Indigenous group, over territory.

Researchers also pulled artifacts from the cave, which were used to corroborate their radiocarbon dating, as well as further illuminate histories of the Bidayuh and neighboring people. A group of artifacts from the Gua Sireh excavations are on display at the Sarawak State Museum in Kuching in Borneo.

The museum swiftly shuttered its doors and canceled its programming as police attempted to make contact with the individual. According to a statement from the National Gallery posted to its social media channels this morning, authorities “resolved” the situation. The museum expects to welcome the public back later today.

Footage posted to social media shows the man, described by police as “distressed,” sitting on edge of the museum’s gable above the Sainsbury Wing. He reportedly climbed up last night and spent the night on the roof. After being alerted to his presence, police cordoned off Trafalgar Square and the immediate area. London’s Hazardous Area Response Team was also called to the site. 

A spokesperson for the National Gallery confirmed to the Art Newspaper that police arrived to the scene at 2:35 p.m. yesterday and the galleries were evacuated roughly an hour later. 

The museum posted on its social media channels around 8 a.m. EST that it would be reopening shortly, and that Summer on the Square, a performance event set to take place in  in Trafalgar Square, was back on.

“On behalf of the US Customs and Border Protection, I am honored to return these priceless national treasures to the government and citizens of Mexico,” Michael Neipert, Memphis area port director, said in a statement. 

According to a news release from custom officials, the objects were sent from Mexico in nine shipments between 2016 and 2021, with destinations in California, South Carolina, and Florida. Among the precious cargo was Olmec sculptures, body adornments, ritual effigies, and clay and stone earmuffs. “Officers suspected the products to be cultural artifacts and detained them,” the release said.

To date, seven shipments have been repatriated, while the last two still undergoing processing. 

Within the last decade, the Mexican government has waged a campaign to reclaim its cultural property from far-flung museums and auction houses. Its efforts have born success in the United States, where bilateral agreements outlaw the import of “archeological and ethnological material” without legitimate documentation, such as export permits and receipts of purchase. (Documentation, however, does not guarantee ownership of the artifacts.)

“Customs and Border Protection will continue to use our border authority to identify, rescue, and return precious antiquities being smuggled by those who profit on the theft of another country’s historical and cultural property,” Neipert said.

The ruling is the first in the US to establish boundaries on legal protections for AI-generated art, whose immense popularity has opened a nebulous legal frontier dictated—for better or worse—by assessments of aesthetics and originality.

Judge Beryl A. Howell of the US District Court for the District of Columbia agreed with the US Copyright Office’s decision to deny grant copyright protections to an artwork created by computer scientist Stephen Thaler using “Creativity Machine,” an AI system of his own design. Howell wrote in her motion that “courts have uniformly declined to recognize copyright in works created absent any human involvement.

Thaler, the founder of Imagination Engines, an artificial neural network technology company, sued the office in June 2022 after its denial of his copyright application for A Recent Entrance to Paradise, a two-dimensional image of train tracks stretching beneath a verdant stone arch. Thaler said the work “was autonomously created by a computer algorithm running on a machine,” according to court documents.

The copyright office found this description at odds with the basic tenets of copyright law, which suggest that the work must be the product of a human mind. “Thaler must either provide evidence that the Work is the product of human authorship or convince the Office to depart from a century of copyright jurisprudence. He has done neither,” wrote the review board in its initial rejection.

“Undoubtedly, we are approaching new frontiers in copyright as artists put AI in their toolbox to be used in the generation of new visual and other artistic works,” the judge said, adding that the accessibility of generative AI will “prompt challenging questions” about what degree of human involvement is needed to qualify such artwork for copyright protections.  

Howell concluded, however, that this case “is not nearly so complex” because Thaler stated in his copyright application that he was not directly involved in the generation of the work.

The rise of AI-generative platforms such OpenAI Inc.’s ChatGPT, DALL-E, and Midjourney, has exacerbated legal headaches around appropriation art—a tradition in which one artist ostentatiously repurposes another’s creation. As Richard Prince and the estate of Andy Warhol can attest, the legal battles prompted from this work often find unsatisfying conclusions, with judges assuming the role of art critic. Where it was once artist versus artist, courts must now contend with the diffusion of millions of digital artworks by generative platforms.

Thaler’s attorney, Ryan Abbott, of Brown Neri Smith & Khan LLP, told Bloomberg that he will appeal Howell’s judgment. “We respectfully disagree with the court’s interpretation of the Copyright Act,” Abbott said.

In his motion, Thaler argued that this matter transcended quibbles between individual artists. Providing copyright protections to such artworks, he said, would inspire creativity, ultimately placing it in line with the intentions of copyright law.

“Denying copyright to AI-created works would thus go against the well-worn principle that ‘[c]opyright protection extends to all ‘original works of authorship fixed in any tangible medium’ of expression,” Thaler said.

“It feels great to have a contract that’s the culmination of all of our organizing efforts,” Julie K. Smitka, an associate producer at the museum, said in a statement. ”It’s transformative for our workplace. Not only are there increases that exceed what the Guggenheim historically granted, but we now have rights at work that are legally enforceable.”

Per union spokesperson Maida Rosenstein, the agreement guarantees a minimum 9 percent wage increase over the next two and a half years, as well as increases in retirement contributions, four weeks paid family leave, and funding for career training retroactive to July 1. The contract also guarantees minimum rates for full- and part-time employees. (Find a summary of the contract here.)

The alliance of conservators, curators, educators, visitor service, and digital marketing workers, and administrative staff at the Guggenheim voted to join Local 2110 United Auto Worker (UAW) in 2021. UAW also represents workers at the New Museum and the Whitney Museum, among other cultural institutions in New York City.

The Guggenheim workers’ demands included wage equity, more transparency, and increased job security.

The move came two years after some 160 art handlers and facilities workers at the museum joined a separate labor organization, International Union of Operating Engineers Local 30, which also includes workers at New York’s MoMA PS1. The three-year agreement ratified with Local 30 guaranteed salary increases by approximately 10 percent over the course of the contract. Unionized employees were no longer required to contribute to health insurance premiums, while improvements were promised to safety operations and scheduling protocols.

The Operating Engineers unit reached one of the first successful contracts in the wave of unionization seen by museums nationwide in the past five years. Other success stories include the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Jewish Museum, and more recently, the Whitney Museum.

“There is a spiritual aspect to labor just as there is to making art,” Alan Seise, public programs manager in the Guggenheim’s education department and a member of the union bargaining committee, said in a statement. “The contract puts into writing that the labor we all do at the museum is important, valuable, and worth protecting. It recognizes the dignity and humanity of everyone who works to enrich the lives of our visitors. I’m proud to have been a part of bringing the Guggenheim a little closer to the ‘Temple of the Spirit’ it was founded to be.”

According to a report in the Guardian, the database is managed by Ukraine’s National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NACP), which said in a statement that the aim of the tool was to “make it easier for virtuous art market participants to carry out sanctions checks and make it difficult for Russian oligarchs to sell such assets.”

A slew of wealthy Russians, many of them arts patrons, have been hit with economic sanctions by the European Union, the UK, and the US intended to impede their ability to make or move money overseas since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Russian culture minister Olga Lyubimova is among those high-profile individuals on Western sanction lists, as well as oligarchs Roman Abramovich and Alisher Usmanov—both prolific blue-chip collectors—who are sanctioned by the EU. 

The new database details the provenance, or history of ownership, of numerous prized artworks: it includes a portrait of Marilyn Monroe by Andy Warhol acquired by close associate of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Mikhail Fridman; and Leonardo da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi, once owned by billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev. (Rybolovlev auctioned Salvator Mundi at Christie’s in 2017, where it sold for $450.3 million.)

“Currently, the section contains information on more than 300 art objects,” the agency said. “Among their owners are Russian billionaire Viatcheslav Kantor, model Daria Zhukova, rapper Timur Yunusov (Timati) and other individuals who are under sanctions for directly supporting Russia’s war against Ukraine.”

(Daria Zhukova is more popularly known as Dasha Zhukova; she has not been sanctioned. A major patron in the art world, she also cofounded the Garage Museum of Contemporary Art with Abramovich, her ex-husband. She continues to serve on a number of museum boards, including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the latter of which lists her as Dasha Niarchos, the surname of her current husband Stavros Niarchos II.)

The NACP added that Russian oligarchs have come under intensified scrutiny since the beginning of the war, given their penchant to “hide and launder their money through art objects.” 

“Painting, sculptures, artistic jewelry—this is exactly what is used as a loophole to circumvent sanctions,” the agency said. “The ‘war and art’ section will contribute to the work on preventing the circumvention of sanctions, finding artistic assets of sanctioned Russians with the aim of their further freezing, confiscation and future transfer to Ukraine.”

In 2021, experts digging in the Cotswolds, Gloucestershire, found a group of “extraordinarily” preserved ice-age mammoths, including one infant and two young adults, along with tools used by Neanderthals who very likely hunted members of the herd. More mammoths were expected to be uncovered within the vast gravel quarry, however, the quarry owner has recently rescinded access to the site, leaving the archaeologists to bemoan the potential for damage to the artifacts.

The site was first investigated by DigVentures, a group of archaeologists who sometimes invite the public to participate in their excavations. At the time of the discovery, in December 2021, Lisa Westcott Wilkins, cofounder of DigVentures, told the Guardian: “Exciting doesn’t cover it. Other mammoths have been found in the UK but not in this state of preservation. They’re in near-pristine condition. You can’t take it in.”

Westcott Wilkins added that the mammoth remains and artifacts date to about 220,000 years ago. “Archaeological sites from this period are rare, and critical for understanding Neanderthal behavior across Britain and Europe,” she said. “Why did so many mammoths die here? Could Neanderthals have killed them? What can they tell us about life in ice-age Britain? The range of evidence at this site gives us a unique chance to address these questions.”

Now, the Guardian reports, Hills Quarry Products told DigVentures via email that access to the site “will no longer be available” and that they are “formally requesting” the archaeologists return their finds. There is no legislation in place to ensure further finds are excavated properly; as the law stands, Hills Quarry Products can even sell the bones. 

Westcott Wilkins said, “We have five major universities as part of our research consortium because the site is so complex and difficult. That’s the expertise you need in order to do any justice to this.”

DinéYazhi’, a trans nonbinary Indigenous artist (Naasht’ézhí Tábąąhá and Tódích’íí’nii clans) who confronts oppressive institutional machinations in their multidisciplinary practice, said the work was removed without their knowledge and without the consent of the curatorial team, comprising Selena Jones, Owen Premore, and Tammy Jo.

“Each time a crucial conversation resurfaces without proper consultation, support, or reparations,” DinéYazhi’ wrote in their post, “it is unsurprising, especially given the amount of resources that are extracted from artists & politically motivated communities by arts spaces in order to escape accountability & restructuring initiatives.” DinéYazhi’ said the decision to remove the work was made by Sean Andries, executive director of CCC.

“[Curator Tracy Schlapp] & myself collaborated on the design of the original letterpress poster, which it references, in the spring of 2020 as a result of the police murder of George Floyd & Black Lives Matter uprisings that followed & effectively empowered the Portland community,” they continued, adding that CCC has “chosen to stand on the side of conservative extremism & fear by censoring the work of an Indigenous Non-Binary Trans Artist.”

A CCC spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment by the time of publication.

The work, a painting on canvas in the style of protest banners and delicately hung with the Diné Masani, or “grandmother,” scarf in the Navajo language, was included in “The Stone Path,” a group show “celebrating eight Indigenous artists whose artistry expands our understanding of Oregon’s communities, cultures, and histories,” per Art in Oregon, the nonprofit focused on local artists that organized it. The current roster includes Wendy Red Star, Natalie Ball, Vanessa Enos, Ka’ila Farrell-Smith, Lillian Pitt, Marie Watt, and Jeremy Red Star Wolf.

In response to the alleged censorship, DinéYazhi’ removed two additional works from the exhibition, leaving behind a Masani scarf and three letterpress prints from their recent series “extractive industries” that, in their words, “challenges institutional spaces through forceful critique of ‘solidarity statements,’ ‘land acknowledgments,’ & DEI (Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion) initiatives.”

They have also withdrawn a print from the Crows Shadow Institute of the Arts, NAASHT’ÉZHI TÁBAAHÁ GIRLS (2017), saying, “I ultimately feel it was the correct decision given that many colonial institutions still dictate what is considered safe & appropriate as it relates to Indigenous identity and community empowerment.”

In a statement, Art in Oregon condemned the removal of the work while also acknowledging that CCC staff had faced “aggression and violence from community members unwilling to engage in exploring the critically important complex ideas.”

“The art of DinéYazhi’ daringly pinpoints social justice issues with a personalized reframing from their life experience that is educated with patience through empathy,” Art in Oregon said. “The artist’s work requires the viewer to set aside allegiances to controlling systematic constructs in order to reveal the humanity oppressed under its weight.”

Today the museum rolled out Replica, a new augmented reality app that allows users to engage with a virtual version of its collection. The app is a collaboration with Version and can be accessed with the gaming platform Roblox, which now hosts digital recreations of the Met’s Fifth Avenue facade and Great Hall—complete with a pixel-perfect copy of Kent Monkman’s diptych mistikôsiwak: Wooden Boat People (2019). The app can be downloaded for free on iOS and Android devices. 

With Replica, users can scan popular works at the museum such as Vincent van Gogh’s sunny Self-Portrait with a Straw Hat (1887) and then transfer them to Roblox. The rollout of Replica follows the museum’s recent, short-lived partnership with Verizon, Met Unframed, which offered homebound art-lovers in 2021 the chance to explore around a dozen of its digitally rendered galleries. 

In a statement, Max Hollein, Met director and chief executive, lauded Replica for “transforming the way visitors engage with art and crafting a captivating, fun and truly unique journey through the museum.” The new app, he added “is a testament to the Met’s ambitious exploration of educational initiatives that inspire playful connections with art in the museum as well as in the digital realm.”

The Met is one among many museums worldwide unveiling virtual and augmented reality initiatives in a bid to entice younger audiences. (Augmented reality, opposed to virtual reality, is when digital images are superimposed over what a person sees in the physical space before them.) In 2022, for example, the National Gallery in London created a game that allows users to curate their own art collections.