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The Headlines
SMITHSONIAN BOWS TO TRUMP DIVERSITY ORDER. Just days after the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. said it would cancel its diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, the Smithsonian Institution announced its diversity office will also close, reports Daniel Cassady for ARTnews. The news follows an executive order by President Donald J. Trump, which had called the Biden administration’s diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiative “illegal and immoral discrimination programs.” The consortium of 21 national museums including the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden and the National Portrait Gallery, will also freeze hiring for all federal positions, and employees will have to return to in-person work full-time, in keeping with a separate executive order, per the New York Times. It had been thought that the Smithsonian’s hybrid status, with both private and federal employees, might mean it did not have to obey the executive order, but it appears the institution is moving quickly to comply with the White House’s demands.
POSSIBLE LEGAL DISPUTE OVER LOOTED GOLDEN ARTIFACTS. The Romanian National History Museum in Bucharest is considering taking legal action after golden artifacts from its collection were stolen while on loan to an exhibit in the Netherlands, reports RTV Drenthe and Romanian broadcaster Euronews. On Saturday thieves used explosives to enter the Drents Museum in Assen and snatch the prized gold helmet of Cotofenesti and golden bracelets, all from the lost Dacian civilization dating to about 450 BC. The Romanian museum has reportedly criticized the museum for not ensuring a physical guard was protecting the collection at all times. The insured value of the gold and silver objects is reportedly over 30 million euros, but its cultural value has been described as “priceless.” As tensions reportedly grow between Romania and the Netherlands over the theft, the issue has had political repercussions in Romania as well.
The Digest
Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, a painter who revolutionized the landscape genre and paved a path to success for generations of Native American artists who followed, died on January 24 aged 85. [ARTnews]
DeepSeek, the Chinese-owned AI model that’s giving US alternatives a run for their money, sending global investors into a panic earlier this week, also appears to adhere to Chinese government censorship protocols. When asked questions related to Chinese dissident contemporary artists Ai Weiwei and Gao Zhen (of the Gao Brothers duo), DeepSeek’s replies appeared biased in favor of China’s government. [Hyperallergic]
A monumental fresco mural made by Philip Guston and Reuben Kadish in 1934-35, depicting scenes of violent intolerance throughout the ages as a warning against the spread of fascism, will be unveiled to the public on Friday in Morelia, Mexico, following its restoration. The 1,024 square-foot composition titled The Struggle Against Terrorism was painted on a two-story courtyard wall of the 18th-century palace that is now the Regional Museum of Michoacán. [See Great Art and press release]
The Democracy & Culture Foundation and the Moleskine Foundation have launched the open-call Social Change Award (prize money $10,400) for creative practitioners who are “driving social impact.” Nominations are open until February 28, 2025. [Instagram and press release]
The Kicker
OPINIONS DIVERGE OVER MONA LISA’S NEW DIGS. Reactions have been mixed to global headlines about the Mona Lisa getting her own room, announced by France’s president Emmanuel Macron himself, while standing in front of Da Vinci’s masterpiece. Macron’s choreographed speech at the Louvre yesterday detailed a major overhaul of the museum in need of serious repairs, via a project he insisted had far-reaching consequences, comparing it to “a new step in the life of the nation [that is] important for our country’s culture, but also for the battles we wage, and that we will wage.” The event’s overt political implications were not lost on observers like Roxana Azimi at Le Monde. Shewrites that the Louvre project “has given [Macron] an unhoped-for opportunity to put himself back in the spotlight,” and she even suggests the museum helped set the stage when it “cleverly leaked a confidential document to Le Parisien, warning of the building’s dilapidated state” a week ago. But beyond politicking, what of the new Mona Lisa room and the many millions of dollars it will cost, paid largely by higher ticket prices for non-EU citizens? French unions have argued museum jobs should be prioritized over the project, but art critics are joining in too, albeit for different reasons. Jonathan Jones for The Guardian holds no punches. He writes that the Louvre’s plans for “a special hygienically isolated gallery where les idiots who flock to take selfies in front of [the Mona Lisa] won’t bother more cultured visitors who wish to study art in a hushed atmosphere, is a misguided act of snobbery.”
