PIXABAY
Very Expensive Stolen Goods
German police are on the hunt for a huge gold coin that was stolen in March from the Bode Museum in Germany. It is estimated to be worth $3.9 million. [The Washington Post]
Art investigator Arthur Brand, who apparently is “described as the Indiana Jones of the art world,” says that the Irish Republican Army was behind the theft of half a billion dollars in art stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston in 1990, and that the works now reside in Ireland. Asked about Brand’s theories on the subject, the museum said, “They’re not new… we’ve covered them years ago.” [CBS News]
A reminder that if you do happen to have information about the whereabouts of those prized Gardner paintings, which include a Rembrandt and a van Gogh, the museum is offering a reward of $10 million through the end of the year. [Boston Globe]
The Market
Here’s a look at how various companies are “rethinking the bricks-and-mortar model.” [The Art Newspaper]
And here’s a look at some of the “small inside jokes” in Damien Hirst’s blowout Venice show. [The Art Newspaper]
The Talent
The new director of the Museums of Sonoma County will be Jeff Nathanson, who previously served as executive director of the Arts Council of Princeton. [The Press Democrat]
Amanda C. Peterson, a branding expert at Google, has been named director of marketing and communications at the Milwaukee Art Museum. [Wisconsin Gazette]
Mary Statzer has been named curator of prints and photographs at the University of New Mexico Art Museum. [UNM Newsroom]
And More
Gérard Araud, the ambassador of France to the United States, offers a little history lesson on Infanta Margarita Teresa, famously painted by Velázquez at the age of 8. It was her birthday yesterday. [@GerardAraud/Twitter]
Greg Allen pays a visit to one of those J. Crew stores filled with art ephemera. [Greg.org]
Photos of the current Gretchen Bender show at Wilkinson in London. It remains open through this Sunday, July 16. [Contemporary Art Daily]