A drawing of a hand by the Renaissance master Hans Holbein was recently censored by Facebook for breaching the site’s “community standards.” After Holbein fans posted multiple hands to the website in protest, Facebook went back on its decision, attributing the ban to a case of “human error.” [Guardian]
A group of Israeli artists, museum directors and art educators have quietly filed a lawsuit against their ministry of culture, citing a mounting climate of intimidation forced upon them by Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, which they claim breaches the country’s freedom of information law. [The Art Newspaper]
Museums
Miami’s Bass contemporary art museum—which has been undergoing a $12 million renovation project that was set to be complete by December—has announced that it will instead be reopening next spring. The opening shows by Ugo Rondinone, Mika Rottenberg and Pascale Marthine Tayou will also be delayed. [New York Times]
The National Museum of Scotland has opened 10 new galleries, to feature sculpture, metalwork, ceramics, glass, furniture, woodwork, dress, and textiles from designers including Jean Muir, Mary Quant, Alexander McQueen and Vivienne Westwood. [WWD]
Next year will mark 50 years since Pink Floyd released their first single and in honor of this fact the Victoria and Albert Museum in London will be hosting a major retrospective exhibition of the band. [BBC]
Trump Art
Those lifesize foam sculptures of a naked Donald Trump are to be sold at a live auction in Los Angeles, hosted by Julien’s Auctions. It’s hard to tell what’s more confounding: that someone would actually want such a thing in their house, or that the auctioneers have estimated the sculpture’s worth at between $10,000 and $20,000. [CNBC]
Bonus
An interview with Japanese artist Makoto Azuma, who claims to have created a “new genre of art” by photographing living plants in rather unusual settings, as in his image of a bonsai floating outside of earth’s atmosphere. [CNN]
Take a closer look here at the 900-passenger Viking Star cruise ship that will double as an art gallery, featuring work by Nordic artists. [Forbes]