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The Headlines
FACING PUBLIC BACKLASH, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston has denied targeting DEI employees when it fired 33 people, including the institution’s only Muslim curator, Nadirah Mansour, only Native American curator, Marina Tyquiengco, and only Black curator, theo Tyson, reports Artnet News. After news of the layoffs effective Jan. 30, 130 staff at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design demanded the museum rehire the curators, along with several other employees, while nearly 2,000 people have signed a petition to a similar end. But in a statement, MFA Director Pierre Terjanian insisted the layoffs were simply due to financial deficits following the COVID-19 pandemic. “One third of our entire staff identified as people of color prior to the restructuring – and those numbers are the same today,” he stated. Many observers, however, see little coincidence with the layoffs and President Trump’s anti-DEI policies, and they also point to the MFA’s firing of Tracy Brown, the MFA’s Director of Inclusion Diversity, Equity and Access [IDEA]. Others, like Nick Capasso, director of Massachusett’s Fitchburg Art Museum, wrote on Facebook that the MFA was “once again revealing their core value of racism.”
FRENCH DISPATCH. Former French Culture Minister Jack Lang has stepped down from Paris’ Institut du Monde Arabe after appearing in the Jeffrey Epstein files, reports ARTnews. After nearly a week of refusing to do so, Lang finally caved on Saturday and announced he was giving up his position as president of the museum, only after French financial crime prosecutors announced they are launching a preliminary inquiry into his role in alleged “aggravated tax fraud money laundering.” The Epstein files suggested business dealings between the convicted sex offender and Lang involving “offshore” assets. Lang has maintained his innocence throughout, calling the accusations “baseless.” Meanwhile, current French Culture Minister Rachida Dati is leaving the government in the coming weeks, because she is running for mayor of Paris, and as part of a government “adjustment” ahead of municipal elections, reports BFMTV.
The Digest
How serious is the White House about an idea it has floated to create a Smithsonian gallery dedicated to multiple images of President Donald Trump? “President Trump receives an unprecedented amount of beautiful artwork from patriotic Americans all across our great country,” said a White House statement, “and it is important to the People’s President that their creations are showcased throughout the halls of our Nation’s Capital.” [ARTnews]
In a new, complex agreement, the Spanish Banco Santander will manage 160 iconic, 20th-century Mexican artworks, including 18 by Frida Kahlo, from within the private Gelman Collection. Owned by the Zambrano family, the agreement has met skepticism in Mexico, where it was hoped the artworks would remain as part of the country’s national heritage. This summer, the collection will travel to the Faro Santander venue in Cantabria, Spain, while Mexico’s Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes y Literatura (INBAL) will also oversee the exhibition. [The Art Newspaper]
A new AI analysis has cast serious doubt on whether Jan van Eyck made two paintings believed to be by him, currently located in the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Royal Museums of Turin. Tests by the Swiss company Art Recognition on two versions of Saint Francis of Assisi Receiving the Stigmata detected that 91 percent of brushstrokes in the Philadelphia museum’s holdings were “negative,” or did not match the 15th-century artist’s brushstrokes, and 86 percent of the Turin painting came up “negative.” [The Guardian]
The Epsteinfiles have revealed previously unknown details about the breadth of Leon Black’s trophy-filled art collection. We learn that among Black’s art assets, roughly appraised at $2.6 billion in 2016, is a preference for Old Master drawings, but also a penchant for Paul Cézanne, Henri Matisse, and Edvard Munch. [Puck]
The Kicker
LOST MAIL. Hundreds of artworks in post offices around the US were commissioned as part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal reforms aimed at putting artists to work and boosting America’s cultural clout at a time when Europe was still considered the global art center. Many of these works have become precious artifacts of American heritage, but as the Washington Post reports, hundreds have been lost or destroyed. According to documents the Post obtained, of nearly 1,700 post office New Deal murals, about 200 are missing. Often, artwork depicting Black labor has also been covered up because some found it offensive. “We are mindful that certain murals generate strong feelings for some of our employees and customers,” stated a Postal Service spokesperson. Just a few of the contributing artists under the Depression Era program include the acclaimed Philip Guston, Anton Refregier, Philip Evergood, and magazine illustrator Arthur Getz.
