The American Museum of Natural History holds 12,000 bodies — but they don’t want you to know whose.
Erin L. Thompson
Erin L. Thompson, a professor of art crime at John Jay College (City University of New York), is the author of Smashing Statues: The Rise and Fall of American Monuments (Norton, 2022).
Posted inArt
Avoid Rome’s Tourist Crowds With These Alternative Art History Gems
If you’re planning a visit to Rome, write down your list of can’t-miss sites. Then, go to these ones instead.
Posted inBooks
An Art Thief’s Tale of Love and Seduction
Stéphane Breitwieser stole several billion dollars worth of art from more than 150 museums before he was caught in 2001.
Posted inArt
Tsherin Sherpa’s “Corrupted” Thangka Art
In Sherpa’s art, Tibet and California, thangka and pop art, Buddha and Mickey Mouse mingle and morph to create a new visual language.
Posted inBooks
The Stories of Art History’s Detectives
The provenance researcher must be a detective, figuring out alternative ways to get at information that major participants in the trade are often unwilling to disclose.
Posted inBooks
Guantánamo’s Artists Fight for Beauty
Remaking the Exceptional allows us to feel the furious joy that emanates from those who have saved their own lives with activism and art.
Posted inBooks
Sex Tourism With Statues
Buddhist Art of Tibet: In Milarepa’s Footsteps is a cringe-worthy display of “spiritual colonialism.”
Posted inArt
Artists’ Doomed, Inspiring Resistance to Hitler
The stories of the Red Orchestra show the power of joy, creativity, and love in the fight against the compliance, fear, and silence upon which fascism still depends.
Posted inOpinion
Cambodia’s Stolen Treasures Must Be Returned to Where They Belong
And no, Cambodia doesn’t need the Metropolitan Museum’s help in preserving its cultural heritage.
Posted inArt
The Surprising Mix of Tradition and Innovation in Nepal’s Contemporary Art Scene
The work of many of Nepal’s contemporary artists suggests that the distinctions between labels like ancient and modern, or foreign and Nepali, will blur if you shift your point of view.
Posted inArt
Surrounded by Wealth, an Artist’s Comment on Education Loses Its Edge
Within the well-patrolled boundaries of Madison Square Park, it’s hard not to see Hugh Hayden’s Brier Patch as just another amenity, offering a pleasant opportunity for virtue signaling.
Posted inOpinion
How the Met Museum Justifies Looting
The African Origins exhibition ignores the fact that approximately 160 objects from Benin are held by the museum under ongoing demands for their repatriation.
