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DNA Links Africa's Stolen Skulls With Living Descendants

Germany to return skulls tied to Chagga people of Tanzania, stolen under colonial rule

(Newser) - Scientists have for the first time identified living descendants of people whose skulls were pillaged from Africa under German colonial rule. Since 2017, Berlin's Museum of Prehistory and Early History has been working to trace at least 1,100 of 7,700 skulls it acquired from a local hospital...

Museum Sues Ex-Director Over Fake Basquiats

Orlando Museum of Art says damage from fraud scheme may be irreparable

(Newser) - The Orlando Museum of Art has admitted its "99-year legacy was shattered" when it was found to be exhibiting fake paintings attributed to Jean-Michel Basquiat. Now it wants justice. In a lawsuit filed Monday, OMA "seeks to hold responsible the people the Museum believes knowingly misrepresented the works'...

Dish on Museum's Juneteenth Menu Sparks Backlash

Locals say menu item at Children's Museum of Indianapolis perpetuates racist trope

(Newser) - A kids museum in Indiana is at the center of controversy after a menu item for Juneteenth didn't go over so well. The Indianapolis Star reports that included among the food options at the Children's Museum of Indianapolis was a prepackaged watermelon salad ( TMZ has a pic),...

'Unacceptable Behavior' Shuts Kids Museum for 10 Days

Anti-mask patrons were 'inappropriately directing their anger' toward museum staff

(Newser) - If you're a Denverite who'd planned on taking the kids to the local children's museum over the weekend, you'll have to wait. NPR reports the Children's Museum of Denver has closed its doors for 10 days after angry patrons harassed staff over its mask policy....

'Height Is Power,' and So Statue of Roosevelt Will Go
Removal
of Roosevelt
Statue
Begins
updated

Removal of Roosevelt Statue Begins

It has stood outside NYC's American Museum of Natural History since 1940

(Newser) - Update: The upper half of the bronze Theodore Roosevelt outside a New York museum was removed by crane early Wednesday, after years of public debate. The rest of the monument, which is now surrounded by a tarp, will be taken away a bit at a time throughout the week before...

He Admits to a Dozen Museum Heists, Gets Day in Jail

Pennsylvania's Thomas Gavin helped trace stolen firearms after confession

(Newser) - A Pennsylvania man will spend exactly one day in jail after admitting to stealing historic artifacts from more than a dozen museums in at least four states. Montgomery County's Thomas Gavin busted into museums along the US East Coast in the 1960s and '70s, taking mostly antique firearms,...

Tribes Want Changes on Museums Transferring Remains

Institutions have been slow to give up ownership to Native Americans

(Newser) - New rules being drafted by the Biden administration could speed up the process—which essentially is stuck—for museums and other institutions to return the remains of Native American to their tribes. The government set up a system in 1990, but institutions still have possession of the remains of more...

Museum Dumps a Most Controversial Exhibit

Shanghai's OCAT gallery apologizes for Song Ta's display that ranked women from 'prettiest to ugliest'

(Newser) - One of China's most respected modern museums is taking heat for a multimedia exhibit that used university students as its unwitting subjects. The South China Morning Post and BBC note the artwork by male artist Song Ta at Shanghai's OCT Contemporary Art Terminal, or OCAT, was displayed under...

A Big First for Paris' Louvre
A Big First for
Paris' Louvre

A Big First for Paris' Louvre

Laurence des Cars appointed by President Macron as museum's first female president

(Newser) - It was a phone call Laurence des Cars had long waited for—and when it finally came this week, it was a "joyful and emotional moment." "I will never forget that call," the 54-year-old art historian tells France Inter , via the Guardian , of the correspondence that...

The Louvre Has Fabulous News for Art Lovers

482K works now accessible for free online

(Newser) - You can now explore almost half a million items in the collection of Paris’ Louvre museum without leaving the comfort of your own home. "For the first time, anyone can access the entire collection of works from a computer or smartphone for free, whether they are on display in...

How Smithsonian Is Honoring 'This Extraordinary Period'

Vaccine vial, shipping containers among new artifacts

(Newser) - The Smithsonian's National Museum of American History has acquired the vial that contained the first dose of COVID-19 vaccine administered in the US as part of its plans to document the pandemic and "this extraordinary period we were going through." The acquisition, along with other materials related...

Utah Senator Blocks National Latino Museum

And one for women, with Mike Lee saying we don't need 'separate but equal' Smithsonian museums

(Newser) - For more than 25 years, there's been an effort to establish a national Latino museum within the Smithsonian Institution's museum family. And that dream seemed closer to coming to fruition this week, with bipartisan legislation toward that end on the Senate table. Enter Utah Sen. Mike Lee, who...

In 4 Museum Heists, Thieves Went After the Same Thing

A fortune's worth of Nazi uniforms stolen in Europe since March

(Newser) - Thieves set up a roadblock of tires, parked a fake police car beside it, then smashed down the door of the Eyewitness War Museum in the Netherlands, from which they took $1.5 million in World War II memorabilia in just five minutes, per the New York Times . "It...

Ever Wanted a KGB-Era Lipstick Gun? Now's Your Chance

NYC museum dedicated to Cold War espionage shuts down for good

(Newser) - What's been billed as the world's largest collection of KGB memorabilia has been on display in Manhattan for nearly two years, the labor of love of a Lithuanian collector who wanted to share with the world these 3,500 or so remnants of the Cold War. Now, per...

'Extensive' Attack Carried Out Against 70 Museum Treasures

Berlin's Museum Island targeted on anniversary of German reunification

(Newser) - At least 70 artifacts and artworks were targeted almost three weeks ago in what German newspaper Die Zeit describes as "one of the most extensive attacks on works of art and antiquities in the history of post-war Germany," per Deutsche Welle . The attack on Berlin's Museum Island,...

Jewelry Named for Victims of Police Brutality Is Yanked

Controversial collection made of shattered glass from BLM protest pulled from Charleston museum

(Newser) - A bolo tie named for Eric Garner . "The Elijah" and "The Breonna," necklaces costing several hundred dollars in honor of Elijah McClain and Breonna Taylor . A $45 pair of earrings bearing Trayvon Martin 's name. These are some of the items the Guardian lists as part...

Navy Investigating 'Target' Used in K9 Attack Demo

Military dogs went after man dressed as Colin Kaepernick at National Navy UDT-SEAL Museum

(Newser) - In addition to US service members, military dogs are sent onto battlefields to help defeat foes, and a demonstration last year at a Florida nonprofit was meant to show how that's done. But video has now emerged of that demo in Fort Pierce at the National Navy UDT-SEAL Museum,...

Jubilation, Dismay at Status Change of Turkish Landmark

Muslims thrilled Hagia Sophia to be reconverted to a mosque; Orthodox Christians, not so much

(Newser) - Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday reconverted Istanbul’s sixth-century Hagia Sophia into a mosque and declared it open to Muslim worship, hours after a court annulled a 1934 decision that had turned it into a museum. The decision to reconvert Hagia Sophia—a former cathedral that was turned...

Texas Governor on Reopening: 'It's Time to Set a New Course'

Stay-at-home orders are expiring, and some states, like Texas, are beginning incremental reopenings

(Newser) - Friday's the day for Texas. That's the day after its stay-at-home order expires, and when Gov. Greg Abbott says venues such as restaurants, movie theaters, malls, museums, retail stores, and libraries may reopen, though at 25% of their usual capacity, report the Texas Tribune and Dallas Morning News...

After 11 Years, Newseum Calls It a Day

Private museum found it tough to compete with DC's free ones

(Newser) - In 2008, the Newseum—a private museum dedicated to exploring modern history as told through the eyes of journalists— opened on prime Washington real estate . Sitting almost equidistant between the White House and the Capitol on Pennsylvania Avenue, the glass-walled building became instantly recognizable for its multi-story exterior rendition of...

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