France: Fourteen of the country's 34 national museums will axe admission charges for a six-month trial period on 1 January for visitors to their permanent collections.
The measure could be extended to other national museums in 2009, depending on the impact on visits from non-traditional audiences.
Meanwhile, the Louvre, Pompidou Centre, Musée d'Orsay and Musée du Quai Branly will experiment with selected free admission schemes for people under the age of 26.
France: In a public letter to the culture minister, French president Nicolas Sarkozy has asked for a review of the principle of "alienability" of works held by national collections, opening a national debate on deaccessioning. The suggestion provoked a strong response from the museum and heritage establishment.
Greece: The £94m Acropolis Museum is nearing completion. Since October, cranes have been transferring 4,500 works to the structure from the Acropolis.
The museum's upper gallery has the same dimensions as the Parthenon, allowing the sculptures to be presented in their original configuration. Plastercasts with mesh veils will be hung in place of the Parthenon Marbles.
Israel: Yad Vashem, the Holocaust memorial site, will launch an Arab-language web portal in January. This follows positive feedback to its Persian-language website, which was set up in the spring in response to the Tehran Holocaust Conference, and a rise in the number of users from Arabic and Islamic countries of the English- language site.
Italy: A three-day telethon held in October raised almost €3m towards the restoration of seven state-run monuments. The culture minister and various celebrities appeared on air to support the appeal and bemoan the lack of public funding for monuments.
US/Peru: In a tie-up with the government of Peru, Yale University has acknowledged the country's title to all artefacts excavated at Machu Picchu in the early 20th century that are held at one of the university's museums.
The partnership will involve travelling exhibitions, research and the building of a museum in Cusco, to where 380 "museum quality" pieces will be returned. The research collections will largely remain at Yale.
Meanwhile, Princeton University has returned eight works alleged to have been looted or illegally excavated to Italy.
Finally... The owner of the French country inn where van Gogh last lived planned to acquire the artist's Wheat Fields at an auction in Sotheby's, in New York, last month, and return it to the attic room, which is visited by 400,000 people a year. The picture failed to sell, and the appeal continues.
For more information, visit www.vangoghsdream.org
Compiled by Magnus von Wistinghausen
Seen in: artsjournal.com; Art Newspaper; Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung; New York Times
The measure could be extended to other national museums in 2009, depending on the impact on visits from non-traditional audiences.
Meanwhile, the Louvre, Pompidou Centre, Musée d'Orsay and Musée du Quai Branly will experiment with selected free admission schemes for people under the age of 26.
France: In a public letter to the culture minister, French president Nicolas Sarkozy has asked for a review of the principle of "alienability" of works held by national collections, opening a national debate on deaccessioning. The suggestion provoked a strong response from the museum and heritage establishment.
Greece: The £94m Acropolis Museum is nearing completion. Since October, cranes have been transferring 4,500 works to the structure from the Acropolis.
The museum's upper gallery has the same dimensions as the Parthenon, allowing the sculptures to be presented in their original configuration. Plastercasts with mesh veils will be hung in place of the Parthenon Marbles.
Israel: Yad Vashem, the Holocaust memorial site, will launch an Arab-language web portal in January. This follows positive feedback to its Persian-language website, which was set up in the spring in response to the Tehran Holocaust Conference, and a rise in the number of users from Arabic and Islamic countries of the English- language site.
Italy: A three-day telethon held in October raised almost €3m towards the restoration of seven state-run monuments. The culture minister and various celebrities appeared on air to support the appeal and bemoan the lack of public funding for monuments.
US/Peru: In a tie-up with the government of Peru, Yale University has acknowledged the country's title to all artefacts excavated at Machu Picchu in the early 20th century that are held at one of the university's museums.
The partnership will involve travelling exhibitions, research and the building of a museum in Cusco, to where 380 "museum quality" pieces will be returned. The research collections will largely remain at Yale.
Meanwhile, Princeton University has returned eight works alleged to have been looted or illegally excavated to Italy.
Finally... The owner of the French country inn where van Gogh last lived planned to acquire the artist's Wheat Fields at an auction in Sotheby's, in New York, last month, and return it to the attic room, which is visited by 400,000 people a year. The picture failed to sell, and the appeal continues.
For more information, visit www.vangoghsdream.org
Compiled by Magnus von Wistinghausen
Seen in: artsjournal.com; Art Newspaper; Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung; New York Times
