Austria: A major Van Gogh exhibition at the Albertina in Vienna has for the first time exceeded the insurance values covered by the Austrian government's state indemnity cover. Valued at €3bn, the show will require top-up private insurance costing close to €2m.
Georgia: The director of the Stalin museum in his birthtown Gori had to flee with a car load of items from the collection during the Russian onslaught on South Ossetia in August. The museum escaped the Russian bombings relatively unscathed, save for a few smashed windows and clouds of dust.
Germany/France: The Pompidou Centre has entered into a collection sharing agreement with German publisher's Frieder Burda's private museum in Baden-Baden. The partnership will involve an exchange of loans, focusing on young French and German artists. Burda is a member of the Pompidou's acquisitions committee.
Greece: Greek pagans held a ceremony on the Acropolis, the first held on the site in centuries, in which they invoked Athena, the goddess of wisdom. It was a protest against the removal of sculptural items from the ancient site to the new Acropolis Museum.
Italy: Silvio Berlusconi's government has slashed the budget for the Ministry of Culture by more than €1bn for the next three years. This is likely to affect hundreds of museums and archaeological sites. Italy now spends less than 0.3 per cent of its state budget on culture.
Russia: A comprehensive stock check of collections in Russia's 2,000 or so state owned art museums is to be completed by the end of the year. The initiative is a response to a number of thefts which were uncovered in recent years, many involving museum personnel. To date, about 80 per cent of collections have been checked and 50,000 missing objects identified.
US: The maximum indemnity cover for exhibitions offered by the federal government's Artefacts Indemnity Programme has been extended to exhibitions of works from US private and institutional collections. The maximum cover per show will be $750m with a cap of $5bn on the domestic cover for all exhibitions at any one time. This is in addition to cover that insures international shows up to $1.2bn with a total cap of $10bn.
US: The Hispanic Society of America has recalled a loan of 38,000 coins which had been on indefinite loan to the American Numismatic Society for over half a century. The collection, estimated to be worth $30-£40m, may be broken up and sold following recent sales of objects after the society's board altered restrictions on deaccessioning.
Compiled by Magnus von Wistinghausen. Seen in Artsjournal.com, Art Newspaper and Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
Georgia: The director of the Stalin museum in his birthtown Gori had to flee with a car load of items from the collection during the Russian onslaught on South Ossetia in August. The museum escaped the Russian bombings relatively unscathed, save for a few smashed windows and clouds of dust.
Germany/France: The Pompidou Centre has entered into a collection sharing agreement with German publisher's Frieder Burda's private museum in Baden-Baden. The partnership will involve an exchange of loans, focusing on young French and German artists. Burda is a member of the Pompidou's acquisitions committee.
Greece: Greek pagans held a ceremony on the Acropolis, the first held on the site in centuries, in which they invoked Athena, the goddess of wisdom. It was a protest against the removal of sculptural items from the ancient site to the new Acropolis Museum.
Italy: Silvio Berlusconi's government has slashed the budget for the Ministry of Culture by more than €1bn for the next three years. This is likely to affect hundreds of museums and archaeological sites. Italy now spends less than 0.3 per cent of its state budget on culture.
Russia: A comprehensive stock check of collections in Russia's 2,000 or so state owned art museums is to be completed by the end of the year. The initiative is a response to a number of thefts which were uncovered in recent years, many involving museum personnel. To date, about 80 per cent of collections have been checked and 50,000 missing objects identified.
US: The maximum indemnity cover for exhibitions offered by the federal government's Artefacts Indemnity Programme has been extended to exhibitions of works from US private and institutional collections. The maximum cover per show will be $750m with a cap of $5bn on the domestic cover for all exhibitions at any one time. This is in addition to cover that insures international shows up to $1.2bn with a total cap of $10bn.
US: The Hispanic Society of America has recalled a loan of 38,000 coins which had been on indefinite loan to the American Numismatic Society for over half a century. The collection, estimated to be worth $30-£40m, may be broken up and sold following recent sales of objects after the society's board altered restrictions on deaccessioning.
Compiled by Magnus von Wistinghausen. Seen in Artsjournal.com, Art Newspaper and Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
