Seoul May Get a Pompidou Branch, Banksy Destroyed in England, and More: Morning Links for March 16, 2023

To receive Morning Links in your inbox every weekday, sign up for our Breakfast with ARTnews newsletter.

The Headlines

GROW OR GO. The Centre Pompidou is in talks with the Hanwha Foundation to open a branch of the French contemporary art center in Seoul in 2025, according to Le Monde. A rep for Hanwha said that “nothing has been finalized,” but the Korea JoongAng Daily cites sources who say that the deal is essentially done. The potential museum would take three floors of the conglomerate’s 63 Building on Yeouido island in the South Korean capital, occupying about 130,000 square feet. News of the possible new Pompidou branch comes just days after the Paris institution inked a deal for the development of a contemporary art museum in AlUla, Saudi Arabia.

ANCIENT HISTORY, CURRENT EVENTS. Bits of metal—including pieces of a sword and a spear—that were found in a field in Blythburgh, England, by a metal-detector user four years ago have been classified as a treasure, BBC News reports. ● Speaking of metal detectors, a man learning how to use one of those remarkable devices in Germany’s Schleswig-Holstein area came across jewelry and coins dating back some 800 years, Artnet News reports. Some people have all the luck! ● Last but far from least, National Geographic has a deep dive on how archaeologists are studying a Viking ship that was discovered in a potato field in Norway. They have termed it a “hundred-year find.”

The Digest

A new mural by Banksy—a silhouette of a boy and a cat on an abandoned farmhouse in Herne Bay, England—was recently destroyed when the structure was demolished. “We had no idea it was a Banksy,” one of the contractors said. The landowner apparently was also unaware. Banksy posted the piece on Instagram yesterday. [The Guardian]

Gladstone Gallery now represents the work of the late Robert Rauschenberg, along with Thaddaeus Ropac and Luisa Strina. It will have work by the artist on its stand at Art Basel Hong Kong, and will do a show of his work in New York in May. [Financial Times]

Later this month, the Hammer Museum will unveil renovations that complete a 20-year development of its Los Angeles home. Its director, Ann Philbin, and her wife, communications specialist Cynthia Wornham, also renovated their home. Arthur Lubow talked to her about both projects. [W Magazine]

Amid repair work at the fire-ravaged Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris, scientists were surprised to discover that iron had been used to reinforce the structure, which was under construction from 1163 to 1345. Previously, it had been thought that the technique had only been used on later Gothic churches. [Gizmodo/Yahoo]

A film is in the works about the artist Joseph Bau and his wife, Rebecca, who were married at the Plaszow concentration camp during World War II. Joseph forged documents to help Nazi targets evade detection, and Rebecca was also active in resistance efforts. In addition, a documentary is being planned about them. [Variety]

Like so many of his peers, the dealer and collector Lio Malca is decamping from Chelsea and moving his space to the gallery-rich Tribeca neighborhood in Manhattan. His new space will debut in May with a solo outing by artist Rafa Macarrón. [The Art Newspaper]

The Kicker

SWEET REWARDS. Margaret Seaman, who is 93, has knitted a giant model of Buckingham Palace that is now on view at the Norfolk Makers’ Festival in England, BBC News reports, and the photos of the piece are astonishing. A previous knitted building that she made earned the admiration of the late Queen Elizabeth II , who spoke to the artist as she was setting it up. Seaman “chatted to her so easily, but she shook afterwards,” her daughter told the BBC. “She doesn’t drink—we had to get her some sponge cake so we could give her some sugar for the shock.” [BBC News]