Rome Fights Rats at Colosseum, Banksy Sets Visitor Record in Glasgow, and More: Morning Links for August 28, 2023

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The Headlines

THE ETERNAL RODENT. Rome began addressing a rat problem around the Colosseum by staging what the city’s head of garbage collection, Sabrina Alfonsi, called a “special intervention,” Reuters reports. That includes setting traps and removing trash. BBC News reports that Alfonsi said that the rats have been congregating near the ancient site, in part, because of garbage left by tourists, which has increased in quantity with the heat wave. Fun fact: There are believed to be around 7 million rats in the Italian capital and 2.87 million human residents. (If everyone would just step up and adopt two or three rats, this problem would be solved.) The special sanitary measures continue this week.

BOFFO BANKSY BOX OFFICE. Banksy’s 10-week show at the Gallery of Modern Art in Glasgow, Scotland, has drawn 180,000 visitors, which is a record for the museum, BBC News reports. On Fridays and Saturdays, it has been staying open through the night, until 5 a.m. the next morning, which has helped bring in people. Titled “Banksy: Cut and Run,” the exhibition is the street artist’s first official solo show in 14 years, and it closes today. It seems that it will travel, the Independent notes. A text on the exhibition’s official website reads, “We want to take this show on the road but have no idea where to go next. Do you?” It asks people to send specific suggestions. Shoot your shot!

The Digest

Micha Winkler Thomas has been named deputy director of the Harvard Art Museums. She is coming from the Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., where she is now deputy director for strategy and chief operating officer. [The Harvard Gazette]

For at least the 18th time, South Korea’s Cultural Heritage Administration is calling on a man to hand over an important ancient book that was donated to the state but that he is believed to possess. Two searches of his home and office have not located the volume, which may have been damaged in a fire. [The Korea Herald]

Artist Yue Minjun’s debut NFT collection hauled in more than $1 million in the first two hours it was available for purchase, with all of the material selling. [ArtAsiaPacific]

The acclaimed Seattle chef Grayson Corrales will begin running the Frye Art Museum’s Café Frieda in October, serving some of the dishes from her popular Galician spot, MariPili Tapas Bar. [The Seattle Times]

In a letter to the editor, a resident of Buffalo, New York, praised a guard and the director of the city’s AKG Art Museum for their efforts to locate her purse, which she misplaced while attending a jazz concert there. In the end, Apple’s “Find My iPhone” feature came through. [The Buffalo News]

The Kicker

THE BRITISH EMPIRE. The London-headquartered White Cube gallery is readying locations in Seoul (in September) and New York (October), and its founder, Jay Jopling, got the profile treatment from Jay Cheshes in WSJ. Magazine. Among the artists weighing in on the dealer are Anselm Kiefer, Theaster Gates, and Tracey Emin. Emin said that, when she met Jopling more than 30 years ago, “I must have been the only woman in the art world at the time not to fancy Jay.” She will have the New York space’s first solo show, in November. [WSJ. Magazine]