EU Court Says Getty Should Return Ancient Greek Bronze to Italy, Kyiv ‘Derussifies’ Monument, Da Vinci Gets Biopic, and More: Morning Links for May 3, 2024

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THE HEADLINES

GETTY BRONZE DISPUTE. The European Court of Human Rights upheld a 2018 Italian judicial ruling that an ancient Greek statue at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles should be confiscated and returned to Italy, describing it as “an unlawfully exported piece of cultural heritage” in their Thursday announced decision. The Getty had appealed the earlier Italian high court ruling to hand over a life-size bronze sculpture, dating between the second or third century BCE, which the California institution calls “Victorious Youth,” while Italians refer to it as “Athlete of Fano,” after the town where it was discovered in 1964. According to Italian authorities, it was smuggled out of the country afterwards. In response to the EU court’s conclusions, the Getty insisted its “nearly 50-year possession” of the bronze statue was “appropriate, ethical and consistent with American and international law.” If necessary, the museum will “continue to defend its possession of the statue at all relevant courts,” it added.

DERUSSIFICIATION. The city of Kyiv is dismantling a Soviet-era monument thought to glorify ties to Russia, as part of its latest effort at “derussification,” following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. However, the Kyiv Department of Territorial Control announced the removal of the 1982 monument to the Pereyslav council, which is part of a larger ensemble, would take some time, due to its massive size. “The sculptural composition is large, consists of about 20 elements weighing between 6,000 kg and 7,000 each,” it said in a statement.

THE DIGEST

Leonardo da Vinci will become the latest artist to receive a biopic, directed by Andrew Haigh, known for last year’s All of Us Strangers. It will be based on Walter Isaacson’s biography of the Renaissance artist. [ARTnews]

The original watercolor drawing for the cover of the bestselling first series of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (1997) is heading to auction at Sotheby’s New York. The painting by Thomas Taylor is expected to beat all previous Harry Potter memorabilia sales at a high estimate of $600,000. [Forbes]

The French car maker Renault will auction 33 pieces from its art collection at Christie’s in Paris, with works by artists ranging from Dubuffet to Rauschenberg, worth an estimated 4.5 to 6.3 million euros [$4.8 to $6.8 million]. The company began collecting contemporary artworks in the late 1960’s and displayed them in company headquarters. [The Art Newspaper, France]

The National Trust for Historic Preservation has released a list of the “most endangered historic places in the US.” In addition to places, it offers a trove of hidden and almost-forgotten stories, like the “lonely old church” in the West Virginian mountains, where Black coal miners from a segregated camp worshipped, or one of the first self-governing all-Black towns, Eatonville, immortalized by Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937). [NPR]

Students at the School of Visual Arts (SVA) in New York City staged a sit-in for Gaza in university administrative offices. Joining ongoing student protests across the country, they have reportedly refused to leave until the university divests from businesses that have ties to “Israeli military attacks on Palestine.” [Hyperallergic]

The Bank of America’s Art Conservation Project is funding preservation initiatives in twenty-four international non-profit cultural institutions. This latest support adds to the over $20 million given annually to the cause, beginning in 2010. [The Observer]

The artist Daniel Arsham announced his final Pokémon clay sculpture will be unveiled today. “The Crystalized Seated Pikachu Edition will be available” by noon ET, today, he posted on Instagram, capping his collaboration with The Pokémon Company. [Hypebeast and Instagram]

African Arty gallery in Casablanca and no/mad utopia in Beirut, have announced they will be collaborating. It is essential to “foster connections within the MENA region,” said Jacques-Antoine Gannat, director of African Arty. [Le Quotidien de l’Art]

THE KICKER

DESOLATE SCAPES. The artist and MacArthur fellow Kara Walker spoke to painter Sedrick Chisom for Interview Magazine on the day of the solar eclipse and ahead of his first solo New York show titled, “The 108 Prayers of Evil,” which opened this week at CLEARING gallery. In their discussion on topics ranging from dystopia, Freud, and what they are reading, Walker writes that her friend’s practice has “often supplied us with accounts of a fictional war taking place in a nation that lives under white supremacy, featuring scenes of isolated characters traversing a desolate land.” His recent paintings continue in that vein, “but provide a new string of narratives that depicts both unrest and an attempt at unification,” she observes. When Walker asks what he is working on, “but really, what are the themes?” Chisom explains: “Well, in the past few years, there were identifiables in terms of the Confederacy, the Wild West, and particular sci-fi tropes. I keep pushing myself forward in this imaginative narrative. The further into the world I get, it resembles our own world less and less, and goes more into fantasy elements.”