London Zoo Removes Banksy Mural for ‘Safekeeping,’ Brick Vaults Found Under London Museum, a New Nintendo Museum, and More: Morning Links for August 19, 2024

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THE HEADLINES

BOOM AND BUST. The New York Times reports on several artists whose careers took off on the steepest of trajectories amid the bull market and “and the notion that all artworks appreciate in value,” only to fall back down to earth with a bump. “The art market has been experiencing a downturn for the last few years, but the slump has been particularly acute for young artists,” the paper writes. “During the early pandemic, a speculative boom driven by a misplaced belief in quick returns set in, with collectors spending $712 million at auction in 2021 on works by artists born after 1974 — a giant leap from the $259 million buyers spent just a year earlier. But from 2021 to 2023, the prices for these artists — “ultracontemporary” is the industry term for them — plummeted by almost a third, according to the Artnet Price Database.” Take painter Amani Lewis, for example, whose meteoric rise of the back of huge auction results in 2020 has stalled as the art market corrects itself. “‘It was such a nice high and then it drops,’ the artist, now 29, said. ‘It feels like, ‘We’re done with Amani Lewis.’”

FRESH MEAT? A contractor working at the site of the new London Museum at Smithfield market got a surprise when he knocked a hole in a bricked-up wall of a basement. He found an “unparalleled” discovery of a massive and beautifully built network of subterranean brick vaults that no one knew existed. The architects in charge of the museum did notice some clues on old plans detailing underground structures, but because everything was bricked up, they had no idea of the details. “But one of the most curious things is exactly what these vaults were intended to be used for,” London Museum’s senior curator of archaeology, Francis Grew, told the Guardian. “That’s where the real mystery and the interest and the excitement is – they’re still not fully disclosing their past history.” It’s thought fruit, vegetables, meat, and textiles were probably stored there – but the vaults might even have been used as stabling for the many packhorses that worked at the markets.

THE DIGEST

The Reinhard Ernst Museum (which cost $93 million) in the German city of Wiesbaden is described by the FT as a “fitting epitaph for the revered Japanese architect” Fumihiko Maki, who died in June at the ripe old age of 95, just before the institution opened. [FT]

A large bronze statue of the late civil rights icon and Georgia congressman John Lewis has replaced a contentious monument to the confederacy that stood for 110 years in Decatur, Georgia. It was torn down in 2020 amid the protests against police brutality following the death of George Floyd at the hands of police in Minneapolis. [AP]

Three of Banksy’s nine animal murals discovered in London this month have now been taken down. After a wolf the street artist painted on a satellite dish in Peckham was stolen in broad daylight, and a big cat on a billboard was ripped down by a contractor, London Zoo removed the escape artist gorilla from its entrance for “safekeeping.” [BBC]

A museum in Wales at the foot of the country’s tallest mountain, Snowdonia, is giving the once prosperous slate trade that “shaped the social structure, the politics and even the creativity of the whole of Wales” a PR boost. [Guardian]

THE KICKER

SUPER MARIO MUSEUM. Japanese video game maker Nintendo has announced that it’s giving a free online tour of the Nintendo Museum on August 19 (today) at 3 PM (PT). “Join us… for a tour of the Nintendo Museum that’s scheduled to open during the fall of the 2024 in Kyoto, Japan! The Nintendo Museum Direct livestream will last roughly 10 minutes,” the company wrote on X. Gaming enthusiasts are commenting on the timing of the tour, saying it’s odd because it’s happening the day before major video game trade fair Gamescon, which Nintendo is not participating in… saber rattling or coincidence? However, any fans who were hoping for some juicy Nintendo news will be disappointed. “Please note that there will be no game announcement or mention of the Nintendo Switch successor during the presentation,” the company added on X. It announced the opening of the Nintendo Museum earlier this year – it is located on the site of Nintendo’s Uji Ogura Plant. [Nintendo Life]