Museums in Austria and Greece in Talks Over Return of Parthenon Pieces, Artist John Stobart Dies at 93, and More: Morning Links for May 3, 2023

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The Headlines

MARBLE MANEUVERS. Austria’s foreign ministry said that the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna and the Acropolis Museum in Athens are in talks about sending two sculptural pieces from of the Parthenon back to Greece, the Associated Press reports. A spox for the ministry said that the “technical” discussions are “about the possibility of a loan” from the Kunsthistorisches Museum. The Vatican recently donated its three fragments of the Parthenon marbles to the Greek Orthodox Church. As the AP notes, an Austro-Grecian deal could ramp up pressure on the British Museum to repatriate its far-larger Parthenon marbles. For more on that situation, ARTnews has an explainer.

THE BRITISH-BORN ARTIST JOHN STOBART, a giant of maritime painting renowned for his knowledge of boats and ships of every kind, died in March at 93, Alex Williams writes in the New York Times. Stobart’s lucid depictions of watercraft earned him a devoted following, and he was at one point making $2.5 million a year selling prints, books, and paintings, the Times reports. Early in his career, he worked on commissions for shipping companies, painting their vessels in port, the Vineyard Gazette reports. TV anchor Walter Cronkite was a fan, and once compared Stobart to John Constable, but the artist was not having it, the Times reports. “I think it’s way too illustrative, my work,” he said, “and that’s because I’m trying to be a businessman and an artist.”

The Digest

Government-backed researchers in Ommeren, the Netherlands, concluded an unsuccessful hunt for boxes filled with jewels and gold that Nazi soldiers are said to have buried near the end of the war. Treasure hunters have been drawn to area after the declassification of a map leading to a purported treasure there. [The New York Times] 

The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco tapped Danielle St. Germain, formerly the executive director of the San Francisco Ballet, to be its chief philanthropy officer. [Datebook]

The Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach, Florida, has hired Anke Van Wagenberg as its senior curator of American and European art. She’s coming from the Vero Beach Museum of Art, about 80 miles north, where she is chief curator. [Press Release]

Anna Somers Cocks has a handy guide to all the “mystical objects” that will be involved in the coronation of King Charles III on Saturday, from the Stone of Destiny to a gold Coronation Spoon that dates to the 12th century. [The Art Newspaper]

The many-storied Hotel Bauer Palazzo in Venice is undertaking a major renovation and has been selling off some of its furnishings through Artcurial. The live auctions are over, but online sales run until Thursday. [Artnet News]

Architectural Digest has a rundown of “12 most unique bus stops around the world,” and artist’s Dennis Oppenheim’s remarkable Bus-Home in Ventura, California, made the cut. As its name promises, it features sculptures that appear to be at once autobuses and houses. [Architectural Digest]

The Kicker

THE FLOW OF TIME. At a panel at the Art for Tomorrow conference in Florence, Italy, last week, journalist Farah Nayeri asked outgoing Whitney Museum director Adam Weinberg what he thinks a museum is today. His response, as reported by the New York Times: “At least at the Whitney, I think of it very much as a place of art in real time, which means we are swimming in the river, at the same pace of the river, and we can’t even feel the movement of the river, in a way.” [NYT]