Open Letter Slams Slovakia’s Government, Banksy Video Interview Resurfaces, George Clooney is Auctioning a Dinner Date, and More: Morning Links for August 15, 2024

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THE HEADLINES

ANIMAL HARM? I think we can finally put the Banksy vandalizing London story with animal portraits story to bed. It looks like he’s given up on the series, capping it off with a gorilla helping to facilitate the great escape from London Zoo. His identity may remain a mystery, but ITV recently dipped into its archives and found an old report from 2003 on the graffiti artist that 1) almost reveals his identity and 2) confirms his love (or hate) of animals. In it, Banksy – who is wearing a makeshift disguise of a baseball cap and T-shirt pulled over his face – says in a thick Bristolian drawl, “I’m disguised because you can’t really be a graffiti writer and go public, the two things don’t quite go together.” The story follows Banksy painting a load of live farm animals for an exhibition and the anticipation builds agonizingly as the RSPCA (the British equivalent of the ASPCA) inspector arrives to check if the artist has used animal-friendly paint. Has he or hasn’t he…. Watch to find out

GET A GRIPPA. London’s National Gallery has splashed out more than $2.5 million on a painting by Dutch, Victorian-era artist Lawrence Alma-Tadema (1833-1912). The artwork, called After the Audience (1879) centers on Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, who was the son-in law of Emperor Augustus Caesar and the patron of significant Roman buildings including the Pantheon and the Basilica of Neptune. It was painted to catch the eye of industrialist William Armstrong, who was a fan of another work by Alma-Tadema titled An Audience with Agrippa (1875), which was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1876. However, Armstrong’s interest wasn’t piqued, which is his loss given After the Audience is now widely considered to be one of the artist’s masterpieces, “noted for its scale and complexity of composition,” according to The Art Newspaper. It is the first work by Alma-Tadema to be acquired by the National Gallery, and its inclusion in the museum’s collection is part of its ongoing 200th anniversary celebrations.

THE DIGEST

Swiss artist Christoph Büchel has turned a Venetian Palace into a pawnshop with his “compelling, obsessive, and sometimes hilarious” installation. Check it out. [The New York Times]

Toddler’s nightmares are made of this; someone auctioning off your teddy bear collection. The owner of Teddy Bears of Whitney, a shop in the UK city of Oxford, has one very special bear – Aloysius from the 1980s TV adaptation of Evelyn Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited. It’s expected to fetch around $40,000 at auction. [BBC]

To celebrate its 60th birthday – and the fact it’s now Europe’s longest-standing, independent foundation – the Fondation Marguerite et Aimé Maeght in southern France has put on a show of works by Henri Matisse and Pierre Bonnard. [The Art Newspaper]

More than 150 prominent cultural figures across Europe have signed an open letter slamming Slovakia’s nationalistic government for sacking the directors of the country’s National Theater and National Gallery (SNG). [e-flux]

THE KICKER

TICKET TO PARADISE. Another auction story for you. This time it’s not about a teddy bear but a silver fox, George Clooney. The actor is selling a few candlelit hours of his time in New York to the highest bidder for charity. The auction, managed by Charitybuzz and titled “A Good Evening with George Clooney” closes on August 20 and is witnessing a flurry of bidding. The starting bid was $10,000 and the price has risen to $31,000 at the time of writing. The charity hopes someone will be willing to fork out at least $60,000 for a dinner date with George… well, a dinner date with George and two dozen other guests. Make sure you read the small print before placing a bid. The proceeds will go towards causes including Waging Justice for Women. [The News]