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The Headlines
A SOMBER DAY. Pope Francis died Easter Monday at his home in Casa Santa Marta, the Vatican announced in a statement on social media. He was 88. In addition to pushing for a more inclusive Roman Catholic Church in support of marginalized voices over the course of his 12-year papacy, the first Jesuit and Latin American pontiff showed strong support for artists and was the proprietor in trust of the Vatican’s library and art collections. He was also the first pope to visit the Venice Biennale, when he attended last year to seee the Vatican’s pavilion presented at a women’s prison. While in the prison chapel, he said “the world needs artists,” and specifically stressed the importance of women creators, like Frida Kahlo and Louise Bourgeois . “I hope with all my heart that contemporary art can open our eyes, helping us to value adequately the contribution of women, as co-protagonists of the human adventure,” he said. More recently, the pope wrote in a homily that was read for him, due to his poor health, that artists crucially help us “ask questions about time and about purpose. Are we pilgrims or wanderers? Does our journey have a destination, or are we directionless?” reported Vatican News . “Never cease searching, questioning and taking risks,” he added.
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PRESERVING HISTORY. Four Democratic members of Congress have penned a letter to Vice President J.D. Vance, urging him to reject President Donald Trump’s plans to radically overhaul the Smithsonian Institution, The Art Newspaper reported Friday. As “shared custodians of the one of the nation’s crown jewels,” Joseph Morelle (New York), Terri Sewell (Alabama), Norma Torres (California) and Julie Johnson(Texas), all members of the Committee on House Administration, wrote in the April 17 letter that they share “great concern over its future.” They called for bipartisan cooperation, which has helped build Smithsonian museums in the past. “Unfortunately, we now stand at the brink of seeing the Smithsonian at its worst: shaped solely by the views and ideology of one individual as a means of expanding his political power,” said the letter. It goes on to slam the president, saying his “flagrant attempt to erase Black history is unacceptable and must be stopped. The attempt to paper over elements of American history is both cowardly and unpatriotic.”
The Digest
Guy Ullens, a Belgian billionaire who built up one of the most important collections of Chinese contemporary art in the world, has died at 90. [ARTnews]
The government of Ontario will invest up to C$50 million ($36 million) over three years to update and expand the McMichael Canadian Art Collection in Kleinburg. The institution holds one of the country’s largest collections of Canadian and Indigenous art. [press release]
The Cleveland Museum of Art in Ohio has returned a looted ancient Ptolemaic-era statue to Libya, thanks to a bilateral Memorandum of Understanding. The third century BCE statue was stolen from Tolemaïs (Ptolemaida) during World War II, according to evidence provided by the Libyan Department of Antiquities. [The Jerusalem Post]
In a in a piece illustrated with a cover portrait by Henry Taylor, Pharrell Williams discusses the Met Gala opening next month, which he is cohosting for the Costume Instituteexhibition “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style.” Williams told Vogue, “I want it to feel like the most epic night of power, a reflection of Black resiliency in a world that continues to be colonized, by which I mean policies and legislation that are nothing short of that.” [Vogue]
The Kicker
WHY SO MANY ART FRAUD CASES IN FLORIDA? In a new piecefor Vanity Fair, Nate Freeman asks this question while looking at a string of forged art scandals that have implicated dealers in the Sunshine State. One particularly “bonkers” example, “even by Florida standards,” gets his full attention. You may have seen the news last week about dealer Leslie Roberts, who was charged with peddling fake Andy Warhols in the boho-chic Coconut Grove Miami suburb. Legal documents show Roberts has a long history of run ins with the law, and tendency to pose as alternative identities. His story, and those he scammed, “all plays out in the inherently surface-level art scene in sparkly make-believe Miami, where you can will a Warhol into existence and find someone to trust that it’s real,” writes Freeman.