The Headlines
I’ll NEVER LET GO?Jack, from the 1997 filmTitanic,famously heard those words from his beloved Rose before he sank into the icy ocean. But now, the company that owns salvage rights to theTitanicshipwreck wants to let go of—or, rather, auction—nearly 100 artifacts recovered in 1987. The sale has now sparked new legal controversy, reports theNew York Times. At the heart of the issue is that theR.M.S. Titanic, a private company, aims to sell artifacts that were found thanks to a joint 1987 expedition with the French government. The French government, however, lent its support to the expedition and later gave the US company title to the artifacts under the condition that whatever was recovered would not be sold. Meanwhile, the R.M.S. Titanic tried to keep its auction plans confidential, but a judge shot down their efforts and demanded that details about the sale be made public. Also leading opposition to the sale is the USNational Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which has argued the auction violates a previous legal ruling requiring the collection to remain intact. A lawyer for R.M.S. Titanic, however, told theTimeshis client believes that “the law of the case permit[s] the sale of these artifacts.”
SET FIRE TO THE FOUNTAIN. The heatedcontroversyaround the removal of San Francisco’sVaillancourt Fountaintook a turn on Wednesday when flames erupted as workers tried to dismantle it, reports theSan Francisco Chronicle. Photographs show a small flame erupting on part of the interactive, Brutalist sculpture by Canadian artistArmand Vaillancourt. The fire was quickly contained, and no injuries were reported.Coma Te, director of communications for theSF Arts Commission, said “no major damage” was done to the art piece, which is being moved to storage. Rubber tubing inside one of the fountain’s hollow concrete appendages may have ignited while using a torch to take the structure apart, according to workers. The process was expected to produce sparks, and fire extinguishers had been brought to the site as a precaution. “Essentially, the tubes are acting like a chimney,” Te said, adding that crews are reviewing how to prevent any future fires as they proceed with the heavy-lift phase of the sculpture’s removal.
The Digest
Beat Generation assemblage artistGeorge Hermsdied on April 24th in Irvine, California, at age 90. [The New York Times]
French Senators are preparing to definitively adopt a historic bill that will facilitate therestitution of artworkslooted during the colonial period. [Le Figaro and AFP]
Lucky visitors to Vienna’sBurgtheaterhave the chance of a lifetime to climb 60-foot-high scaffolding, where they’ll be given a rare close-up ofGustav Klimt’s 10 oil paintings on the building’s ceiling while they are being renovated. [The Associated Press]
A traveling European exhibition organized by Britain’sNational Holocaust Museumabout the history of antisemitism, titled “The Vicious Circle,” has been rejected by major institutions in the UK. [The Times of London]
The Kicker
BETTER LATE THAN NEVER.Ahead ofFrieze New Yorknext week, theFinancial Timeshas taken stock of artists who are finding belated career success in their 80s. There’sVirginiaJaramillo, 87, who was given an early shot of inspiration during a high school art class trip to Charles and Ray Eames’s workshop in Venice, California. She’ll be showing 10 new abstract works in a solo show presentation byHales Gallery. Her first solo museum exhibit only took place in 2020, at theMenil Collectionin Houston. There’s also the Spanish multidisciplinary artistAntoni Miralda, 83, showing withGalerie Champ Lacombe. Miralda began making edible sculptures, because “I worked with the materials I could find in my neighborhood in a pastry shop” in Paris, as he tells theFT. He later opened El Internacional Tapas Bar and Restaurant with chefMontse Guillénin Manhattan, running it from 1984 to 1986. Other artists getting later-life, overdue attention include sculptor and former “combat artist” for the Marines,Akinsanya Kamon, atMarc Selwyn Fine ArtandOrtuzar; as well as Indigenous Peruvian artistSara Flores, exhibiting withWhite Cube.