Paris Museums Reopen After Terrorist Atrocity

Our daily round-up of news from the art world

Paris Museums Reopen After Devastating Terrorist Attack | Paris’s cultural institutions reopened this afternoon after closing their doors in the wake of a terrorist attack on Friday that killed nearly 130 people and injured many more. Culture Minister Fleur Pellerin issued the order to keep museums and other venues closed on Sunday, citing the fact that the ISIS terrorists involved in Friday’s attack appeared to have targeted places of ‘spectacle, conviviality and leisure’. Most museums have now reverted to normal opening hours, though the Eiffel Tower will remain closed until further notice, reports the BBC.

Pompidou & Musée Picasso Enter Partnership | In further encouraging news, Friday’s carnage has not brought the city’s cultural life to a standstill. The Centre Pompidou and the Musée Picasso have agreed to a new relationship that will see the institutions collaborate on major exhibitions, ticketing strategies, loans and storage, reports The Art Newspaper. Storage in particular is a concern for both museums, which are planning to relocate existing facilities to a new space in the Paris suburbs.

Art Project Opens in Fukushima Exclusion Zone | A highly unusual collaboration between Japanese and international artists has begun in the nuclear exclusion zone around the abandoned Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, which went into meltdown in 2011. According to the Guardian, the exhibition – which features contributions from figures including Ai Weiwei, Taryn Simon and Ahmet Öğüt – will be off limits to the public, but its contents can be indirectly accessed via a touring exhibition of ‘descriptions, impressions and data’.

‘Racist Joke’ Discovered Below Surface of Malevich’s Black Square | Art historians at Moscow’s State Tretyakov Gallery have discovered what they believe to be a ‘racist joke’ inscribed below the surface of Kasemir Malevich’s 1915 painting Black Square, reports Hyperallergic. Perhaps more interestingly from an art historical point of view, experts believe they have discovered two ‘hidden’ images underneath the famously monotone paint.

Insurance Rates Have Dropped for New York Galleries | Moderated jubilation for New York gallerists as insurance brokers reduce premiums to a low not seen since Hurricane Sandy ripped through the city. However, it’s not all plain sailing. The Art Newspaper also reports that insurance firms are enforcing increasingly strict conditions on art storage. In the long run, this may well be something of a bonus.

Francis Bacon Catalogue Raisonné to Include More than 100 ‘Unknown’ Paintings | After 10 years in the making, a catalogue raisonné of Francis Bacon’s complete oeuvre is to appear in April. According to Martin Harrison, the man tasked with compiling the tome by the Francis Bacon estate, the catalogue will feature over 100 hitherto unknown works. Harrison, who never met Bacon in person, is confident that he has found every existing work by the artist, according to The Times. Given Bacon’s famous largesse, it seems possible there may be further surprises in store.