The Met reports record visitor figures for 2015–16

Our daily round-up of news from the art world

Record visitor numbers at the Met | New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art has announced that it welcomed some 6.7 million people through its doors last year – an increase of 400,000 from the previous record year of 2014–15. ‘We are thrilled that the public continues to respond so enthusiastically to the Met’s exhibitions, collections, and programs,’ said director and CEO Thomas P. Campbell. ‘We are delighted that our visitors have also embraced our expanded programming at the Met Breuer as an integral part of the Met experience.’ As the New York Times points out, however, ‘there are other factors at play’ in the surge, not least a widely reported change to its formerly ambiguous entrance charge policy.

Monika Grütters announces plans to restructure Limbach Commission | German culture minister Monika Grütters has announced that she is to look into reforming the Limbach Commission, an advisory body set up in 2003 to arbitrate Nazi-era restitution claims. As The Art Newspaper reports, the panel has come under fire for many reasons since it was established, with critics accusing it of a lack of transparency. Grütters has pledged that Germany will meet its commitments under the 1998 Washington Principles on Nazi-confiscated art.

Garden Bridge: expert warns of construction hazards | In a letter seen by the Architects’ Journal (£), engineering consultant Tim Beckett of Beckett Raine has expressed fears that the construction of the proposed ‘Garden Bridge’ may present serious problems. Beckett believes that the structure’s proximity to the planned Thames Tideway Tunnel may cause a ‘hazardous juxtaposition of construction activities’. The ‘matter of navigational risks do not appear to have been adequately considered’, Beckett wrote, warning that with two construction projects, ‘The likelihood of a major collision between a passenger vessel and a large freight vessel […] is simply too great.’

Stone Age pictogram damaged by children in Norway | A unique Stone Age carving of a skiing figure on the island of Tro, in northern Norway, has apparently been irreparably damaged by two children. According to The Local, the children were attempting to make the faint outlines of the 5,000-year-old carving clearer to visitors, inadvertently vandalising it in the process. ‘It’s a kid, and it was done out of good intentions,’ said local politician Bård Anders Langø. ‘They were trying to make it more visible actually, and I don’t think they understood how serious it was. I think now they understand.’