Tudor palace remains discovered in Greenwich

Our daily round-up of news from the art world

Tudor palace remains discovered in Greenwich | A team working on a renovation project at the Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich, London have discovered the underground remains of an old Tudor palace, it was announced this week. Two rooms have been unearthed belonging to the lost Greenwich Palace (birthplace of Henry VIII and of his daughters Mary and Elizabeth I), which was demolished in the late 17th century. In a statement, Duncan Wilson, the chief executive of Historic England, described the archaeological site as ‘a really remarkable find’, noting that the Old Royal Naval College are hoping to incorporate it into a new on-site visitor centre.

Archaeologists discover 2,000-year-old tombs in Egypt | Another significant archaeological find this week, announced by Egypt’s antiquities ministry yesterday: three tombs dating back around 2,000 years, found in the Al-Kamin al-Sahrawi area in Minya province, south of Cairo. The tombs, which date to between the 27th dynasty and the Greco-Roman era, appear to have been part of a larger cemetery, containing an assortment of sarcophagi and clay fragments. Excavation at the site began in 2015, and more work is currently underway.

Design Museum announces Designs of the Year shortlist | The shortlist for the 10th edition of the Design Museum’s annual Beazley Designs of the Year award was today announced. 62 designs have been nominated for the prize, all of which will be on view at the museum from October this year, with winners announced in January 2018. Commentators have noted the politically charged nature of many of the entries on this year’s shortlist, which includes artist Wolfgang Tillmans’s pro-EU posters designed for the UK’s 2016 referendum and the knitted pink ‘pussyhat’ which became a symbol of political resistance to the US presidency.

Indianapolis Museum of Art campus is renamed | The Indianapolis Museum of Art is undergoing a rebrand, Indystar reports. The institution’s entire 152-acre campus, which incorporates the museum building and garden, an art and nature park and the Lilly House historic estate, will be renamed ‘Newfields, a Place for Nature and the Arts’. The new name, which will officially debut in early October, plays off the name of the estate donated in 1966 by the Lilly family, owners of a major pharmaceutical empire who in 2015 also gave the museum the $10 million endowment that prompted its current rebrand.

Confederate statues removed in Baltimore | As debates continue over political responses to the violent events which occurred this weekend at a far-right rally protesting about the removal of a Confederate statue in Charlottesville, Virginia, the Maryland city of Baltimore has reacted with the swift removal of at least four Confederate-era monuments, CNN reports. On Monday the city council voted to have the statues removed immediately, and last night reports emerged that four memorials at various public locations have been taken down and driven away.

Fears for future of Scotland Yard’s art and antiques unit | A former head of Scotland Yard’s art and antiques unit, Vernon Rapley, who served between 2001 and 2010, is concerned that ‘the closure of the unit is now being considered’, the Art Newspaper reports. The former detective sergeant responsible for the unit, Claire Hutcheon, departed last March and has not been replaced. The three remaining detectives in the unit, which was set up in 1969, have recently been reassigned to the Metropolitan Police’s investigation into the fire at Grenfell Tower, which resulted in the deaths of over 80 people.