A lot went down this week in the weird and wild world of Art. Some things were more scandalous than others, some were just plain wacky—but all of them are worth knowing about. Without further ado:+ Sandro Botticelli’s Venus is going on view for the first time in the United States along with 16 other works by the Italian master. [Artnet News]+ Restoration Hardware gifted the Los Angeles County Museum of Art a permanent installation of the Rain Room. [The Art Newspaper]
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+ Actor and performance artist Shia LaBeouf was arrested at a protest in New York after getting in verbal confrontation with a Trump supporter. LaBeouf plans to continuing protest the President with an ongoing performance installation entitled He Will Not Divide Us. The installation done in collaboration with the Museum of the Moving Image is a livestreamed broadcast that invites people to share words of resistance on camera. [CNN]+ The Hammer Museum in Los Angeles has announced plans for a 40,000 square foot expansion that will result in a 60% space increase for galleries. The project is scheduled for completion in 2020. [The Los Angeles Times]
+ The Smithsonian’s Hall of Presidents portrait gallery is closing for renovations and will reopen this fall. [The Washington Post]+ Roman Polanski pulled out of hosting the 42nd Cesar Awards after various feminist organizations voiced dissent over his appointment. [Le Monde]+ Artist and activist Tania Bruguera, who last year announced her plan to run for president of Cuba, has pulled artworks from the Bronx Museum out of frustration with a months-long art exchange between Cuba and the U.S. [The New York Times]
+ Revolutionary Lebanese painter and sculptor Saloua Raouda Choucair died in Beirut this week, aged 100. [ARTnews]+ A Brooklyn artist was arrested this week while trying to demonstrate how easy it is to walk around New York with a bomb. [NY Daily News]
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+ Best Foreign Film Oscar-nominated Iranian director Asghar Farhadi won't go to the Academy Awards this year, thanks to Donald Trump’s Muslim ban. [The Independent] + The Museum of Modern Art is sponsoring a free and safe afterschool program for LGBTQ teens. [The Huffington Post]
+ In protest of President Trump, landscape artist Christo is suspending his $50 million Over the River project, which planned to suspend a silver canopy over a 42-mile stretch of the Arkansas river. [The New York Times]+ Deana Haggag, the former executive director of the Contemporary in Baltimore, was named the new President and CEO of United States Artists. [The Baltimore Sun] + Acrobatic art burglar Vjeran Tomic, cleverly nick-named Spider-Man, goes on trial this week for a $100 million heist of five paintings from the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris. [The Guardian]+ Cuban artist El Sexto was released after spending two months in a Cuban prison. [Local 10 News]+ The Ruya Foundation, an Iraqi nonprofit, is working with artists and critics to publish and distribute art textbooks to schools throughout the Middle East. [Art Forum]
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