France Giacometti foundation to open its doors to all
Catherine Grenier, the director of the Fondation Alberto et Annette Giacometti in Paris, has announced plans to make the organisation more accessible to the public by opening a Giacometti institute that will be based in the 14th arrondissement. “When I got here a year ago,” she told the New York Times, “this foundation was not at all well known, for one essential reason: it was closed to the public. My priority is to make its activities and its extraordinary collection accessible.” Grenier plans to open a space for exhibitions, research and education in the new venue, and re-create the workshop of Alberto Giacometti.
Germany
Egypt stops sale of stolen ivory antiquity
The Egyptian government blocked the sale in June of an ancient ivory sculpture at an auction house in Oberhausen, Germany. The 5cm-high piece, of a figure holding a gazelle on its shoulders, was included in an antiquities sale organised by the Aton Gallery. “The statue, along with dozens of other ancient Egyptian artefacts, was stolen in 2013 from the storerooms of the Antiquities Ministry in Aswan,” an official told Egyptian media. The artefact was first discovered in 2008 by Swiss archaeologists, who excavated a temple devoted to the deity Khnum on Elephantine Island on the Nile. A spokesman for the auction house says: “We condemn illegal excavations and thefts. But as long as the Egyptian government does not list stolen items on a database, they will always come on the market.”
Unesco-backed plan to digitally scan at-risk sites
The International Council on Monuments and Sites (Icomos) and Cyark, the California-based non-profit organisation dedicated to digitally preserving the world’s cultural heritage, are joining forces to digitally document at-risk heritage sites. The plan is to make 3D scans of sites near conflict zones using the latest technology that allows for “complex recording to take place in a fraction of the time and cost of traditional methods, creating detailed maps and models of sites in days instead of weeks or months,” according to Cyark’s website. The initiative, called Project Anqa (the Arabic word for phoenix), was announced at the 39th meeting of Unesco’s World Heritage Committee in Bonn, Germany (28 June-8 July).
Russia Authorities block Moscow LGBT photography show
Russian authorities blocked the opening of an exhibition featuring photographs of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender teenagers at the Red Square Gallery in Moscow, just days before the show was scheduled to open on 12 June. The exhibition was set to include images by the street photographer Mary Gelman and another, anonymous photographer. It was organised by the curator Tarja Polyakova, who told the Russian newspaper Kommersant that police officers visited the space and asked: “Where is your show about fags and paedophiles?” Russian media reported that the photographs were later displayed on Gogolevsky Boulevard in downtown Moscow, but police officers swiftly removed them.
Switzerland Snow and ice to inspire second Gstaad show
The second in a series of biennial-style shows held in the Swiss ski resort of Gstaad is due to open early next year. Elevation 1049: Avalanche (8 February-13 March), organised by the curators Neville Wakefield and Olympia Scarry, and the Swiss artist Raphael Hefti, will include mainly London-based artists (the participants are yet to be confirmed). “We are working on an experimental performance and sound programme that will run in tandem with the art exhibition,” Wakefield says. “The mountains, snow and ice lend themselves to sound through absorption, refraction and echoes.”