Louvre Jewel Heist Was Not Carried Out by Professionals, Prosecutor Says

The heist of the French crown jewels at the Louvre Museum in Paris is now believed to have been carried out by petty criminals rather than organized crime professionals, according to Paris’s prosecutor.

“This is not quite everyday delinquency … but it is a type of delinquency that we do not generally associate with the upper echelons of organized crime,” Laure Beccuau told France Info Radio.

Via ARTnews

Nick Cave’s New Monument Is for the Birds—Literally

On paper, a description of Nick Cave’s bronze sculpture Amalgam (Origin) (2024) might be interpreted as Lovecraftian horror. A humanoid figure looming 26 feet tall, with skin wrapped in organic patterns and, in place of a head, a spray of logs and branches on which all manner of birds sit perched, preternaturally still. But, standing in its presence, the effect is quite the opposite.

Amalgam (Origin) marks the artist’s first public outdoor sculpture, recently installed at the sweeping 158-acre main campus of the Frederik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park and joining the institution’s permanent collection of over 300 sculptures as its largest figurative work. A creative evolution of his iconic “Soundsuits,” the towering bronze figure conveys a powerful sense of calm and solemn composure—an otherworldly sentinel that, through compositional and material weightiness, evokes themes of protection and sanctuary.

Via Artnet

Maurizio Cattelan, “America” (2016) (image courtesy Sotheby's)

Maurizio Cattelan’s Gold Toilet Can Soon Be Yours

Exactly one year after “Comedian” (2019), the cursed banana duct-taped to the wall, went under the hammer at Sotheby’s and down Chinese crypto billionaire Justin Sun’s gullet for a whopping $6.2 million, Maurizio Cattelan returns like clockwork to play in our faces once again.

Cattelan’s functional, 18-karat gold toilet “America” (2016) will lead Sotheby’s “The Now and Contemporary” evening sale on November 18, with starting bids expected at around $10.2 million on account of the toilet weighing in at just over 223lbs (101.2kg).

Via Hyperallergic