If you miss the exhibition in Paris, next stop is the Van Gogh Museum.  Amsterdam has always understood the value of vice.

Nefertiti – Neues Museum – WikiCommons

Egyptologists are divided as to the parentage of King Tut, but one theory holds that Nefertiti, chief wife of Tut’s father, the Pharaoh Akhenaten, gave birth to the boy-king. (A recent autopsy indicates that Tutankhamun was crippled, possibly because he was the product of incest.)

Since the famed 1922 discovery of King Tut’s tomb by Howard Carter, archaeologists have wondered at the burial chamber’s relatively small size. Reeves’s theory offers a neat explanation to this lingering question: King Tut’s tomb was a mere antechamber added onto Nefertiti’s larger burial chamber.

The hidden tomb, if it exists, would be to the right of the entrance shaft, as was traditional for Egyptian queens. The former doorway is now decorated with religious scenes, which Reeves speculates would have been part of a ritual protection for Nefertiti’s final resting place.

Reeves also contends that King Tut’s richly adorned tomb is actually full of secondhand objects (possibly even his famed, recently-damaged funerary mask), some of which seem to indicate that Nefertiti served as the boy’s co-regent. Nefertiti’s known titles do suggest she helped rule the country following Akhenaten’s death, possibly as co-regent or even as pharaoh in her own right.

“If digital appearance translates into physical reality, it seems we are now faced not merely with the prospect of a new, Tutankhamun-era store room to the west [but] that of Nefertiti herself, celebrated consort, co-regent, and eventual successor of Pharaoh Akhenaten,” wrote Reeves.

“I would be very surprised if this tomb was built to house the original, or first, burial of Nefertiti,” countered Joyce Tyldesley, a senior lecturer in Egyptology at the University of Manchester, to the Times. “It seems to me that it is highly likely that she died during her husband’s reign…but I would have expected her to be buried somewhere in the Western Valley, rather than in the center of the Valley of the Kings.”

Luckily, it is fairly easy to begin to check Reeves’s theory using non-invasive means. Radar scans should reveal whether or not there are any hollow chambers adjacent to King Tut’s tomb. If so, a team of experts would likely be brought in to conduct a careful excavation.

“Each piece of evidence on its own is not conclusive, but put it all together and it’s hard to avoid my conclusion,” Reeves insisted to the Economist. “If I’m wrong I’m wrong, but if I’m right this is potentially the biggest archaeological discovery ever made.”

Artnet

4. Eames: The Architect & The Painter (2011) Architect and designer Charles Eames and his wife Ray, an artist, were two of America’s most influential tastemakers. The couple made hugely significant contributions to modern architecture, furniture and art. Using archival material and new interviews with friends, collaborators, and experts, this superb film tells their story.

5. The Cool School (2008) Narrated by Jeff bridges, the film examines the rise of the Los Angeles art scene which developed as a counterculture rebelling against the Abstract Expressionist art movement championed in New York. It profiles the influential Ferus Gallery and its owners Walter Hopps and Irving Blum and tells the story of how a small group of artists such as Ed Kienholz, Larry Bell, Ed Ruscha, John Altoon, and Billy Al Bengston transformed American art.

6. Gerhard Richter: Painting (2012) Providing a behind-the-scenes view of the studio of one of the world’s best (-selling) living painters, this film documents Gerhard Richter‘s creative process, showing the artist at work. A series of interviews with Richter, as well as some of his critics and contemporaries adds context to the artist’s oeuvre.

7. Tim’s Vermeer (2014) American inventor Tim Jenison analyzes the revolutionary painting technique of the 17th century Dutch master Johannes Vermeer. Jenison sets out to find out how the painter was able to create photo-realistic works over a century before the invention of the camera.  (Another personal aside: Evidently Penn and Teller, the producers, and Tim Jenison don’t believe David Hockney )

8. Marina Abramovic: The Artist Is Present (2012) The documentary follows the renowned performance artist Marina Abramovic as she prepares for her retrospective exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, New York. The film explores how the Serbian national redefined the understanding of what art is.

9. Guest of Cindy Sherman (2008) Filmmaker Paul Hasegawa-Overacker, known for his Gallery Beat reviews of New York art shows in the 1990s, was invited to interview the reclusive photographer Cindy Sherman in her studio. After several interviews the filmmaker and the photographer fall in love and embark on a romantic relationship. This film offers viewers remarkably intimate, one-of-a-kind insight into the life of a notoriously camera-shy artist from the perspective of Hasegawa-Overacker, who struggles to come to terms with Sherman’s celebrity.

10. National Gallery (2014) A fly-on-the-wall account of the National Gallery, London, one of the world’s most renowned museums with a stunning collection of canvasses by Da Vinci, Rembrandt, Turner and others. Filmmaker Frederick Wiseman explores the inner workings of modern cultural institutions, documenting the National Gallery’s administrative meetings, conservation, restoration and educational functions.

(Personal aside #3:

11. David Hockney: Secret Knowledge

(2003)Artist David Hockney discusses his theory that artists were secretly using optical devices such as mirrors and lenses in creating their work as early as the 15th century. Examples from Flemish and Italian art are studied as he examines how famous paintings have had their noted mysteries newly solved; he also makes comparisons to modern film and digital imagery.)
Artnet News

Joan Miro – “Signes et Meteores” – missing

It is assumed that most missing works from the Prado were misplaced or destroyed many years ago – fires and wars were mentioned. Consequently, no one is expected to be held responsible. The number of missing artworks from the Prado’s collection has steadily increased from 350 in the 1980s and about 500 in the 1990s, a nice linear progression towards the around 900 now missing. 450 pieces destroyed by war and fire since the 1980’s?

The court claims that “the high number and dispersion” of works from the Prado collection to other museums and institutions is partially to blame for the continual leakage of artworks. As the museum told the paper, the volume of art loans “makes oversight particularly difficult.” In their report, the court cites, “Lack of sufficient human resources,” as the culprit behind the missing artworks.

The government body Vermögen und Bau Baden-Württemberg is responsible for the management of 3,500 works of public art across the state, which have been catalogued. Since 2005, all artworks and added acquisitions were recorded in a digital database. However, a recent audit of the database showed that 500 works can no longer be located. 

Among the missing works are important modernist pieces such as the 1958 lithograph Signes et météores (from an edition of 100) by Joan Miró, procured in the early 1960s for the University of Stuttgart. According to research by the court of audit, the university administration was not aware of the loss, or even the date when the theft was first (not) noticed.   Oops.
Artnet News

HARP Chairman Ori Z. Soltes emphasized that “The Conseil des Ventes has the power to suspend this sale on two grounds. First, the presumption of good faith of the seller, which is the legal rule in France to challenge these sales, is eradicated by the numerous regulations and statutes which have been in effect in the U.S. for years. Furthermore, the Conseil must seek the provenance information for these objects from the seller. These objects cannot be sold or disposed of for legal, cultural and moral reasons.”

A representative of the Hopi Tribe, Marilyn Fredericks, said “The outcome we would like is long term education of Hopi perspectives, and an understanding of our way of belief. Although it does not reflect the European type of belief and religions, we would like the world to respect us as Hopi people.” She added, “We call on the french government to do the right thing and listen to our petition that we have sent to the ministers of culture, foreign relations and justice.” -Artnet News

The Hopi tribe contends the auction house is illegally selling spiritual objects, but French courts have repeatedly upheld the right to sell them. Unlike the United States, France lacks laws to protect indigenous people but the U.S. government has no legal authority to stop auctions in France. -AP

PARIS (AP) — A U.S. charitable foundation said Wednesday that it was the anonymous bidder that paid $530,000 for 24 Native American masks in a Paris auction and will return them to the Hopi Nation in Arizona and the San Carlos Apache tribe.

“These are not trophies to have on one’s mantel,” said Gregory Annenberg Weingarten, director of the Los Angeles-based Annenberg Foundation. He added: “They do not belong in auction houses or private collections.”

Twenty-one vividly colored masks made of leather, horsehair, wood and feathers bought at Monday’s auction are being returned to the Hopis and three hood masks to the San Carlos Apaches.

The U.S. Embassy had also called for a delay so that tribal representatives could come to France to identify the artifacts and investigate whether they have a claim under the 1970 UNESCO Convention on the Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property, to which both France and the U.S. are signatories.

“Our hope is that this act sets an example for others that items of significant cultural and religious value can only be properly cared for by those vested with the proper knowledge and responsibility. They simply cannot be put up for sale,” Sam Tenakhongva, a Hopi cultural leader, said in a statement Wednesday.

The Drouot auction house said the total sale was for $1.6 million, including a sacred “Crow Mother,” a menacing Hopi mask with billowing black plumes, which sold for nearly twice its expected value at $171,000.

Pierre Servan-Schreiber, a lawyer who represents the Hopis, told The Associated Press that he’d personally bought one mask to return to the tribe.

Christie’s, Sotheby’s and specialist auctioneer MacDougalls, which together sold 95 million pounds ($146 million) of Russian works last year, kick off the next round Monday, starting at Christie’s.

Now the Basilica of Santa Lucia al Sepolcro wants the painting back. And the dispute has pitted the two rival neighborhoods against each other.

Eyeing the surge in visitor numbers to the adjacent Ortigia district, Luigi Puzzo, president of the Association of the Faithful of Santa Lucia al Sepolcro, explained that the painting was removed from the church in 2010 when the structure had to undergo urgent restoration, and that the time has come for the painting to return “to its natural home.”

The former regional councillor for culture Maria Rita Sgarlata has started a petition, collecting over two thousand signatures calling for the painting to return to the Basilica. She also notes that the placement of the artwork obscures another painting in the church hanging nearby.

The National Directive of Italian Guides also waded into the debate. The organization insists that the artwork would be “isolated” in the Basilica, and supports Santa Lucia all Badia’s claim to the painting.

The final decision ultimately rests with the Regional Restoration Centre of Palermo. Tests conducted by art conservation experts in the Sicilian capital revealed that, though not ideal, the atmospheric conditions in the Santa Lucia alla Badia are better, and that the painting must remain there.

The work’s condition is already compromised following a botched restoration in 1979.
-Artnet News