On Friday, Nov. 29, 1985, the day after Thanksgiving, a coveted painting was stolen from the University of Arizona Museum of Art. The painting was ‘Woman-Ochre,’ one of six Willem de Kooning paintings in a series exploring the figure of a woman. ‘Woman III,’ another in the series, sold in 2006 for $137.5 million — at the time, the second-most expensive painting ever sold. The story of the theft of ‘Woman-Ochre,’ full of intrigue though sparse in detail, continues to haunt museum staff even after the passing of 30 years. At approximately 9 a.m. on that fateful day, a security officer opened the front door of the museum to let a staff member into the lobby. Two visitors — a man and a woman — followed inside. The man wandered up to the second floor while the woman engaged in small talk with a security guard. The man spent a little less than 10 minutes on the second floor, cutting ‘Woman-Ochre’ out

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The Rijksmuseum has received an exceptional painting by the 17th-century Dutch painter Gerard van Honthorst on long-term loan. Satyr and Nymph from 1623 is owned by the Broere Charitable Foundation, of which several works have been on view in the Rijksmuseum since 2012. The canvas, with the playful and lustful mythological figures, provides a surprising and daring look at Dutch painting in the Golden Age. Taco Dibbits, Director of Rijksmuseum Collections: The frivolous subject of this painting shows a different side of the 17th century, one which until now has been represented very little in the Rijksmuseum. We are therefore exceptionally pleased with this wonderful addition. The Utrecht painter Gerard van Honthorst (1592-1656) is internationally the most successful Dutch artist of the seventeenth century. He worked for kings, the church and dignitaries in Italy, England and Denmark. Thanks to his early, dark night

Read More: Painting by the 17th-century Dutch painter Gerard van Honthorst on long-term loan to the Rijksmuseum

Egypt said Monday it will conduct more tests this week in search of a hidden chamber in King Tutankhamun’s tomb that a British archaeologist believes may be the burial place of Queen Nefertiti. Archaeologists have never discovered the mummy of the legendary beauty, but renowned British archaeologist Nicholas Reeves said in a recent study that her tomb could be in a secret chamber adjoining Tutankhamun’s tomb in the Valley of Kings in Luxor in southern Egypt. Reeves, who was in Luxor in September to probe his theory, believes one door of Tutankhamun’s tomb could conceal the burial place of Nefertiti. Antiquities Minister Mamduh al-Damati said more tests will be carried out inside Tutankhamun’s tomb over three days starting Thursday ‘to see if there are secret chambers behind its walls’. ‘The search will involve using radar and infra-red technologies,’ Damati said, adding that they would

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The Costume Institute’s Fall 2015 exhibition, Jacqueline de Ribes: The Art of Style, focuses on the internationally renowned style icon Countess Jacqueline de Ribes, whose originality and elegance established her as one of the most celebrated fashion personas of the 20th century. The exhibition is on view in The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Anna Wintour Costume Center from November 19, 2015 through February 21, 2016. “A close study of de Ribes’s life of creative expression yields illuminating insights into her strategies of style,” said Harold Koda, Curator in Charge of The Costume Institute, who organized the exhibition. “Her approach to dress as a statement of individuality can be seen as a kind of performance art. When she established her own fashion house, her friend Yves Saint Laurent gave his blessing to the venture as a welcome projection

Read More: Metropolitan Museum celebrates Jacqueline de Ribes’s wardrobe and life as a French aristocrat

The Museo del Prado presents Ingres, the first monographic exhibition in Spain on one of the most important painters in the history of art but an artist who, for complex historical reasons, is not represented in Spanish public collections. For this reason, the present comprehensive reassessment of the work of Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres offers visitors to the Prado a unique and outstanding opportunity to appreciate and analyse this French painter’s relationship with the artistic movements of his day – Neo-classicism, Romanticism and Realism – from which his style and ideology remained resolutely unaffected. Inspired by the Romantic quest for ideal beauty, which for Ingres arose from his fascination with the classical past and with the art of Raphael, he broadened the genres of portraiture, the nude and history painting. Ingres’ remarkable skills as a

Read More: First monographic exhibition in Spain on the work of Ingres opens at the Museo del Prado

MATE – Museo Mario Testino presents Draftsmen’s Congress, the work initiated by Polish born, Warsaw based artist Pawel Althamer. The work sees MATE’s Temporary Exhibition Space converted into an empty, blank white room which transforms through the gradual accumulation of drawings and paintings by visitors to the museum. Visitors are invited to leave their own personal mark on surfaces in the room using materials provided by the museum, creating an ever changing interactive installation over a three month period. During the project, the artist’s aim is to connect the different groups of people and create an environment that promotes empathy and interpersonal exchange, combining the visual experience with socially suggestive messages. It is this approach that places Althamer at the forefront of current developments in contemporary art. Draftsmen’s Congress was first presented at the 7th Berlin

Read More: Draftsmen’s Congress: Work initiated by artist Pawel Althamer at MATE – Museo Mario Testino

In its first partnership with the International Center of Photography, the Rubin Museum of Art presents “Steve McCurry: India,” opening on November 18, 2015. The exhibition showcases McCurry’s photographs of India in a museum for the first time, featuring a selection of 37 photographs of intriguing scenes of everyday life, including his early projects India by Rail and Monsoon. Many of the photographs on display are considered iconic in McCurry’s oeuvre, and some have never been seen by the public. Known for his aesthetically beautiful and memorable photographs that transcend language, cultural, and geographic barriers, Steve McCurry is a widely respected contemporary American photographer who has traveled extensively since the late 1970s to document major political and social events. His exceptional use of color and ability to connect with his

Read More: Exhibition at Rubin Museum of Art showcases Steve McCurry’s photographs of India

November 2015 sees the opening of the ‘Neue Galerie’, a new exhibition space at the Hamburger Bahnhof – Museum für Gegenwart – Berlin, designed with the specific purpose of keeping the Nationalgalerie’s modern art collection on public display while the Mies van der Rohe building undergoes renovations. The space will host different modern art exhibitions every six months until the re-opening of the Neue Nationalgalerie. The first of these exhibitions, entitled “The Black Years. Histories of a Collection. 1933-1945”, is being held from 21 November 2015 until 31 July 2016. It features works from the Nationalgalerie which were either created between 1933 and 1945, acquired

Read More: Hamburger Bahnhof – Museum für Gegenwart opens "Neue Galerie", a new exhibition space

MATE – Museo Mario Testino presents Draftsmen’s Congress, the work initiated by Polish born, Warsaw based artist Pawel Althamer. The work sees MATE’s Temporary Exhibition Space converted into an empty, blank white room which transforms through the gradual accumulation of drawings and paintings by visitors to the museum. Visitors are invited to leave their own personal mark on surfaces in the room using materials provided by the museum, creating an ever changing interactive installation over a three month period. During the project, the artist’s aim is to connect the different groups of people and create an environment that promotes empathy and interpersonal exchange, combining the visual experience with socially suggestive messages. It is this approach that places Althamer at the forefront of current developments in contemporary art. Draftsmen’s Congress was first presented at the 7th Berlin

Read More: Draftsmen’s Congress: Work initiated b artist Pawel Althamer at MATE – Museo Mario Testino

In parallel with the exhibition Interior Design by Simon Evans, Galeria Fortes Vilaça presents on its second floor the short film Cutaways, by Polish artist Agnieszka Kurant. Made in partnership with award-winning film editor Walter Murch (Apocalypse Now, The Godfather), the work brings to the screen the invisible world of characters who were conceived and filmed during the production of certain feature films, but then completely deleted from the final cut. In the film, the artists gives life to three of these cut out supporting actors, which were extracted from cult productions by Kubrick, Tarantino and Sarafian. Kurant’s conceptual work deals with complex concepts such as immaterial labor and virtual capital, which she calls “phantom capital,” in order to explore how abstract phenomena generate concrete impacts in the economy, politics and culture. Her short film Cutaways

Read More: Galeria Fortes Vilaça presents the short film Cutaways by Polish artist Agnieszka Kurant