What does the term “public art” mean to you? The fourth plinth on Trafalgar Square has seen a huge variety of different things temporarily located on it, all of which are pieces of public art. Public art, though, embraces a far wider array of things than one might imagine – inscriptions on a building, ornate entrance gates, street signs, even bollards as well as the more conventional paintings, light installations and sculptures. Indeed, the Tate defines public art as:

“…art that is in the public realm, regardless of whether it is situated on public or private property or whether it has been purchased with public or private money.” Continue reading →

A multimillion pound oil painting by Parmigianino will be shipped to the United States after no buyers were found in the United Kingdom to step and rescue it from export.

‘Virgin and Child with Saint Mary Magdalen and the Infant Saint John the Baptist’ (c. 1535-40) was purchased from the private collection of the Dent-Brocklehurst family by Los Angeles’ J. Paul Getty Museum in 2016. UK Culture Minister, Matt Hancock, placed a temporary export bar on the painting by Girolamo Francesco Maria Mazzola (called Parmigianino) to enable a UK buyer to match the £24.5 million asking price by June 2017. Continue reading →

A conservator “got such a fright” that she jumped upon discovering a 118-year-old painting hidden inside a hut in Antarctica.

The watercolour of a small bird labelled ‘1899 Tree Creeper’ was uncovered by Josefin Bergmark-Jimenez from the New Zealand Antarctic Heritage Trust in September 2016. It was tightly packed among papers in a portfolio found inside the hut, one of two dwellings built at Cape Adare in East Antarctica by the 1899 expedition of Carsten Borchgrevink. Until now the surprise find has been kept secret to enable the Trust to focus on restoring 1,500 artefacts discovered in the huts. Continue reading →