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The Headlines
MONUMENTAL RULINGS. A federal judge rejected a bid to stop the removal of a monument depicting Confederate general A. P. Hill that stands in an intersection in Richmond, Virginia, clearing the way for it to be carted away this week, the Associated Press reports. All the other Confederate markers have been taken down in the city in recent years, but the presence of Hill’s remains beneath the statue had made it a thornier legal issue. Meanwhile, a Pennsylvania court ruled that Philadelphia must remove a plywood box that it installed around a statue of Christopher Columbus in a city park, the New York Times reports. A group of local residents had objected to that box and filed suit. The court’s opinion says that the city’s objections to the sculpture were “somewhat opaque” and that officials could make their point with a plaque. Philadelphia’s mayor and its Historical Commission have called for the statue to be removed.
CONSERVATION EFFORTS. Archaeologists in Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula are rushing to study and save antiquities and ancient sites before a highly controversial $15 billion train project arrives, potentially destroying them, the Washington Post reports in a story with dramatic visuals. “It’s so rich in archaeology that the only way to preserve everything would be to construct an upper story for the whole population,” one scholar said of the area. Up north, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled that the state historical society can use eminent domain to eject a country club from land that is home to a key Native American site, the Octagon Earthworks (and a golf course developed atop them), in a bid to gain UNESCO World Heritage status for it, the New York Times reports. The club, which has a lease on the land until 2078, had said it is open to moving, but it believes the property is worth considerably more than the state has offered.
The Digest
Banksy is selling prints, in an edition of 50, to support the Legacy of War Foundation, a nonprofit that aims to help Ukrainian citizens amid Russia’s invasion of their country. The price: £5,000 (about $6,100) apiece. Last month, the pseudonymous street artist created a number of works there, ARTnews reported. [HuffPost/Yahoo! News]
A T. rex skull sold at Sotheby’s in New York for $6.1 million, less than half its $15 million low estimate, in a possible signal that the market for dinosaur material, which has been hot lately, is cooling. The identity of the winning bidder for the skull, which was christened Maximus, was not revealed. [The New York Times]
The National Gallery of Australia is facing potential financial strain next year, when a short-term program of extra spending ends, and it is studying possible contingency measures, like laying off some staffers and charging for admission. [The Sydney Morning Herald]
Hamish Kilgour—the revered drummer for the New Zealand band The Clean (which he helped found in 1978), who was also a prolific painter—was found dead last week in Christchurch, New Zealand, after going missing. No cause of death has been released. He was 65 years old. [The New York Times]
Wolfgang Tillmans photographed Anthony Fauci for an op-ed by the retiring director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health, in the New York Times, and also did a brief interview with him for the paper about his long career.
Director Guillermo del Toro was feted at the Museum of Modern Art’s annual film benefit, and there are stories on the proceedings from the Cut, Vogue, Page Six, and Vanity Fair, which reports that actor Cate Blanchett told him in a video tribute, “You are a rare and special cinema artist and it’s a privilege to know you.”
The Kicker
IN THE KITCHEN. Osaka-born, Berlin-based artist Chiharu Shiota, who is famed for the intricate, room-enveloping, eye-beguiling installations that she makes with string and other materials, shared a recipe with Wallpaper for okonomiyaki, the delightful savory pancake dish from Japan that often incorporates pleasures like pork belly, katsuobushi, and cabbage. Her rendition sounds, and looks, glorious. “German cabbage is so delicious that I often make it at home,” Shiota told the magazine. “It tastes like home.” [Wallpaper]