Our daily round-up of news from the art world
Sackler name removed from Louvre galleries | The Art Newspaper reports that the Louvre has removed the Sackler name from its galleries, the Art Newspaper reports. The exact circumstances are still unclear. On 1 July PAIN, the opioid crisis activism group led by artist Nan Goldin, led a protest outside the museum calling for the Sackler Wing of Oriental Antiquities, inaugurated in 1997, to be renamed. (Other museums, including Tate, the Guggenheim, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, have cut ties with members of the Sackler family associated with Purdue Pharma, the manufacturer of Oxycontin.) In a radio interview on Tuesday, Louvre president Jean-Luc Martinez responded to a question about the protests, saying that the Sackler name had been removed from the galleries because of a 20-year statute of limitations on donor naming rights; photos provided to the Art Newspaper by PAIN show the Sackler name on plaques in the museum a few weeks ago.
Two Egyptian pyramids reopen to public | Egypt’s ‘bent pyramid’ and a nearby structure have both reopened to the public for the first time since the 1960s after a multi-year restoration. The pyramids, UNESCO World Heritage sites, are located in the necropolis of Dashur, around 40 kilometres from Cairo. Antiquities minister Khaled al-Anani announced that excavators had discovered new artefacts in the structures, including sarcophagi and stone-cutting tools.
Pérez Art Museum receives $1m from Mellon Foundation for Caribbean Cultural Institute | Miami’s Pérez Art Museum has received a donation of $1 million from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The funds will support the museum’s newly formed Caribbean Cultural Institute, described by museum director Franklin Sirmans as an ‘extended think tank’ to research and promote works by Caribbean and diaspora artists.