Art Outlook: 11 December

Some of the stories and discussions we’ve spotted online this week

British Museum loans Parthenon sculpture to Russia

For the first time since their arrival at the British Museum in 1816, one of the Parthenon marbles has left the premises. Last week, the ancient statue of the river god Ilissos was unexpectedly unveiled at the State Hermitage Museum, which had requested the loan as part of its 250th anniversary celebrations. Predictably, perhaps, Greece isn’t happy about it…

The Cooper Hewitt reopens in New York

After a long refurbishment, the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum has reopened to the public. Andrew Carnegie’s New York mansion has been meticulously reconsidered, renovated, extended, and packed with interactive technology. Does it work?

Glasgow School of Art gets a new building

In September 2015 the Glasgow School of Art will be moving back into its old home – not the Mackintosh Building (which was damaged in a fire earlier this year, and is being restored), but the nearby McLellan Galleries, which it last occupied between 1866 and 1869. The school plans to spend at least £10million developing the site, which it’s taken on long-term lease.

New leadership at the National Gallery

No word yet on the new director, but the National Gallery in London made another significant appointment recently: Hannah Rothschild will replace Mark Getty as the Chair of the Board of Trustees next year, becoming the first woman to take on the role.

Twenty more years of the Guggenheim Bilbao

The Bilbao outpost of the Guggenheim is safe for another couple of decades after the foundation’s Board of Trustees approved a 20-year extension of the existing agreement. Meanwhile, in Helsinki, a shortlist of six architectural designs for the Guggenheim’s latest venture has been released.

Another art theft in Italy

On Friday 5 December, a thief managed to steal Medardo Rosso’s Bambino Malato (‘Sick Child’; 1893–5) from the National Gallery of Modern Art in Rome during opening hours, only to promptly return it; the bronze sculpture was found in a public locker on the premises the following Monday morning.