It's true Britain and the USA are very different in the way they produce and consume art talk. Britain is certainly more critical, whereas in the US we tend to have a lot of product placement or "community" attention spotlighting... neither of which is criticism as I've discussed before. I'm still working on a more in depth essay on the subject but I do like how Portland is a little more British than say New York or LA tend to be (where power and money are way more important than ideas).

Bavaria is considering a change to their laws to deal with the stash of Nazi war seizures.

It is Art Basel Miami Beach time again, the HuffPo has their list of 20 things not to miss.

Then there was the news that YU now owns its building... that's great except without a professional director capable of leading a multimillion dollar fundraising campaign the news is somewhat mitigated. YU was s-l-o-w but has implemented many things we pointed out initially, like a true board of directors and a curatorial team... but since the departure of Sandra Percival they still face a major flaw in their strategy as the director is perhaps the most key position at this point. Will this just be an endless subsistence campaign for a huge building they can't afford to full use? This is the question only a very capable director can address.