New Paris home for indigenous art
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The $263 million Musee du Quai Branly , which builders are racing to complete for its February 2006 opening, is President Jacques Chirac's pet project.
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The Metropolitan Museum's in-depth examination of the colonial art of the Andes has resulted in a sumptuous, groundbreaking show.
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By CAMI JONER  The Columbia Arts Center, site of a former church, could become the home of a New Heights Church.
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A colorful Native Nations procession heralded the opening Tuesday of the Smithsonian Institution's Museum of the American Indian, the newest addition to the historical treasure-trove dotting the National Mall.
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This object reflects the barbaric trafficking in body parts, the belief that another race was inferior to ours - Rouen deputy mayor Catherine Morin-Desailly PARIS (New York Times) - Since 1875, the mummified, tattooed head of a Maori warrior has been part of the permanent collection of the Museum of Natural History at Rouen in Normandy. But when Rouen's mayor arranged recently to return it to New Zealand as an act of "atonement" for colonial-era trafficking in human remains, the national Ministry of Culture stepped in to block him. The ministry contends that the head is a work of art that belongs to France and that its return could set an unfortunate precedent for a huge swath of national museum collections - from Egyptian mummies in the Louvre to Asian treasures in the MusÃ©e Guimet and African and Oceanic artifacts in the MusÃ©e du Quai Branly. "The mayor of Rouen made his decision without any consultation, and his decision is against the law," Olivier Henrard, the legal adviser for the Ministry of Culture, said.  "There are other Maori heads, there are mummies, there are religious relics in France," he said. "If we don't respect the law today, tomorrow other museums or elected officials might decide to send them back, too." Rouen officials insist that the Maori head is a body part, not artwork, and that due to France's bioethics law it must be returned to its place of origin. "This object reflects the barbaric trafficking in body parts, the belief that another race was inferior to ours," said Catherine Morin-Desailly, Rouen's deputy mayor, who proposed the return. "It belongs to the heritage of humanity, not in storage somewhere in a museum."  The Maoris traditionally preserved the tattooed heads of warriors killed in battle to keep their memory alive. Trade in body parts flourished in the 19th century, as contact with outsiders increased. Europeans collected Maori remains. Some Maori slaves were forcibly tattooed, then decapitated.  Morin-Desailly cites French precedent concerning the return of human remains: Those of Saartjie Baartman - the "Hottentot Venus" as she was labeled in her day. A farmer's slave born in 1789, she was sold to a British Marine surgeon and presented in public in London and later in Paris as a freak because of her oversized buttocks and genitalia.
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Native Americans from across the country are arriving in the nation&#39;s capital to celebrate today&#39;s opening of the National Museum of the American Indian.
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French national museums including the Louvre in Paris will let in many visitors free in the coming months, in an experiment intended to open up high culture to a wider public.
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An exhibition of Federico GarcÃ­a Lorca-inspired installations in Grenada, Spain, includes works by thirty international artists.
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The newest Smithsonian museum is gathering ancient ceramics, intricate beadwork and modern art to illustrate the past and present of native peoples spread across the Western Hemisphere for some 20,000 years.
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Paris is set to have a new monthly guide to what's going on in the City of Lights from restaurants, shopping and cultural events from next week.
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France is to celebrate its rich architectural traditions with the opening of a major new museum in the heart of Paris.
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French museums are establishing outposts abroad to increase revenue and allow for unseen artworks to go on display.
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In advance of an exhibition, artists from all over the world converge on Santa Fe to get to know the terrain, their mission and one another.
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The view out of Lois Weisberg&#39;s office window is of the dazzling art installations at the new Millennium Park and the Art Institute of Chicago, one of the world&#39;s great museums.
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Madrid's Reina Sofia museum is about to open one of the most extensive Picasso exhibitions as it hosts works on loan from the National Picasso Museum in Paris to add to those already on view in the Spanish capital.
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Many Native Americans believe exhibits at the soon-to-open Smithsonian museum in Washington are literally alive&#151;some masks are even fed cornmeal. Includes photo gallery.
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Giuseppe Schembri Bonaci, a versatile artist who for the past few years has become fascinated with Australian Aboriginal art, is exhibiting his contemporary works of paintings and ceramics entitled My ...