Culture Wars and AI’s Art Power Play

Yoko Ono’s most famous performance work got a fresh—and surprisingly tender—run in downtown Los Angeles. The latest version of Cut Piece (1986) was performed by the artist MPA at Redcat on July 18 and 19, alongside the Broad’s traveling Ono retrospective, Yoko Ono: Music of the Mind, on view through October 11. Like Ono’s original, MPA began seated silently onstage, fully clothed, with scissors nearby, while audience members queued to cut away her clothing. The tension is built in—scissors, unpredictability, and the threat of harm—but the Los Angeles crowd leaned gentle and respectful, making careful cuts and placing the scissors down softly. After 64 minutes, MPA stood naked, revealing a quote by Ono: “My body is the scar of my mind.”

A new European Union court decision is drawing a sharper line around appropriation—and it’s a line artists across mediums will feel. The issue comes from a long-running dispute involving German music producer Moses Pelham, who sampled part of a Kraftwerk song in 1997 without permission. Although it began in music, the Court of Justice of the European Union focused on copyright’s “pastiche” exception, which can apply to visual art, literature, and film too. The court said pastiche requires an “artistic or creative dialogue” with the earlier work: it should evoke an existing work while being noticeably different, possibly as stylistic imitation, a tribute, or humorous or critical engagement. The piece also points to examples like collage and mashups, and even Christian Marclay’s The Clock (2010) as the kind of work that can raise these questions.

The European Union has followed through on a major cultural threat: it’s withdrawing about two dollars million in funding from the Venice Biennale over Russia’s renewed participation. In a statement, European Commission spokesperson Thomas Regnier said taxpayers’ money should support cultural events that “safeguard democratic values, foster open dialogue, diversity, and freedom of expression,” adding those values “are not respected in today’s Russia.” The Biennale responded that the loss will have “no significant impact” on its budget or scheduled activities. Russia’s return, announced in March, ended a four-year hiatus that began just after the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Organizers rejected “any form of censorship,” but Italy’s culture minister Alessandro Giuli boycotted. The Russia Pavilion was open only during preview week in early May and drew protests on May 6, when Pussy Riot stormed its grounds.

In Washington, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History found itself at the center of a heated ideological fight over how the nation tells its own story. During a two-hour congressional hearing Tuesday, Representative Tim Burchett, a Republican from Tennessee, pressed the museum’s director Anthea Hartig with the blunt question: “Dr. Hartig, are you America first? Do you love America?” The witness lineup also included Yale historian David Blight, Matthew Spalding of Hillsdale, and Heritage Foundation senior fellow Mike Gonzalez. The hearing followed a July 4 White House report, Saving America’s Story, accusing the Smithsonian of “extreme political activism.” Hartig said the Smithsonian takes the concerns seriously and is fact-checking the report, but maintains it “does not fairly or accurately characterize” the museum’s work. Representative Melanie Stansbury, a Democrat from New Mexico, introduced the Smithsonian Integrity and Historical Independence Act to bar federal interference in interpretation.

A federal council dominated by Trump appointees is pushing a sweeping change that preservation advocates say would gut public oversight of building on historic sites. The Advisory Council on Historic Preservation sent an internal draft proposal to eliminate regulations requiring public and state input before construction begins at protected places, according to reporting first cited by The Atlantic and shared by the Washington Post. The heart of the issue is Section 106, a multistep review process required for federal land, federally funded projects, or projects needing federal approval—often involving landmarks, National Register candidates, and sites important to Native tribes. The draft argues for a “flexible” process and aims to reduce perceived red tape, including a change that would make public comment optional rather than mandatory. Cultural Landscape Foundation CEO Charles A. Birnbaum warned it would “almost completely” eliminate the public’s role, while attorney Marion F. Werkheiser said communities might not learn about projects “until the bulldozers show up.”

In Chicago, the Art Institute of Chicago plans to eliminate its entire in-house custodial workforce in August as it shifts to a contractor model. Up to 25 custodians—including 23 unionized workers—would lose their current jobs, with custodial work outsourced to GDI Integrated Facility Services, a private contractor based in Canada. The museum said affected employees will have the opportunity to join the contractor after completing an employment screening process, and it chose a partner that would commit to offering employment. But unions are furious: AIC Workers United called the plan a “devastating and unconscionable injustice,” warning of lost benefits. AFSCME Council 31 spokesperson Ben Conboy said union lawyers filed a grievance alleging insufficient notice and demanded to bargain. A rally in support of custodians is planned for Wednesday, July 22, and the change is expected to take effect August 14.

Two murals by Chilean artist Julio Escámez, long thought destroyed under Augusto Pinochet’s military regime, are being uncovered and restored—layer by layer. In 1969, Chillán’s mayor Eduardo Contreras Mella, a member of the Communist party, commissioned Escámez to paint murals for the city hall. Escámez worked more than two years, unveiling The Beginning and The End in June 1972 in the Hall of Honor. Influenced by Diego Rivera and David Alfaro Siqueiros, one mural depicts workers oppressed by the ruling class and their triumph through unity; the other shows women looking through a telescope, suggesting harmony with society and the universe. After the 1974 coup and Escámez’s self-exile to Costa Rica, the works were painted over. Rediscovered in 2021, restoration now involves removing up to 12 layers of white paint, with four new specialists joining the effort. The city expects the first mural viewable by December 2027.

Christie’s is betting that AI wealth will eventually turn into serious collecting, even if it hasn’t—yet. At the 2026 Christie’s Art + Tech Summit, CNBC wealth reporter Robert Frank appeared alongside Christie’s CEO Bonnie Brennan and ICONIQ Capital founder Michael Anders to discuss what they described as a “historic moment in wealth creation,” tied to projected IPOs from companies like Anthropic, OpenAI, and SpaceX. Christie’s reported four dollars billion in sales so far in 2026, its strongest first half in five years, and the panel linked luxury-market energy to this new tech money—though they also acknowledged it can be hard to prove. Anders suggested AI is fueling a pursuit of physical “experience,” but also said people are “so busy building” they haven’t “woken up” to philanthropy. Brennan was blunt about shifting trophies: not Park Avenue and Picasso, but sports teams or an eleven dollars million Jerry Garcia guitar, with young buyers leaning pop culture.

A major question is hanging over one of Italy’s most famous ancient icons: is the “Warrior of Capestrano” truly a 6th-century BCE masterpiece, or a fascist-era fabrication? The over-two-meters-high limestone statue was found in an Abruzzo vineyard in 1934 and has long been treated as a pre-Roman Piceni artifact, even appearing on souvenir shops, postage stamps, and the Abruzzo coat of arms. Documentary filmmaker and science writer Alessio Consorte argues it may have been a Mussolini-backed forgery, citing alleged irregularities and a signed Vatican letter as part of his case. After years of court fights, the Italian culture ministry approved non-invasive X-ray testing, to be led by a team including Consorte and a scientist from the National Research Council. But the authorization came with a controversial secrecy clause restricting publication without government consent, prompting Consorte to appeal in Pescara. A hearing is pending.

After five years in a maximum-security prison outside Havana, Cuban dissident performance artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara is free—and now in the United States. His sentence officially ended on July 7, but his whereabouts were unknown for more than a week until he emerged in Miami on Saturday, July 18. He had served a five-year term for “contempt, defamation, and public disorder.” The report frames his release as a major development for an artist whose case has drawn international attention, while also underscoring how his freedom comes with displacement. The same roundup also notes other headlines—from a legal fight over historic Mexican art exports, to exhibit changes about slavery in Philadelphia, to a New Museum water leak after flash floods—but the central news here is straightforward and significant: Otero Alcántara is out of prison, and he has arrived in Miami.

That’s today’s download—links to every story are in the show notes. Come back tomorrow for more art-world headlines and context you can actually use… Chinga la migra

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