Museum Expansions, AI Book Carnage, and Power Plays

Buenos Aires’s Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires—Malba—has chosen Mexican architect Frida Escobedo to design a long-planned expansion that will double its exhibition space, The Art Newspaper reports. The new construction will be built beneath the adjacent Plaza Perú, and the museum expects it to open in late 2029 or early 2030. The plan adds galleries for temporary exhibitions, plus an auditorium, multipurpose spaces, workshops, and storage. It also aims to change how the museum connects with the city, linking the existing building to new spaces under the park. Malba says the expansion won’t reduce the size of Plaza Perú or limit public access. Founder and president Eduardo Costantini expects construction to begin in 2027.

Staying in Madrid, the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza has announced plans for a second venue that will house a contemporary art collection donated by philanthropist and collector Francesca Thyssen-Bornemisza and her heirs, according to The Art Newspaper. Under the plans, more than 180 works—estimated at €16m—will be donated “free of charge” and pass into public ownership. Around 180 additional works, valued at around €10m by Phillips, will come as a long-term loan. The venue will be located at the Palacio del Hielo y del Automóvil on Calle Duque de Medinaceli and refurbished by the Spanish government, which will also meet running costs. An international architectural competition launches early next year, with completion scheduled around 2031.

Across the Mediterranean, heritage lovers can now explore a digital reconstruction of the Basilica of St Francis of Assisi through a free platform called Preserving Assisi, The Art Newspaper writes. The Unesco World Heritage site includes two churches—the Upper and Lower basilicas—built directly on top of one another in the first half of the 13th century. The platform offers 360-degree panoramic reconstructions of both interiors and the exterior, navigated with arrows like Google Maps. Users can click into details for close-up images of frescoes, including Giotto’s Homage of a Simple man (around 1300) and Pietro Lorenzetti’s Crucifixion (around 1320). Developer Haltadefinizione captured twenty seven thousand images over this and last year, producing 116 gigapixel images to create a detailed record for future study.

In St. Louis, an Art in America review spotlights a two-venue hometown museum survey of feminist painter Juanita McNeely, folded into the city’s Counterpublic Triennial. The exhibition continues at the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis after its presentation at the St. Louis Art Museum. McNeely—born in nearby Ferguson, Missouri, and a former student at Washington University in St. Louis—died in 2023 at age 87. The review describes her work as building on art history while pushing beyond it, and it centers on how she painted women’s bodily vulnerability, shaped by her own experiences with cancer and later disability. McNeely is best known for Is It Real? Yes It Is! (1969), a painting of her dangerous, illegal, life-saving abortion; the review notes it’s owned by the Whitney and not on view in St. Louis.

Another ARTnews piece is raising alarms about what happens to books when tech companies use them to train large language models. It points to a lawsuit against Anthropic revealing the company bought millions of books, cut off their bindings, scanned pages, and shredded originals under an initiative dubbed Project Panama. An internal document cited in the report described it as an effort “to destructively scan all the books in the world,” and said the company didn’t want it known. The article notes book destruction isn’t new—publishers pulp excess inventory—and it includes caution from Susan Benne, executive director of the Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association of America. Benne said she hasn’t heard from members about orders for rare or unique antiquarian items from AI companies, while artist Pablo Helguera said he isn’t “freaking out,” even as others worry about cultural loss.

In printmaking news, ARTnews reports that Pace Prints has acquired Brand X Editions, the New York printmaking studio and publisher founded by Robert Blanton in 1979. Brand X is known for work with artists including Robert Rauschenberg, Roy Lichtenstein, Frank Stella, Helen Frankenthaler, Jeff Koons, Glenn Ligon, and Mickalene Thomas. The acquisition puts Brand X under Pace Prints president and CEO Jacob Lewis, who took ownership of Pace Prints in 2025 from founder Richard Solomon and partners. Both workshops will continue operating, while Brand X will add to Pace Prints’ Manhattan and Brooklyn production capabilities and to a forthcoming gallery and printmaking facility in Los Angeles. Brand X partner David DeSanctis started its publishing program in 2011, producing editions with artists including Alex Katz, Rashid Johnson, KAWS, and Tschabalala Self.

From print shops to space history: ARTnews reports that artist Jitish Kallat is revisiting a secret 1958 Air Force concept to detonate a nuclear bomb on the Moon, known as Project A119. The plan was ultimately abandoned because the risks were seen as outweighing benefits, and the Air Force’s report, “A Study of Lunar Research Flights,” stayed secret until the project’s leader disclosed it in 2000. At the Menil Drawing Institute in Houston, Kallat has created Wall Drawing / Redux: A119, on view through August 8, 2027. The work prints declassified pages of the partly redacted report on a wall, then places glass in front fitted with a film that shifts clarity and opacity with electrical signals, making images dissolve and reappear—an echo of secrecy and revelation.

Back in Washington, ARTnews reports that eight preservation groups suing to prevent changes at the Kennedy Center without congressional approval are calling for the institution’s leadership to step aside—or for the court to appoint a receiver. The plaintiffs include the American Institute of Architects, the American Society of Landscape Architects, the Committee of 100 on the Federal City, the DC Preservation League, Docomomo US, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the Society of Architectural Historians, and the Cultural Landscape Foundation. Their statement argues that if leadership won’t fulfill its fiduciary duty to protect the historic building and grounds, “the court should consider appointing a receiver or replacing that leadership.” The report also notes US District Judge Christopher R. Cooper ruled again Tuesday that changes to the facade would be illegal without congressional approval, after the board voted in August on new facade wording referencing President Donald J. Trump.

In diplomatic cultural news, the United States has repatriated 58 cultural relics, artworks, and fossils to China, according to ARTnews. A handover ceremony took place at the Chinese Embassy in Washington, DC, on Wednesday, as posted to the embassy’s official WeChat account and reported by the Global Times. The US Homeland Security Investigations Cultural Property, Art, and Antiquities Program returned items including a Bodhisattva statue from the Tianlongshan Grottoes in Shanxi Province, looted more than a century ago, along with terracotta figures, stone statues, and fossils, according to China News. Zhang Yiwu, a professor at Peking University, told the Global Times the return is a meaningful people-to-people and cultural exchange within the broader bilateral relationship, adding it shows deep exchanges continue across fields.

Finally, ARTnews reports the Trump administration has advanced plans to install warning signs outside Smithsonian museums, prioritizing the National Museum of American History. NPR reported that Interior Secretary Doug Burgum described the signs as a “commitment to transparency” and “academic honesty,” and said they would warn visitors that Smithsonian and NMAH leadership have shifted from “accurately and coherently telling American’s story” to advancing “personal, radical ideologies.” The Atlantic quoted the letter as saying signage would provide context about exhibits and the “personal viewpoints” curators seek to advance, while also reporting uncertainty over what the signs will say and who will write them. Burgum’s letter said there would be about a dozen signs, costing seven thousand dollars each—about eighty four thousand dollars total—and Senator Jeff Merkley told NPR he would fight to protect Smithsonian independence.

That’s today’s Daily Art Download—links to every story are in the show notes. Come back tomorrow for the next round of headlines, context, and hot takes you can actually use.

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