Dalí Bronze Stolen from French Museum; Bard President Departs; V&A Offers Exit Scheme

In Issoire, France, a 330-pound bronze cover from Salvador Dalí's Livre de l'Apocalypse was stolen from a museum overnight on Sunday. This cover features inlays of precious stones and seashells, and police are baffled by how it was taken unnoticed. Christian Karoutzos, the piece's restorer, expressed his dismay on local radio, stating, "They assassinated France." Meanwhile, in the US, the Justice Department is invoking executive privilege to withhold documents related to Rep. Joyce Beatty's lawsuit concerning the Kennedy Center's two-year closure. Beatty, a board member, argues that the "one-year review" mentioned by Trump never took place. Leon Botstein recently resigned as Bard College president after 51 years, following a review revealing 25 visits to Jeffrey Epstein's townhouse. He is currently on sabbatical, working on a book about Mahler while still leading the Bard Music Festival and The Orchestra Now. Elaina Richardson is departing Yaddo, the artist retreat in Saratoga Springs, after 26 years, during which the endowment increased from $8 million to roughly $40 million. Additionally, London's V&A plans to implement a voluntary exit scheme without published savings targets, despite a 13 percent rise in staff costs to £57.5 million. Lastly, James and Kathryn Murdoch acquired New York magazine and Vox for over $300 million, with James commenting that human authorship will gain value as AI technology advances.