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Court Decision Ends Dispute Over Who Actually Bought Beeple’s Everydays: The First 5000 Days for $69.3 M.

When Beeple’s Everydays: The First 5000 Days sold for a record $69.3 million at Christie’s in 2021, the winning buyer was quick to reveal itself: a Singapore-based crypto fund called Metapurse, which was founded by a man going by the pseudonym Metakovan, ostensibly with the help of another person who went by the pseudonym Twobadour. By 2022, Metakovan and Twobadour (real names: Vignesh Sundaresan and Anand Venkateswaran, respectively) had split up. A year later, Sundaresan and his company, Portkey Technologies, sued Venkateswaran for trademark infringement, injury to business reputation, and dilution, related to the latter’s claims of being involved in the purchase of Everydays . Sundaresan claimed that Venkateswaran had nothing to do with the purchase, and had been only an independent contractor at Metapurse at the time. That dispute came to a conclusion this past January, when J. Paul Oetken, a federal judge in the Southern District of New York, approved a final judgment upon con...
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Canada Moves to Secure the Final Frontier with Landmark Sovereign Launch Investments

In an era defined by intensifying geopolitical competition and rapidly evolving technological frontiers, Canada is making a decisive move to secure its place in the space domain. With a sweeping package of investments, partnerships, and industrial initiatives, the federal government is laying the groundwork for a sovereign space launch capability—one that promises to reshape Canada’s defence posture, economic trajectory, and role among allied nations. At the centre of this effort is a major announcement from the Honourable David J. McGuinty, Minister of National Defence, who unveiled a historic $200 million commitment to establish core infrastructure for a Canadian-owned spaceport—marking a defining moment in the country’s emerging sovereign space program. A Spaceport for Sovereignty The investment takes the form of a 10-year agreement to lease a dedicated launch pad at a multi-user spaceport near Canso, Nova Scotia, to be operated by Maritime Launch Services . Designed to support t...
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Egidio Marzona, Collector Who Built a Monument to the Avant-Garde, Dies at 81

Egidio Marzona, the German-Italian collector, publisher, and patron whose vast holdings helped define the study and display of 20th-century avant-garde art, has died at 81. He died Sunday in Berlin, according to the  Prussian Cultural Heritage  Foundation (Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz, or SPK). Unlike many collectors of his generation, Marzona treated archives not as secondary material but as  the core of the work itself , amassing not just paintings and objects but the paper trail of ideas—letters, diagrams, exhibition plans—that mapped how the avant-garde thought, circulated, and sustained itself. His holdings in both art and its ephemera focused on movements from the interwar period, like Dada and Bauhaus, to the postwar, such as Fluxus, conceptual art, and Arte Povera. Marzona’s holdings has since become foundational to how museums and scholars understand these different strains of art. His commitment to public access was equally defining. Beginning in the ear...
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Outgoing Tate Director Argues for Bigger Tax Breaks for Donors

Maria Balshaw, who in December announced her plan to step down from her role as director of Tate since 2017, said that UK chancellor Rachel Reeves should incentivize donations to museums’ endowment funds by offering bigger tax breaks to would-be philanthropists. In an interview with the Financial Times , Balshaw said, “The government could do a lot more to incentivise giving by very rich people, because British museums are competing on a very uneven playing field compared with US institutions. Rachel Reeves . . . should think hard and creatively.” She continued: “The arts are part of the public good so we need public funding, not just commercial and philanthropic. But we could make a real shift in terms of financial stability. A modest tax incentive for endowment giving would not be unaffordable, and it would be transformational.” In June, Tate launched an endowment fund known as the Tate Future Fund with aims to raise £150 million (around $200 million) by 2030. As reported by t...
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Blue Shields Placed at 34 Archaeological Sites Across Lebanon, Signaling Enhanced Protections

Blue shields now guard 34 archaeological sites across Lebanon, as the country moves to protect its cultural heritage amid escalating air and ground assaults from Israel, the Lebanese Culture Ministry announced Sunday. The shields signal that the sites are protected under international agreements regarding cultural property during wartime. Culture Minister Ghassan Salameh told Lebanon’s National News Agency that the move aims to comply with the 1954 Hague Convention, which requires safeguarding cultural heritage—including monuments and artworks—against destruction during armed conflict. “The ministry did not stand idly by,” Salameh said, noting that he appealed directly to UNESCO Director-General Khaled Anani on the first day of the conflict to ensure all parties comply with the convention. “Blue shields have been placed on archaeological sites so that the enemy will be aware of them and respect the convention,” he said. In 2014, 34 historic sites were granted heritage enhanced prot...
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Canada and Norway Deepen Defence Cooperation in the Space Domain

Canada and Norway are expanding their defence partnership into one of the most critical domains of modern security: space. On March 14, 2026, in Oslo, Canada’s Minister of National Defence, the Honourable David J. McGuinty, and Norway’s Minister of Defence, Tore O. Sandvik, signed a Letter of Intent to deepen bilateral cooperation in the space domain . The signing took place during Minister McGuinty’s visit to Norway alongside Prime Minister Mark Carney, where Canadian and Norwegian leaders met to strengthen partnerships related to Arctic and space security. The agreement builds on the two countries’ long-standing defence relationship and reflects the growing importance of space capabilities in supporting national and collective defence. Strengthening Arctic and Allied Security As NATO allies and Arctic nations, Canada and Norway share strategic interests in maintaining security and stability in northern regions. Space-based technologies play an increasingly vital role in supportin...
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Italy’s Culture Minister Calls For Resignation Over Russian Pavilion’s Return to Venice Biennale

Italy’s culture minister has called for the resignation of the government’s representative on the board of the Venice Biennale, as a growing political dispute continues to eruope over Russia’s plans to reopen its pavilion at the 2026 exhibition in May. In a statement this week, culture minister Alessandro Giuli said he had lost confidence in Tamara Gregoretti, who has served on the Biennale’s board since March 2024, accusing her of failing to alert the ministry to the possibility that Russia would participate. According to the ministry, Gregoretti “did not deem it necessary to announce the possible presence of the Russian Federation at the next Biennale,” despite the international sensitivity of the issue.  The controversy stems from last week’s announcement that Russia plans to reopen its national pavilion for the first time since 2019 . The presentation, titled  The Tree Is Rooted in the Sky , is being organized by curator Anastasia Karneeva and will featu...
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