The Met Museum, Carnegie Hall, BAM, Lincoln Center, even the Brooklyn Children’s Museum — in fact, none of the 39 institutions in what’s called the Cultural Institutions Group have to pay Fire Dept. summonses. There is, in fact, a logical reason for this. – Gothamist

One of the opera world’s most admired lyric sopranos of the 1970s and ‘80s, she was known for her acting skill as well as her voice, especially in such roles as Violetta in La Traviata, Gilda in Rigoletto, and Tatiana in Eugene Onegin. – Moto Perpetuo

The publisher has halted promotion and public sales of The Revolutionary: Zohran Mamdani and the Remaking of American Politics by Ross Barkan in the wake of allegations that the author plagiarized parts of numerous columns he wrote as a freelancer for New York magazine. – The Washington Post (MSN)

Horticultural staff are reporting that some foliage is acorched and many flowers are wilting, though they’ve been able to mitigate the weather’s worst effects by careful watering and moving some plants around. Chief gardeners also say they may have to change some of the seasonal scheduling and choice of plantings. – ARTnews

The fabric barrier and scaffolding put up while Trump’s name was removed from the building’s façade are still in place more than two months later. In a court filing this week, management stated that there is still work being done at and around that area. – The Independent (UK)

James Orleans

The most frequent public respondent to my recent blogs about the long brewing crises now afflicting America’s

Some of the most trusted political voices in 18th-century Britain didn’t exist. Writers invented personas, and readers believed the invented bylines more than the real ones — a tradition The Conversation argues never died, it just migrated to the accounts we follow now. Authorship was always partly a performance, and the audience was always a little in on it.

So the theme for today is fabrication. The city of Vicenza has spent generations admiring a Roman amphitheatre that turns out to be a 19th-century fabrication (Gramilano). Penguin Random House pulled a forthcoming book from sale after a plagiarism investigation (Washington Post). Prosecutors are pursuing Hermitage-linked archaeologists over digs in occupied Crimea (ARTnews) — excavation as a chain-of-custody crime. And thieves carried four Renaissance paintings out of a Messina museum while the city was at a festival (The New York Times), which at least has the candor of theft with the direct approach.

The through-line isn’t fraud. It’s provenance — the growing sense that what a thing is matters less than whose hands it passed through and who’s willing to vouch for it.

Meanwhile, a history of punctuation (The Wall Street Journal) notes that the exclamation point had to be invented in the 14th century. Someone decided enthusiasm needed notation, and we’ve been overusing it ever since. Emojis, anyone?

All of our stories below.

“Pole dance is a big part of the festival this year, popping up in sweaty, dazzling shows right across the Fringe. Not only do these acts show off amazing physical feats, they also tell stories that range from one woman’s HIV diagnosis, to the relationship between a neurodivergent mother and son.” – The Guardian

British writers in the 18th century repeatedly invented fictional characters to intervene in the politics and culture of their day. – The Conversation

The exclamation point arrived in the middle of the 14th century, bringing what many felt was “a welcome infusion of emotion onto the page,” and was joined, over the 15th century, by parentheses and the apostrophe. – The Wall Street Journal

“Picture this: a hillside ‘archaeological site’ complete with what were marketed as Neolithic and Greco-Roman artefacts, impressive enough that visitors were charged a hefty 40-euro entrance fee. … Except it wasn’t ancient at all.” And the perpetrator had cleared a protected hillside forest to build it. – Gramilano

 “You know how it feels when you’ve got really good music and you dance and people are suddenly dancing closely and they never got the chance to dance closely?” So the establishment was right about the corrupting influence of dancehalls? She laughs. “They were.” – Irish Times

Magic Box, a Mongolian NGO (non-governmental agency) has hatched a program to turn old shipping containers into a constellation of children’s libraries throughout rural Mongolia. And they now the program will catch on anywhere children need books, and a place to call their own. – Publishing Perspectives

“Nate Bargatze’s ‘Big Dumb Eyes’ tour, which began on April 6, 2025, crossed the 2 million mark after just 16 months and 10 days — and across only 128 venues.” As of last Saturday, the total was sold approximately 2,016,254 tickets. – Variety

Taking advantage of an annual religious celebration that brings tens of thousands to Messina’s streets, thieves made off with three of five panels that constitute the Polyptych of San Gregorio as well as a small double-sided devotional painting. – The New York Times

Consider the growing slate of satires about influencers, the numerous coming-of-age films that have tapped into teenage angst amid the rise of social media, and the fact that entire movies have been made that take place exclusively on computer screens. – The Atlantic

“Thoreau warned us that most men lead lives of quiet desperation. In China today, that desperation has been given a name: Neijuan — involution. … If Thoreau were alive today, he might say that China has industrialized quiet desperation. The pushback has a name too: tang ping — lying flat.” – Literary Hub

“Today, our industry has the wind at its back. Studio partners are creating and distributing extraordinary films. Audiences across generations are responding with enthusiasm. But none of that can be taken for granted. Global exhibition believes in a bold future for this industry, but reaching our full potential requires working together.“ – The Hollywood Reporter

The preservationist group trying to stop President Trump’s White House ballroom urged the Supreme Court to deny the administration’s emergency request to allow construction, calling it “astonishing” on Tuesday.  – The Hill

Penguin Random House has suspended promotion and public sales of a forthcoming book by journalist Ross Barkan following allegations of extensive plagiarism in political columns he wrote as a freelancer for New York Magazine. – Washington Post

“China’s National Cultural Heritage Administration has ordered public museums across the country to strengthen emergency management protocols to protect visitors and artefacts, following a string of power outages and overcrowding incidents during the summer holiday season. The directive follows several infrastructural breakdowns at major cultural institutions.” – The Art Newspaper

Rydell’s most-honored film was nominated for 10 Academy Awards and won three (including for Henry Fonda and Katharine Hepburn), though he lost to Warren Beatty for Reds. Among his other titles were The Cowboys (with John Wayne), Cinderella Liberty, The Rose (with Bette Midler), and The River (with Mel Gibson and Sissy Spacek). – AP

“The prosecutor’s office of the republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol is investigating two unnamed researchers, one of them associated with the Hermitage, for war crimes. The prosecutors say they participated in illegal archaeological expeditions in the territory, which has been occupied by Russia since 2014.” – ARTnews