A 1,000-year-old Viking Buckle Discovered in Norway

A SUMMARY OF THE MOST EXCITING ART NEWS FROM AROUND THE GLOBE
While we focus on Indian art, we can’t obviously function in a vacuum. It’s a small world and everything is connected, especially on the web. So, let’s train our spotlight across the world map to see what’s going on — from art trends to socio-political issues to everything that affects the great aesthetic global consciousness. Or, let’s just travel the world and have some fun!

A 1,000-year-old Viking buckle discovered in Norway
A 2021 archaeological excavation in eastern Norway uncovered an ancient Viking treasure inside a lump of soil. Upon X-raying the lump, experts identified gold and bronze metal. After cleaning away the dirt, they found an intricate piece of metal jewellery that they determined was once a buckle or possibly a brooch. Several interconnected loops appear to depict an animal on the buckle. In some interpretations, the figure is a lion surrounded by serpents, while in others, it appears to be a horse or dragon. The artefact would have been made with a clay mould—an indication that it was mass-produced. It is unclear who would have worn the accessory or exactly for what purpose. Based on the style, however, researchers believe the piece dates to roughly 1000 CE. Read more on ARTnews

Cultural and heritage damage in Sudan by clashing forces
Sara Abdalla Khidir Saeed, the director of the Sudan Natural History Museum, detailed the dire circumstances facing numerous institutions last week in a report published by the International Council of Museums. “Museums are now without guards to protect them from looting and vandalism,” Saeed said. “In light of the daily deteriorating situation due to the lack of food and life resources, weak souls will be exploited to steal (artefacts from) important museums and smuggle them out of the country.” Saeed cited the Sudan National Museum, the Sudan Ethnographic Museum, the Republican Palace Museum, and the Sudan Natural History Museum as being under siege by gunfire between the army and rival paramilitary forces in Khartoum. Read more on ARTnews

A former employee of OpenSea has been found guilty of insider trading as part of the first-ever NFT trial
OpenSea, the largest non-fungible token marketplace, found Nathanial Chastain guilty of violating its rules on 3 May confidentiality procedures in order to sell NFTs at inflated profits, bringing the first-ever insider trading trial over digital assets to a close. Chastain was convicted of fraud and money laundering and awaits sentencing. In his closing argument on Monday, prosecutor Thomas Burnett said, Chastain “abused his status at OpenSea to line his own pockets, and he lied to cover his tracks”. Chastain helped curate which tokens were featured prominently on OpenSea’s website, which often led the assets to spike in price. While the enterprise OpenSea policy held that the featured tokens would not be published until they went live on the market homepage, Chastain purchased the. His scheme netted over $57,000 in profit, and his use of anonymous accounts to make illegal trades proved that he knew what he was doing was wrong, according to the prosecution. Read more on The Art Newspaper

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