Diego Rivera’s Detroit Industry frescoes (1932-1933) are a highlight of the Detroit Institute of Arts

There have been some noteworthy stories in the museum world recently:

• There are new threats to sell off pieces of the collection of the Detroit Institute of Arts to help bail out the city financially. The museum — widely acknowledged as one of the finest in the United States — has faced similar challenges during past economic downturns.
• The proposal for the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden — the Smithsonian Institution’s museum of modern and contemporary art on the National Mall in Washington — to add an inflatable “bubble” by Diller Scofidio + Renfro to its design has apparently stalled, leading the museum’s director to resign.
• It looks like the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) may be backing off from its initial plan to tear down the former home of the American Folk Art Museum. The building, designed by architects Tod Williams and Billie Tsien (who were also responsible for the new Barnes Foundation building in Philadelphia), sits immediately adjacent to MoMA on West 53rd Street in Manhattan. Although praised by architectural critics since its opening in 2001, the museum building proved to be a difficult space for exhibiting art, prompting the American Folk Art Museum to sell it to MoMA and relocate a few years ago.