Welcome back to GLOBAL MUSEUM, your award-winning & free online compendium, read weekly since 1998 by 8,000+ readers in more than 201 countries.

** Cultural visits To London continue to fall amid terrorism fears

Visits to UK museums and art galleries fell for the second year in a row, dropping by 1% both last year and in 2016, largely driven by those based in London, who saw a 4% drop in visitor numbers in 2017.

** Visitor tumbles into ‘Descent Into Limbo’ installation at Portuguese Museum

A man visiting a Portuguese art museum was injured after he fell down an installation consisting of a hole that has been made to look like a black circle painted on the ground.

** Museums are not the proper home for our greatest works

Pressure to return items from museums is becoming relentless, especially in the case of Europe’s great historic collections

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** Abe Lincoln’s library faces so much debt that it’s considering selling his stuff

Hundreds of Lincoln’s personal possessions, including a beaver-fur stovepipe hat that Lincoln purportedly wore, as well as letters and other artifacts, are at risk of ending up on the auction block if the foundation can’t pay off the hulking debt.

** Museum Curators Reflect on the Legacy of the Queen of Soul

At the Smithsonian Institution, her life’s story is remembered in photographs, artwork, recordings and other ephemera.

** Moulding Africa's first ever wax museum from the ground up

Inspired by the Madam Tussaud museum, South African artist Lungelo Gumede creates lifelike statues of African heroes to go on display.

** So much cooler back then

The brainchild of the team behind Berlin’s nostalgia-drenched DDR Museum, Nineties Berlin promises thrill-seeking tourists a taste of the fabled parties of the 20th century’s last decade.

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** Preservationists and Critics Aim to Save Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego

The Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego recently released plans to begin demolition on a portion of its La Jolla building designed by Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown.

** Trapped in 99-Million-Year-Old Amber, a Beetle With Pilfered Pollen

The discovery is among the strongest evidence in the fossil record that the insects pollinated prehistoric cycads, a plant that preceded flowering plants

** Amid an Anti-Muslim Mood, a Museum Appeals for Understanding

While Florence’s interaction with the Muslim world originated in the Middle Ages, it escalated under the Medici family, who controlled the city between the 15th and the early 18th centuries.

** World's oldest cheese found in Egyptian tomb

Aging usually improves the flavour of cheese, but that’s not why some very old cheese discovered in an Egyptian tomb is drawing attention.

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** The Actor Who Played Robocop Is Now an Art Historian

He went back to school in 2004, at age 57, and earned a Master’s degree in Roman and Renaissance Art at Syracuse University, followed by a PhD in Italian Renaissance art history at UCLA in 2013.

** Leonardo da Vinci’s Visionary Notebooks Now Online

For hundreds of years, the huge, secretive collection of manuscripts remained mostly unseen by all but the most rarified of collectors.

** Egyptian Papyrus Reveals This Old Wives’ Tale Is Very Old Indeed

The “Wheat and Barley” pregnancy test described in a recently translated medical text has been practiced for thousands of years.

** Researchers uncover Northwest secrets in Spanish shipwreck

But for quirks of colonial competition, the troubles with managing empire, and the shifting fortunes of international commerce, the Pacific Northwest could have been part of the Spanish Empire.

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** View the fat: Museum of London launches live stream of fatberg

Those who wish to watch the slow sweating of a disgusting, calcified mass of faeces, fats, oils, wet wipes and sanitary products can now do so at the click of a mouse.

** Ethiopia requests emperor's lock of hair back from London museum

The National Army Museum has quietly removed from display a 19th-century looted braid of hair which the Ethiopian government has requested back as a national treasure.

** The Computers That Changed the World

A Seattle museum keeps its vintage computers in working order, so that visitors can experience the evolution of the machine

** How Conservators Keep Masterworks of Outdoor Sculpture Safe

Though the Department of Defense rarely gets involved with art institutions, the case study dramatizes a longstanding challenge that’s often invisible to the average sculpture garden visitor.

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** How Can Museums Democratize Portraiture?

Nowadays, Americans capture photos of their friends, loved ones and selves with such regularity that the notion of smartphone “portraiture” is likely to sound absurd.

** Heritage and Society

The annual 'Heritage and Society' report for 2018

** Now Seeking Artists for the MWX Exhibition in 2019

Contribute to MWX, Museums and the Web’s digital exhibition initiative

** Call for Papers-"From the Ruins of Preservation"

A symposium rethinking heritage through counter-archives

** This Week's Horoscopes

Scorpio - Doctors will confirm this week that lined paper causes ear cancer. Write letters on papyrus

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