A controversial sale of pre-Columbian art went ahead in Paris on Wednesday despite furious calls from Mexico for it to be halted. The Mexican government filed a formal complaint against the auction of 120 religious and cultural artefacts from several private collections, with UNESCO also urging auctioneers Millon to postpone the sale. But despite a last-minute appeal by Mexico’s ambassador for the French authorities to intervene, the auction went ahead, with a statue of an Aztec goddess selling for five times its estimate. The stone figure of Chalchiuhtlicue, the goddess of water and protector of births, went for 377,000 euros ($417,000). Sculpted from volcanic rock, it shows her kneeling and looking at the sky. Another kneeling figure of the Aztec mother goddess Coatlicue sold for 97,500 euros to bring the auction total to more than 1.2

British police on Tuesday made a second arrest in their hunt for thieves who stole a functioning 18-carat gold toilet from Blenheim Palace, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Designed by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan and once offered on loan to US President Donald Trump, the toilet was stolen on Saturday — just three days after it had been put on display. It has been valued at around $5 to $6 million and been a hit with tourists, who lined up to snap selfies of them sitting on its golden seat. Police in Oxford, the historic city on whose outskirts the palatial palace was built in the early 1700s, announced the arrest of a 36-year-old man who was then released pending an investigation. “We are continuing to investigate this incident and have made a second arrest in connection with it,” investigative officer Steven Jones said in a statement. “Our priority is to locate the stolen item.” The police have also arrested and releas

Multimedia artist Tiffany Chung will be interviewed by Tyler Green, host of “The Modern Art Notes Podcast,” at Sheldon Museum of Art on September 25 at 5:30 p.m. This live taping of the podcast is free and open to the public. Chung is one of three artists featured in the Sheldon exhibition “Unquiet Harmony: The Subject of Displacement.” She is noted for her cartographic drawings, sculptures, videos, photographs, and theater performances that examine migration, urban progress, and environmental impact in relation to history and cultural memory. As an artist who is active internationally, she presented “Tiffany Chung: Vietnam, Past Is Prologue,” a major solo exhibition this year at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and “Tiffany Chung: passage of time” is currently on view at Tyler Rollins Fine Art, New York.

Opening today at McNay Art Museum, La Revolución Mexicana: 100 Years Later marks the centennial of the end of the Mexican Revolution (1910-1920) with a spotlight on Michoacan printmaker Artemio Rodriguez. His portfolio of 18 linoleum block prints created in 2010 to mark the 100-year anniversary of the beginning of the Mexican Revolution is on view together for the first time at the McNay. The brilliantly contrasting black and white linocuts include portraits of prominent figures on both sides of the struggle. The artist’s portrait of dictator Porfirio Díaz and the Eurocentric nature of his rule strikingly contrasts the portrait of the great revolutionary leader, Emiliano Zapata, on horseback in rural Mexico with small farms and mountains in the background. “Many Mexican families fleeing the violence of the Revolution came to San Antonio and surrounding areas in search of safety,” said Lyle Williams, McNay