Chicago Crowds Fail to Move Anish Kapoor's Bean by Seven Inches

Hundreds of people gathered in Chicago's Millennium Park on Sunday, shouted "Push the Bean!", and failed to move Anish Kapoor's Cloud Gate a single inch. The sculpture, popularly known as the Bean, weighs 110 tons. The crowd wanted it moved seven inches to the left, according to CBS News.

The stunt rested on an internet legend. It holds that a man is stuck inside the Bean, and that a collective nudge would free him. Videos of the event show a crowd of outstretched hands reaching toward the stainless steel surface, smartphones held high in the other. City Council member Brendan Reilly confirmed long ago that no man is trapped inside the sculpture. He has also asked the public to stop calling his office about it.

The Bean stayed put. The recordings, presumably, will circulate anyway.

Who was Michael Ward Stout?

Michael Ward Stout, the lawyer who ran Robert Mapplethorpe's foundation and represented Salvador Dalí, has died at 83, The New York Times reported. Stout handled artist licensing, contracts, and exhibitions. His other clients included the estates of Jean-Michel Basquiat and the dealer Barbara Gladstone.

French video artist Fred Forest also died, at 93, Le Monde reported. The Centre Pompidou dedicated retrospectives to his video work, "sociological art," and "Net art" in 2017 and 2024. Forest announced his own death in a message sent by his son. "Thanks to the affectionate complicity of my son Adrien, I have the pleasure of announcing my own death," the statement reads. It continues: "Lying in this hole dug in the earth at Anserville, I will now have all the time to reflect calmly on what I will do tomorrow, my friends." It is signed, simply, Fred Forest.

What else happened this week?

• Two oil studies by Peter Paul Rubens, lost for more than 80 years, will join three others by the artist at the Ducal Museum in Gotha, Germany, where they had been part of the collection for centuries before their disappearance.
• French investigators arrested four people in connection with July thefts of jewelry at the Musée Lalique and ancient coins at the Archaeology Centre in Montans.
• The Hole gallery in New York faces eviction from its Bowery space and owes $102,823 in back rent and late charges, following reports that it is being sued over unpaid rent, artists, and workers.
• More than 50 protesters gathered in Washington, D.C., to oppose President Trump's planned triumphal arch project.
• The Grand Rapids Art Museum is staging a survey of art by or about people once incarcerated in the United States, including a 1,000-piece ceramic installation by Julie Green of plates depicting the final-meal choices of people on death row, and quilted appliquéd works by Gary Tyler, who was wrongly convicted at seventeen.

Why is the Mona Lisa moving?

At the Louvre, president Christophe Leribault is fundraising for an overhaul of the museum costing more than $1 billion. A key part of the plan would give the Mona Lisa her own room, and Leribault told the Wall Street Journal the move will control crowds but "is sad," because it "will separate the Mona Lisa from the other Leonardo da Vinci paintings."

For now, the Louvre remains open despite planned protests. Visitors can still glimpse the Mona Lisa alongside other Da Vinci paintings — and the usual throngs of selfie-wielding tourists.