A quarterly record of art controversy
Pattern of the quarter · Summer 2026
Median time-in-stage by controversy type, from 392 cases
This essay is forthcoming in the Summer 2026 issue. The docket is live now. The essays publish at the Solstice.
The first pattern the Index can state with confidence from its inaugural dataset: the type of controversy predicts the speed of its resolution more reliably than the severity of the dispute.
Of the 102 cases in the docket involving active court proceedings, a meaningful proportion have reached Stage 5 — resolution — within the observation window. Courts have calendars. Dockets move. Even prolonged litigation has a structure that produces endpoints: rulings, settlements, dismissals.
Governance disputes — controversies in which an institution's leadership, funding model, or independence is the subject — show a markedly different pattern. Of the 29 Hungary cases and the broader set of institutional-capture cases, Stage 5 is rare. The controversy does not end; it becomes the new normal.
[Essay continues at publication — June 21, 2026]