EDITORIAL

The Treasury's little rays of sunshine

The National Galleries in Edinburgh and London and the National Trust have formidable fund-raising tasks in hand, but the targets would be even higher were it not for Britain's tax laws – which could be about to get better.

CONTEMPORARY ART

Seeing Sound

Moma's show on the impact of new media in the 1960s and 1970s recalls an idealistic age, before art aspired to control its audience.

ARCHITECTURE

Palladian games

The 500th anniversary of Palladio's birth is rightly being celebrated, but his influence on architects has in many ways been pernicious.

Market Preview

Victorian art takes centre stage in London and a Cubist masterpiece is on offer in New York.

Market Review

Banks are collapsing, but Hirst’s sale at Sotheby’s and Shanghai’s fair suggest that the art market has barely noticed.

Art Business

With financial institutions in turmoil, will banks renowned for spending money on art tighten the purse strings?

Asian Art Maket

Asian Art in London offers up an extraordinary range of works from every corner of the continent. Susan Moore selects some highlights.

Around the Galleries

Why not buy early for Christmas at sculpture shows in Paris and London or fairs in Vienna and Cologne?

Hearst's Canova

An exhibition in Los Angeles reveals William Randolph Hearst to have been a discriminating as well as an insatiable collector. As Carolyn Miner explains, this is perfectly demonstrated by his pursuit of a great sculpture by Canova, the Venus Italica.

A pedestal for sculpture

The first Sculptura European Sculpture Fair aims to bring the market together with museums in Berlin, writes Annie Blinkhorn.

Homage by an Emperor

Amy Heller unveils an extraordinary, unknown 15th-century Chinese Buddhist silk embroidery, made as a gift from the Yung-lo Emperor to the Tibetan lama who was his personal teacher and mentor.

Protecting Angkor’s sculpture from the looters

In the past 25 years the ruins of Angkor in Cambodia have suffered more from looting than at any time since the site was abandoned in the 15th century. Philip Courtenay assesses the destruction and explains the efforts being made to avert further damage.

Gold of the Gods

For over 50 years Douglas Latchford has pursued his passion for Asian sculpture. He talks to Louise Nicholson in his London apartment about his extraordinary collection and its future. Portrait by Derry Moore.

Domestic Sculpture

Between 1946 and 1959 the Arts Council of Great Britain staged a series of travelling displays of contemporary sculpture designed to attract buyers of modest means. Robert Burstow, who has curated an exhibition at the Henry Moore Institute in Leeds about this pioneering initiative, explains the Arts Council’s vision of ‘sculpture in the home’.

Portuguese voyage of discoveries

In less than a decade, the banker António Horta-Osório and his wife, Ana, have assembled an outstanding collection of works of art made for the Portuguese in the age of discoveries. They talk to Amin Jaffer. Portrait by Derry Moore.

Prophecies by Freud

Lucian Freud’s early drawings reveal a compelling personality as well as a precocious talent, writes Simon Grant.

Daughters of decay

Sanda Miller plunges into a vertiginous exhibition in New York that explores the links between fashion and gothic.

Cold Rivalry

An enthralling exhibition at the V&A demonstrates that art and design between 1945 and 1970 amounted to far more than ‘Cold War chic’, writes Neil Bingham.

Land of the Golden Fleece

Georgia’s ancient gold jewellery is strikingly exotic in spirit, writes John Boardman.

A Palace in Search of a Role

Andrew Hopkins visits the newly restored Venaria Reale near Turin, a palatial hunting lodge built for the dukes of Savoy in the 17th and 18th centuries. Its restoration fails to answer the question: what should it be used for?

Bacon in Close Focus

Rebecca Daniels praises the curators’ discriminating selection of works in Tate’s impressive Bacon exhibition.

Sculpting the landscape

Yorkshire Sculpture Park’s 30th-anniversary history uses photographs to poignant effect, writes Simon Poë.

Silent and Grave

Matthew Craske’s analysis of mid-18th-century sculptured tombs and monuments in England is full of original ideas and insights, writes John Kenworthy-Browne.

Venice's Golden Age?

A rich account of civic ceremonial in 16th-century Venice pays full attention to its often dark historical context, writes Simon Oakes.

Man and the Beasts

This study of the relationship between men and animals brings visual evidence to bear on complex historical debates, writes David Bindman.