Art news daily

MFA Houston first major US institution to reopen | Venice Art and Architecture Biennales postponed | Hobby Lobby is suing Christie's

Sotheby’s prepares to reopen | MFA Boston sets up diversity fund | Cathie Pilkington elected keeper of the RA | Arts Council England lobbying for extra museum funding

Oxford professor arrested in connection with alleged papyrus theft | Canada’s top art award shares prize funds between longlisted artists | Association of Art Museum Directors relaxes rules about use of restricted funds

Plus: Christie’s to pay $16.7m fine for uncollected tax in New York | Charleston farmhouse launches emergency crowdfunding appeal | and New York court rules that Call of Duty game is art

Plus: new method for dating pottery sheds light on London’s agricultural past | and Hauser & Wirth to open art-tech division

Plus: Government turns down council bid for Reading Prison | Helène Aylon (1931–2020)

Plus: Jeffery Camp (1923–2020) | Laura Raicovich appointed interim director of Leslie-Lohman Museum | and recommended reading

Plus: UNESCO criticises building project near Lebanese archaeological site | Charity auction brings in €2.4m for French health professionals | £700,000 of emergency funding for vulnerable Scottish museums announced | and Hepworth Wakefield to receive gift of nearly 100 artworks

Plus: Royal Albert in Exeter looks set to restitute Canadian objects | La Biennale Paris to sign up for government funding bailout | and Christie’s follows Sotheby’s in announcing staff furloughs | and recommended reading

Plus: David C. Driskell (1931–2020) | Sotheby’s furloughs staff as ‘gigaweek’ sales are postponed | National Lottery Heritage Fund announces £50m in emergency support | and temporary mortuary to be established at Irish Museum of Modern Art

Plus: Summer arts festivals in Edinburgh cancelled | Picasso drawing restituted by National Gallery of Art | and Madrid to spend €500,000 on acquiring art

Plus: Italy extends lockdown until 12 April | Metropolitan Museum of Art to pay staff until 2 May | and Suellen Rocca (1943–2020)

Plus: US stimulus package of $2tn including funding for arts bodies | Creative Scotland announces £11m in arts funding | and director of Museum of the Bible to return 11,500 antiquities to Iraq and Egypt

Plus: Kunstmuseum Basel reaches settlement with heirs of Curt Glaser | IMMA concerned about storage of Irish state’s modern art collections | UK independent museums warn of insolvency threat | and recommended reading

Plus: Further cases of Covid-19 at TEFAF emerge | Cleveland and Hammer among US museums to furlough staff | and Bristol Museum responds to restitution claim over Benin Bronze

Plus: Hong Kong museums close again after second wave of coronavirus | Arts Council England announces £160m emergency funding boost | MOCA LA lays off all part-time staff | and thieves arrested for stealing stones from Notre-Dame

Plus: Major earthquake damages spire of Zagreb Cathedral | Alberto Uderzo (1927–2020) | and San Francisco Art Institute may close

Plus: Arts Council England’s Export Licensing Unit closes until further notice | Francis Alÿs wins the Rolf Schock Prize for visual arts | Arts Council England commissions new guidelines for restitution | Merry Norris (1940–2020)

Plus: TEFAF New York Spring postponed to replace Fall edition | Kahlil Joseph named 6th winner of Eye Art & Film Prize | Derek Fordjour asks court to dismiss lawsuit from former dealer | and recommended reading

Plus: Opening of François Pinault’s private museum postponed as director steps down | Frieze New York cancelled | and Alan Caiger-Smith (1930–2020)

Plus: Online auction house Paddle8 files for bankruptcy | Art Basel launches online viewing rooms | Thieves fleeing Christ Church Picture Gallery may have escaped by boat | and reconstruction of Notre-Dame paused due to coronavirus