Art news daily

Plus: Charles Saumarez Smith leaves post at Blain Southern | Catherine Opie to chair UCLA’s art department in newly endowed position | and National Museum of the Resistance to be built in Milan

Plus: Maori carvings to return to New Zealand after 130 years | MOCA in LA to recognise workers’ union | and Donald B. Marron (1934–2019)

Plus: Contemporary Arts Museum Houston announces new director | and recommended reading

Plus: German art collective issue apology for controversial Berlin monument | UN rebukes threats against former Kyrgyz museum director | Dresden police receive more than 500 tip-off calls about Green Vault heist | Smithsonian museums rebrand as National Museum of Asian art

Plus: Christopher Breward appointed director of National Museums Scotland | and Stephen Garrett (1922–2019)

Plus: Turkish court rules that Kariye Museum must become mosque | Byron Kim announced as recipient of Robert De Niro, Sr. Prize | and Andrés Jaque announced as curator of Shanghai Biennale

Plus: UNESCO-listed town in Austria damaged by major fire | Danish court prevents Tal R painting from being chopped up to make watches | and burglars steal medals and jewellery from Stasi Museum

Plus:  Reward of €500,000 offered for recovery of Green Vault jewels | Nancy Astor statue unveiled in Plymouth | and recommended reading

Plus: Juan Pablo Langlois (1936–2019) | and three artists elected to Hong Kong District Councils

Plus: Cambridge college to return Benin Bronze to Nigeria | Art Basel cancels three-day event in Abu Dhabi | Lecturers at the Courtauld Institute strike over conditions | and Hetty Berg appointed director of Jewish Museum Berlin

Plus: Security footage of Dresden heist released | Hetain Patel wins Jarman Award | and Performa prize awarded to Nairy Baghramian and Maria Hassabi

Plus: Conservative Party general election manifesto promises £250m for culture | staff at MOCA in Los Angeles seek to unionise | and Matteo Salvini hits out at sculpture showing him shooting refugees

Plus: Cecilia Vicuña awarded Spain’s most prominent art prize | Manchester Museum is first UK institution to return objects to indigenous groups | Whitney Museum receives $1m grant to fund Hudson River installation | and recommended reading

Plus: Biennale de Lyon names Yves Robert as new chief executive | Anonymous Was a Woman announces recipients of $25,000 grants | and MOCA in LA to introduce free admission across both sites

Plus: €300m collection goes missing in China | and Guggenheim reveals shortlist for 2020 Hugo Boss Prize

Plus: France returns sword of Omar Saïdou Tall to Senegal | and Stephanie Comilang Wins 2019 Sobey Art Award

Plus: Wallace Collection announces first ever loan | Monnaie de Paris cancels its contemporary art programme | and Terry O’Neill (1938–2019)

Plus: Experts suggest Botticelli ‘copy’ at National Museum Cardiff could be real | German parliament approves new €364m budget for Berlin museum | and Safani gallery files lawsuit to avoid returning ancient artefact to Italy

Plus: Met Museum announces bequest of $80m and 375 works from Jayne Wrightsman | Rio Art Museum could close due to funding delays | and Open Society Foundations pledges $15m to aid repatriation of African objects

Plus: Hurley Building in Boston may be demolished | and Connaissance des Arts bids for stake in two French fairs

Plus: Iraq’s pavilion at Venice Biennale closes in solidarity with youth protests | Gillian Jagger (1930-2019) | and Creative United release Future of the Art Market report 

Plus: National Gallery in London launches fundraising appeal to buy Orazio Gentileschi painting | Arts Council England criticised for leaving Paolozzi sculpture at building site | and Sotheby’s Prize goes to two Brazilian exhibitions of Indigenous art

Plus: Los Angeles police recover $800,000 of stolen lithographs | first archaeological evidence of prehistoric hunting traps discovered in Mexico | Sally Dixon (1932–2019) | and recommended reading

Plus: Marciano Art Foundation says it has ‘no present plans to reopen’ | Japanese embassy removes support for Vienna exhibition | former Stedelijk director Beatrix Ruf heads to Moscow’s Garage Museum | and Victor Obsatz (1925–2019)