The week in art news – Oxford college backs calls to remove Rhodes statue
Plus: Amazon boss appointed director of Natural History Museum | Nanne Dekking steps down as chair of TEFAF | Marlborough closes gallery in New York
The week in art news – statue of slave trader toppled in Bristol in Black Lives Matter protest
Plus: Art Basel cancels 2020 edition of flagship fair | Leopold II statue removed in Antwerp after protests | SFMOMA makes more staff redundant | Commission set up to review landmarks in London
The week in art news – Governor of Virginia orders removal of Robert E. Lee’s statue
Plus: Christo (1935–2020) | Interior designer jailed for buying a Rothko with a stolen identity | Walker Art Center ends contract with Minneapolis police department | German stimulus package allocates €1bn for the arts
The week in art news – Susan Rothenberg (1945–2020)
MFA Houston first major US institution to reopen | Venice Art and Architecture Biennales postponed | Hobby Lobby is suing Christie's
The week in art news – UK galleries and auction houses to reopen from 1 June
Thomas Sokolowski (1950–2020) | Allan Schwartzman leaves Sotheby’s | Photo London announces new dates and new venue | Austrian culture minister resigns
The week in art news – MoMA takes a ‘chainsaw’ to its budget
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
The week in art news – Germano Celant (1940–2020)
Zarina (1937–2020) | Museums in Italy and Belgium to reopen in May | San Francisco Institute of Art looks for way to stay open | Mobilier national to sell furniture to support French hospitals | Opening of GES-2 centre in Moscow postponed
The week in art news – museums in Germany prepare to reopen
Peter Beard (1938–2020) | Sue Davies (1933–2020) | MoMA PS1 lays off 70 per cent of staff | Myriam Ben Salah appointed executive director of Renaissance Society | Met lays off 80 employees | Notre-Dame construction site to reopen next week | Serpentine Pavilion commission postponed to 2021 | Howardena Pindell sues former gallery
Pinault collection opening in Paris postponed to spring 2021
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
Getty postpones all public events until after end of August
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
Survey warns a third of French galleries may close before 2021
Plus: new method for dating pottery sheds light on London’s agricultural past | and Hauser & Wirth to open art-tech division
Fire at construction site of Humboldt Forum in Berlin
Plus: Government turns down council bid for Reading Prison | Helène Aylon (1931–2020)
Opening of Grand Egyptian Museum in Giza postponed until 2021
Plus: Jeffery Camp (1923–2020) | Laura Raicovich appointed interim director of Leslie-Lohman Museum | and recommended reading
Whitney lays off 76 staff members
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
Getty Trust creates $10m fund for arts organisations in Los Angeles
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
National Trust for Scotland appoints Philip Long as chief executive
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
Derek Jarman’s Prospect Cottage saved for the nation
Plus: Summer arts festivals in Edinburgh cancelled | Picasso drawing restituted by National Gallery of Art | and Madrid to spend €500,000 on acquiring art
Alan Jones steps down temporarily as president of RIBA
Plus: Italy extends lockdown until 12 April | Metropolitan Museum of Art to pay staff until 2 May | and Suellen Rocca (1943–2020)
Vincent Van Gogh painting stolen from Dutch museum
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
Michael Sorkin (1948–2020)
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
This year’s Masterpiece London cancelled and Art Basel postponed
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
Maurice Berger (1956–2020)
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
Paul Kasmin (1960–2020)
Plus: Major earthquake damages spire of Zagreb Cathedral | Alberto Uderzo (1927–2020) | and San Francisco Art Institute may close
Manifesta 13 and other biennials postponed
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)
An everyday luxury – the artists finding beauty in banality