Art news daily

Plus: French culture minister tests positive for Covid-19 | Shell ends relationship with Southbank Centre | Security guards investigated over jewellery theft at Dresden’s Royal Palace | and Pam Masi named interim executive director of Erie Art Museum

Plus: UK arts organisations express dismay at withdrawal from Creative Europe | Alan Turner (1943–2020) | Scientific tests suggest bones in Kent church belong to Anglo Saxon princess | and Armory Show announces prize winners

Plus: Easter Island mayor calls for traffic restrictions after truck hits sacred statue | Italy rejects arrest warrant for prime suspect in Old Master forgery scandal | Henry Cobb (1926–2020) | and US museums restrict staff travel to countries deemed high-risk for coronavirus

Plus: Venice architecture biennale postponed due to spread of coronavirus | British Museum acquires Bronze Age pendant found in Shropshire | and Mophradat announces artists for Consortium Commissions 2020

Plus: More than 2,000 arts professionals endorse Elizabeth Warren | Google launches VR site for Chauvet caves | Kurdish artist Fatos Irwen released from prison in Turkey | and Louvre reopens after closure over coronavirus

Plus: Emilia Beatriz wins 2020/21 Margaret Tait Award | Italy rejects arrest warrant for Old Master forger | Proposal to turn Sydney’s Cockatoo Island into art attraction rejected by officials | Peter Dreher (1932–2020) | and MOCA Tucson appoints Laura Copelin its executive director and chief curator

Plus: Louvre closes amid concerns over coronavirus | Cooper-Hewitt donor rescinds $5m bequest over removal of director | and Bonhams appoints Patrick Masson as managing director for UK and Europe 

Plus: Brazilian collector Bernardo Paz cleared of money laundering charges | Italian collector Patrizia Sandretto Re Rebaudengo drops plans for new Madrid space | Eric Crosby announced as director of Carnegie Museum of Art | Brooklyn Public Library and Brooklyn Historical Society to combine | and recommended reading

Plus: Sharon Corwin appointed president and CEO of Terra Foundation | François Tajan (1962–2020) | and provenance of Met painting updated to acknowledge ownership by Nazi-persecuted dealer

Plus: Uffizi scientific committee resigns over loan of Raphael painting | Smithsonian lifts copyright restrictions from 2.8 million images | and New York developers plan to dismantle Isamu Noguchi installation

Plus: Oldest known cave paintings threatened by cement mining in Indonesia | Billionaire Rebekah Mercer no longer on American Museum of Natural History’s board, following years of protest | and James Brown (1951–2020)

Plus: Collector files lawsuit for $1m against Princeton University  | Yona Friedman (1923–2020) | Jack Youngerman (1926–2020) | Sotheby’s moves Hong Kong sales to New York | Nazi-looted Andrea della Robbia sculpture restituted to Germany | and recommended reading

Plus: Jingart fair in Beijing cancelled due to coronavirus | Monet ‘self-portrait’ reattributed to Charles Giron | and recommended reading

Plus: Staff at UK art schools join nationwide strike | Louvre cancels show of Bulgarian religious art | Ethiopian crown repatriated from the Netherlands | and new £20 note celebrating JMW Turner enters circulation

Plus: Egyptian coffin painting discovered at Harvard Semitic Museum | David Adjaye and Cai Guo-Qiang win 2020 Noguchi Award | and Raphael tapestries return to Sistine Chapel

Plus: Six trustees resign from Cooper Hewitt museum | and Arts Council England pushes for greater diversity in arts organisations

Plus: India requests restitution of bronze idol from Oxford’s Ashmolean Museum | FBI repatriates over 450 cultural objects to Haiti | and billionaire gaming entrepreneur Mark Pincus pledges $3m to James Turrell’s Roden Crater art project

Plus: Former Sotheby’s attorneys to found new art law firm | Anne Marion (1938-2020) | and recommended reading

Plus: Oliver Dowden named new culture secretary in cabinet reshuffle | House of Representatives votes to establish a Smithsonian museum for women’s history | and Elisabeth Wild (1922-2020)

Plus: Court dismisses privacy appeal against Tate Modern viewing platform | Native American burial sites destroyed to construct US-Mexico border wall | Hong Kong Arts Festival cancelled due to coronavirus | and Mat Collishaw parts company with Blain Southern gallery

Plus: Trump’s annual budget renews threat against National Endowment for the Arts | Sofie Scheerlinck appointed interim managing director of TEFAF | Caroline Baumann resigns as director of Cooper Hewitt | Lewisham and Croydon named London Boroughs of Culture | and Rembrandt discovered at small Pennsylvania Museum

Plus: Ella Fontanals-Cisneros cancels gift of 400 works to Spanish state | Counterspace named as architects of Serpentine Pavilion 2020 | Agnes Gund wins inaugural Ruth Bader Ginsburg leadership award | and Louvre to remain open throughout closing weekend of Leonardo show

Plus: Uffizi wins court battle against unofficial ticketing websites | New York dealer sues artist Derek Fordjour for $1.45m | and recommended reading

Plus: Yale art history department defends changes to undergraduate survey courses | and Antony Hudek named director of Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens