Three paintings stolen from Christ Church Picture Gallery in Oxford
Plus: National Gallery postpones Artemisia Gentileschi exhibition indefinitely | Arts Council England announces plans to compensate artists and freelancers | Genesis P-Orridge (1950–2020) | and Anicka Yi receives Tate Modern’s Hyundai Commission for Turbine Hall
Louvre announces closure, as do more major museums worldwide
Plus: National Gallery of Art and Smithsonian among US museums closing to contain coronavirus | Art Cologne postponed from April to November | and museums start reopening in China, Japan and South Korea
TEFAF to close early after exhibitor tests positive for coronavirus
Plus: Cleveland Museum of Art receives major works valued at over $100m | Exhibition of Liechtenstein collection cancelled by four museums over report of forced labour during WWII | Los Angeles man pleads guilty to selling fake works by blue chip artists | Nicola Lees named director of Aspen Art Museum | and Emma Talbot wins Max Mara Art Prize 2020
Vatican closes St Peter’s Square to contain Covid-19
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
Museums across Italy shuttered until April
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
Griselda Pollock is first art historian to win Holberg Prize
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
Musée d’Orsay receives €20m gift to kickstart major expansion project
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
Grafton Architects win Pritzker Prize
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
Art Dubai postponed indefinitely due to 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
Ulay (1943–2020)
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
Norwegian government authorises demolition of building bearing murals by Picasso
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
Grayson Perry wins €150,000 Erasmus Prize
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
Major LACMA donor suspends long-term gift programme
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
More than 600 artists endorse Bernie Sanders in open letter
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)
Spread of coronavirus causes museums across northern Italy to close
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
New art centre dedicated to Alexander Calder to open in Philadelphia
Plus: Jingart fair in Beijing cancelled due to coronavirus | Monet ‘self-portrait’ reattributed to Charles Giron | and recommended reading
Director of Forensic Architecture barred from travelling to United States
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
Leaked Brexit negotiating paper stokes Elgin Marbles dispute
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
V&A Museum of Childhood to close for £13m renovation
Plus: Six trustees resign from Cooper Hewitt museum | and Arts Council England pushes for greater diversity in arts organisations
Jenny Waldman to direct Art Fund
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
MoMA appoints Clément Chéroux new chief curator of photography
Plus: Former Sotheby’s attorneys to found new art law firm | Anne Marion (1938-2020) | and recommended reading
Blain Southern closes all three galleries in London, New York and Berlin
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)
Sonia Boyce to represent UK at 59th Venice Biennale in 2021
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
All photographs are products of their time – and they should be treated that way