Bonhams chief executive Matthew Girling steps down
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
Climate activists stage three-day protest against BP sponsorship at British 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
Art Basel cancels Hong Kong fair due to coronavirus outbreak
Plus: Uffizi wins court battle against unofficial ticketing websites | New York dealer sues artist Derek Fordjour for $1.45m | and recommended reading
Beverly Pepper (1922–2020)
Plus: Yale art history department defends changes to undergraduate survey courses | and Antony Hudek named director of Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens
Draft executive order could require federal buildings to be classical in style
Plus: Looted temple sculpture confiscated by UK police to return to Afghanistan|Gallery Weekend Beijing postponed due to coronavirus outbreak | Félix Marcilhac (1941–2020) | and College Art Association announces recipients of 2020 awards
Bulgarian billionaire’s antiquities collection seized by authorities
Plus: Ikko Narahara (1931–2020) | and Courtauld appoints Tzo Zen Ang as first managing director
Martine Gosselink appointed general director of the Mauritshuis
Plus: Opening of He Art Museum in China postponed due to coronavirus | Polish government urged to approve reappointment of Jewish history museum director | Gagosian and Steven Tananbaum settle lawsuit| 500-year-old rock art discovered after being damaged by Australian bushfires | and San Francisco tattoo artist sues Disney over alleged copyright infringement
Art Basel tries to reassure exhibitors about Hong Kong fair as WHO declares public health emergency
Plus: Bolsonaro appoints Regina Duarte as Brazil’s culture secretary | Unseen Amsterdam declares bankruptcy | Museum of Chinese in America hopes to salvage collection devastated by fire | Dutch museum sues London dealer after hackers intercept $3.1m deal | and W. M. Keck Foundation donates $50m to $650m Building LACMA campaign
Cecilie Hollberg to return as director of Galleria dell’Accademia
Plus: Smithsonian will no longer have permanent gallery at V&A East | Adam M. Levine to direct Toledo Museum of Art | CAFAM Techne Triennial 2020 postponed due to outbreak of coronavirus | and Asheville Art Museum receives grant to digitise Black Mountain College Collection
Roberto Cicutto named president of Venice Biennale
Plus: | School of Architecture at Taliesin will close after 88 years | Philadelphia Museum of Art to open anonymous hotline for reports of sexual harassment | and Santu Mofokeng (1956–2020)
Hong Kong shuts public museums as a result of the coronavirus
Plus: Hester Diamond (1928–2020) | Minister for Indigenous Australians announces plans to protect Aboriginal artists | Devil head once attributed to Gauguin is declared fake by Getty | and Gordon Smith (1919–2020)
Cesspit containing medieval artefacts discovered beneath the Courtauld Institute
Plus: Arts Council England publishes 10-year strategy | Museum of Chinese in America seriously damaged in a fire | Architecture tutor dismissed from Glasgow School of Art | and Solent Flour Mills in Southampton to be demolished
China closes Forbidden City and part of Great Wall to contain coronavirus outbreak
Plus: German museums postpone two exhibitions on Iran | Oswald Oberhuber (1931–2020) | and recommended reading
Housing secretary announces inquiry into Whitechapel Bell Foundry redevelopment
Plus: Russian culture minister replaced in cabinet reshuffle | Historic England report values heritage sector at £31bn | and Portland Art Museum receives donation of $10m
Art Fund launches appeal to save Derek Jarman’s Prospect Cottage
Plus: Thieves confess to stealing and returning Klimt painting | Norman Foster calls for competition to design new House of Lords | and Japan dismisses South Korean protests over national territory museum
Patrick van Maris to resign as head of TEFAF
Plus: Painting from the Alana Collection seized by French officials | Enniskillen Workhouse awarded £2m in lottery funding | and popularity of art history at UK universities falls by 28.5 per cent in past decade
Tony Hall appointed chair of the National Gallery’s Board of Trustees
Plus: James Mollison (1931–2020) | Painting found inside gallery wall confirmed as long-lost Klimt | Brazilian culture minister fired for speech echoing Goebbels | National Archives in Washington, D.C., issues apology for doctored image | Sculpture looted from Afghanistan to be returned
Jaime Botin receives prison sentence and €52m fine for trying to smuggle a Picasso out of Spain
Plus: Zoe Whitley appointed new director of Chisenhale Gallery | Censored Aichi Triennale show to be restaged in Taiwan | New work from 100 women artists commissioned to mark centenary of 19th amendment | and recommended reading
Putin appoints cultural leaders to rewrite constitution
Plus: Lucas Museum acquires major archive of African-American cinema | Paisley Museum receives £3.8m lottery funding boost | François Pinault appoints Bruno Racine as director of Venice museums | and Cristina Iglesias wins Royal Academy Architecture Prize
Artists exhibiting at MoMA PS1 call on museum to drop board members
Plus: Stan Douglas to represent Canada at 2021 Venice Biennale | former media tycoon appointed first Frieze CEO | and Betty Pat Gatliff (1930–2020)
Director of Erie Art Museum departs following allegations of misconduct
Plus: Architectural plans for new £337m Museum of London revealed | and Amanda Heng wins Benesse Prize at Singapore Biennale
Drawing believed to be by Dürer discovered in Vienna
Plus: Roger Scruton (1944–2020) | Nazi-looted works restituted to Jewish owners to be auctioned | Winners of the 2020 Jorge M. Pérez Award announced | and recommended reading
Cecilia Alemani appointed artistic director of the 59th Venice Biennale
Plus: China blocks return of missing Kiefer works found by German museum director | Workers at New York’s Shed seek to unionise | Florian Hufnagl (1948–2019) | and recommended reading
Roman fort on Hadrian’s Wall given to National Heritage Collection
Plus: Earthquakes in Puerto Rico force museums to close | and Palais de Tokyo faces criticism over partnership with Qatari state museum
All photographs are products of their time – and they should be treated that way