Apollo's wandering eye on the art world. Look out for regular posts taking a rakish perspective on art and museum stories. Got a story for Rakewell? Email rakewell@apollomag.com. Follow @Rakewelltweets.

The museums with naked ambitions

A series of naturist nights at a museum in Marseille is a salutary reminder that the term ‘art buff’ can have more than one meaning

29 Nov 2024

Art that’s good enough to eat

The $6m acquisition at auction of a Maurizio Cattelan banana has been widely mocked, but perhaps the buyer’s intention to eat his purchase is a noble one

22 Nov 2024

White Cube hangs up its dancing shoes

Hearing that the gallery is no longer hosting its usual bacchanal at Art Basel Miami Beach this year, Rakewell wonders whether White Cube has gone square

15 Nov 2024

How to remember the Great War

North-eastern France contains the largest number of war memorials in the country and a museum in Meaux is making an unusual new contribution

10 Nov 2024

The artists who have found love with unlikely partners

With the news that an artist is set to tie the knot with an interactive hologram, Rakewell wonders whether romance is dead after all

1 Nov 2024

When does rubbish become art?

A feud in Fife involving a single-minded outsider artist and his unhappy neighbour gives Apollo’s roving correspondent cause to reflect

18 Oct 2024

Emmanuel Macron pleads for Emily to stay in Paris

The French president’s wife tests her dramatic chops in the latest season of Emily in Paris, even though the show is now flirting with Rome – and her husband couldn’t be happier

12 Oct 2024

An eye-opening look at Girl with a Pearl Earring

A new study breaks down viewers’ reactions to Vermeer’s most famous work – a welcome reminder that artists have long had stratagems for seducing the eye

4 Oct 2024

Winter is coming, so why not bid for your very own piece of Game of Thrones?

Now is your chance to bid for Jon Snow’s sword, Jaime Lannister’s golden hand, or even the head of a direwolf to stave off the darkness that lies ahead

29 Sep 2024

Justice for Moo Deng, the internet’s favourite hippo

The rapid rise to fame of a baby pygmy hippopotamus in Thailand has raised concerns about her well-being – and about who will own her image rights

20 Sep 2024

Elizabeth Bennet gets a strange new lease of life

Visitors to Jane Austen’s House will soon be able to ‘meet’ the popular Pride and Prejudice character, but will her avatar make a good first impression?

13 Sep 2024

Anna Sorokin puts her best foot forward

Undeterred by a security tag on her ankle, the convicted con artist is taking to the small screen for Dancing with the Stars

6 Sep 2024

The artists who have come to the defence of the dodo

An art collection assembled by a ‘Dodo-ologist’ is heading to auction, but not everyone has had the same level of enthusiasm for the bird

30 Aug 2024

Why are paint names causing such a hue and cry?

PETA is throwing shade at the paint company Farrow & Ball for its use of vegan-unfriendly paint names, but coming up with terms for colours is easier said than done

23 Aug 2024

Is the art of medical drama in good health?

Some artists’ stories are entwined with hospitals and healthcare institutions – Andy Warhol getting shot, Vincent van Gogh checking in…

16 Aug 2024

Should art be an Olympic sport? Perhaps it already is

While Pharrell has called for art to be part of the official competition again, let’s not ignore the artists currently making their presence felt in Paris – and the athletes with art-historical credentials

9 Aug 2024

France counts the cost of a feast for the British king

The eyewateringly expensive banquet President Macron held for Charles III belongs to a long history of conspicuous royal consumption

2 Aug 2024

The luxury brands giving the Olympics a certain je ne sais quoi

The LVMH stable, from Louis Vuitton to Chaumet, is ensuring that Paris 2024 will get a gold medal for aesthetics, as sport gets increasingly stylish

26 Jul 2024

Bacchus sets the pulse racing in Florence

A tourist has been caught in the throes of passion with a statue of the god of wine, but perhaps she was merely giving into the effects of Stendhal syndrome

19 Jul 2024

Let the games begin – Gladiator II is on the way

A three-minute-long trailer for Ridley Scott’s sequel to Gladiator drops tantalising clues about what kind of spectacle to expect in November

14 Jul 2024

The Rubik’s Cube throws up a new conundrum

The famous puzzle turns 50 this year, but the exact date of its birthday is a mystery that brings into question the very nature of time itself

5 Jul 2024

Kendall Jenner is let loose in the Louvre

Was the reality star consciously emulating the Italian mannerists when she embarked on a night-time tour of France’s most hallowed museum sans footwear?

28 Jun 2024

Donald Sutherland’s brush with Gauguin

Obituaries of the actor are rightly lauding his work in M*A*S*H, Don’t Look Now and JFK, but fail to mark his indelible performance as one of the leading post-Impressionists

21 Jun 2024

Dior cruises through Scotland’s chequered history

The fashion megabrand has used Drummond Castle in Scotland as the backdrop for a new campaign – but was it fully clued up about the site’s colourful history?

7 Jun 2024