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.

Winston Churchill in a box

Churchill’s statue on Parliament Square is currently boxed up but, given his attitude to portraits, perhaps Churchill himself wouldn’t mind

12 Jun 2020
Jodie Comer as Villanelle in Killing Eve.

I spy with my little eye… a cultural tour of Killing Eve

What is it about art and espionage? The spies and assassins of BBC America’s hit show have sophisticated tastes in meeting venues

4 Jun 2020
The Right Honourable Chris Grayling MP has been appointed a trustee of the National Portrait Gallery, London

Chris Grayling, culture vulture – and NPG trustee

The former transport secretary has been appointed as a trustee of the National Portrait Gallery – so he must be a museum fanatic, right?

29 May 2020

Peter Crouch, Michelangelo and the Sixteen Chapel

The former England striker is keen to stage an exhibition of photos of Roy Keane – and has strong opinions about the arrogance of most art galleries

22 May 2020
Peter Sellers holding a bust of himself.

The punchy paintings of Peter Sellers

Peter Sellers gave action painting a new spin in a sketch with Peter Cook and Dudley Moore in 1965

16 May 2020
After a day crammed with videocalls.

The museums offering remedies for Zoom gloom

Fed up with video calls, Rakewell finds light relief in teleporting himself (if only) to Waddesdon Manor and the Met

7 May 2020

Performing Dr. Seuss – from Michelle Obama to Dr. Dre

Celebrities have often performed Dr. Seuss to kids to extol the benefits of reading – but should they have rapped through the books instead?

1 May 2020

The card lads of German football

The fans of Borussia Mönchengladbach are to make up for closed stadiums by attending matches in the form of cardboard cutouts

28 Apr 2020
Lovejoy

How Apollo made its mark on Lovejoy

Your favourite art magazine has been spotted in the vintage BBC comedy-drama – though always in the hands of dodgy antiques dealers

24 Apr 2020

Homeschooling with Danny Dyer

BBC Bitesize has announced that Danny Dyer and Sergio Agüero are among the celebrities joining its homeschooling programme. But who’s going to teach art?

21 Apr 2020

A cultural tour of Jon Snow’s bookshelves

Rakewell has been eyeing up the broadcaster’s learned library while watching Channel 4 News

17 Apr 2020

Curatorial cocktails at the Frick

The curators at the Frick are to brighten up cocktail hour in Manhattan – and Rakewell is already pouring himself a drink

9 Apr 2020

Homemade masterworks – from the sublime to the ridiculous

With oodles of toilet paper and canned fish, it seems anyone can recreate an artistic masterpiece at home

1 Apr 2020

Au revoir, Albert Uderzo – on Asterix in different tongues

Rakewell bids farewell to the co-creator of Asterix by taking a tour through his characters – and how their names have shifted in translation

27 Mar 2020

The Courtauld quizzers come a cropper

After a solid run on University Challenge, the Courtauld team met its match in Jesus College, Oxford – and too many questions about art history

19 Mar 2020
Tribuna of the Uffizi (detail; 1772–77), Johann Zoffany. Royal Collection. Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Don’t stand so close to me! Art in an age of contagion

Some scenes of art appreciation that wouldn’t pass muster in stricter viewing conditions

7 Mar 2020
Sculpture of Romulus and Remus suckling at a she-wolf in the Musei Capitolini. Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images

Has the tomb of Romulus really been found – or is someone crying wolf?

Claims that the resting place of the legendary founder of Rome has been discovered cause Rakewell to raise an eyebrow

28 Feb 2020
Photo: Leon Neal/Pool/AFP via Getty Images

Star Turner – The Fighting Temeraire, from biscuit tin to banknote

With the new £20 note in circulation, there are now two billion more copies of the much-reproduced painting in existence

22 Feb 2020
The Galerie des Glaces at the Chateau de Versailles, Photo: Myrabella/Wikimedia commons

The Versailles of Wales, Vienna, Hampstead, Belarus…

Every country has its own Versailles, right? Rakewell rounds them up

14 Feb 2020
On the left is Caravaggio’s Boy with a Basket of Fruit. On the right is Sex Education’s Otis Milburn (Asa Butterfield)

Sex Education meets art history

The students of Moordale High have been reimagined as a cast of painted saints and sinners

9 Feb 2020

Michelangelo in the Curva Nord

At the recent Rome derby, the Stadio Olimpico was transformed in the Sistine Chapel (sort of)

31 Jan 2020
The Magna Carta in Salisbury.

The altruism of art theft

An attempt to steal the Magna Carta prompts Rakewell to wonder whether there is such a thing as a public-spirited heist

31 Jan 2020

Sajid Javid in the thick of it

Was the Chancellor of the Exchequer channelling an infamous fictional spin-doctor when he agreed to be interviewed in a Westminster cafe?

25 Jan 2020
K-pop group BTS field questions from Hans Ulrich Obrist at a press conference on 14 January 2019 at the Serpentine in London

Only connect – K-pop beams into the Serpentine Galleries

The Korean boyband BTS is collaborating on a global art project. Rakewell heads down to the Serpentine Galleries to find out why…

14 Jan 2020