News

A cruise ship passes close to the church San Giorgio Maggiore, in Venice on 26 September 2014.

The week in art news – UNESCO keeps Venice off the endangered list again

Plus: Egon Schiele works seized from US museums, Moroccan heritage sites damaged in earthquake, and the rest of the week’s top stories

17 Sep 2023
Bust thought to depict a daughter of Marcus Aurelius (c. 160–80). Photo: Daderot/Public domain via Wikimedia Commons

Roman bust seized from Worcester Art Museum

Plus: Polish museum director dismissed by local government, Manchester Museum returns 174 items to Indigenous Australians, and the rest of the week’s art news

8 Sep 2023

British Museum director Hartwig Fischer announces immediate departure after suspected thefts

Plus: South-east Asian countries are demanding return of looted objects from Denver Art Museum, and the rest of the week’s top stories

25 Aug 2023

British Museum sacks staff member accused of stealing from collections

Plus: the gallerist Angela Flowers has died at the age of 90 and the Orlando Museum of Art is suing its former director over an alleged scheme to sell forged Basquiats

18 Aug 2023

The week in art news – Brice Marden (1938–2023)

Plus: Ukrainian government releases online database of artworks in the possession of Russian nationals, and the rest of the week’s top stories

11 Aug 2023

Hartwig Fischer to step down as director of the British Museum

Plus: Russian missiles have damaged Odesa Cathedral and Joop Sanders (1921–2023)

30 Jul 2023
Photo: Mößbauer/Wikimedia Commons (public domain)

The week in art news – arrests made in connection with Celtic coin heist

Plus: two looted sculptures returned to Libya, the Dutch national photography museum to receive a new home, and the rest of the week’s top stories

21 Jul 2023

The week in art news – Frieze buys the Armory Show and Expo Chicago

Plus: a Pistoletto sculpture has been destroyed in a suspected arson attack and Simon Lee Gallery has been placed under administration

14 Jul 2023

Institutions cut ties with David Adjaye after sexual misconduct allegations

Plus: report outlines destruction of cultural property in Sudan and Michael Kauffmann (1931–2023)

9 Jul 2023

France passes law allowing museums to return Nazi-looted art

Plus: French artist Claude Lévêque is charged with rape and the Hermitage Amsterdam is changing its name

30 Jun 2023

Douglas Latchford estate forfeits $12m to settle looted antiquities case

Plus: Austrian government proposes new restitution laws and the rest of the week’s top stories

23 Jun 2023
Flags flying out unesco headquarters

The week in art news – United States to rejoin UNESCO in July

Plus: climate activists smear paint on a Monet, Maurizio Cattelan’s banana wins a lawsuit, and the rest of the week’s top stories

16 Jun 2023

Dam collapse has flooded the house of the Ukrainian artist Polina Rayko

Plus: Françoise Gilot (1921–2023), and the rest of the week’s top stories

9 Jun 2023

The week in art news – Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev to retire

Plus: Kenneth Anger (1927–2023), UK government plans to extend ivory ban, and the rest of the week’s top stories

26 May 2023

The week in art news – Supreme Court rules against Warhol Foundation in copyright lawsuit

Plus: five men sentenced for Dresden jewellery heist, Lisa Schiff reportedly shuts up shop after lawsuit, and the rest of the week’s top stories

19 May 2023
painted terracotta pots

After a series of scandals, the Met hires an in-house provenance team

Plus: the Centre Pompidou in Paris will close for five years, from 2025–2030, and Samuel Fosso wins the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize

12 May 2023

The week in art news – UNESCO calls for greater protections for artists

Plus: boycott at Kiasma in Helsinki comes to an end, and the rest of the week’s top stories

7 May 2023
Michel Draguet, director of the Royal Museums of Fine Arts,

Director of Brussel’s Royal Museums of Fine Arts resigns after staff allegations

France releases its restitution report and this year’s Turner Prize shortlist has been announced

28 Apr 2023

The week in art news – Texan princess evicted from 16th-century Roman villa

Plus: photographer turns down Sony prize after winning with AI-generated image and Artcurial expands into Switzerland

23 Apr 2023

The week in art news – National Portrait Gallery and Getty agree to buy Reynolds’ Portrait of Mai

Plus: collector Myriam Ullens killed outside her home and Berlin’s Pergamon Museum to close completely for three and a half years

31 Mar 2023

The week in art news – Met’s antiquities come under closer scrutiny

Plus: Bordeaux town hall set on fire in French pension protests and Hispanic Society workers to strike indefinitely

24 Mar 2023
Whitechapel Gallery

The week in art news – Whitechapel Gallery lays off senior curators

Plus: Phyllida Barlow (1944–2023), investigators link 77 Indian antiquities in the Met to smuggler Subhash Kapoor, and the rest of the week’s top stories

17 Mar 2023

The week in art news – Adam Weinberg to step down as Whitney director

Plus: Rafael Viñoly (1944–2023), David Chipperfield wins the Pritzker, and more art news

12 Mar 2023
Aerial view of the Pavilions and Michael Heizer’s Compression Line (1968/2016).

The week in art news – Glenstone museum receives donation of $1.9bn

Plus: Ron’s Place saved at the eleventh hour, Peter Weibel (1944–2023), and the rest of the week’s top stories

3 Mar 2023