News

Max Hollein, president and soon-to-be CEO of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

The week in art news – Met director Max Hollein to take on chief executive role as well

Plus: new appointments at the National Gallery of Ireland and RIBA, Design Miami Paris cancelled amid security fears, and Nancy Pelosi visits Taiwan museum

5 Aug 2022
Not falling any time soon: plaque dedicated to Cecil Rhodes in King Edward Street, adjacent to Oriel College, Oxford.

The week in art news – Cecil Rhodes plaque in Oxford gets listed status

Plus: Long-running dispute between Dmitry Rybolovlev and Yves Bouvier enters new phase and British geologist’s conviction for smuggling antiquities overturned

29 Jul 2022
Pop artist Claes Oldenburg with one of his works, an outsize tube of toothpaste on display in the Dusseldorf Kunsthalle, West Germany.

The week in art news – Claes Oldenburg (1929–2022)

Plus: Documenta director resigns in anti-Semitism row, Italian authorities stop Artemisia sale in Vienna and New York DA’s office returns 142 artefacts to Italy

22 Jul 2022
The Horniman Museum and Gardens in Forest Hill, London, designed by Charles Harrison Townsend and constructed in 1898–1901.

The week in art news – Horniman Museum wins Art Fund Museum of the Year prize

The Horniman Museum and Gardens in London is this year’s Art Fund Museum of the Year. The annual award, which…

15 Jul 2022
Courtesy of David Kordansky Gallery, Los Angeles, and Pace Gallery. Photo: Fredrik Nilsen Studio.

The week in art news – Sam Gilliam (1933–2022)

Plus: Daniel H. Weiss is stepping down as president and CEO of the Metropolitan Museum of Art

1 Jul 2022
Royal British Columbia Museum in Victoria, Vancouver Island

The week in art news – plan to demolish and rebuild Royal British Columbia Museum scrapped

Plus: Documenta removes artwork at centre of anti-Semitism allegations

24 Jun 2022
The Dionysos pediment from the Parthenon marbles at the British Museum.

British Museum chair George Osborne says ‘deal’ can be done over Parthenon Marbles

Plus: Smithsonian board votes to return 29 Benin Bronzes | UK places a temporary export bar on £19m Poussin painting | Marina Lambraki-Plaka, the director of the National Gallery in Athens, has died at the age of 83

17 Jun 2022
Paula Rego, photographed in 2021. Photo: © Nick Willing

The week in art news – Paula Rego (1935–2022)

The Portuguese-British painter renowned worldwide for her vivid and unsettling fairy-tale visions has died at the age of 87

8 Jun 2022
Jean Luc-Martinez at the Louvre Abu Dhabi in December 2017.

The week in art news – former head of the Louvre investigated for money laundering and organised fraud

Plus: the art dealer Inigo Philbrick has been sentenced to seven years in prison | The new French culture minister is Rima Abdul Malak

27 May 2022
Sotheby’s Oliver Barker fields bids during the second Macklowe collection sale on 16 May 2022. Courtesy Sotheby's.

The week in art news – Macklowe collection sells for record-breaking $922m

Plus: Angus Grossart has died at the age of 85 | Brazilian curator resigns amid MASP controversy | Protest takes place outside the Whitney | Ukrainian soldiers discover ancient artefacts in Odessa

20 May 2022
Courtesy the Courtauld

The week in art news – Deborah Swallow to retire as director of the Courtauld Institute

Plus: Ukraine demolishes statue symbolising friendship with Russia and winners of the competition to renew the Barbican Centre announced

29 Apr 2022

The week in art news – Turner Prize shortlist announced

Plus: Jessica Bell Brown named head of contemporary art at Baltimore Museum of Art and Kim McAleese appointed director of Edinburgh Art Festival

14 Apr 2022
Photo © Samuel Stuart Hollenshead, courtesy New York University

The week in art news – Getty Trust appoints Katherine Fleming as president

Plus: Charles Darwin’s stolen notebooks returned to Cambridge University | Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego reopens | Finland seizes art shipments from Russia worth €42m

8 Apr 2022
Andy Warhol photographed in 1973.

US Supreme Court to rule on dispute over Warhol’s use of Prince photograph

Plus: The Met has returned two statues to Libya and Qatar is to build three new museums in Doha

1 Apr 2022
destroyed buildings in Mariupol city

The week in art news – Mariupol art school bombed with civilians sheltering inside

Plus: Bonhams acquires Danish auction house Bruun Rasmussen | Budi Tek (1957–2022) | Planning permission granted for Madison Square Garden Sphere in East London 

25 Mar 2022
Photo: Thomas Coex/AFP via Getty Images)

The week in art news – France launches emergency fund for Ukrainian artists

Plus: MoMA to review security protocols after recent stabbings and Francis Kéré wins Pritzker Architecture Prize

18 Mar 2022

The week in art news – Ukrainians try to safeguard cultural heritage

The head of Unesco’s World Heritage Centre has said that it is receiving ‘more and more reports of the destruction…

13 Mar 2022

The week in art news – Unesco voices concern for Ukrainian heritage sites

Unesco has said that it is ‘gravely concerned’ about the security of Ukrainian heritage sites from damage caused during the…

6 Mar 2022

The week in art news – Ukrainian museums try to protect their collections

Plus: a Neolithic site has been discovered in Jordan and the Weltmuseum’s audioguide was hacked by activitists

27 Feb 2022
Roundel (c. 1500) attributed to Gian Marco Cavalli. Courtesy Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Met acquires much-coveted Renaissance roundel for $23m

The second most expensive purchase the Met has ever made is a stunning Italian bronze – and efforts to keep it in the UK have come to nothing

23 Feb 2022
The Africa Museum in Tervuren, outside Brussels.

Belgium hands over full inventory of objects to DRC

Plus: Carmen Herrera (1915–2022) and David Zwirner becomes latest gallery to announce a branch in Los Angeles

20 Feb 2022
The new SFMOMA, view from Yerba Buena Gardens.

The week in art news – SFMOMA appoints Christopher Bedford as director

Plus: Fine Arts Paris and La Biennale to merge and Jonathan Watkins to step down as director of Ikon

13 Feb 2022
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport.

The week in art news – UK government announces ‘levelling-up’ plans

On Tuesday, the UK government published widely awaited proposals for its ‘levelling up’ programme to increase economic activity across the…

6 Feb 2022
Grand Palais Paris

The week in art news – Art Basel owner bumps FIAC from its slot with a new Paris fair

Plus: Art Basel Hong Kong postponed to May and France to restitute 15 works looted by the Nazis

30 Jan 2022