Features
The return of the retro ice-cream van
The vintage trucks in London’s parks provide soft serve with an outsize dollop of nostalgia – and do it in style
Gertrude Jekyll and the making of Munstead Wood
The first garden created by the designer for a house by Edwin Lutyens has been bought by the National Trust – preserving a vital piece of history
The Scottish artist who could paint up a storm
From the September 2023 issue of Apollo. Preview and subscribe here. I first encountered William McTaggart’s The Storm (1890) when…
Restoring the largest tapestries in England has been a massive success
It has taken the National Trust 24 years to restore the Gideon Tapestries at Hardwick Hall to their former glory
How Barbie’s Dreamhouse turned into a design nightmare
Before the gal who has everything got into pink, her ideal home was a shrine to midcentury modern living
Acquisitions of the Month: July 2023
The only surviving portrait from Henry Raeburn’s trip to Italy and an 18th-century book about cricket are among the most remarkable works to enter public collections
How X. Marcel Boulestin catered to the masses
The restaurateur and writer won over both the smart set and the middle classes – and was a hero to Elizabeth David
Drinking in style with the ancient Greeks and Persians
The ancient Greeks were quick to adopt the decadent drinking culture of their Persian enemies
Folly mixture – the Wedding Cake at Waddesdon
A close attention to architectural history is the icing on the cake for a new pavilion cooked up by Joana Vasconcelos for Waddesdon Manor
A sculpture given to Captain Cook returns to Tahiti
The figures brought over in 1771 are the first documented works of Oceanic art – and now on display where they were made
Inside a very forward-looking home in Rome
At Casa Balla, Futurism was definitely a family affair for Giacomo Balla and his daughters Lucia and Elice
The unwavering art of Ellsworth Kelly
On the centenary of the artist’s birth, it is easier to see that beneath the impersonal surfaces his work is teeming with life
Acquisitions of the Month: June 2023
A rare 17th-century portrait of a Black woman and a white woman and an illustrated Armenian manuscript are among this month’s highlights
Glasgow’s cuts will hamper its museums for years to come
The axeing of 37 museum posts will force overstretched employees to work harder and make institutions shelve their grander plans
Will replicas tempt museums to return looted objects more quickly?
The Chrysler Museum of Art has given a looted monolith back to Nigeria and received a facsimile in exchange. Will other institutions follow suit?
What does the National Portrait Gallery say about Britain today?
The museum has reopened with a new entrance and a complete rehang of the collection – but there’s no getting away from its founding purpose
Is Istanbul Modern living in the past?
The newly reopened museum has an impressive collection of Turkish art, but seems strangely disconnected from the present
The seaside gallery that aims to be more than a tourist destination
East Quay is an arts centre breathing new life into the Somerset town of Watchet and it has a real sense of social purpose
The ballet that woke up post-war Britain
Oliver Messel’s rococo sets for ‘The Sleeping Beauty’ at the Royal Opera House represented a new dawn for dance
Buffalo’s oldest museum enters a new era
The Buffalo AKG Art Museum, formerly the Albright-Knox, reopens with a strong sense of civic purpose and a firm commitment to modern art
Fine dining with Patrick Caulfield
The painter’s atmospheric restaurant interiors and precise still lifes put him at the top table
Acquisitions of the Month: May 2023
The most expensive manuscript to ever be sold at auction and an impressive collection of Dutch Mannerist prints are among this month’s highlights
‘Every prince in Europe would have coveted a goblet like this’
This richly coloured glass is a window to a key moment in the history of science and of princely patronage, says the Rijksmuseum’s curator Maartje Brattinga
When Marilyn Monroe met Richard Avedon
A publicity shoot for ‘The Prince and the Showgirl’ caught the photographer and his subject at an unusually vulnerable moment
The threat to Sudan’s cultural heritage