Rakewell

Van Gogh’s potatoes are no small fry

The Dutch artist was a dab hand at painting spuds, but why haven’t more artists been inspired by the terrific tuber?

15 Mar 2024

Jane Austen threatens to sully Winchester

A proposed statue of the author has caused a fuss among local residents, but does anyone really like public sculptures anyway?

8 Mar 2024

The V&A enters its Swiftie era

The museum has announced an opening for a Taylor Swift ‘superfan’ – but this bid for commercial appeal doesn’t seem to be reflected by the salary on offer

1 Mar 2024

The Fab Four get the Rashomon treatment

On hearing that Sam Mendes is set to direct four Beatles biopics – one for each band member – your roving reporter wonders if it’s all too much

23 Feb 2024

Elon Musk flies Jeff Koons to the Moon

Jeff Koons launched 125 sculptures into orbit on a SpaceX rocket this week. Perhaps they’ll hang out with the Pop art that went on a lunar holiday in 1969

16 Feb 2024

Amazon gets the art world wrong again

The streamer’s latest romcom, ‘Upgraded’, stretches artistic licence to its limits

9 Feb 2024

All hail Flaco, the owl who rules Manhattan

The Central Park Zoo escapee was born in chains, but everywhere from the Upper West Side to the East Village he is now free

4 Feb 2024

Cindy Sherman gets a makeover for Marc Jacobs

Cindy Sherman stars in the fashion designer’s latest ad campaign – and she’s not the first artist who has modelled in this way

28 Jan 2024

Spiderman swings into action at auction

After the sale of the first The Amazing Spider-Man’ comic for $1.4m, Rakewell suggests that when it comes to the big screen, Marvel should tap into its spidey-sense again

21 Jan 2024

Succession sparks a bidding war

Fancy Kendall’s Zippo, or one of Shiv’s suits? Now’s your chance, with HBO auctioning off the Roy family’s paraphernalia

12 Jan 2024

Are the British Museum and BP made for each other?

As two British multinationals with deep imperial roots and interim CEOs partner for another ten years, perhaps birds of a feather are merely flocking together

5 Jan 2024

A brief guide to duelling versions of The Three Musketeers

Eva Green steals every scene in the new version of Alexandre Dumas’s novel – but the new film is just the latest in a long line of swashbuckling adaptations

17 Dec 2023
Shane MacGowan in 1997. Photo: Martyn Goodacre/Getty Images

Shane MacGowan and the most famous shipwreck in art

The Pogues frontman and the Romantic painter are forever linked by a classic album cover – and much more besides

5 Dec 2023

What would Pericles want for the Parthenon marbles?

After a week in which a British prime minister has realised, seemingly for the first time, that Greece would quite like the Parthenon marbles back, it’s worth taking a longer view

3 Dec 2023

Blackpink goes to Buckingham Palace

The K-Pop quartet attended a State Banquet for the South Korean president hosted by the new king – but perhaps its members might take up more permanent residence?

26 Nov 2023

The art of being Barbra

Barbra Streisand’s doorstopper of a memoir suggests that the real love of the star’s life is the painter Modigliani

19 Nov 2023
Nadine Dorries at the Wallace Collection in London

When it comes to culture, the UK has lost the plot – and found Nadine Dorries

Rakewell is delighted to discover that the former culture minister’s memoir contains more than one vague musing about the art of Downing Street

10 Nov 2023

Censorship can be a fiendish business: just ask Joshua Reynolds

Conservation of a painting by the artist has revealed an evil spirit – if only all art censorship were so mild

3 Nov 2023

Is François Pinault slumming it at the Bourse?

The billionaire collector is going for broke with an exhibition of ‘poor art’

27 Oct 2023

Berlusconi’s art collection may soon be bunga-bunga’d into the bin

The late Italian prime minister’s 20,000-strong collection of choice artworks – including a topless rendition of the Mona Lisa – has failed to charm his heirs

20 Oct 2023

Flower power – is Damien Hirst blooming again at Frieze?

While the artist led collectors down the garden path at Gagosian’s sell-out booth, more pleasing floral arrangements can be found at Frieze Masters

13 Oct 2023

Christie’s is getting into the ghostbusting business

Rakewell is delighted to hear that director Ivan Reitman’s art collection is heading to auction this November, but wonders whether his tastes might have been haunted by his blockbuster hit

6 Oct 2023

Leave it to beavers – if you want to build infrastructure in the UK

The sighting of the first beaver kit born in the London area in more than 400 years is a bright spot in the landscape – and a lesson to policymakers everywhere

29 Sep 2023

How often should anyone think about the Roman empire?

While #romanempire has more than a billion view on TikTok, some of us only have eyes for the TV adaptation of ’I Claudius’ – and regrets about the Roman Republic

24 Sep 2023