Latest

500-year-old Aztec ritual offering uncovered in Mexico City

Six volcanic-stone boxes found at Templo Mayor reveal a ceremony linked to Moctezuma I’s imperial expansion

Can Tefaf Maastricht keep up with the experience economy?

The venerable fair continues to offer a trove of historic treasures, but that might not be enough to draw in today's wealthy buyers

Scott Reyburnabout 8 hours ago

Tate announces major David Hockney, Edvard Munch and Sonia Boyce exhibitions for 2027

The programme, announced as Tate’s director Maria Balshaw departs, will also feature shows for the Algerian modernist painter Baya and the British artist Thomas Gainsborough, alongside a group exhibition exploring Asian works in ink

Gareth Harrisabout 8 hours ago

The story behind Iran’s only Van Gogh: ‘At Eternity’s Gate'

Once owned by a US vice president, the print was acquired by the Shah’s wife and is now at the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art

Comment | Cow in MSCHF project survives, but should the project have happened at all?

The artist collective allowed buyers to decide the fate of a cow’s life (thankfully they chose a sanctuary over the slaughterhouse), but the intended awareness-raising gave way to polarising digital discourse

The Week in Art

A podcast bringing you the latest news from the art world, every week

Tefaf Maastricht 2026

The latest news from around the fair, plus analysis and interviews

Thoroughly Modern Maastricht: why Tefaf is embracing the 20th century

Despite ongoing management turmoil, there is a buzz around this year’s fair, as it welcomes more works from the past 100 years to its traditional roster

Tefaf Maastricht: the wish list

From a painting by a leading Australian Indigenous artist to a bejewelled book of Shakespeare poems, a Modernist beach buggy and a fine Greek marble, here are some of the works to look out for at the fair

Dresden museum wins Tefaf award for Rubens restoration

The Tefaf Museum Restoration Fund has been awarded to the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister for its restoration of Rubens‘s ‘The Boar Hunt’

Not just dollars, euros and pounds: Tefaf speaker sets out art’s deep value for wellbeing

The Tefaf Summit during the fair in Maastricht explores the impact of art beyond economics, and how culture’s role in public policy can be rethought

Tefaf Maastricht: exhibitions to see beyond the fair

From an exhibition curated by a painting to a boat load of phalluses

Art market

Global art sales grew 4% in 2025 but remain below pre-pandemic levels, Art Basel and UBS report finds

Political volatility and mounting operational costs weigh heavily on the trade, which ticked up to an estimated $59.6bn in 2025 after two years of decline

The rise and fall of ‘buy-one, give-one’ art sales

A once-popular mechanism that allowed collectors to secure an in-demand work if they gifted a second to an institution, market shifts have made "bogos" less viable

Julia Halperinabout 9 hours ago

The rise of the destination art fair

As collectors tire of mega-fairs and splurge on experiential travel, a new wave of boutique events seeks to draw buyers and sellers to places like Aspen, Joshua Tree, St Moritz and Mallorca

Nifty Gateway has shut down, but NFTs are not dead—they are evolving

Crypto-based art is more than just cartoon apes and Beeple works

Is most art now just too expensive for most people?

As billionaires chase blue-chip trophies, a widening wealth gap leaves most would-be collectors priced out. Perhaps it is time artists focused on selling affordable prints again

Museums & Heritage

Endemic leaking problems at Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater finally come to an end

A $7m conservation project has focused on mitigating the engineering issues of the architect's masterpiece as well as preparing the building for a changing climate

Emma Rivaabout 7 hours ago

Victor Vasarely’s crumbling Aix legacy to be restored

The family of the Op Art pioneer hopes to secure a new chapter for his foundation in Aix-en-Provence after years of neglect and funding woes

‘It has nothing to do with Michelangelo’: expert wades in on painting newly attributed to Renaissance master

Discovery centres on stylised initials says Belgian art historian but David Ekserdjian stresses that artist’s entire canon is accounted for

Snuffboxes stolen in Paris daylight robbery to go on display at V&A

The snuffboxes, made in 18th-century Berlin, come from the Gilbert Collection, and will go on display in a new gallery space at the V&A in South Kensington

Mummies and other human remains held in UK museums raise serious ethical questions, warn scholars

Guardian investigation highlighting 263,000 remains is a wake-up call for government, says Oxford professor

Exhibitions

EU threatens to pull funding from Venice Biennale over return of Russian pavilion

The move comes after Russia's participation sparked outcry from European governments and arts professionals

Dingo-related work at Sydney Biennale takes on new resonance following backpacker death

Cannupa Hanska Luger was unaware of the news of a young tourist dying on an island off Australia’s eastern coast while he was making “Volume III White Bay Power Station”

Comment | Beryl Cook UK retrospective shows there is much more to the artist than amazing bums

The artist was as much an explorer of gender, class and body image as of saucy pleasure

São Paulo pop-up exhibition spotlights spherical home by architect Eduardo Longo

The fifth edition of “Aberto”, an annual exhibition melding Modernist architecture and contemporary art, offers the public a rare opportunity to visit Longo’s Casa Bola

Next edition of Getty's PST Art initiative will focus on Los Angeles’s connections around the Pacific Rim

The initiative’s fourth edition in 2030 will be devoted to transpacific cultural exchange, with grant applications opening to institutions across eight Southern California counties this June

Alton Yanabout 2 hours ago

Obituaries

Obituary | Umberto Allemandi, visionary publisher who founded 'Il Giornale dell’Arte', has died aged 88

The editor built an international network of publications—including 'The Art Newspaper'—that transformed cultural journalism

Pedro Friedeberg, key figure in Mexican art renowned for hand-shaped chair, has died at age 90

Beyond his famous chair design, Friedeberg created a singular world of ornament, architecture, and irony

Liliana Angulo Cortés, director of Bogotá’s Museo Nacional de Colombia, has died, aged 51

Angulo’s work was devoted to decolonising the museum, anti-racism and reparation with a special focus on diversifying narratives to include more Black and Indigenous voices

Renowned gallerist Marian Goodman has died, aged 97

The dealer was known for her support of conceptually challenging artistic practices, and credited with bringing key European figures like Gerhard Richter and Marcel Broodthaers to the US

Remembering Gathie Falk, Canadian artist whose singular practice sparked comparisons to Surrealism and Pop art

Shaped by the austerity of her Mennonite upbringing and the bustling Vancouver art scene of the 1960s and 70s, she developed a playful, poignant and exacting visual language

Books

Clash of the Renaissance titans: an intriguing double biography of Titian and Michelangelo

The book about the two Old Masters, who probably only met twice, considers what they had in common and how they differed

New book digs into the little-known gallery that brought Modern art to America

The publication's author on how it has taken decades of research to tell the story of the New York gallery, which exhibited artists such Picasso and Mondrian

An expert's guide to John Constable: five must-read books on the British painter

The best publications to learn all about Constable, from a journey through the landscapes that inspired him to a children's activity book—selected by the curator Emma Roodhouse

A short guide to the hidden meanings in great paintings

An A to C extract from the glossary of Painted Mysteries, which deciphers common motifs and symbols in famous works

A brush with... podcast

A podcast that asks artists the questions you've always wanted to

A brush with… Danh Vo—podcast

Danh Vo talks to Ben Luke about her influences—from writers to musicians, film-makers and, of course, other artists—and the cultural experiences that have shaped her life and work

Hosted by Ben Luke. Produced by David Clack and Aimee Dawson
Sponsored by Bloomberg Connects

The Year Ahead

Fair behemoths bet on Gulf plus new, bigger venues for Independent—a quick look at art fairs in 2026

Art Basel and Frieze are expanding in the Middle East while Art Cologne is reinstating its Mallorca edition

Venice, Sydney, Gwangju: the most interesting biennials to visit in 2026

Plus, full listings of the biennials, triennials and festivals taking place throughout the year

Art market 2026 predictions: underwhelming rebound and another Frieze fair

Our columnist gazes into her crystal ball to spot the major trends—from London regaining its lustre to AI fatigue—that are set to dominate the trade over the coming 12 months

Adventures with Van Gogh

Adventures with Van Gogh is a weekly blog by Martin Bailey, our long-standing correspondent and expert on the artist. Published every Friday, his stories range from newsy items about this most intriguing artist to scholarly pieces based on his own meticulous investigations and discoveries.