Latest

Robert Mnuchin's $85.7m Rothko leads Sotheby's $407.5m auction in New York

Last night's season opening sale of post-war and contemporary art, which started with 11 lots from the late art dealer, set new records for young artists Ding Shilun and Yu Nishimura

Judd Tullyabout 5 hours ago

Rene Matić wins 2026 Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize

One of the youngest winners, Matić is also the first British recipient of the £30,000 prize in more than a decade

Simon Bainbridgeabout 20 hours ago

London's Wellcome Collection returns 2,000 manuscripts to the Jain community

Unusually, the objects will not be transferred to their country of origin but to the UK Institute of Jainology for deposit at the University of Birmingham

Martin Baileyabout 20 hours ago

New York’s Neue Galerie will merge with the Metropolitan Museum

The merger, to be completed in 2028, will bring the Ronald Lauder-founded Neue Galerie’s exceptional holdings of German and Austrian Modern art into the Met’s encyclopaedic collection

Benjamin Suttonabout 23 hours ago

Greta Thunberg, Hugh Bonneville sign letter defending Southbank Centre chair Misan Harriman

Harriman has been the focus of several articles in conservative UK media outlets following posts he shared on social media

Frieze New York

News and analysis live from the Frieze New York fair, as well as stories from around the city this week

For young dealers, being in New York is key to surviving and thriving

Josh Kline’s recent essay revived a generations-old conversation about the city’s corrosive costs and stresses for artists, but having a foothold in Gotham remains essential for art-market success

Kabir Jhalaabout 12 hours ago

‘Blood can either be a connective tissue or something used for division’: Jordan Eagles on his show a Pioneer Works

The artist uses the Mets baseball team and his own blood to explore his battle for belonging and the politics of health

Tim Schneiderabout 20 hours ago

Finding art in the uncanny aesthetics of MAGA

A new pop-up gallery blurs the line between party and exhibition as it brings out the suppressed queerness of right-wing aesthetics

Shanti Escalante De Matteiabout 12 hours ago

Independent art fair makes the most of more spacious digs

The fair has nearly doubled its footprint at its new location on the East River, offering exhibitors and collectors more room while allowing for larger site-specific artistic interventions

Carlie Porterfieldabout 13 hours ago

Frieze New York Diary: celeb sightings and a swag-filled party

Plus Kite's musical ensemble leads visitors through the Shed

The Art Newspaperabout 16 hours ago

Tefaf New York

A special report on Tefaf New York, returning to the Park Avenue Armory from 15 to 19 May

Ten years on, Tefaf New York still stands out from the crowd

The fair’s dedication to art from the 20th century as much as the 21st sets it apart from its May competitors

Tefaf New York wishlist: a Tiffany window and an Egyptian goddess with a nose job

Plus a John Kacere lingerie-clad bottom and a phantasmagorical realm from Cecily Brown

Cai Guo-Qiang joins White Cube

The Chinese artist presents a new iteration of his gunpowder paintings at Tefaf New York

Tefaf restoration award goes to 500-year-old Medici tapestry

Made in a Florentine workshop set up by Duke Cosimo I de’ Medici, Minneapolis Institute of Art’s Renaissance tapestry depicts Dante meeting Virgil in Hell

Art market

Independent art fair makes the most of more spacious digs

The fair has nearly doubled its footprint at its new location on the East River, offering exhibitors and collectors more room while allowing for larger site-specific artistic interventions

Carlie Porterfieldabout 13 hours ago

Artists turn to textiles as they excavate history at Nada New York

Various stands at the fair explore textiles' capacity to bring history to the senses

Shanti Escalante De Matteiabout 13 hours ago

This month’s blockbuster auctions in New York could bring upwards of $2.5bn

The sales at Bonhams, Christie’s, Phillips and Sotheby’s, spanning two weeks, will test the trade’s recent buoyancy

New £5.5m record for Islamic glass leads London sales

A Mamluk footed bowl deaccessioned from the Toledo Museum was the star of this spring's sales of Indian and Islamic art, which saw strong bidding on Indian paintings and Iznik ceramics

Museums & Heritage

Still in ‘war mode’: Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art reopens with exhibitions about conflict

Iranian museum's director speaks out about new, responsive programming and the team's ongoing struggle to protect its $3bn collection

Gulag Museum rebrand marks latest phase in Kremlin’s assault on free speech

The institution has removed exhibits on Stalin-era repression and will instead focus on Nazi crimes

British MPs face Hobson’s Choice for restoration of the crumbling, unsafe Palace of Westminster

It is crunch time for the home of the UK Parliament—after decades of neglect, it is structurally unsound and barely fit for purpose. But even the most basic option for fixing it will cost billions and take decades

Pioneering British photographer Julia Margaret Cameron honoured with a blue plaque in London

Descendants of the 19th-century photographer, who captured Tennyson and Darwin, celebrated her life and work at the unveiling

19th-century European weapons found in cenote in Mexico

More than 150 guns and an iron cannon were recently documented at the Síis Já cenote in Yucatán

Exhibitions

Garment, body and space merge in Iris van Herpen’s first major New York show

The Dutch couturier blends art and fashion with nature and technology

J. Cabelle Ahn2 days ago

Counterpublic comes to New York ahead of its next triennial, Coyote Time

As it prepares for its third edition, the St Louis-based triennial will present a performance by the Oglála Lakȟóta artist Kite at The Shed in partnership with Frieze

Exhibitions marking 250th anniversary of the US open in New York

New York museums are advancing an inclusive view of national history ahead of the US semiquincentennial, from scenes of the original Dutch colonists to art of Indigenous communities

With new Costume Institute exhibition and galleries, the Met makes powerful statement about fashion's place in museums

Featuring nearly 400 objects ranging from gowns to ancient Greek armour and vases, “Costume Art” argues the dressed body is the only form of artistic expression that connects each of the museum’s collecting areas

Beware the technology rat trap: Cooper Jacoby’s standout contribution to New York’s Whitney Biennial

The US artist’s sculptures explore the ways in which AI behemoths and other corporations turn our data into financial assets

Venice Biennale 2026

Breaking news, analysis, interviews and more from the world-famous exhibition, including The Art Newspaper’s on-the-ground coverage

‘This is the place of dreams’: Patrizia Sandretto Re Rebaudengo’s Venetian island venue opens to public

San Giacomo launched with two temporary exhibitions and a series of site-specific works, including a leaning church

The Big Review | Venice Biennale 2026: In Minor Keys ★★★½

Staged a year after the death of its curator, Koyo Kouoh, the Venice Biennale’s main exhibition unfolds as a sometimes-cacophonous procession guided by sentinels and hybrid beings in a rich but uneven show

More than 70 Venice Biennale artists withdraw from awards

Walid Raad, Alice Maher and Alfredo Jaar are among those who have signed a protest statement in solidarity with the resignation of the exhibition's jury

At the Venice Biennale, Ukraine’s Pinchuk Art Centre finds fragile moments of joy amid loss

Once known for its celebrity-filled opening parties, the Kyiv institution now foregrounds stories of survival and resilience in wartime Ukraine

Our pick of the best pavilions at the 61st Venice Biennale

From splashing sewage to moments of zen, here is our selection of top national presentations in the Giardini, Arsenale and across town

Books

‘A remarkably tenacious motif’: the many faces of Marilyn Monroe revealed in new book and show

Different artists’ takes on the film star are explored ahead of an exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in London

Pleasure, parody and propaganda: rethinking the art of illustration in a new history of the genre

From a ninth-century Chinese frontispiece to Marxist magazine covers, this rich tome explores the power of illustration and the ways in which we read such images

An expert's guide to Tracey Emin: five must-read books on the British artist

The best Emin publications, from her searingly honest autobiography to a collection of revealing snapshots—selected by the Tate’s assistant curator Jess Baxter

How the adoption of canvas in Venice changed the way artists painted

Four key takeaways from a new book about the innovative use of canvas in 16th-century Italy

The Week in Art

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

Frieze New York, the Cranach in Hitler’s Munich apartment, Ajamu X—podcast

In this week's episode, Ben Sutton and Kabir Jhala discuss this year's Frieze New York, other fairs across the city this week and the upcoming New York auctions. Ben Luke speaks to Martin Bailey about a Cranach painting discovered to have once hung in Hitler's home, and hears from Charlotte Keenan of the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool on a photography series by Ajamu X.

Hosted by Ben Luke. Produced by David Clack and Alexander Morrisonabout 4 hours ago

Opinion

Comment | Flourishing markets beyond the big three will benefit the art ecosystem—and the planet

Regions outside of the US, UK and China have grown their share from 17% of business in 2015 to 24% in 2025, according to report

Comment | Degenerate art all over again? Nazi attack on Modern art is not far away from trends in today’s world

When it comes to art, Trump is an utter vacuum—he makes the Nazis look like great connoisseurs, says author John-Paul Stonard

Comment | The slopification of political art

Artificial intelligence has made it incredibly easy to create pointed visuals in response to crises in real time, but the resulting videos and images have little poignancy or staying power

Comment | Catherine Opie shows us that in dark times, looking for joy can be radical

The artist's new show at the National Portrait Gallery offers plenty of reasons to be cheerful

Comment | A generational moment for Nazi-looted art claims in the US

Expanded version of the Holocaust Expropriated Art Recovery (Hear) Act in the US fundamentally alters the legal landscape for both claimants and current owners

A brush with... podcast

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

A brush with... Andrew Cranston—podcast

Andrew Cranston talks to Ben Luke about his influences—from writers to musicians, and, of course, other artists—and the cultural experiences that have shaped his life and work

Hosted by Ben Luke. Produced by David Clack
Sponsored by Bloomberg Connects

The Art of Luxury

A magazine, published twice per year by The Art Newspaper, exploring how grande marque fashion, jewellery, travel and lifestyle interact with artists, the art market and the museums and heritage sector

Visitor Figures 2025

The Art Newspaper’s Visitor Figures survey is conducted annually, and is the foremost authority on the attendance of art museums worldwide

Exclusive | The world's 100 most visited art museums in 2025: new venues a big hit with visitors

Our annual survey shows that some of the world’s most venerable institutions are still struggling to attract the number of visitors they had before Covid, but there is enthusiasm for new museums, and in regions such as Asia and Latin America

Irreconcilable differences: Canadian cultural tourism to the US experiences a steep decline

A significant number of Canadians are shunning their neighbours to the south, a phenomenon felt most acutely by smaller museums and those along the border

National Museum of Korea Seoul sees a surge in visitor numbers

According to our 2025 Visitor Figures survey, the Seoul location of the museum is attracting more international guests

How museum funding in Denmark has become reliant on visitor numbers

Danish government reforms have resulted in increased funds for museums, but some question the equity of grants based on footfall

Obituaries

Remembering Pat Steir, one of the 20th century’s late-blooming great artists

The painter made gravity her collaborator, transforming poured oil paint into one of the defining gestures of late 20th-century abstraction

Georg Baselitz, German artist who turned figurative painting on its head, has died, aged 88

Baselitz’s death comes on the eve of a major exhibition of his latest paintings at the Fondazione Giorgio Cini concurrent with the Venice Biennale

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

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.

Fashion figure Jordan Roth wows in collage at the Venice Biennale

Having just taken on the Met Gala as a "living sculpture", the multi-disciplinary artist came to Venice later in the week for a compelling performance

How sweet it is: chocolate Russell Crowe at the Malta Pavilion

A chocolate gladiator features in Valletta-based artist Charlie Cauchi's film and accompanying installation in the Arsenale

Alvaro Barrington takes a road trip to the Venice Biennale

The artist's contribution to In Minor Keys includes a decked out truck driven from London to Venice

‘She had a fresh, informed eye’: mural depicting late Venice Biennale curator Koyo Kouoh displayed in lagoon city

Derrick Adams’ piece features “beams of gold signifying the brilliance and reach” of the curator’s influence