Latest
MFA Boston returns two works to Kingdom of Benin
The two artefacts are being restituted as part of the museum's closure of its Benin gallery, which had been donated by the billionaire collector Robert Lehman
Tim Blum will phase out traditional gallery model, close Los Angeles and Tokyo locations
The longtime dealer says a new structure will allow for more flexibility, engagement
Khaled Sabsabi reinstated as Australia's representative at the 2026 Venice Biennale
An external review found that Creative Australia was unprepared for the risk of controversy in an atmosphere of antisemitism and Islamophobia
New world record for Canaletto as view of Venice sells for £31.9m
The painting, once owned by Britain’s first prime minister, Robert Walpole, was sold during Christie's £55m Old Master sale in London tonight, alongside works by Constable, Willem Key and Gerrit Dou
Should UK museums display mummies? One institution is asking its visitors for their view
The Manchester Museum is running a public consultation about the future of Asru, a woman who lived in Thebes, southern Egypt
Art market
Collector Ken Griffin spends $18.1m on historic US documents signed by Abraham Lincoln
Griffin reportedly plans to lend his copies of the Thirteenth Amendment and the Emancipation Proclamation to a US institution
Key player in Norval Morrisseau forgery ring pleads guilty
James White, a prominent member in the vast network, pleaded guilty to forgery and trafficking
A Clara Peeters self-portrait and the only work for which Gandhi posed are among this summer’s auction highlights
Plus, a tense landscape by Max Beckmann and nudes by Philip Pearlstein
A quartet of key art market players join forces to form ‘super group’ consultancy
Ed Dolman, Brett Gorvy, Patti Wong and Phillip Hoffman have formed a management firm to advise top-level clients as industry enters new era
Treasure House Fair hopes to be the flagship summer event London desperately needs
The third edition of the "heir" to Masterpiece London opens tomorrow at the Royal Hospital Chelsea, with a diverse group of 72 exhibitors spanning antiquities to contemporary art
Museums & Heritage
US government’s attempts to solicit National Park visitors’ feedback on historical depictions backfires
Notices asking visitors to report “any signs or other information that are negative about either past or living Americans” prompted outrage and pushback
A first glimpse (and listen) inside Lacma’s $720m new building
The David Geffen Galleries, which officially opens next April, recently hosted a preview event and performances by Kamasi Washington and an ensemble of 100 jazz musicians
Culture workers feel the pain of Sudan’s endless civil war
Antiquities directors and curators share their personal stories of the chaos and looting that have devastated their lives and the country’s cultural heritage
Home of murdered Pakistani artist Ismail Gulgee becomes a museum
The Modernist artist’s son has opened a museum dedicated to his father in Karachi
Trump dances with Jeffrey Epstein in new National Mall sculpture
A new anonymous, satirical art piece aimed at the US President has found its way into the White House's orbit
Exhibitions
Why Helen Chadwick’s earthy, provocative art remains as vital as ever
Exhibitions around the country are showing, nearly 20 years after her untimely death, just how groundbreaking the British artist was
Exhibition in Abu Dhabi marks collaboration between Korean and Emirati institutions
An exhibition of Korean art this summer at Manarat Al Saadiyat will be followed by a show of Emirati art in Seoul this winter
Taste test: artist-made desserts will be shown (and eaten) in New York gallery’s one-night exhibition
The Lower East Side gallery Olympia has invited 33 artists to participate in “CAKE”, an ephemeral show and fundraising feast
‘A dialogue about rationality and irrationality’: Ai Weiwei to present new installation in Ukraine
The Chinese artist’s work, which is inspired by Leonardo da Vinci illustrations, will be housed in a former Soviet-era exposition hall in Kyiv
US billionaire Howard Buffett and Ukrainian Railways team up to create ‘art train’ exploring war-time resilience
The train—which is due to travel across Ukraine—features photographs Buffett took during his 19 trips to the country between 2022 and 2025
Book Club
Illustrator Clive Hicks-Jenkins on dealing with violent imagery and finding ways of ‘showing the impossible’
Ahead of the publication of a new edition of Homer’s epics—which he has illustrated—the artist also explains why he switches mediums for different books
An expert’s guide to Edvard Munch: five must-read books on the Norwegian Expressionist
The best publications to learn all about the artist, from a renowned novelist's essay to a comprehensive catalogue raisonné—selected by the Munch museum curator Trine Otte Bak Nielsen
July Book Bag: from a monograph of Vincent Namatjira’s headline-grabbing portraits to a book of Chinese art heists
Our round-up of the latest art publications
Arshile Gorky’s experience as an immigrant to the US and the painting that defined it
An exclusive extract by Adam Gopnik on the Armenian American painter, taken from a collection of essays about the artist’s time in New York City
Book reviews
An expansive monograph of Celia Paul paints a portrait of a single-minded, singular artist
The book explores how the British artist's mother was her most trusted sitter and Paul's thoughts on Lucian Freud’s depictions of her during their relationship
Why sociologists believe that culture might be bad for you
A revised edition of a 2020 book looks at the problems associated with a "white, male and middle class" cultural arena in the UK
New book delves into submerged stories of an elusive Spanish galleon
The publication on a 17th-century shipwreck reveals transatlantic connections and the complexities of underwater archaeology
A biography of Turner and Constable that goes beyond the stereotypes
New analysis considers the artists’ common cause as champions of landscape alongside their renowned differences
Dan Hicks's new book is a personal take on the cultural politics of collecting
The often violent history of public statues and museum collections—including that of Oxford’s Pitt Rivers Museum—is told in this biographical book that energises and exasperates in equal measure.
Opinion
Comment | Why it’s wrong to shame those protesting against fossil fuel funding
Protestors are taking high personal risks with the aim of affecting policy and corporate responsibility to make clear the scale of the looming climate catastrophe
Comment | Let’s not get rid of the UK’s culture department—let's fix it instead
Axing the Arts Council and the many other arm’s-length bodies overseen by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport makes more sense, argues Bendor Grosvenor
Comment | Most forms of environmental protest are no longer possible—that's where the power of images comes in
David Attenborough’s new documentary “Ocean” and the activist group Ocean Rebellion are harnessing imagery in the fight against marine destruction
Comment | In the Trump era, LGBTQ+ communities and culture need support
“With the return of an emboldened Trump administration, our communities are facing a sustained campaign of hostility and a chilling rollback of civil rights”
Comment | Are museums ‘guilt tripping’ their visitors? No, they aren’t doing enough
Engaging with the difficult histories behind objects has deepened, not dampened, my experiences at cultural institutions—and the fact it is different for everyone is a good thing
Diary
Penis envy? 35-foot appendage at UK heritage site was almost covered up
UK government official said that trees should be planted on Cerne Abbas Giant's sizeable member
Chardin’s strawberries masterpiece forms fruity backdrop to Dior catwalk
The Louvre and National Gallery of Modern Art in Edinburgh loaned works by the 18th-century artist
Party time: Cate Blanchett, Beth Ditto, Lily Allen and more light up glitzy Serpentine summer bash
The annual fundraising bash drew a throng of famous guests, with the artist Grayson Perry and the actor Isla Fisher also among them
A Siri-ous app-ointment: iPhone designer joins British Museum board of trustees
Apple supremo Jony Ive joins Claudia Winkleman and Martha Kearney on the museum's board
Knockin’ on Halcyon’s door: Bob Dylan's latest artworks on show in London gallery
"Point Blank" exhibition features 97 paintings created between 2021 and 2022
Obituaries
Nick Hedges, photographer who changed the way we see homelessness, has died aged 81
Hedges was known for his conviction that photography can be a powerful tool for social change, and for his campaigns with the homelessness charity Shelter
Post-Minimalist sculptor Joel Shapiro has died, aged 83
Best known for his looming, stylised figures assembled from wood beams, Shapiro changed the language of Minimalism with a distinctly personal flair
Sebastião Salgado, photographer of the planet’s margins, dies at 81
The Brazilian documentarian was internationally known for his panoramic photographs of humanity surviving on the edge and for his work as a campaigning environmentalist
Tracey Emin and Ai Weiwei pay tribute to BBC broadcaster Alan Yentob
BBC executive, who has died aged 78, profiled artists in his Arena and Imagine series
Remembering Koyo Kouoh, one of the most influential curators in the global art world, and one of its most original thought leaders
The executive director of Zeitz Mocaa, Cape Town, had been due to announce her plans as curator of the international exhibition at the 2026 Venice Biennale
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.
The Royal Academy’s Kiefer-Van Gogh show offers a soaring spectacle
Nearby, the White Cube gallery is also displaying homage works by the German artist, more than 60 years after he hitchhiked in Vincent’s footsteps
The Week in Art
A podcast bringing you the latest news from the art world, every week
Arthur Jafa and Mark Leckey, Cecilia Alemani on SITE Santa Fe, Trisha Brown and Robert Rauschenberg—podcast
We speak to Jafa and Leckey about their forthcoming London exhibition, ask Alemani about the US-based biennial—whose title this year was inspired by a film by Godfrey Reggio—and zone in on a landmark dance collaboration
A brush with... podcast
A podcast that asks artists the questions you've always wanted to
A brush with… Rudolf Stingel — podcast
Rudolf Stingel talks to Ben Luke about his influences—from writers to musicians, film-makers and, of course, other artists—and the cultural experiences that have shaped his life and work
Technology
News, background and analysis on the latest tech developments—artificial intelligence tools; Web3, the blockchain, NFTs; virtual and augmented reality; social media platforms—and how they affect the art market, museums, artists and curators.
How Gretchen Andrew’s AI art is revealing the societal scars of ‘facetuning’
The American artist, whose work is currently on show in New York, makes the invisible impacts of technology visible
‘It is not good or bad’: in a frantic age, Beeple seeks a more nuanced take on technology
The media artist Beeple (Mike Winkelmann) increasingly sees his interactive video sculptures—one of which goes on show this month at the SXSW London festival and another at The Shed in New York—and social media posts as public art
Football great Lionel Messi chooses favourite goal for Refik Anadol to transform into an AI portrait for charity
Anadol will reimagine the Argentine megastar’s famous 2009 header as a data sculpture which will be sold at Christie’s
Can graphic imagination wake audiences up to the climate emergency? This multimedia artist believes so
Berlin-based Michael Najjar has been working with scientists in Greenland to tell stories with images designed to replace familiar memes of environmental journalism
An inside track on the Huntington’s rapid social media growth
The California institution is one of the top five museums for social media growth in the world in the past year. We spoke to the museum's director of digital and social content strategy