Workers at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Firenze complain of long hours with too few breaks and little employment protection

Nikas Safronov, an artist known for his celebrity portrait and braggadocious public persona, claims Putin contacted him personally to emphasise the commission’s importance

Nearly 15,000 visitors attended the fair last week, organisers said

A true critical consensus about the merits of different stages in an artist's journey is rarely possible

The fair's 12th edition opened with high spirits and swift business in the five-figure price range

The giant slab of wall adorned with Banksy's "Battle To Survive a Broken Heart" will go to auction to benefit the American Heart Association

Auction sales for contemporary and Modern African art have declined—but African art fairs are still going strong

The event saw 32 galleries take part to test out Saudi Arabia's growing art market—but organisers maintain it was a non-commercial venture

The Trump administration’s efforts to slash funding and influence programming have pushed cultural workers to organise

The new San Marco Art Centre will be based in St Mark’s Square from next month, while the Nicoletta Fiorucci Foundation will take over the Dorsoduro building

For over 600 years carpets from Turkey and Iran have been used in Catholic ceremony and religious paintings by artists, including Andrea del Verrochio, to indicate a carefully defined, sacred space

Other cultural sites have also been steadily shutting down to visitors as the Vatican marks the death of Pope Francis

The late artist’s first retrospective, at a pop-up space in Manhattan, offers an idealised, futuristic take on the 21st century

The exhibition at the Fondation H in Antananarivo includes the British Nigerian artist’s 6,000-book installation The African Library

The career survey of the Portuguese abstract painter starts in Venice before moving to Bilbao

The artist’s largest ever show—at Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris—requires patience at times, but is overall a triumphant celebration of his inexhaustible eye

For over 600 years carpets from Turkey and Iran have been used in Catholic ceremony and religious paintings by artists, including Andrea del Verrochio, to indicate a carefully defined, sacred space

Art history removes the numinous from art. At the Vatican’s Covid-19 blessing we saw it invoked again

Icon’s first major intervention since 1931 brings back original colours

Antonio Paolucci discusses the role of the Vatican's museums as custodians of sacred and profane art after the city state makes its underground necropolis accessible during Francis's first year as spiritual leader of the world's catholics

There are alarming echoes of the notorious Nazi-organised exhibition in America today—but we also need to acknowledge the differences between the world today and 1930s Europe

While many jurisdictions are making it increasingly hard for Palestinian artists, Scotland's hospitality has been heartwarming, says the Connecticut-based institution's director

The cost—financially and environmentally—of preserving works of art can be huge. Perhaps it is time to rethink how we look after them

The choreographer’s formal gestures and patterns make him crucial to contemporary performance art

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

Analysis of aerial and satellite images has rapidly identified ancient sites, but human expertise is still essential in refining the outcomes

With “Le Monde Selon L’IA”, the Paris media art centre takes a broad look at work made using both analytical AI and generative AI

Some institutions have ditched their accounts in protest, while others have chosen to “quiet quit” and stopped posting on the Elon Musk-owned platform

Our round-up of the latest art publications

The Arab art specialist Saeb Eigner talks about his comprehensive new biography spanning from 1900 to today

This journey through the UK’s publicly funded arts carefully averts its eyes from the many signs of crisis

The publication about the Guyanese-born artist includes diary entries and several works that have been photographed for the first time

Nicholas Olsberg’s publication offers a learned analysis of the architect’s work, which includes Oxford’s Keble College and central London’s All Saints church

This “alternative” history navigates the medium through artists on the margins, as well as established practitioners

The Gateshead sculpture was dressed up in a Newcastle United football shirt for the Carabao Cup final at Wembley, drawing fans to the site when the team won 2-1 against Liverpool

The monarch will unveil one of his own drawings in a special exhibition marking the 25th anniversary of the Royal Drawing School

Sales of Joe Biden’s son’s artworks have nosedived since his father left office

Maurizio Cattelan was among those papped—all for charity

The Belgian businessman co-founded Beijing’s Ullens Center for Contemporary Art (UCCA) in 2007 with his wife Myriam Ullens

The Argentinian pontiff was a powerful progressive voice in world politics, the first Jesuit priest to be spiritual leader of the world’s 1.3 billion Catholics and the first from the Americas or the southern hemisphere to hold the office

During her 19-year tenure as its director, she turned a sedate institution into a vibrant tribute to the culture of 18th-century France

The sale of “The Singing Butler” at Sotheby’s in 2004, for a record price for a painting by a Scottish artist, caused a sensation and turned attention on Vettriano's critical and institutional neglect