Latest

Federally funded museums in the US brace for government shutdown

The Smithsonian Institution and National Gallery of Art are making plans for continuing operations amid a government shutdown that appears increasingly likely

Benjamin Suttonabout 14 hours ago

Seattle man sentenced to two years of probation for selling fake Native American art

Lewis Anthony Rath had pleaded guilty to selling fake San Carlos Apache art at Seattle retail stores

Torey Akersabout 14 hours ago

Former German museum worker sentenced to prison for stealing and selling paintings

He replaced a painting by Franz von Stuck with a forgery and sold the original

Catherine Hickleyabout 20 hours ago

Canadian Museum of History acquires artist’s memorial to victims of the country’s residential schools

Stanley C. Hunt’s memorial monument features carvings of 130 faces, representing Indigenous children whose remains were found in unmarked graves near a school site

Benjamin Suttonabout 16 hours ago

Acquisitions round-up: Paula Rego abortion etchings acquired by New York's MoMA and Metropolitan Museum of Art

Plus, the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco gain a major collection of American art and the Rijksmuseum acquires recently restituted silver salt cellars

Hannah McGivernabout 13 hours ago

Art market

A deep dive into the history of China’s art market

From the devastation of the Cultural Revolution to the transformation of the contemporary art scene

Georgina Adamabout 13 hours ago

Newly attributed Raphael drawing heads to auction at Dorotheum

Rediscovered work is a preparatory study for the Battle of the Milvian Bridge fresco displayed in the Vatican’s papal apartments

Gareth Harris2 days ago

Cosmoscow, once Russia’s premier international art fair, opens in building reportedly struck by drone last month

Only one of over 75 participating galleries this year is from abroad—but Russian dealers remain determined to continue business

Collection of late California patron Chara Schreyer could net more than $70m at Sotheby’s in New York

In sales spanning this year and next, hundreds of works that once belonged to the SFMoMA trustee will be offered, including a box in a suitcase by Duchamp

Private museum's collection of ancient arms and armour could bring in £22m at Christie’s

The privately-owned Mougins Museum of Classical Art closed in August for a revamp to rebrand as what has been described as Europe’s "first major museum dedicated to work by women artists"

Museums & Heritage

Federally funded museums in the US brace for government shutdown

The Smithsonian Institution and National Gallery of Art are making plans for continuing operations amid a government shutdown that appears increasingly likely

Benjamin Suttonabout 14 hours ago

Canadian Museum of History acquires artist’s memorial to victims of the country’s residential schools

Stanley C. Hunt’s memorial monument features carvings of 130 faces, representing Indigenous children whose remains were found in unmarked graves near a school site

Benjamin Suttonabout 16 hours ago

Former German museum worker sentenced to prison for stealing and selling paintings

He replaced a painting by Franz von Stuck with a forgery and sold the original

Catherine Hickleyabout 20 hours ago

Contested prospect: two new books see the Parthenon through the eyes of a legal expert and a lifelong scholar of Greek history

The great temple to Athena has emerged from the vicissitudes of earthquakes, war, looting and rebuilding to be caught up in a monumental restitution debate

Eleni Vassilikaabout 21 hours ago

Tate Modern launches new commission for experimental artists

The Infinities Commission will support “immersive projects that sit outside conventional artistic categories”, with the inaugural edition launching in performance space The Tanks in spring 2025

Tom Seymourabout 24 hours ago

Exhibitions

Drunkard or genius? London's National Gallery gets up close and personal with Frans Hals

First major survey of Dutch painter in three decades will include reunited panels and monumental paintings

There is more to the female figures in Peter Paul Rubens’s paintings than being ‘Rubenesque’

An exhibition at London's Dulwich Picture Gallery will look at the “varied and important place occupied by women” in the life and work of the Flemish Baroque master

New York, London, Paris, Accra: inside the cultural week bringing the art world to Ghana

Amoako Boafo and other African art stars were flying the flag for the next generation of talent at Accra Cultural Week

Nairy Baghramian goes beyond language at the Aspen Art Museum

In her solo show, "Jupon de Corps", the Iranian German artist takes on bio-political themes in a post-verbal dimension

Female Land artists come out of the shadows at Dallas's Nasher Sculpture Center

The exhibition will shed new light on lesser-known, often ephemeral, works by women

The Kwer'ata Re'esu and the treasures of Maqdala

The Art Newspaper has published the first colour photographs of the Kwer'ata Re'esu, a revered national icon in Ethiopia, now held in a private collection in Portugal and subject to Portuguese government export restrictions. It is one of the Maqdala treasures, looted by the British after the siege of the fortress stronghold of that name in 1868, many of which are now at the heart of restitution claims

Exclusive: first colour photographs shed fresh light on Ethiopia's most treasured icon and its looting by an agent of the British Museum

An Art Newspaper investigation uncovers new details on the infamous seizure in 1868 by Richard Holmes of a 500-year-old painting of Christ, the Kwer’ata Re’esu, which never reached the London institution

Martin Bailey25 September 2023
Looted artarchive

From the archive (1998): How The Art Newspaper tracked down Ethiopia’s greatest icon after its looting by a British agent in 1868

The Kwer'ata Re'esu was kept in a bank vault in Portugal, where our correspondent examined it and took colour photographs in 1998

Martin Bailey1 April 1998
Looted artarchive

From the archive (1993): Where is the looted Kwer'ata Re'esu, the most revered icon of the Ethiopian empire?

As a touring exhibition, African Zion—The Sacred Art Of Ethiopia, opened in the United States in 1993, a scholar of Ethiopian history asked what had become of the country's most important painting of all

Stephen Bell1 November 1993

Sacred Ethiopian tablet looted by the British at the battle of Maqdala 155 years ago is returned in London church service

Restitution of tabot, which was bought by an art scholar for this purpose, puts spotlight on the British Museum to return 11 in its possession

Martin Bailey25 September 2023

King Charles III faces pressure to return sacred tabot—which symbolically represents the Ark of the Covenant—to Ethiopia

Westminster Abbey, which is directly under the monarch’s jurisdiction, currently refuses to return the holy tablet

Martin Bailey30 September 2022

The Week in Art

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

Marina Abramović: the artist on her ‘best ever show’

Plus, Frans Hals at London's National Gallery and a Peter Paul Rubens painting inspired by Ovid's Metamorphoses

Hosted by Ben Luke. Produced by Julia Michalska, Alexander Morrison and David Clack1 day ago
Sponsored byChristie's

A brush with... podcast

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

A brush with… Sarah Lucas

An in-depth conversation with the artist about her cultural experiences and greatest influences, from the sculptor Eva Hesse to the Museo Diego Rivera-Anahuacalli in Mexico City

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

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.

Van Gogh would have loved to see the National Gallery’s exhibition on Hals

We spotlight eight paintings in the London show that Vincent singled out for special praise

Martin Bailey1 day ago

Escape from the British Museum—tale of a teapot returning to China goes viral

Two social media influencers—Pancake Fruit and Summer Sister—are behind the series posted on Douyin

Sarah Lucas’s cheeky sculptures bring light relief at Tate Britain

Guests at the packed exhibition launch included Pet Shop Boy Neil Tennant and fashion icon Pam Hogg

Art crowd attends Piccadilly church for Rachel Jones’s new opera piece

Hey, Maudie draws on classical tropes, West African traditions, jazz and gospel

Books

Contested prospect: two new books see the Parthenon through the eyes of a legal expert and a lifelong scholar of Greek history

The great temple to Athena has emerged from the vicissitudes of earthquakes, war, looting and rebuilding to be caught up in a monumental restitution debate

Eleni Vassilikaabout 21 hours ago

PAD London 2023 x The Art Newspaper

The PAD London art and design fair takes place in Berkeley Square, Mayfair, from 10 to 15 October

PAD London fair celebrates 15th edition as contemporary design market matures

The art and design fair opens in London's Mayfair a day before Frieze London

In partnership withPAD

Obituaries

Fernando Botero, the Colombian artist beloved for his rotund figures, has died, aged 91

Botero re-imagined art historical motifs but also responded to current events, including a series of visceral paintings in response to the Abu Ghraib torture scandal

Remembering Jamie Reid, a protest artist to the end and the man behind the shocking visual impact of the Sex Pistols

The artist's gallerist recalls a visionary who built creative communities in London and Liverpool and had a profound effect on British popular culture

Remembering Kavita Singh, acclaimed historian of Indian art and museology, who has died, aged 58

An expert on Mughal, Rajput and Deccan painting traditions, she was unafraid to address rising nationalism in state-led cultural institutions

Remembering Françoise Gilot, who showed that being a muse of Pablo Picasso did not preclude being a great artist herself

The French painter and memoirist, who worked in Paris, London and the United States, showed elegance and ferocity in her work and a remarkable versatility as a colourist

Angela Flowers, dealer at the heart of British art for 50 years, has died aged 90

Flowers built a global empire from Hong Kong to Hackney and always championed artists

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.

Artists, writers, performers and their advocates call on US Congress to ban companies from copyrighting AI-generated art

The AI Day of Action, scheduled for 2 October, comes as US officials consider whether and how to regulate material generated by artificial intelligence

Elvis returns to Las Vegas in Marco Brambilla’s new video for the Sphere, created with AI

The King reclaims his throne in an immersive video that will play during U2’s concerts at the city’s new $2.3bn entertainment complex

Mexico’s Sfer Ik launches $100,000 award to support creation of AI art project

The Tulum-based art space is putting out an open call, with the winner receiving cash and a two-month residency

TikTok art star’s cross-over moment

UTA Artist Space, the visual art branch of Hollywood’s United Talent Agency, is opening a New York pop-up with a solo show by viral artist Devon Rodriguez

Instagram’s new tools prove ‘shadowbanning’ is real—and now artists are trapped

Many users are beginning to wonder if the platform's guidelines have any positive value

Book Club

An expert’s guide to Roy Lichtenstein: five must-read books on the American Pop artist

All you ever wanted to know about Lichtenstein, from an encyclopaedic career survey to a collection of his unexpectedly witty mirror paintings—selected by the art dealer Irving Blum

Coco Fusco on her new monograph, her activism and why she remains sceptical of the art world

The artist also discusses her “meditation on death”, a film shot around and above Hart Island in the US

How almost meeting Alberto Giacometti the week he died inspired a new biography

A 60-year “obsession” began when Michael Peppiatt set out for Paris with a letter of introduction from Francis Bacon

‘We never even bid one dollar’: Sheikha Al-Mayassa discusses Salvator Mundi and controversy around Damien Hirst’s foetus works in new book

An extract from a new publication about collectors by Dani Levinas features rare insights from the chair of Qatar Museums