Anna Somers Cocks

Venice comment

Has Venice really banned cruise ships? It appears not

The Italian government must intervene against powerful forces opposed to change

Only connect: Icomos and Europa Nostra join up to influence European Union’s one trillion euro Green Deal

Conservation experts and lobby group launch a Green Paper to put Europe’s heritage at the heart of the EU’s greening policy

Abu Dhabi’s next mega museum is back on track—now with a director

UAE’s withdrawal from a disastrous and costly war in Yemen means it can refocus on an ambitious cultural agenda including the opening of Zayed National Museum

Six scholars fool the public with invented documents about the date Venice was founded

On 25 March, the city began celebrating 1,600 years of its history—but the date is somewhat fishy

V&A to say goodbye to departments by material—woodwork, metalwork etc—and 20% of its curators

Museum's director Tristram Hunt says that government help has not been enough to cover all costs incurred by pandemic and admits “curators will be more stretched”

Culture war erupts over Venice mayor's closure of Doge's Palace and other civic museums until April

Luigi Brugnaro's "entrepreneurial" decision violates Venice's historic agreement with Italian state to keep the landmark open to the public

Johnny Eskenazi: from wannabe theatre director to leading Eastern art dealer who rescued stolen Afghan ivories

Top Indian sculpture dealer warns against a too rigid interpretation of the 1970 Unesco Convention

Europe's 12 most endangered heritage sites announced

From a steam cog railway to the baroque Venetian palazzo abandoned by the Armenians , Europa Nostra chooses candidates for its 2021 Seven Most Endangered Sites list

Finally, rebel experts come to the rescue of Unesco’s failing World Heritage programme

New organisation, Our World Heritage, is putting Unesco's feet to the fire

Revealed: official plan to save Venice from flooding sacrifices St Mark’s basilica for Marghera, the industrial port of Venice

The mobile barriers have at last held back a flood, but they will not be raised to protect the low-lying parts of town

The Art Newspaper turns 30: how has the world of art publishing changed?

Current editor Alison Cole talks to founding editor and long-time editor-in-chief Anna Somers Cocks about the origins of the newspaper, the fundamentals of its journalism and the challenges the visual arts world has faced

New laser-scanning project will allow Venice to live on forever as a digital avatar

A team of scientists are digitally mapping the entire island of San Giorgio in a mission to preserve the sinking city as combinations of 0 and 1

Send the religious art in museums back to the churches, says the director of the Uffizi gallery

Eike Schmidt says up to a thousand works are languishing in state-run stores all over Italy

Explosion in chemicals factory threatens Venice with cloud of toxic smoke

The fire is now under control, but the mayor warns people to stay indoors and keep their windows closed

If the sea destroys Venice, can digital technology rebuild it?

The Art Newspaper is co-hosting a live YouTube discussion on digital innovations and the preservation of cultural heritage on 1-3 May

Pope Francis, his crucifix and the Virgin Mary: miraculous or merely traditional?

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

Venice cruise ship crash in 2019 was caused by captain’s incompetence

Contrary to assurances, the MSC Opera was sailing under its own power, reports the navy

Letter from Italy: the churches—open, but without services—are the only place to see art

The Art Newspaper's founder-editor Anna Somers Cocks on the impact of Covid-19 on Turin, where she is in lockdown

Podcastspodcast

Coronavirus: dispatches from Italy and China

We speak to our journalists Anna Somers Cocks and Lisa Movius about their experiences of lockdown. Plus, we begin a new feature—Lonely Works—where we look at individual works of art that are now hanging unseen in galleries. Produced in association with Bonhams, auctioneers since 1793

Hosted by Ben Luke. with guest speakers Anna Somers Cocks, Lisa Movius and Bendor Grosvenor. Produced by Julia Michalska, David Clack and Aimee Dawson

Vittorio Gregotti, the last modern architect of Venice, dies of coronavirus aged 92

He designed many prestigious buildings in Italy and internationally and led the visual arts section of the Venice Biennale twice in the 1970s

For this week only: unrepeatable chance to see Raphael’s tapestries with Michelangelo’s ceiling

The Vatican Museums celebrate Raphael’s 500th anniversary by hanging his tapestries in the Sistine Chapel for which they were created

British dealer James Butterwick cleared of defamation for describing Russian Avant-garde works in Mantua exhibition as fake

Italian judge said his opinion of the 2013 show was based on his “proven and recognised competence and experience”

Old Masters, new tricks: Chatsworth House drawings are off to Sheffield

Almost 60 works by artists including Rembrandt, Annibale Carracci and Sebastiano del Piombo will go on show at the Millennium Gallery

Arseholes or artists? How East German art is becoming a new collecting frontier

As a cache of communist pieces stored near Beeskow castle for 25 years is being rehabilitated, the market for such work is growing

Secret papers on famous artists including Gauguin, Renoir and Monet to be revealed

New York-based Wildenstein-Plattner Institute will digitise fabled Wildenstein archive of sale catalogues, letters and experts’ notes

Obituariesfeature

The Getty Museum curator who hired the Rolling Stones for 15 shillings a head

Self-taught Gillian Wilson put together the 20th century’s best collection of French decorative arts

Governing body of St Mark’s basilica wants to build a Perspex anti-flood wall

Officials warn cathedral cannot take any more damage after the record-breaking floods that hit Venice in November

British architect David Adjaye to build a church, mosque and synagogue on a united site near the Louvre Abu Dhabi

The future House of Abrahamic religions in Abu Dhabi shows how the UAE differs from Saudi Arabia

Why the Dresden jewel heist wasn’t worth a billion, but why the Germans are still really upset

Thieves stole Baroque jewels from the Green Vault earlier this week after breaking in through a window