Anna Somers Cocks

Lawnews

The UK’s ban on ivory sales will not protect the elephants

A spokesman for Traffic, the leading researchers of trade in endangered species, says it is the Asian market that drives the poaching, not the Western market

Art fairsanalysis

Why the new Tbilisi Art Fair restores pleasure to buying art

It’s affordable, good quality, unspeculative—and the wine is great

Is nothing sacred? The Metropolitan Museum should apologise to the Vatican for Heavenly Bodies show

Curator Andrew Bolton’s Costume Institute blockbuster is pointlessly offensive to believers

Why the French can sell arms and culture to Saudi Arabia, but the US and UK only arms

France's latest deal with the Kingdom reveals the close connection between culture and foreign affairs

Ilya and Emilia Kabakov: The desire for paradise

Emilia Kabakov discusses the duo’s past in the USSR and their aim to stop it defining how they are perceived as artists

Booksreview

The commercial rape of Venice is the result of a moral failing in the Italians

This is the view of a former Getty chief, who says the problems of the Serenissima are a paradigm for other historic cities

Resistance in multiple forms at Sharjah’s March Meeting

Minds from the Middle Eastern art world and beyond discussed topics such as urban planning and art and ecology

Brian and Anna Haughton, the dealers who put intellect into art fairs

Back in 1982, these ceramic specialists realised that top curators and hot research brought in the collectors. Today, they’re still keeping the flame of knowledge alive

Booksreview

Peter Wilson: The man who invented modern auctioneering

Buccaneering, brilliant, art-loving—he created the power of Sotheby’s (and Christie’s learned by imitation)

Royal Academy of Arts tried to borrow $450m Salvator Mundi for its Charles I exhibition

New London show has received glowing reviews but there is one conspicuous absentee

A new era for heritage reproduction

Digital technologies are at the heart of a declaration by major museums and heritage organisations to record and sometimes reproduce works of art

Googlefeature

How Google became a major producer of cultural content

The Google Cultural Institute’s We Wear Culture fashion stories are its latest museum collaboration, its director Amit Sood tells us.

How Egypt is destroying Cairo and civil society

The pharaonic new museum will not make up for misguided policies

Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince launches institute to promote art in the Middle East

Recently identified buyer of Leonardo's Salvator Mundi is planning a pavilion at the Venice Biennale, art teaching in schools, international exhibitions, archaeology and virtual reality

This is no way to solve the cruise ship issue in Venice

The Italian government’s latest decision is in hock to the port’s own interests

Booksreview

How offsets on arms sales into Abu Dhabi have helped finance its Louvre

A French study of the Gulf museums sees them as the Versailles of the sheikhs—a step towards autocracy

'In Russia, either be brave or be silenced… there is no middle ground'

Russian art patron Igor Tsukanov has created a show at the Saatchi Gallery about artists who have risked protesting against conditions in Russia since 1991

Podcastsfeature

Abu Dhabi Focus podcast, episode three: how the UAE art scene became a force to be reckoned with

Art dealer Thaddaeus Ropac and curator Maya Allison tell us how the nation’s creative ambitions have blossomed. Plus: Silver Lion-winning musician and artist Hassan Khan on his Abu Dhabi Art performance

Podcastsfeature

Abu Dhabi Focus podcast, episode two: How Saudi artists are driving political change

As Abu Dhabi Art fair opens, we speak to the Saudi artists Manal Al Dowayan and Ahmed Mater. Plus: Iraq's Dia Azzawi on creating the Arab world's Guernica

Video: Abu Dhabi Art opens as the world watches

Is the UAE now the art capital of the Middle East?