Gareth Harris

Gareth Harris is the Chief Contributing Editor of The Art Newspaper

New plaques on controversial City of London sculptures highlight links to slavery

Artists, poets and writers will also respond to statues of William Beckford and Sir John Cass following the introduction of the UK's "retain and explain" policy

One year on from Mahsa Amini's death, protest art marks the streets

Public works by four artists go on show in Edinburgh, Paris and Dublin focusing on the "battle for basic human rights"

‘Retain and explain’: still no sign of guidelines on contentious UK heritage

Art world figures, meanwhile, have continued to question the relevance of the approach

Vija Celmins and Olafur Eliasson win £90,000 Praemium Imperiale prizes

The annual award, under the patronage of Japan’s Imperial Family, spans five categories including painting, sculpture and architecture

Constable sketch discovered in a suitcase heads for auction (again)

The drawing, which was first sold by the Yorkshire auction house in 2021, depicts Dover harbour from an East India company ship

Chris Ofili’s mural on Grenfell Tower tragedy unveiled at Tate Britain

The work honours the artist and activist Khadija Saye who died in the fire in 2017

Technologyanalysis

A question of attribution: just how useful can AI tools be?

Connoisseurs and app makers agree on one thing: artificial intelligence-driven apps may supplement but do not replace the human eye and expertise in assessing a picture’s authorship

Photo ban lifted on Picasso’s Guernica after 30 years

New museum director hopes to appeal to younger audiences though selfie sticks are still off limits

Unesco beefs up protection for 20 cultural heritage sites in Ukraine

Damaging any of the sites inscribed in the agency's new list qualifies as a ‘serious violation’ to the 1954 Hague Convention

UK Art Fund announces £1m grant bonanza to boost diversity and inclusion

The funds will benefit organisations including Glasgow Women’s Library and Studio Voltaire

Day-trippers to Venice to be charged €5 admission fee in bid to save lagoon city

Residents, students and visitors in Airbnb properties will be exempt from the scheme, which will be implemented next spring

Hauser & Wirth announces representation of Venice Golden Lion winner Sonia Boyce

The move comes after the UK artist split from Simon Lee Gallery in London

Manchester Museum returns 174 items to Indigenous Australians in major restitution move

Objects handed over as part of the extensive repatriation project include shell dolls, bark baskets and spear throwers

Book Clubinterview

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

Thangam Debbonaire appointed UK shadow culture secretary

The Labour MP, who has held the position before, campaigned for the removal of Bristol's Edward Colston statue

V&A Dundee becomes latest museum to drop the Sackler name but retain donations

The Scottish museum confirmed it will not be returning the £500,000 it received before opening in 2018

British Museum thefts: Mark Jones named interim director of the British Museum

The former V&A director was keeper of coins and medal at the embattled London institution

Book Clubfeature

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

British Museum thefts: Welsh politicians join the queue in calling for objects to be repatriated

The treasures singled out so far include the Mold Gold Cape and Moel Hebog shield

Tate hires new curators dedicated to Indigenous art and the climate

Both posts are part of an initative to redefine the institution's “existing collection of art and offer new perspectives on global art histories”

Collector David Walsh's subterranean Mona museum expanding to house 'dream library'

The new space at the Tasmanian institution will also include other “treasures” according to Walsh's wife, curator and artist Kirsha Kaechele

Cuban artists call for boycotts in light of government's 'persistent human rights violations'

Open letter also says that the regime is ‘using art to salvage its public image’

British Museum thefts: Chinese state newspaper calls for the return of cultural relics

Article in The Global Times also criticises the UK’s ‘bloody, ugly, and shameful colonial history’

Parthenon Marbles deal still on the table despite British Museum theft scandal

Other Greek treasures would come to London in exchange for a loan of the contested sculptures

Nigeria doubles down on restitution demands following British Museum thefts

Government official says new claim will be made for Benin Bronzes housed in London

Paris’s Grand Palais gets a new director

New Rmn-GP chief Didier Fusillier will need to oversee the restoration of the historic venue and work with the Centre Pompidou