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Michelangelo Pistoletto donates new version of public installation to Naples following arson attack

The original version of the artist's Venus of the Rags was set alight only two weeks after being installed outside the city's town hall

Egyptian Museum in Turin to undergo €23m renovation with two-storey ‘agora’ at its heart

The mission of the project, designed by OMA architects, is to make the museum more accessible to the public

Italy appoints right-wing journalist as Venice Biennale president

Members of Italy’s ruling coalition have described the 128-year-old exhibition as a "fiefdom" of the left

Banksynews

Damaged Banksy mural in Venice to be restored

But some critics are arguing that Migrant Child, which has been slowly deteriorating since it first appeared in 2019, should be left alone

Rain, storms, drought: a new project is saving Europe’s ancient heritage from climate change

EU project aims to find ways to arrest damage at numerous archaeological sites, from a 12th-century BC city in Greece eroded by rising sea levels to submerged prehistoric villages in a Swiss lake at risk from falling water levels

Will Italy's right-wing government control who gets to direct the nation’s biggest museums?

Art historians are concerned the culture ministry is lining up candidates to run top institutions including Florence’s Uffizi Galleries and Milan’s Pinacoteca di Brera

Two German tourists arrested for allegedly defacing Vasari Corridor in Florence

The characters DKS1860—referring to the football team 1860 Munich—were spray-painted on seven outdoor columns under the famous Italian landmark

Niger coup upends country’s Venice Biennale plans

Niger, which is participating in the current architecture biennale, had planned to show at next year’s art biennale for the first time

A warehouse full of art: what will happen to Silvio Berlusconi’s collection?

Italy’s controversial former prime minister, who died in June, amassed tens of thousands of works—of varying quality

Police block auction of Gina Lollobrigida's art as rival heirs clash

Sale of Italian film star’s 350-piece collection halted over suspicions that her assistant pressured her to sell

Italy could slash VAT on imported works of art

Proposal follows EU directive to align import sales tax among member states, causing alarm in France which currently has the lowest rate

Looted artefacts linked to disgraced British dealer Robin Symes returned to Italy

Restitution follows the return of 350 Neolithic and Byzantine objects from the same source to Greece

Italy announces museum ticket price hike as part of €2bn flood aid package

Admission will be raised by €1 to support relief efforts in the affected Emilia-Romagna region

Italynews

Artists take aim at Italy’s attack on same-sex parents’ rights

As the country's far-right government cracks down on LGBTQ rights, public artworks are popping up in protest

James Imam. With additional reporting by Gareth Harris

Botticelli’s Venus as ‘influencer’ in tourism campaign faces widespread ridicule

The use of a computerised mascot of the Renaissance figure to promote Italian culture has been described as “humiliating” and “grotesque”

Texan princess evicted from Rome villa with Caravaggio ceiling

Following a bitter inheritance dispute, Rita Boncompagni Ludovisi has been court-ordered to leave the historic property, while valuable artworks and documents are to be removed or destroyed

Milan authorities must hire conservationist after struggling to clean statue damaged by climate activists

Italian officials have approved draft bill to bring in tougher sanctions for protestors who target heritage

Uffizi’s ticket price hike sparks row

As the Italian museum responds to rising energy bills, culture minister says institutions’ entrance charge increases are justified

Italy to open new mafia museum—complete with smells and sounds

The first site in Palermo is scheduled to open this spring

Italynews

Italy plans high-speed train between Pompeii and Rome to increase tourism to heritage sites

The €35m development will include a new train station adjacent to the Pompeii archaeological site

Five panels from Dosso Dossi's ‘magnificent’ Renaissance frieze reunited for exhibition in Rome

The Galleria Borghese has brought together the Aeneas Frieze panels from collections around the world

Hic! Row erupts over loan of Caravaggio’s Bacchus to wine festival

Uffizi's plan to show the painting at Vinitaly has been described as “absurd” and “unacceptable”

Just what the doctor ordered: masterpieces from Milan museum brighten up hospital

Works from the Pinacoteca di Brera have been blown up and pasted in high definition on the walls of the Humanitas hospital in Ronzano to improve patients' well-being

Exhibitionsinterview

Gian Maria Tosatti tells us why he used gold, rust and charcoal for his new works unveiled in Milan

The Italian artist, who represented his country at the 59th Venice Biennale, has an exhibition at Pirelli HangarBicocca

Vatican returns Parthenon sculptures to Greece in 'historic event'

Restitution shows that a "road of dialogue and peace always exists", according to a representative of the Holy See

In Burkina Faso and Mali, pilot scheme builds defences against illegal trafficking of cultural antiquities

Icom and Aliph’s $250,000 project is providing training and security measures for 22 museums in countries ravaged by war

Italy to open first museum of fascism

Curators of the controversial Salò institution say museum will “neither demonise nor defend” fascist leader Benito Mussolini

Death of Vatican cleric puts his lauded but mysterious art collection under new scrutiny

Canon Monsignor Michele Basso was investigated for fraud in 2000 after allegedly trying to sell fake works

Crime news

Moscow-based architect, who built ‘Putin’s Palace’, refuses to return to Italy to face trial

Italian Lanfranco Cirillo—whose 150-strong art collection was seized last year—will be tried in absentia by an Italian court next month for tax and money laundering crimes

Cecco del Caravaggio—the mysterious student and lover of the Baroque master of shadow—takes centre stage in new show

The Fondazione Accademia Carrara in Bergamo is showing 19 of 25 known paintings by the student who modelled for Caravaggio