Martin Bailey

Protestscomment

The Year in Review: Escalating art attacks and responses to war

This year has been marked by a rising number of politically-motivated attacks on art. But we should not forget the power of art to unite diverse groups of people

Snug as a bug: conservation work reveals beetle in Gauguin cat painting

The painting, which has just gone on display at Amsterdam’s Van Gogh Museum, was previously hidden away in a private collection for over a century

Van Gogh was not fantasising when he painted mountain landscapes with ‘The Two Holes’

A pair of pictures with this bizarre geological feature have been brought together at London’s National Gallery, on loan from New York

A Van Gogh painting, newly authenticated in an unexpected Polish museum, has gone on display in a church dome

Bought by a British collector, the Dutch landscape was donated to an institution dedicated to Pope John Paul II

Vienna Art Week celebrates 20th anniversary with Rembrandt—and lots of gold

Event, which was the first of its kind in the world and now involves more than 20 institutions, is run by museums rather than dealers

British Museum still taking money from tobacco firm

Japanese acquisitions have been funded by maker of Benson & Hedges, Winston, Camel and Silk Cut

Van Gogh’s finest ‘London drawing’ was not done in the UK, but later in Amsterdam

The sketch of Austin Friars Church throws fresh light on Vincent’s draftsmanship, suggesting he was even more of a late developer as an artist

Leonardo Cartoon was ‘presentation drawing’ in Florence commission bid

Leonardo’s largest known drawing was hung with the Mona Lisa in his studio, says Per Rumberg, the curator of the Royal Academy’s Florentine Old Masters exhibition opening this month

Van Gogh Museum exposes three early fakes

A vase of summer sunflowers in a late autumn scene proved a giveaway

'The Lovers': the key painting that the National Gallery couldn't track down for its Van Gogh exhibition

Seized by Hitler's deputy, Hermann Göring, the picture disappeared in mysterious circumstances during the Second World War—but could it survive?

Churchill’s Monet—restored after many years of cigar smoke—goes on show in Courtauld blockbuster

Traces of the statesman’s smoke have been removed from the painting of Charing Cross Bridge, which took Monet 24 years to finish

The Big Review: Van Gogh: Poets and Lovers at the National Gallery, London ★★★★★

A magnificent show with important and rarely seen loans that highlight the Dutch artist’s astonishing achievements in Provence

Ten surprises at the National Gallery’s five-star Van Gogh exhibition

Visitors will be ‘blown away’ by the masterpieces—but there are intriguing and little-known stories behind many of the loans

Nazi-era claims for two Van Goghs in Switzerland?

Acquired by the arms dealer Emil Bührle, both have been on loan to a Zurich museum

Bucolic Van Gogh riverscape with royal connections set to become the artist’s most expensive Paris work

“Moored Boats”, the “gem in the crown of the Bourbon collection”, will be auctioned in Hong Kong

‘At Tate Modern, I want us to take real risks’: director outlines her plans to borrow rather than buy some works of Indigenous art

Karin Hindsbo, director of the London gallery for the past year, wants it to be a ground-breaking institution. She discusses plans to raise annual visitor numbers to six million and for a free festival to mark next year’s 25th birthday

Van Gogh’s fruitful final two years are the focus of show at the National Gallery in London

The artist’s idiosyncratic terms for two sitters—lover and poet—inspired the theme of the 60-work exhibition

Sainsbury Wing contractors find 1990 letter from donor anticipating their demolition of false columns

Work on foyer reveals John Sainsbury’s note buried in extension to London’s National Gallery

V&A beats Met to acquire medieval ivory sculpture of Christ for £2m

The purchase was made possible after an export license for the Romanesque carving was deferred by the UK authorities last year

Looted Asante treasures find a new palace home in Ghana

Objects from the British Museum and the Victoria & Albert Museum are on loan to the Asante king, while the Fowler Museum has transferred ownership of seven items

Nicholas Penny resigns from Acceptance in Lieu panel in protest over adviser ‘forced out’ of Arts Council role

The former director of the National Gallery quits after “catastrophic” exit of Anastasia Tennant, the Arts Council’s senior policy adviser on cultural property

Behind the British Museum’s struggle to find a space to show one of its greatest Assyrian reliefs

The rare and much-studied work has been in storage for most of 18 years, but no UK institution has asked to borrow it

An exclusive visit to Van Gogh’s asylum garden to track down the scenes that he painted

As Vincent wrote to his brother, “life happens … in the garden, it isn’t so sad”