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Prizes

What's the point of art prizes?

The trend for awards to be shared among all the shortlisted artists reflects the current political climate, but it might be time to do away with them all together

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Venice

The damnation of Venice: locals are being systematically driven out by officials who are selling off sites for tourism

Venetians are leaving the city in thousands because rents are unaffordable, yet over 11% of social housing stands empty

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Contemporary art

'If you are of the camp that wants to keep the art world an exclusive club, then look away now'

Silos are tight in the arts, but here's how musicians, artists and writers and can work together to bring in new audiences

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Funding

Hackneyed old Hockney: Museums need to be courageous, even in survival mode

This is the moment to ask for fresh ideas and give space to artists more deserving of exposure—so why has the Royal Academy given its main galleries to iPad 'paintings'?

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Diary of an art historian

The UK Ministry of Culture is where politicians' careers go to die—but Oliver Dowden has emerged victorious, thanks to the culture wars

The future integrity of the arts sector will depend on whether institutions are able to stand up to the next culture secretary

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Art market

Jobs for the boys…why I'm starting to feel old amid the new art world order

The thrusting land of NFTs and tech nomads favours the young—and has yet to shake off the old ties of nepotism

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UK politics

Don’t trash talk museums at this perilous time: we must adapt—not throw away—our cultural heritage

Cultural institutions—like religious buildings—can be spaces of good and harm, we cannot simply denounce their histories as one or the other, says museum director Nicholas Thomas

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London Gallery Weekend 2021

Why are there so few black-owned galleries in London?

Despite the stars of so many artists of colour rising in the West, the trend is not reflected within the dealer community

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Art market

Inflation is soaring in the US and UK—here's what it means for the art market

When prices rise, investors often buy art to lower risk and increase returns. But the market's buoyancy may be short-lived, as experience tells us

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Art market

Will gallery weekends replace art fairs?

There are advantages to staying local in a post-pandemic world

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Diary of an art historian

It took 300 years for the art world to recognise Artemisia Gentileschi—now NFTs are reinforcing the bias towards Western male artists

The latest digital craze will only reinforce the structural sexism inherent in the history of art

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Salvator Mundi

Is Salvator Mundi by Leonardo da Vinci? Amid the current flurry of ill-informed controversies, let us turn to the science

Can the leaked Louvre book give us the final word on the much-maligned painting that we all need?

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Venice

Has Venice really banned cruise ships? It appears not

The Italian government must intervene against powerful forces opposed to change

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Art Market Eye

How a new digital art market could mimic the traditional one—including in bad ways

The new breed of art buyers are likely to need administrators, curators and lawyers much like those in the conventional art world

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African art market

Nigerian artist Ben Enwonwu’s greatest work is much loved by the art market—but it should mean more to art history too

Editions of the Anyanwu sculpture always attract attention at auction, but the legacy of the work and its maker are largely ignored both in his home country and the international art scene

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M+

Why culture is key to Hong Kong’s future as a world city

As M+ gets ready to open its doors later this year, the museum's board chairman Victor Lo explains its bold concept

Paid for byM+

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Museums & Heritage

Why we are projecting First Nations art on the Sydney Opera House

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists are front and centre in the Art Gallery of New South Wales's expansion plans, writes museum director Michael Brand

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Looted art

Is there loot lurking in your collection? Find out—before someone else does

Do your research and and check whether you unwittingly own stolen works, otherwise it could tarnish your reputation

, and

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Cuba

A feeble congress and the raising up of poetry in Cuba

While the Eighth Congress of the Cuban Communist Party ignored the needs of the people, the activist group 27N published a manifesto encapsulating their aims for the future

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Art market

In our current dystopian art market, the pervasive and persistent Damien Hirst may well have the last laugh

The British artist has had a bumpy boom and boost history when it comes to sales, but his ubiquitous brand makes him a safer bet in uncertain times

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NFTs

NFTs and the 'Art' world: panic and possibility

The technology must become more diverse, says Ruth Catlow, the co-founder of Furtherfield

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Diary of an art historian

Boo to NFTs! Hang on, think of no customs fees

As Brexit makes buying anything from Europe almost impossible, purchasing questionable digital art is almost tempting

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Art fairs

The world of art fairs is going to change for good—and only the better-funded fairs will survive

From hybrid online ventures to new subscription models, mass events in the art world won't look the same post-pandemic

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Art Market Eye

How the art market turned upside down—in one month

Banksy, NFTs and Sacha Jafri et al are ripping up the rulebook

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Museums

How museums can ethically invest their money

There are plenty of funds with good Environmental, Social and Governance ratings, and the financial returns often outperform the S&P 500

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Art market

EU proposes tough new laws on antique ivory trade—despite lack of evidence it leads to modern-day poaching

Proposal appears to contradict European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen's assertion that any new restrictions must be proportional and "evidence based"

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Myanmar

Here is what you can do to help Myanmar's beleaguered artists

The situation in the country right now is 'nothing short of dark and desolate', says Nathalie Johnston who runs an art centre in Yangon

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Art market

The art market is 'high risk' for money laundering, so ignore new regulations at your peril

The UK government may make examples of galleries, advisors and auction houses found failing to comply to new laws, so prepare your business with these steps

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Benin Bronzes

Britain stole the royal, sacred Benin Bronzes from Nigeria—so why is Germany leading their return?

Germany's plans to return the artefacts are just the beginning of a necessary undoing of the art world's white infrastructure

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NFTs

The looming legal and regulatory questions NFT collectors and sellers should prepare for

An expert in anti-money laundering laws shares her thoughts on the booming digital art marketplace

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Art market

The 'Ledbury Titian' discovery begs the question: who should we trust when it comes to art attribution?

We often overlook gaps in provenance, or disagreement between experts, simply because we want to believe in fairytales

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Museums & Heritage

Pandemic anniversary: the things museums should learn from our plague year

Although “thumbstoppable” social media content is essential, the online world has dark consequences too, says Tristram Hunt, the director of the Victoria and Albert Museum

Comment

Freelance workers are the backbone of the art world—but how are they expected to survive on a pittance?

If culture is to recover from the pandemic, the sector must value the self-employed more so that the next generation—of all backgrounds—can afford to live a creative life

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Art market

Six reasons why Gamestop couldn’t happen in the art market

From lack of supply to prohibitive price points, it seems you can't short art... at least for now

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Diary of an art historian

'Autism made me an art historian. But museums must do more to welcome disabled and neurodiverse communities'

Museums were quick to implement Covid-19 safety measures and now they need to apply that same rigour to improving accessibility

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United Kingdom

'Where is the champion within UK government for a vigorous, independent visual arts sector?'

The culture sector is being relegated to the ranks of "indoor entertainment"

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NFTs

The NFT craze encapsulates the absurdity of the art world—and its obsession with authenticity

Why would someone buy a non-fungible token of a rainbow-toting cat, which already exists in millions of identical copies?

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Art market

Risky business: how new US sanctions regulations will actually impact the art market

The US government has the 'regulatory vacuum' in its sights—here is a guide to who will be affected and how

and

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Diary of an art historian

Museums have hastily cut their staff to save money—what will happen when visitors return and they need them back?

With vaccines now being deployed and a return to normality on the horizon, institutions may find they have been shortsighted in letting their employees go

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Art market

Sotheby's brought to you by Bulgari—product placement at auction has arrived, with limitless potential

Yesterday's auction saw auctioneer plugging the brand while wearing one of its watches. What might we see next—Edvard Munch sponsored by Bollinger?

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Arts funding

Arts researchers can help America overcome its toughest challenges

As the Biden-Harris administration begins to fill its leadership roles, it is vital that our federal government includes creative thinkers

and

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Botticelli

'Looking just gorgeous': Granddaughter of $80m Botticelli's former owner on living with the masterpiece

Suzy Lewis recalls the "absolute disaster" of the painting's 1982 sale

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Art Market Eye

Can Paris snatch the art market crown from London?

The French capital seems resurgent, but other elements may intervene

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Art market

Should post-Brexit UK get rid of the Artist’s Resale Right?

The controversial levy, introduced by the EU in 2006, is intended to help struggling artists but it ends up pouring more money into the hands of the most successful few

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Monuments

Tearing down troubling statues is not lying about our history—it is removing impediments to truth

The UK communities secretary Robert Jenrick's plans to prevent the removal of controversial monuments reveals his inability to view the past as shifting and complex

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Museums

Could 2021 be the year of the African museum?

While the West continues to grapple with its colonial past, institutions from Togo to Cairo are creating more expansive models to celebrate art

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Art market

How will US money laundering crackdown actually impact the art market? A lawyer explains

Congress is increasing its regulation of antiquities trade and while its powers are limited for now, change will come so the art industry must prepare

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Art market

A Covid-19 silver lining? Let’s not return to family-unfriendly art business as usual

The industry could work better for mothers and fathers if it doesn’t go back to the out-of-hours, out-of-town way things were

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Diary of an art historian

Auction houses have finally entered the Amazon age—and I’m addicted

I thought I’d kicked my online art and antiques buying habit but too much lockdown screen time has been my undoing

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Covid-19

As 2021 beckons.... I crave new art in the new year more than ever

With talk of vaccines dominating the airwaves, a return to regular contact with the latest works and upcoming artists may be on the horizon

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Covid-19

'Museums had better not be planning for a return to the status quo'

If institutions keep admission limits in place, they’ll come out of the coronavirus crisis in better health, says art critic Blake Gopnik

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The Year in Review 2020

Art could have dwindled into insignificance in the upheaval of this year—instead it endured

Through the major shifts and moments of victory, art has proved itself to be cathartic, resistant and powerful

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Art market

How art world leaders can embrace new money laundering regulations and create a 'think risk' culture

Punishment for the new rules now falls on the art market's top dogs, says Sotheby’s founding global compliance director Rena Neville

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Museums & Heritage

California needs a plan to restart the arts

There is not a person in the arts who wants to open until it is safe to do so, but we cannot even prepare to start without state guidelines

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Art Market Eye

Asian art market flies in the face of coronavirus

Why are Asians in hot pursuit of art, and what are they buying?

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Museums

Gabrielie Finaldi: 'What is the National Gallery if you can’t visit and you can’t see the pictures?'

Museums have a responsibility to the people to protect and share the collection, says the London museum's director

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Humboldt Forum

'Humboldt Forum must have a clear policy that only objects of proper provenance can be used'

The question of restitution as well as a new order of north-south relations should be top of the agenda, says George Abungu an international adviser to the project

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Art market

The art trade benefits from the UK's low import duty. What will happen to it after Brexit?

As talks with the EU resume to reach a last-ditch trade deal, the lawyer Louise Williamson looks at what UK import rules might look like after 1 January

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Art market

Provenance: the Trojan horse that can make or break a work of art

The who, where and when of ownership can lead on to scholarly, ethical, legal and existential issues

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Museums

A new kind of museum is emerging—here's what the future holds

International museum leaders are confronting manifold challenges in the wake of Covid-19 and innovating in six principal ways, writes András Szántó

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Art Market Eye

The turn of the screw: will tighter regulations impact the art market?

Often described as totally unregulated, the art trade is facing more stringent rules

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Art market

Pastures new: why some top gallery staff are moving on from longtime jobs

Without art fairs and hectic travel, the pandemic has transformed the way most of us work—and some are branching out rather than returning to their old lifestyle

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Cultural heritage

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

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Diary of an art historian

People see only 'silver tits' and 'bouffant pubes' now—but I predict Mary Wollstonecraft sculpture will become widely admired

One of the iron rules of art history is that the more derided a work of art at first, the more celebrated it will become

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Heritage

Fifty years on, Unesco’s convention against illicit trafficking of cultural artefacts still shines bright

International treaty of 1970 has helped establish an ethical basis for the actions of law enforcement and museums

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Diary of an art historian

Is the UK seeing the emergence of a ‘Godfather approach’ to arts funding?

Culture secretary Oliver Dowden has been ignoring the arm's length principle and offering museums unsolicited advice

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Philip Guston

Philip Guston show: 2022 opening is welcome news but confusion still remains

The museums should make urgent use of the delay already caused by the pandemic rather than lurch towards lengthy postponement

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Artists

A message of hope from David Hockney for Lockdown 2: 'Remember, they can't cancel the autumn either'

UK’s leading artist sends two new images of hope

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Saudi Arabia

Why culture is so important in the time of coronavirus

As Saudi Arabia prepares to host the G20 summit, the kingdom's culture minister argues that culture should be part of the agenda

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Artists

Portrait of Tracey: how Emin's cancer diagnosis hasn't stopped her from being an artistic dynamo

With exhibitions at the Royal Academy and Xavier Hufkens, as well as her return to Margate, the artist is doing more in convalescence than most people manage in full health

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Art Market Eye

A flood of art? The market issues around museum deaccessioning

A flurry of museum pieces is heading to auction, but will there be enough buyers for them?

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Sackler family

Nan Goldin: We must stop the Sacklers’ imminent Justice Department immunity deal

The family behind Purdue Pharma is poised to buy their way out of liability once again

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Closures

'Another yawning gap': radical London Print Studio closes its doors

Art world pays tribute to vital public space that served community organisations as well as artists including Lucian Freud, Billy Childish and Shezad Dawood

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coronavirus

Exhibitions need a perfect storm to succeed—but shows opening during Covid-19 are getting a disappointing drizzle

With no group student visits, no art-world private view, and limits on public access, the buzz of new exhibitions has potentially been short-circuited

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Deaccessioning

Baltimore Museum of Art curators respond to deaccessioning criticism

Equity and diversity make history fairer, more accurate, and more meaningful in the present, they say

Asma Naeem and

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Heritage

Confronting the allure, and the dangers, of 'fake heritage'

Monetary gain is one reason people create counterfeit heritage—but political power, personal fame or the imposition of beliefs are equally compelling motivations

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election 2020

Why vote? To protect those who cannot

The proverbial arc of history will not bend toward justice without our help

Sue Coe for

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Diary of an art historian

I finally went to see some art—and caught Covid-19

A trip to the National Gallery was eerie and alien—although a newly restored Van Dyck painting briefly shook off my anxiety

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Deaccessioning

‘Uniquely egregious’: The disturbing precedent of the Baltimore Museum of Art’s deaccessioning plan

Sale of three valuable paintings by Warhol, Still and Marden points to a thirst for a $65m windfall, with no curatorial rationale

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Museums & Heritage

Visionary leaders, big business and the digital boom: 30 years that changed museums

On The Art Newspaper’s anniversary, Donatien Grau reflects on the radical expansion of museums' financial, political and cultural influence

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Art market

Bubbles, sheikhs and the freeport frenzy: Georgina Adam reflects on 30 years of art market reporting

Our art market editor-at-large looks back on three decades of booming sales and soaring prices, from Middle Eastern emergence to the evolution of auction houses

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 US politics

For the arts, there’s only one choice in this election

The Biden-Harris campaign has pledged funding and support for arts and culture as a key policy issue

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Museums & Heritage

The only way is ethics: US museums should not neglect provenance research in the funding crisis

Ethical institutional practices such as staff equity and due diligence are essential investments, "not merely a luxury for flush times"

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Deaccessioning

Done right, selling museum pieces can work—but probably not with Michelangelos

UK museums may deaccession collection objects with curatorial justification and transparency, but it cannot be treated as a quick financial fix

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Politics

Philip Guston drew Richard Nixon's face as a hairy scrotum and phallus—what would he make of President Trump?

The physiognomy of deviousness, greed, ruthless opportunism, risible self-importance and gobsmacking albeit garden variety stupidity provides artists of Guston’s bent and calibre with a virtually bottomless well of imagery

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Art market

Gatherings are taboo in the Covid-19 world, so where does that leave experiential art?

New venture Superblue aims to attract younger audiences by selling tickets for immersive events, but its model is at odds with a socially distanced society

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Labour

Art unions need to agitate beyond worker contracts

The only way to change the exploitative culture and entrenched racism of art institutions is collectively, from the bottom up

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Venice

How to save Venice: a five-point plan by a leading citizen

Polls show that Venetians are about to re-elect a populist mayor who promises to bring back all the tourists—but none of the other eight candidates has presented a realistic alternative

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Banksy

Banksy’s activism is his greatest work

Funding a refugee rescue boat is just the latest in a long history of politically motivated acts

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China

'We cannot build a truly globalised art world without China'

Artistic exchange has been vital to the mutual understanding between China and the West, says Karen Smith, the director of OCAT Contemporary Art Terminal, Xi’an, China

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Funding

'Be commercially minded or lose future funding': UK government's threat puts museums in peril

In a letter leaked to The Art Newspaper, the culture minister Oliver Dowden tells directors they must raise their own funds during the pandemic—but how?

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Cultural heritage

Why we should be concerned about President Erdogan turning museums into mosques

Hagia Sophia and the Chora Church will remain “open to all”, Turkish government promises—but restricted access may not be the primary worry

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Artists

Remembering the beautiful melancholy of Matthew Wong

The astronomical increase in the value of works by the Canadian artist, who died by suicide last year, is driven by morose opportunism

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Diary of an art historian

National Trust restructuring plans are ‘one of the most damaging assaults on art historical expertise ever seen in the UK’

Job cuts and planned repurposing of country houses will lead to a corporatisation of the nation's heritage sites

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coronavirus

Business can and should help the arts through this crisis

The pandemic has laid bare the betrayal of the cultural sector, but corporations and individuals can alleviate the hardship

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Museums & Heritage

'Museums need to press the reset button and become more radical'

Directors and curators should consider this challenging moment as an opportunity diversify the stories they tell and the staff that tell them

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Monuments

The problem with Marc Quinn's Black Lives Matter sculpture

Racism runs far deeper than representation, says the artist Thomas J. Price

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Diary of an art historian

'When the politics change, so must the statues'

History can teach us a lot about how to—and how not to—deal with problematic historic monuments

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Photography

Photographs are the monuments of our online visual culture

But which ones will ascend to a more permanent station in today’s social imagination?

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Museums & Heritage

'If a person of African descent wants a career in the arts—well, good luck'

Only by looking backwards can we start to tackle inequality in the arts sector, says Gus Casely-Hayford, the director of V&A East

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