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Art Fund

Museums—just places for a bit of peace and quiet?

The Art Fund's latest report concludes that museums and galleries offer a way to de-stress—but they should not just a place for calm and comfort

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Design

Davos 2019: Cooper Hewitt museum director on the power of inclusive design

Empathetic, user-centred products that can shape a more equitable world for people with disabilities go on show at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland this week

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African American art

Missing in action: African-American art in European public collections

The market for work by African American artists is on the rise but museums are falling behind

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Restitution

Eurocentrism still sets the terms of restitution of African art

A selective view of African cultural heritage continues the colonialist paradigm

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Law

Why American artists should benefit from the resale of their works

The new Congress could reintroduce a key bill to establish droit de suite in the US

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Cultural policy

Mikhail Piotrovsky—Hermitage chief for 26 years—is an Old Master of diplomacy

Russian museum is pursuing global expansion with long-term plans under way for Barcelona and China

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Museums

The recent protests at the Whitney show museum trustees’ dealings cannot be ignored

The same old arguments in favour of ignoring the business dealings of trustees, of pretending museum programming can function independently of those funding it, cannot stand for long

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Restitution

Britain's pillaging of the Benin Bronzes begs for a reasonable resolution

As debate grows over Europe's 19th-century cultural plunder of Africa, the key is to ensure meaningful access

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Victoria & Albert Museum

Museums must confront the big issues

In an era of deepening nationalism museums' ability to tell stories of hybridity and cosmopolitanism is vital

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Art market

Lifers no more: can auction houses keep their talent up?

A slew of recent high-profile departures begs the question—are top auction house executives burning out?

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artificial intelligence

We must not let the art market hoodwink us in the AI debate

The AI work that was sold at Christie's is profound in its conservatism, but others reflect how the technology can impact on art in fascinating ways

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Art fairs

When do satellite fairs become space junk?

With at least 19 such events taking place during Art Basel in Miami Beach this year, have we reached "peak fair"?

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Art Basel in Miami Beach 2018

Miami’s art scene will keep on growing

The city is young, but it is making a noticeable mark internationally when it comes to contemporary art

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Latin American art

Art Basel in Miami Beach has become Latin American art’s El Dorado

Just as the fair has transformed the city’s image and economy, it has also had a big influence on the neighbouring region's flourishing art trade

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Art market

Will art market speculation ever go away?

Fifteen years on since we first reported from Art Basel in Miami Beach, art as an investment has taken a new form

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Restitution

Should we relinquish our insistence on privileging original works of art?

Technological wizardry in replication is improving, alongside claims to relocate far-flung treasures

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Art fairs

Big changes on the horizon in the art-fair world

Concern for Delhi and Düsseldorf fairs following MCH Group withdrawal

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Protest

Why I made a cemetery for hundreds of banned books in Kuwait

Kuwaiti artist Mohammad Sharaf hopes to provoke the general public as well as the authorities

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Restitution

Legal challenges remain for restituting African artefacts from French museums

Getting around the inalienability of public collections is dealt with in the report—but it might not work legally and practically

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Restitution

Restitution Report: museum directors respond

The French academics Bénédicte Savoy and Felwine Sarr urge President Macron to return African artefacts. But does the report go too far, or not far enough?

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Art market

Art authentication is not an exact science

The process of art attribution has come under attack, with forgery scandals rampant

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Art market

Why the Christie's and Sotheby's duopoly is impregnable

The auction houses sell more than 80% of works priced over $1m at auction—can an underdog ever wrestle market share away from them?

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Art market

Will the UK be able to take part in antiquities busts after Brexit?

Nineteen of the accused in Operation Demetra face trial in December, while the alleged UK mastermind awaits extradition

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Art market

Common mistakes of rookie auction guarantors

Guarantees can be lucrative, but in the face of savvy competition, novices can get burnt when backing works as a third-party

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Politics

The mid-term elections brought many gains for progressive causes—but there is still work to be done

The artist Martha Rosler, whose politically focussed work is on view at New York’s Jewish Museum, explains what we can take away from this week’s Democratic wins

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Auctions

Contemporary art’s value may be on the rise, but it comes at a greater cost

Chicago’s aborted effort to sell Kerry James Marshall’s public work teaches us something about the transactional nature of today’s culture

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Sport

What is a football club doing at an art fair?

It's not just about money—credibility is a factor too

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Art law

Cultural 'matrimony' could resolve heritage disputes

We need to rethink our perceptions of an artist or an artefact as having a single, unified or homogenous heritage

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Museums

Zeitz Mocaa: Africa’s private ‘Tate Modern’ must do more for its public

More than a year after opening, the Cape Town museum’s curatorial and educational record has yet to live up to its promise

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Jamal Khashoggi

Do not penalise Saudi Arabian artists for the murder of Jamal Khashoggi

"There is great fear now within Saudi Arabia, with even stricter self-censorship than before"

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Middle East

Why being a royal artist in the Gulf is a mixed blessing

Rashid Al Khalifa of Bahrain is showing his art in London’s Saatchi Gallery

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Leaders

Funding the arts through the National Lottery is not a winning solution

Thanks to an austerity-induced accounting trick, lottery funding is replacing taxes

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Museums

The next chapter of the Peggy Guggenheim Collection is off to a strong start

One year after Karole Vail took over the Venice museum, major exhibitions and rehangs are in the works

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Art market

The all-powerful market is sounding the death knell for connoisseurship

Today, art history is increasingly being written by dealers and auctioneers to suit their own purpose

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Frieze London 2018

There is more to exhibitions than number-crunching

Our public institutions must hold their nerve and dare to offer audiences varied experiences, even at the expense of popular appeal

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Frieze London 2018

Artists’ battle for refugees is beginning to pay off

Amid the din of cynical populists the voices of these fragile communities are needed more than ever

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Frieze London 2018

Interested in a square inch of a Warhol? Fractional ownership hits the art market

A growing number of new investment platforms are touting the concept

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Frieze London 2018

The future is virtual

The acceleration of technology and the solitary nature of VR are a problem, but the rewards are great

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Museums

What will it take to restore Rio's National Museum to its former glory?

This will be no easy task and will require a broad coalition of forces

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Museums

Kindling for the fire: why Brazil’s lost research archives are irreplaceable

Much more was lost than objects and papers when the National Museum burned down

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Ivory

The UK’s imminent law against the trade in ivory is a serious threat to liberties, says former Lord Chief Justice

Civilians will be allowed to enter your house, break open containers and use “reasonable force”

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Contemporary art

Quintessentially Chinese art gives way to a global identity

Contrasting Zhang Xiaogang with a young 'post-passport' generation

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Leaders

Is contemporary art the kale of the art world?

The rise in popularity of the green vegetable mirrors that of contemporary art

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Art market

Cryptocurrencies: a moving target for regulators

"Blockchain participants have had little guidance from regulators as to how they plan to shape the law so as to protect against criminal activity"

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National Portrait Gallery

London's National Portrait Gallery’s contemporary art programme resonates more with the art world than the public

Though not as dire as first thought, visitor figures for the museum's contemporary shows have still been poor

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Social history

Statues are part of history, but do a poor job of recording it

Matthew Sears is professor of classics and ancient history, University of New Brunswick

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Politics

Why arts journalism matters: because art matters

Even in arts journalism, one can see the effects of President Trump's inflammatory rhetoric against the press

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Ivory ban

Traffic believes the US and UK ivory sale bans are ‘vital elements in the international response’ to poaching

The official spokesman of the wild-trade monitoring organisation responds to The Art Newspaper's article on the trade in elephant ivory—and we respond to him

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Restitution

Returning looted African art is as urgent as giving back works stolen by the Nazis

Congolese-born art collector Sindika Dokolo says this "long-neglected historical wrong" is finally being addressed—but more can be done

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Art Basel 2018

Rapper pays $18.5m for work at auction but the artist gets nothing—is the system in need of reform?

Anny Shaw asks if auction houses and dealers should pay their dues to the artists from whom they profit

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Art Basel 2018

Could fairs publish sale prices? Don’t hold your breath

“For all the supposed desire for transparency, no one will make the first move”

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Art Basel 2018

Can the art market thrive in a sharing economy?

Melanie Gerlis on how millennials don’t seem to have the same collecting gene as previous generations

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Museums

The problem with artist-driven museum boards

Brian Allen explains how artists can hurt rather than help museums like MoCA Los Angeles

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Leaders

Sydney’s flagship museum is entirely focused on building a costly extension. Why?

Unless the Art Gallery of New South Wales begins to focus more on exhibitions, there is every reason to believe that Sydney Modern will be a gigantic and costly flop

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Leaders

Egon Schiele was not a sex offender

The 100th anniversary of Austrian artist’s death has arrived just in time for the #MeToo movement

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Saudi Arabia

Letter to the Editor: Saudi Arabia will collaborate with the world, not only France, to make its cultural heritage accessible

Al-Ula, the most important cultural heritage site in the north-west of the kingdom, will benefit from international standards in heritage preservation and planning

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Photo London

Artists show their power to effect change

In the visual arts, a greater sense of activism is possible, and it’s being helped by the absorption of a broader range of disciplines and media into the canon

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Leaders

Displaying the ruins of demolished social housing at the Venice Architecture Biennale is not ‘art-washing’

The V&A acquired a fragment of London's Robin Hood Gardens before it was demolished

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Exhibitions

‘How can we judge a work of art that was inspired by a person’s faith?’

The Reverend James Martin, a Jesuit priest and author, on what Catholics can take away from the Met’s Heavenly Bodies exhibition

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Exhibitions

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

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Leaders

Retain or return? It’s complicated

The complex issues behind returning cultural goods to their place of origin

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Politics

Vital artistic exchanges will be stifled by Trump's travel ban

The amicus brief signed by more than 100 museums should shame the justices of the US Supreme Court

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Turner Prize

Who should win, who will win, and how smartphones dominate Turner Prize shortlist

Art critic Ben Luke gives us his take on this year's nominees

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Letters

Letter to the editor: the Frick's viewing garden is worth preserving

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Museums

The Frick’s expansion is a sensitive, elegant plan

The New York museum has shown it is a responsive listener and found ways to add much needed space and public amenities with surgical precision

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Leaders

What we can learn from Saudi art

Suddenly, a lot of money is flowing through the kingdom for the promotion of contemporary art and culture

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Museums

Two steps forward, one step back for Holocaust restitution

In a recent decision regarding Picasso’s Actor, the courts need to catch up with US government policy on Nazi-looted art

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Restitution

Nazi policies forced Jewish collectors like Paul Leffmann to sell their art, whatever the price

Restitution experts say New York law recognises third party duress, so why did a recent court decision on Picasso’s Actor not recognise this?

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300

'Issue one came out in less degraded times: more idealistic, less puffed up by PR machines'

Anna Somers Cocks, founding editor and chairman, looks back

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300

Then & Now: boom, bust and rebirth of Damien Hirst

How The Art Newspaper has covered the artist's bullish decadence

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Museums

Then & Now: "Modern art is destroying itself," warned our first issue

Museums have since devoted sizeable resources

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300

Then & Now: how The Art Newspaper shaped UK restitution law

Featuring a 900-year-old missal looted during the Second World War

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300

Then & Now: the V&A and Queen Woyzaro Terunesh's wedding dress

The story behind the garment

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Museums

Museums have a duty to be political

Activist curators and directors can make truly democratic spaces, but they need brave boards to support them