ReviewConservation
Quarries, quarrels and a lesbian affair: the life of sculptor Mary Spencer Watson
The Dorset farmhouse in which she lived with her father, the portrait painter George Spencer Watson, has been recently restored by the Landmark Trust
NewsConservation
Conservation project channels thinking of Angkor’s original builders
World Monuments Fund completes restoration of the eastern half of Phnom Bakheng temple
NewsConservation
Ugo Rondinone’s day-glo desert installation Seven Magic Mountains gets a fresh coat of paint
The popular public art work has been restored with the aim of keeping it Instagram-ready through 2021 or longer
NewsFilms
Victorians in pictures: British Film Institute digitises archive of over 500 early silent films
Conservation experts carefully cleaned the fragile and flammable nitrate film so each frame could be individually scanned
NewsConservation
Eileen Gray’s and Le Corbusier’s architectural gems reopen after extensive restoration
A Modernist villa and hut in the south of France feature wall paintings by Le Corbusier
NewsArchitecture
Nazi site in Nuremberg to be preserved but not restored
German city launches €85m plan to prevent further decay of infamous rally grounds
NewsExhibitions
Virtual reality tour offers glimpse of François Pinault’s long-awaited, grand Paris gallery
Exhibition at the Palazzo Grassi in Venice shows Tadao Ando’s designs for the Bourse de Commerce building
NewsConservation
Guggenheim launches conservation fellowship with help from Russian billionaire Vladimir Potanin
Initiative aims to boost Russian expertise in rapidly developing field of preserving contemporary art
NewsDiscoveries
Hidden Cupid resurfaces in one of Vermeer’s best-known works after two and a half centuries
Laboratory tests revealed "sensational" discovery that the figure in Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window was overpainted decades after the artist’s death
NewsOpenings
Newly restored Hillsborough Castle brims with clues to its past at the heart of Irish politics
Georgian mansion, the Queen’s official residence in Northern Ireland, has reopened to the public
NewsCathedral of Notre Dame
Notre Dame: experts explain why Macron's five-year restoration deadline is impossible
Complex conservation issues mean it could easily take a decade or more to rebuild the Medieval cathedral
NewsConservation
Nancy Holt’s desert Sun Tunnels will be cleaned and repaired—but the bullet marks are staying
The artist considered the streaks left by gunfire to be part of the Land Art work's evolution
CommentCathedral of Notre Dame
In Notre Dame, we find a heritage that invites us to breathe and reflect
A spire competition is the wrong approach
NewsMuseums & Heritage
How to future-proof a work of art that will not be completed for 100 years
As Katie Paterson's sand castle project goes on tour, we look at how her Future Library is being made to outlive the artist
NewsAttribution
Does a Minnesota college own a portrait by Edvard Munch?
Scientific evidence points to St Olaf College’s Portrait of Eva Mudocci being the real deal, but scholars of the artist’s work are reserving judgement
NewsConservation
The Getty Conservation Institute maps out a plan to preserve the Eames House
The Los Angeles Modernist home was designed and lived in by Charles and Ray Eames
NewsMuseums & Heritage
Conceptual and Minimalist trove raises bedeviling questions for the Guggenheim
Grappling with questions of authenticity, museum 'decommissions' some works from the Panza Collection
NewsMuseums & Heritage
X-ray of Uffizi's Artemisia Gentileschi reveals a tantalising underpainting
The portrait has striking similarities to a recent acquisition by the National Gallery in London
NewsConservation
Fragile inheritance: US museums bridge skills gap in conservation of Chinese paintings
Philanthropic funding assures new training for the next generation of masters to emerge
NewsMuseums & Heritage
New £20m Windermere Jetty Museum launches restored steamboats on the lake
Historic vessels set sail again from wet dock at the heart of the Lake District boating museum
NewsMuseums & Heritage
Greenwich's Painted Hall reopens with day beds for visitors to admire 'England's Sistine Chapel'
Two-year restoration of James Thornhill's dizzying Baroque interior was the largest open-access conservation project in Europe
NewsConservation
Stolen in 1985, a recovered de Kooning will undergo conservation treatment
University of Arizona Museum of Art will send its painting, damaged by the thief, to the Getty
NewsConservation
Rothko Chapel to be restored, and gain auxiliary buildings
Artist's son says the project will "do right by my father’s vision for the space"
NewsConservation
New app helps researchers diagnose ‘acne’ afflicting Georgia O'Keeffe's paintings
Bumps caused by chemical reactions can now be mapped by waving a hand-held device that one professor likens to a Star Trek “tricorder”
NewsConservation
American donations shore up conservation efforts in France
From Paris to Chartres, US philanthropy makes its mark
AnalysisRembrandt
Trimmed, splashed and slashed: the anatomy of Rembrandt's The Night Watch
As the Rijksmuseum prepares to restore the Dutch master’s most-celebrated painting in full view of the public, we look at its chequered conservation history
NewsMuseums
Morgan Library & Museum plans $12.5m restoration of its library's exterior
New York institution plans to shore up its Neo-Classical façade and create outdoor spaces for the public
NewsMuseums & Heritage
New York architect Annabelle Selldorf to lead design of visitors centre in Beijing’s Forbidden City
When restoration is complete, the public will have access to Qianlong Garden complex for the first time
BlogAdventures with Van Gogh
Amsterdam Sunflowers will never again travel
Conservators are concerned over Van Gogh’s still life, which went to over 80 exhibitions after the war
NewsConservation
Getty wraps up conservation effort at King Tutankhamen's tomb
Decade-long effort with Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities results in a ventilation and filtration system
NewsHeritage
Lush historic gardens bloom once more in Agra, India
The World Monuments Fund announces the completion of a four-year conservation effort
NewsConservation
Cai Guo-Qiang’s explosive art, preserved for the ages
Getty scientists explore the artist’s use of gunpowder and other materials for a definitive new book
NewsConservation
Restoration for early Renaissance pulpit will get the big-screen treatment
The 1301 carved pulpit will undergo a two-year intensive monitoring programme
NewsConservation
Restored Soviet apartment listed on Airbnb takes guests back in time to ‘1930s Russian utopia’
The 35m sq. one-bedroom flat has been carefully renovated to include avant-garde furniture and design
NewsHeritage
Restorers of Nîmes arena expand their sights
Conservation effort now includes passageways and interior
NewsHeritage
How pioneering climate-change science dated one of Britain's oldest houses
Landmark Trust's restoration finds that oak timber used to build Welsh house was felled in the winters of 1418-19 and 1420-21
AnalysisThe Year In Review
The year in heritage: conservators become art
The conservation of masterpieces is happening in the full glare of the public
NewsRestoration
Queen Victoria and Fath-Ali Shah portraits, torn apart in 2011 British Embassy attack, to go back on show in Tehran
Restored paintings will form part of a new display of 66 works, including several Persian pieces bought by the UK's Government Art Collection after the attack
NewsConservation
Wallace Collection crowdfunds to conserve Canaletto works in room with many views
Museum aims to clean and analyse all 28 of its vedute paintings of Venice by spring 2020
NewsMuseums & Heritage
V&A opens up towering replica of Trajan's column in revamped Cast Courts
New-look galleries invite visitors to explore inside Victorian plaster cast of Roman monument
NewsConservation
Restored, but demoted: stained-glass window not by Tiffany, expert says
River of Life depiction has been newly reattributed to J & R Lamb Studios
BlogDiary of an art historian
The public deserves to see restorations laid bare
London's National Gallery and the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam are both documenting repairs of major works—plus a personal conservation confession
NewsContemporary art
Rachel Whiteread’s breakthrough work Ghost gets complex conservation treatment
Structural engineers and architects were among those restoring the room-sized cast at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC
NewsConservation
Back from the brink: Jean Tinguely’s beloved music machine
Sculptor’s Méta-Harmonie II is ready for action after a year-long conservation effort in Basel
NewsConservation
Restoration of rare English Medieval altarpiece reveals a history of serial vandalism
The Battel Hall retable, which survived the fury of 16th-century iconoclasts, bears later scars of graffiti and "witchmarks" against evil spirits
NewsConservation
Houston museum reattributes painting to Velázquez
After conservation effort, Museum of Fine Arts decides its hunch was correct
NewsRenaissance
Isenheim Altarpiece restoration finally back on track after public outcry
More than 30 conservators will treat paintings and sculptures, seven years after French culture ministry halted reckless cleaning of two panels
NewsConservation
Modernism award honours preservation of a French school dating from 1933
Prize goes to firm for restoration of a monument to ‘civic Communism’
NewsDisasters & destruction
Flood-damaged tapestries by Miro return to Venice museum in time for exhibition opening
The two works at Palazzo Zaguri were found submerged in water on Monday night
NewsMuseums & Heritage
Top museum directors on the challenges of climate change and mass tourism
Vatican conference on preventive conservation warns of environmental impact of short-term politics
NewsConservation
Warship figureheads restored ahead of opening for new Plymouth arts complex
Royal Navy statues are being made shipshape and ready for installation at The Box, opening in 2020
NewsConservation
Alaskan dancer helps the Met solve riddle of the Yup’ik mask
Conservator calls in master storyteller to decipher shamanic object
NewsConservation
Warhol's newly restored 102-canvas work Shadows goes on show in New York
Dia's presentation coincides with the Whitney Museum of American Art’s retrospective on the artist
NewsConservation
Soane Museum starts crowdfunding campaign to restore valued frame of a Reynolds painting
Institution hopes to raise £15,000 to clean and conserve wooden structure surrounding The Snake in the Grass
NewsConservation
Graff portrait of Saxon noblewoman shakes off centuries of grime and varnish
Its restorer puts it on display at Berlin’s Alte Nationalgalerie
NewsConservation
Family reunited: US exhibition brings together the pieces of cut-up 17th-century Frans Hals portrait
Toledo Museum of Art in Ohio shows three paintings confirmed as one original work by recent conservation
NewsIn the frame
Getty announces grants to shore up modern buildings
The conservation projects include the National Art Schools in Havana, the Gateway Arch in St. Louis and the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in California.
NewsConservation
Titian's Crucifixion work torn after falling from the wall in Spain's Royal Monastery
Sixteenth-century painting of Christ on the cross was rushed immediately for conservation
NewsConservation
Death triumphs: Museo del Prado completes challenging two-year-long Bruegel restoration
Newly conserved danse macabre work travels to Vienna for major exhibition marking 450 years since the artist's death
NewsConservation
Spain tells vandal to Kiss off after Santiago de Compostela statue defaced
Authorities vow to find rock fan who damaged Medieval statue
NewsConservation
Turin’s Chapel of the Holy Shroud—almost entirely destroyed by fire—reopens after €30m restoration
State-of-the-art conservation project that took 21 years brings masterpiece of Baroque architecture back to its former glory
NewsConservation
Is Bergamo’s rediscovered Mantegna linked to a triptych in the Uffizi?
Accademia Carrara’s curator Giovanni Valagussa explains how he put “two and two” together
NewsConservation
Chicago resurrects its master craftsman
Edgar Miller finally gets his due as the city prepares to celebrate the overlooked designer’s eclectic work
NewsConservation
German court orders restorer to pay dealer €26,000 after eight-year dispute
Munich-based dealer claimed paintings he sent for cleaning had been ruined
InterviewConservation
The portrait miniatures conservator who sees the bigger picture
We spoke to the V&A's Alan Derbyshire about Nicholas Hilliard's trick for painting the perfect ruby and why collector's need to look at their miniatures often
NewsConservation
Syria's Palmyra to be ready for tourists by summer 2019 as cost to rebuild Homs reaches $2bn
Authorities says they have received "good offers from the world powers" to help conserve ancient sites
NewsConservation
Conservation starts on Liverpool’s Neolithic stones
The Calderstones are being studied, recorded and restored before their reinstallation
NewsConservation
Turkey's Göbekli Tepe: is this the world’s first architecture?
Scholars say the organisation needed to build the 12,000-year-old temple may mark the beginnings of class society and patriarchy
NewsConservation
Tate restores colour and depth to John Nash painting
The picture is on display in Tate Britain's show Aftermath: Art in the Wake of World War One
NewsConservation
A 19th-century bikini from Iran goes on show in the UK in time for the summer
The garment was conserved for the Holburne Museum's exhibition of objects collected by the “intrepid” traveller Ellen Tanner
NewsConservation
Berlin restores murals neglected for more than a century
Only ten of the wall paintings—created in housing complexes to offer visual relief from the booming German capital—remain
NewsDisasters & destruction
Syrian museums seek Russian expertise to restore destroyed Palmyra sculptures
Ancient city occupied by Islamic State was retaken by Syrian army with Russian support in 2017
NewsTaj Mahal
Demolish or restore discoloured Taj Mahal, India's Supreme Court tells government
White marble monument, a Unesco World Heritage site, is turning yellow due to pollution and insect dung
NewsConservation
Relic of first-century pope found in a rubbish tip is donated to Westminster Cathedral
Rubbish collectors found the bone fragment of Clement I in London
CommentLeaders
Comment | Cupid ‘outing’ in Vermeer painting is the right move
The uncovered figure changes the composition of Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window
Martin Bailey