Conservation & Preservation

The National Trust keeps its critics at bay for now, but will the populist threat return this year?

The UK conservation charity has rejected fresh attempts by the activist group Restore Trust to infiltrate its council, but those close to the issue feel the campaigns are likely far from over

Antiquities trafficking is not ‘the third largest illicit trade in the world’, researchers claim

New report traces the origins of the oft-repeated superlative, which its authors say is incorrect and actually makes it harder to fight trafficking

Richard M. Barancik, the last living Monuments Man, has died, aged 98

He was part of a group that saved thousands of artworks during the Second World War from destruction and seizure by the Nazis

'We need to act fast': experts race to preserve Afghanistan's ancient Buddhist heritage site Mes Aynak from copper mining

Taliban government has backed a new conservation project led by the Aga Khan Trust for Culture and Aliph

Egon Schiele painting to be restored with €25,000 grant from Tefaf art fair

Once owned by Jewish collectors in Vienna, the landscape was exported to the US on condition it was exhibited in the Austrian pavilion at the 1948 Venice Biennale

Heritage protection foundation Aliph expands with office in Saudi Arabia

The Geneva-based International Alliance for the Protection of Heritage in Conflict Areas is to open a second office in 2023 in Riyadh

Ancient Indigenous ‘Stonehenge’ of Ohio to be nominated for Unesco status after ousting of golf club

The Octagon Earthworks are being teed up for nomination for Unesco World Heritage status

Should the world resume co-operating with the Taliban on protecting Afghanistan's heritage?

Conservation projects that have been paused due to sanctions on the new government may restart after Unesco intervention

Taliban government approves conservation work on historic synagogue in Afghanistan

Go ahead given to a restoration project to preserve two historic sites associated with the Jewish community that once resided in Herat

Rijksmuseum strongly denies claims it is sinking due to wood-rotting fungi

Dutch national museum opposes the report claiming its foundations have been infected, stating the building “has not sunk a millimetre”

Do the Taliban regret blowing up the Bamiyan Buddhas? New government takes steps to protect heritage

Leaders of the new Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan says it favours the conservation of the tangible heritage—including pre-Islamic monuments—but economic sanctions are getting in the way

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston selling NFTs of rarely-exhibited French Impressionist pastels to raise funds for conservation

The museum, which holds the largest French Impressionist collection outside of France, will use proceeds from sales of around 2,000 NFTs to conserve two Degas paintings

Reversing course after shakeup, San Francisco school board votes to keep controversial George Washington murals on view

Previously destined to be painted over, then simply covered up, the WPA frescoes have been at the centre of debates about US history, education and representation for four years

The newly-restored Morgan Library and Museum opens a public garden

The $13m project entailed a comprehensive exterior restoration and landscape redesign

Preserving the ‘visual consistency’ of Walter de Maria’s New York Earth Room and The Broken Kilometer

The Dia Art Foundation will renovate the storied works, each on view in New York for more than 40 years, with the intention of keeping them open year-round

Looted Maya frieze once offered to the Metropolitan Museum will be fully restored

The elaborate temple relief, now held by the Museo Nacional de Antropología, was extracted from the Maya jungle in the 1960s and offered to the Met for $400,000

Abstract Expressionists' studio and Osage pictograph cave included on list of endangered US cultural sites

The latest National Trust for Historic Preservation list of endangered sites includes a cave of ancient pictographs in Missouri and the Hamptons home of painters James Brooks and Charlotte Park

Enormous mural on California dam may be removed after attempts to secure legal protections fail

The 80,000 sq. ft ‘Bicentennial Freedom Mural’ was marked for removal due to levels of lead in the paint used to make it and its deteriorating condition

Diego Rivera mural in San Francisco to be conserved, not deaccessioned

The San Francisco Art Institute has received $200,000 from the Mellon Foundation to conserve the 1931 fresco

Cut from its frame in brazen theft and lost for 30 years, restored De Kooning painting will take centre stage in Getty show

Los Angeles museum will unveil the results of an intensive conservation of Woman-Ochre, which was badly damaged when it was stolen in 1985

William Morris's 'heaven on earth' home in the Cotswolds reopens after restoration

New research has helped to bring back lost objects and features at Kelmscott Manor, where the English Arts and Crafts designer lived for 25 years

Italynews

After years of emergencies, Italy launches 'unprecedented' plan to protect churches against earthquake damage

Culture ministry earmarks EU pandemic recovery funds to mitigate the impact of future disasters on religious buildings around the country

Seven artists’ studios and environments added to ​​US National Trust for Historic Preservation programme

The new additions to the Historic Artists’ Homes and Studios reflect an effort to add greater diversity to the network of sites

Medieval Jewish codex to be shown in New York before conservation

The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston will begin conservation efforts later this year with a $27,600 grant from The European Fine Art Foundation

Brazilian Modernist building struck by fire receives Getty conservation grant

The Jorge Machado Moreira-designed architecture and urbanism building of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro has received a $240,000 grant from the Getty Foundation to support the conservation of its archive

Saving the art of Palestinian textiles: West Bank museum and V&A join forces to create new conservation studio

Palestinian Museum is using a $480,000 grant from the Aliph Foundation to document and conserve traditional embroidered dresses known as thobes

Iraqnews

Sculptures vandalised by Isis return to ancient city of Hatra after restoration

Artefacts had been "smashed into pieces" by Isis militants when they occupied the Unesco World Heritage site as a training camp

Venice's great women artists step into the limelight through major restoration project

New initiative by Save Venice will focus on more than 30 female artists who worked in the region between the 16th and 18th centuries, from Marietta Robusti to Rosalba Carriera

Former panopticon prison on Italian island to be turned into 'academy' for Europe's future leaders—and artist residency

The 18th-century horseshoe-shaped structure followed principle of social theorist Jeremy Bentham, which allowed for constant surveillance of inmates

Historic Peruvian church to be restored after earthquake

The Church of La Jalca Grande, one of the first churches built in Peru after the Spanish conquest, was constructed using stones from pre-Hispanic monuments