Heritage

Shiver me timbers: AI speeds up repair of historic British warship HMS Victory

Technology is being used to create an image database of vessel—as acres of wooden planking damaged by time, water and insects are to be replaced

How the US’s Black cemeteries are being made visible once more

A cemetery hidden under a Florida air base is the latest African American burial site rediscovered following decades of erasure

Court ruling blow to heritage campaigners in to-and-fro battle over historic London department store

Judge reverses decision by secretary of state to save 1929 Marks & Spencer building in London’s Oxford Street, paving way for its demolition

Turkey counts cost of earthquake repairs

A year after tremors devastated the south of the country, painstaking work begins to restore thousands of damaged monuments

British Museum suffering from leaking roofs as wait for huge redevelopment project goes on

Emergency repairs are being made to several galleries, just over a year after Assyrian reliefs were threatened by serious condensation

Previously unknown Cézanne work discovered in artist’s family home

Fragments of a mural were found under wallpaper and plaster at Bastide du Jas de Bouffan in Aix-en-Provence, France

Queen Camilla brings the art of monarchy to a London studio community in search of a permanent home

The British royal toured Kindred Studios, a hub which currently offers affordable rents to artists and makers at its temporary location—and which has a 3,500-strong waiting list

Newly reopened Orsanmichele in Florence smashes visitor records in first few weeks

The church, which has undergone an extensive renovation, welcomed more than six months’ worth of visitors in the first three weeks after the work was completed

High Court battle over London building could set ‘precedent’ for UK heritage development, say campaigners

The retailer M&S wants to demolish and rebuild the unlisted Orchard House, but the politician Michael Gove and activists are pushing back

Westminster Abbey decides ‘in principle’ to return Ethiopian tabot

Discussions are ongoing between the Dean at Westminster and the Ethiopian Church over the possible restitution of the sacred object

Italy donates replica of Bull of Nimrud destroyed by Isis to Iraq

The 3D-printed reproduction of the Assyrian statue was previously displayed at the Colosseum in Rome and the Unesco headquarters in Paris

Cambodian government takes over management of three Angkor archaeological sites from World Monuments Fund

The announcement coincides with the 35th anniversary of WMF's efforts at the archaeological park and a new phase of conservation at Phnom Bakheng

Rewriting history? The fraught politics behind India's new Ram temple

Plus, the challenges facing the Old Master market and a lithograph by Honoré Daumier

Diaryblog

Finnish sauna from 1948 UK Olympics is a hot heritage asset

Wooden structure in Kent could be oldest surviving purpose-built sauna in England

Striking gold: 2022 was a record year for treasure and antiquities finds, with more than 50,000 items reported

From gold coins to ivory carvings, many pieces were found by amateur metal detectorists, according to latest report by British Museum’s Portable Antiquities Scheme

Indianews

As India erects a grand Hindu temple on site of razed mosque, more Islamic heritage faces prospect of destruction

The Ram temple in Ayodhya, consecrated next week, has been the subject of a long and deadly campaign by Hindu nationalist groups

'Shameful waste of money'? New King Charles portrait causes controversy

Official photograph by Hugo Burnand depicts monarch in full military regalia and will be offered to every UK public body in £8m scheme

Plazas and pottery: oldest Amazonian cities uncovered in major archaeological discovery in Ecuador

Lidar light detection technology helped scientists to see beneath the foliage and discover the 2500-year-old settlement

International scrap over treasure-laden Spanish galleon that sunk off the Colombian coast in 1708

Everyone wants to get their hands on the San José, a ship full of gold, silver and emeralds submerged in the Caribbean Sea—but at what archaeological cost?

Valongo Wharf—historic hub of Brazil's slave trade—opens following overdue $400,000 renovation

The Rio de Janeiro site, where one million enslaved Africans disembarked, retains its Unesco World Heritage status

Mongolia mulls restitution claims after identifying objects held abroad

Country’s culture minister calls for research into artefacts held by British institutions and also announces a Royal Academy show

Gaza City archives among heritage sites destroyed in Israel-Hamas war

Brief truce allowed International Council on Monuments and Sites and Palestinian antiquities ministry to investigate damage on the ground

Private donations save Bologna’s Garisenda tower from collapse

City had been forced to cordon off leaning 12th-century structure

Quagga-mire: Great Lakes shipwrecks slowly consumed by invasive molluscs

Preserved for centuries in pristine condition, submerged archaeological sites are now being destroyed by quagga mussels

President Macron confirms Notre Dame opening date plus plans for a new museum

While worshippers will be permitted to enter the cathedral by December 2024, a revamp of the surrounding area will continue

Nevada lithium mine threatens cultural sites

The US federal government’s manoeuvres to boost domestic lithium extraction are raising fears from tribal communities about archaeological and environmental impacts

Miami Advice: Gabriel Kilongo on Hampton House, the segregation-era refuge for Black celebrities

The gallerist celebrates the cultural hub whose visitors included Aretha Franklin, Muhammad Ali and Martin Luther King Jr.

Forgotten Botticelli painting recovered by Italian police

Last checked by the authorities in over 50 years ago, the painting had been kept in a private home since the 1980s and is in extremely poor condition

China closing or repurposing mosques in northern Muslim regions, Human Rights Watch finds

Move is part of a "systematic effort to curb the practice of Islam" in the country, says the organisation's acting director

Heritagefeature

Mexico’s $28bn Maya Train puts 25,000 historic sites at risk

Many organisations, including Unesco, fear the project will negatively affect the region’s cultural heritage, natural environment and residents when it opens in December