Museums & Heritage

Influencers: is it time for museums to go all in?

As an advertising agency pays Instagram influencers to promote museums, is it really worth shelling out thousands of dollars for added publicity and to reach new audiences?

Who was buried in Ornans? Restoration of Gustave Courbet’s intriguing masterwork may offer clues

The Musée d’Orsay hopes the restoration of ‘A Burial at Ornans’—once a Salon scandal, now a pride of the Paris museum—will unlock some of its secrets and reveal the painting to be even bigger and bolder than it appears now

France returns ancient artefacts to Ethiopia in diplomatic ‘handover’

The French culture minister insists the move is “a handover, not a restitution, in that these objects have never been part of French public collections”

Museum’s therapeutic art programme helps military veterans find their voices

Art for Vets initiative at Currier Museum of Art in the US encourages personal expression under the care of a full-time art therapist

Inside Aliph, the organisation racing to save the world’s heritage

An in-depth look at the inner workings of the International Alliance for the Protection of Heritage in Conflict Areas

Ancient Maya city of Ucanal was contaminated with mercury, study reveals

Newly published research shows just how pervasive mercury—an essential element in the red cinnabar pigment favoured by the Maya—is at the site in Guatemala

A bridge between worlds: Central Asia’s first private Modern and contemporary art museum to open in Kazakhstan

Almaty Museum of Arts will house more than 700 works by Kazakh and Central Asian artists, while also presenting an substantial collection of international art

Prizesnews

‘Intimate, personal, nuanced, complex’: Victoria and Albert Museum reveals winner of Jameel Prize 2024

The latest edition of the £25,000 prize, awarded every three years to an artist inspired by Islamic traditions, is themed around moving image and digital media

US authorities return four artefacts from Ban Chiang archaeological site to Thailand

The items, which include a vessel and bracelet, had been gifted to a US soldier more than 50 years ago

Museu de Arte de São Paulo to finally open $43m expansion project in March 2025

A new building adjacent to the Brazilian museum’s original home will more than double its total space

Seven years on from Emmanuel Macron’s pledge to return Africa’s heritage, frustration grows about the lack of progress

An Ivorian drum will be returned—though only under a special “deposit agreement”—while a crucial colonial bill has stalled

Fit for a king: Egyptian museum in Turin unveils new galleries for monumental ancient sculptures

The dramatic revamp of the Italian institution’s Gallery of the Kings is part of a broader renovation that is due to complete in 2025

Welsh government hopes to boost tourism and heritage with proposed ‘tourist tax’

Wales may follow cities such as Venice in introducing the controversial levy

Ancient Egyptian priestess’s remains found in father’s tomb

Remains from Middle Kingdom era, along with coffins and funerary objects, were found at the bottom of a hidden shaft south of Cairo

Censorshipcomment

The limits of transnational women’s solidarity in Mexico City’s art scene

Recent episodes of censorship at two of the city’s leading art museums have laid bare the rifts between artists, institutions and their publics

How abandoned oil wells are threatening US heritage sites

There are over three million orphaned wells across America, most of which were installed before environmental and cultural protection laws were enacted

Climate activists who dumped red powder on US Constitution at National Archives sentenced to prison

Donald Zepeda and Jackson Green were also involved in the paint attack on Degas’s ballerina and writing “Honor Them” on a wall last year at the National Gallery of Art

Caravaggio portrait, unseen for decades, goes on view in Rome

The portrait of Maffeo Barberini was first attributed to Caravaggio 60 years ago, but had not been publicly displayed until now

Controversial Science Museum sponsor charged in US over alleged bribery scheme

Gautam Adani—who lends his name to the museum's Adani Green Energy Gallery—was indicted in New York on charges including securities fraud

Rotterdam’s new museum of migration, Fenix, to open in May

Droom en Daad foundation funds new collection and renovation of dockside warehouse centred on spectacular new double-helix Tornado

Indigenous mound in St Louis is transferred to the Osage Nation

Along with the land transfer, the city of St Louis acknowledged the Osage Nation’s tribal sovereignty and their ancestral rights to the site

Vancouver Art Gallery expands Asian art programme with $1.1m gift

The museum’s renamed Centre for Global Asias seeks to “recognise the many Asias that exist, within the geography of Asia itself and in the global diaspora”

UK's National Lottery at 30: who are the culture sector's winners and losers?

National Lottery players raise more than £30m every week and fund over 700,000 projects across the UK—but when it comes to funding the arts, some say the scheme is in need of an overhaul

Unesco steps in to protect Lebanese heritage sites

Following an “extraordinary” meeting, the heritage body has put 34 historic sites on its enhanced protection list

Smithsonian American Art Museum’s director removed following staff complaints

Stephanie Stebich, who had led the institution since 2017, has been reassigned to a senior advisory role

Toledo Museum of Art uses cryptocurrency to acquire digital art piece

The museum used USD Coin to buy an NFT in a new series by the artist collective Yatreda ያጥሬዳ

Lisbon’s museum scene booms as new and revamped institutions are unveiled

With the reopening of the Centro de Arte Moderna Gulbenkian, the Portuguese capital is developing a lively contemporary art landscape. But its “cool” reputation brings challenges as tourism soars

Cop29news

‘The forgotten factor’: nations at Cop29 call for official recognition of role culture can play in climate recovery

A campaign to give arts and heritage “a seat at the table” for negotiations at the annual summit already has the support of around 40 countries and more than 1,500 civil society organisations

Garden party: one of the largest and most historic gardens in the US reveals its transformation

Pennsylvania’s Longwood Gardens unveils its $250m renovation and expansion project on 22 November

Remains of second victim of 1985 Philadelphia police bombing discovered at Penn Museum

The museum, which previously came under scrutiny for possessing the remains of another victim of the MOVE bombing, has been conducting an inventory of its biological anthropology section