Museums & Heritage

Fire guts historic Toronto church, destroying its Group of Seven murals

A restoration campaign for St Anne’s Anglican Church in Toronto is already underway, but its historic art is lost forever

Amid backlash, Academy Museum of Motion Pictures will modify exhibition on Hollywood’s Jewish founders

Organised in response to criticisms that its initial display did not acknowledge Hollywood’s Jewish origins, the exhibition now faces charges of antisemitism from Jewish activists

What do the Magna Carta and five small, costly, enamelled brackets have to do with each other?

A Paris dealer wants €50,000 for them, deadline the end of 2024, and a crowd-funding appeal has been launched in Italy

Campaign launched to stop demolition of Museum of London for office building

Although the controversial project has been green lit, it may take years before building work begins

Four must-see exhibitions during Art Basel

From Precious Okoyomon's nightmarish animatronic bear to a global survey of Black figurative painting, sci-fi chairs and Dan Flavin

Staff at the American Folk Art Museum vote unanimously to form a union

The institution’s new union, formed under UAW Local 2110, will represent workers across departments including curatorial, information technology, retail and more

Palm Springs Art Museum launches permanent LGBTQ+ programming

The California institution’s new Q+ Art initiative is the first of its kind in the US and includes exhibitions, public programming, acquisitions and awards

Fire that damaged Israel Museum being investigated as arson

The fire is believed to have been set at three different sites near the museum building

New arts complex to open in Philadelphia with help from Theaster Gates

The collectors Michael Forman and Jennifer Rice will both house their extensive collection there and engage the working-class neighbourhood where they bought almost a whole city block

MFA Houston can keep Bernardo Bellotto painting sold to the Nazis, appeals court rules

The lawsuit stems from the accidental restitution of the wrong painting in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War

UK General Election | ‘End the culture of culture washing': art world figures express hopes and fears for the forthcoming vote

We spoke to cultural historians, former ministers and museum directors about the changes they hope to see for the culture sector—and crucially, who they will vote for

Hundreds of pro-Palestine protesters rally at Brooklyn Museum

Demonstrators took over the lobby and exterior of the museum on Friday afternoon, calling for transparency and divestment regarding financial ties to Israel

Up in arms: Mexican archaeological bureau denounces damage to at least one mummy in Guanajuato’s famous museum

Local authorities respond that mummy deterioration is not new and even inevitable given a history of visitors “touching them or taking souvenirs, such as bits of clothing”

Legal fight brewing over Pérez Art Museum Miami’s digital billboard

Miami’s city commissioners voted to repeal a law passed last year to allow the museum to build an extra-large billboard

New UK digital art school provides artist workshops and supplies for NHS mental health units

Online sessions will be led by artists such as Sutapa Biswas and Sarah Dwyer

Penn State university's art museum reopens in new $85m building that seeks to blend art with nature

The Palmer Museum of Art in the city of State College, Pennsylvania, has nearly doubled its space

Tatenews

Leigh Bowery, Emily Kam Kngwarray and Lee Miller—Tate reveals its 2025 exhibition programme

A blockbuster show focused on Turner and Constable plus a vast survey of Nigerian modernism are also in the pipeline

Cleveland Museum of Art will return ancient statue to Libya

The two-foot-tall artefact, which hails from Ancient Egypt's Ptolemaic Dynasty, will remain on view in Cleveland for "a few years"

Southern Brazil’s museums and historical sites threatened by torrential rains and flooding

In the past month, record rainfall has wreaked havoc on the state of Rio Grande do Sul

Frida Kahlo museum clarifies that Madonna did not visit and try on the artist's clothes

Madonna may have tried on Kahlo's clothes during a previous visit to her family home

Politicsanalysis

Singapore’s guitar-strumming new prime minister sparks hopes of more artistic support and freedom

Lawrence Wong has shown signals that he intends to support arts-related initiatives with significant funding, though entrenched societal attitudes mean concerns about censorship remain

UK's Imperial War Museum plans to break with two unions

MPs have joined a campaign to stop the museums group from derecognising two of its three unions

How radical transparency saved a US museum

Kate Casprowiak Scher, the Bellevue Arts Museum’s new permanent director, explains that candour about the institution’s finances helped bring the kunsthalle in suburban Seattle back from the brink

New York branch of photography museum Fotografiska will close and relocate

The museum will vacate its historic premises on Park Avenue South this autumn

Italy seizes Giuseppe Verdi's villa and plans to turn it into a museum

The 19th-century property, where the Italian composer wrote 'La Traviata', was due to be auctioned, but the sale never happened

Woman sues Walker Art Center after being told she could not breastfeed in a gallery

It appears the museum’s own employees were unaware of the policy that “parents are free to nurse children wherever”

How an artist and curator duo are transforming Addis Ababa with their eco-driven projects

Elias Sime and Meskerem Assegued are due to open their biggest building project so far—a cultural centre in the mountains—this autumn

‘A brutal adjustment’: Argentine cultural workers feel the pain of president Milei’s cuts

Mass layoffs at the national library and the defunding of a critical film institute are just the beginning, the administration has promised

The US sculpture park communicating difficult truths amid a cultural backlash

In a time of increased lawsuits over diversity initiatives, a civil rights organisation aims to make the history and legacy of slavery in the US undeniable through art and first-person narratives

Australia's richest woman Gina Rinehart at centre of portrait controversy

Mining magnate asked National Gallery of Australia to remove depiction by Aboriginal artist Vincent Namatjira