Museums

'Never trustee an MP: why politicians should stay off boards of cultural institutions'

The "arm's length" principle, which frowns on political meddling in museums, is being eroded by policy hawks, writes artist and activist Bob and Roberta Smith

Will Italy's right-wing government control who gets to direct the nation’s biggest museums?

Art historians are concerned the culture ministry is lining up candidates to run top institutions including Florence’s Uffizi Galleries and Milan’s Pinacoteca di Brera

Banksynews

Gallery of Modern Art in Glasgow shreds box-office record with Banksy exhibition

With his first official solo show in 14 years, Banksy left his tag on the Scottish city, home to the mysterious street artist's favourite work of art in the UK

Barbicaninterview

Shanay Jhaveri—the Barbican Centre’s first non-British head of visual arts—reveals his plans for the London institution

The Indian curator, appointed a year after a racism dispute at the centre, hopes to diversify audiences and expand the presence of art across the Brutalist complex

Couple behind Shanghai's Long Museum to sell part of their collection at Sotheby's

Paintings by Modigliani and Kusama among the 50 works to be offered in Hong Kong—with more potentially coming to the block in New York

Obituariesfeature

Remembering Kavita Singh, acclaimed historian of Indian art and museology, who has died, aged 58

An expert on Mughal, Rajput and Deccan painting traditions, she was unafraid to address rising nationalism in state-led cultural institutions

Museumscomment

'Controversy at Kiran Nadar Museum of Art in Delhi raises important questions over private museums in public life'

The firing of a curator for making critical statements against the museum's founder has prompted a long-overdue debate within the art world

New museum in Saudi Arabia bolsters collection after inking partnership deal with Centre Pompidou

The contemporary art institution is one of 15 “cultural assets” in development in the Arabian state’s AlUla heritage region

Suspects arrested in theft of gold coins from German museum

The trove stolen from the Kelten Römer Museum near Munich was the biggest Celtic gold find of the 20th century

Hackers attack Nazi-linked collection exhibition at Kunsthaus Zurich

Visitors who accessed text via QR codes saw collector Emil Georg Bührle described as “a Nazi sympathiser, authoritarian militarist, at the very least a war profiteer and probably a war criminal”

The Burrell Collection in Glasgow wins the Art Fund Museum of the Year award

The museum won the prize for its six-year refurbishment and redisplay of one of Scotland's largest art collections, amassed by the late shipping magnate William Burrell

Special report: Funding cuts and weak economy send UK’s visual arts into crisis

From regional galleries becoming “unsustainable” to brutal cuts to funding of museums, galleries and arts and humanities education, the sector is in an increasingly perilous state

Recognising what’s special about museums: marking 10 years of the Art Fund Museum of the Year prize

The finalists for the 2023 Museum of the Year award, all of which focus on the importance of community engagement, will compete for a record £120,000 prize

In partnership withArt Fund Museum of the Year 2023

The MAC: The Belfast museum that reaches out to Northern Ireland's disadvantaged communities

Spurred by a rise in hate crime in the region, The MAC has been collaborating with five charities to open the museum to minority groups

In partnership withArt Fund Museum of the Year 2023

Scapa Flow Museum: the small museum that records Orkney's pivotal role in both world wars

The collection of naval artefacts in the Scottish archipelago reopened in 2022 after a multi-million pound refurbishment

In partnership withArt Fund Museum of the Year 2023

The Burrell Collection: the recently reopened Glasgow museum is asking fresh questions of its objects and its audience

The country-park-based collection has returned with a new mission to create more diverse audiences and abandon preconceptions

In partnership withArt Fund Museum of the Year 2023
Lawnews

Poet and translator to sue British Museum for copyright and moral rights infringement

Vancouver-based Yilin Wang has raised more than £15,000 via Crowd Justice to begin legal proceedings

National Gallery London masterpieces show in Shanghai sets record for visitor numbers

Beating the most popular paid-for exhibition on home turf, it has been a big win for the museum—but ethical questions linger

Musée Picasso president hits back at ahistorical critics as artist's troubling relationship with women comes into focus

Cécile Debray believes a truthful representation of Picasso’s life is “an important fight for everybody”

Diaryblog

National Gallery summer party puts the fun in funding

Lavish event helps museum edge closer to £95m target for ambitious NG200 programme

New Istanbul culture hub seeks to make art more public

ArtIstanbul Feshane opens in an expansive 19th-century military factory to reach more of the city’s 16 million inhabitants

Diaries of the UK's first female professional astronomer acquired by Bath's Herschel Museum

The revealing handwritten memoirs of Caroline Herschel, the first woman to receive payment from King George III for her interstellar discoveries, has been acquired by the museum that was once her home

For India's biggest private collector, David Adjaye designs his 'most advanced museum concept' yet

The architect's vision for the new Kiran Nadar Museum of Art in Delhi, opening 2026, honours India's multiple cultures and religions at a time of heightened nationalist politics

Elena Filipovic announced as the new director of the Kunstmuseum Basel

Filipovic joins from the Kunsthalle Basel and will replace Josef Helfenstein

Previously free, some UK museums are starting to charge as cost of living crisis bites

The principle of free admission to museums is being eroded, as entry fees are introduced to balance budgets

Germany has the most private contemporary art museums in the world, new report reveals

According to the art collector data company Larry's List, the burgeoning private museums sector now comprises 446 institutions worldwide, 111 of which have opened since 2016

After Isis, Mosul Museum is rebuilt from the rubble

The terrorist group almost destroyed the museum in 2014. Less than a decade later, it is beginning to exhibit once again

Devastating dam collapse in Ukraine has apparently flooded house museum of late artist Polina Rayko

The self-taught painter's image of a dove has become a symbol of Ukrainian resistance following Russia's 2022 invasion

186 Roy Lichtenstein works donated to museums in honour of the artist’s 100th birthday

Gifts will go to five institutions, including the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art

Joy in Manchester’s cultural division as £211m arts centre opens

Factory International, the UK’s largest public investment in a cultural project since Tate Modern, opens in June alongside the Manchester International Festival