Latest
Activity and optimism at Expo Chicago attest to the city's 'fearless' community of collectors and patrons
The fair's 12th edition opened with high spirits and swift business in the five-figure price range
Trump’s Garden of American Heroes seeks artists for its 250 statues
Meanwhile, Americans of all political stripes disapprove of the president’s cultural takeover while Max Hollein says Trump’s new anti-DEI rules “do not apply” to the Met
Sistine Chapel to close for conclave preparations
Other cultural sites have also been steadily shutting down to visitors as the Vatican marks the death of Pope Francis
Chicago's Intuit Art Museum set to unveil $10m renovation
The small but mighty museum for outsider art is reopening after a two-year overhaul
Public mosaic by Jeremy Deller and Coralie Turpin explores the history and nature of Scarborough
The Roman-style work completes the Wild Eye art and nature trail, which connects five other artist commissions along the coast
The Week in Art
A podcast bringing you the latest news from the art world, every week
Pope Francis and art, J.M.W. Turner’s 250th birthday, John Singer Sargent’s ‘Madame X’—podcast
Exploring the late pontiff’s deep connection to and impact on visual culture, plus why Turner’s work continues to resonate so strongly today, and the story of Sargent’s most famous painting
Pope Francis (1936-2025)
Pope Francis, for 12 years the spiritual leader of 1.3 billion Catholics, and proprietor in trust of the Vatican's great art treasures and its liturgical and built heritage, died on 21 April 2025, aged 88
Remembering Pope Francis, for 12 years head of the Catholic church and proprietor in trust of the Vatican's library and art collections
The Argentinian pontiff was a powerful progressive voice in world politics, the first Jesuit priest to be spiritual leader of the world’s 1.3 billion Catholics and the first from the Americas or the southern hemisphere to hold the office
Holy ground: why Persian carpets play an important symbolic role in the funeral of Pope Francis
For over 600 years carpets from Anatolia, Turkey and Persia have been used in Catholic ceremony and religious paintings by artists including Andrea del Verrochio to indicate a carefully defined, sacred space
World leaders pay tribute to Pope Francis, spiritual leader of the Catholic church and custodian of the Vatican’s treasures, who has died, aged 88
The election of the new pope will be closely watched by supporters of the Argentinian pontiff’s legacy looking for a successor who will act as a progressive voice, highlighting global climate crisis and the needs of immigrants and the poor
From the archive | ‘Because of him, even more people come to Rome’: director of the Vatican museums describes the crowd-pulling impact of Pope Francis
Antonio Paolucci discusses the role of the Vatican's museums as custodians of sacred and profane art after the city state makes its underground necropolis accessible during Francis's first year as spiritual leader of the world's catholics
From the archive | Pope Francis returns Vatican Museums’ Parthenon marbles to Greece
The pope’s decision to give the Vatican’s three Parthenon marbles to the head of the Greek Orthodox Church comes amid mounting pressure on the British Museum to repatriate its marbles to Greece
Art market
Banksy balloon heart mural back on view in New York ahead of charity auction
The giant slab of wall adorned with Banksy's "Battle To Survive a Broken Heart" will go to auction to benefit the American Heart Association
Comment | Trims to Sotheby's African Modern and contemporary art department are just one unwelcome sign for this previously healthy market
Auction sales for contemporary and Modern African art have declined—but African art fairs are still going strong
Why the inaugural Art Week Riyadh was a fair in everything but name
The event saw 32 galleries take part to test out Saudi Arabia's growing art market—but organisers maintain it was a non-commercial venture
Expo Chicago connects the Midwest to the global art market
For its second edition under Frieze’s ownership, the Windy City’s art fair aims to extend its international impact, including deepening ties with Korean galleries
Qatari sheikh wins case against Phoenix Ancient Art over allegedly forged antiquity
The New York- and Geneva-based gallery says it will appeal the ruling in the case brought by Sheikh Hamad Bin Abdullah al-Thani
Museums & Heritage
MFA Boston to return Benin Bronzes to wealthy donor, close gallery
The unusual move follows years of negotiations between the museum, the collector and the Kingdom of Benin
Judge orders the Art Institute of Chicago to restitute Nazi-looted Schiele drawing
The latest development in the ongoing dispute over a 1916 portrait believed to have been stolen from Fritz Grünbaum by the Nazis
After a failed export block by the UK, Nicolas Poussin masterpiece goes on show at Louvre Abu Dhabi
The mid-17th-century painting, titled 'Confirmation', is a key work from the vast collection of the emirate's Department of Culture and Tourism, which is now being made public
Conservation of Tintoretto painting in UK reveals ‘layer of history hiding under the surface’
Research on ‘Wise and Foolish Virgins’, which is going back on display at the National Trust’s Upton House in Warwickshire, has revealed alterations made by the Venetian artist and others over time
Nelson-Atkins Museum picks architect for $160m expansion
The museum in Kansas City has tapped the firm Weiss Manfredi to overhaul its campus
Exhibitions
Yayoi Kusama survey at National Gallery of Victoria becomes best-selling art exhibition in Australian history
The museum reported that 570,537 tickets were purchased for the show, which closed in April
The future is sexy—at least in Syd Mead’s visionary science-fiction art
The late artist’s first retrospective, at a pop-up space in Manhattan, offers an idealised, futuristic take on the 21st century
Yinka Shonibare’s first major solo show in Africa opens in Madagascar
The exhibition at the Fondation H in Antananarivo includes the British Nigerian artist’s 6,000-book installation The African Library
Guggenheim shows to champion Maria Helena Vieira da Silva, who still ‘needs to be rediscovered by many audiences’
The career survey of the Portuguese abstract painter starts in Venice before moving to Bilbao
David Hockney 25 review: an absolutely enormous splash ★★★★
The artist’s largest ever show—at Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris—requires patience at times, but is overall a triumphant celebration of his inexhaustible eye
A brush with... podcast
A podcast that asks artists the questions you've always wanted to
A brush with… Salman Toor — podcast
Salman Toor talks to Ben Luke about his influences—from writers to musicians, film-makers and, of course, other artists—and the cultural experiences that have shaped his life and work
Visitor Figures 2024
Insights from The Art Newspaper's annual, exclusive and worldwide visitor figures survey
Exclusive | The world’s most-visited museums 2024: normality returns—for some
A new museum in Shanghai leaps into our top ten and European museums continue their strong performance, but our exclusive annual survey finds that some British institutions are still lagging behind
How many visitors is too many? Paris museums confront ‘over-attendance’
Visitors have streamed back after Covid-19, but the influx has been a double-edged sword, forcing some institutions to consider their long-term sustainability
Museums are losing social media followers amid users' mass X-odus
Some institutions have ditched their accounts in protest, while others have chosen to “quiet quit” and stopped posting on the Elon Musk-owned platform
Museums in southern Brazil still recovering after last year’s floods
Damage and destruction decimated visitor numbers to cultural events and institutions last year but optimism is high they will return in 2025
Comment | Scrapping DEI initiatives could damage US museums’ visitor numbers
As art institutions—particularly in Washington, DC—succumb to the White House’s anti-diversity directives, a veteran of the museum world warns of the dangers of giving in to the whims of the Trump administration
Opinion
Comment | A buoyant art scene—and an exciting new generation of artists—mean this could be ‘the African century’
Long overlooked or stereotyped, African contemporary art is finally receiving global attention, writes Wim Pijbes, former director of the Rijksmuseum
Comment | The 1930s all over again? Trump and ‘Entartete Kunst’ revisited
There are alarming echoes of the notorious Nazi-organised exhibition in America today—but we also need to acknowledge the differences between the world today and 1930s Europe
Comment | Why Edinburgh was the obvious location for the Palestine Museum's first satellite branch
While many jurisdictions are making it increasingly hard for Palestinian artists, Scotland's hospitality has been heartwarming, says the Connecticut-based institution's director
Comment | Works of art are living things—so should we let them die?
The cost—financially and environmentally—of preserving works of art can be huge. Perhaps it is time to rethink how we look after them
Comment | Balanchine is Modern master whose impact on contemporary art should not be overlooked
The choreographer’s formal gestures and patterns make him crucial to contemporary performance art
Technology
News, background and analysis on the latest tech developments—artificial intelligence tools; Web3, the blockchain, NFTs; virtual and augmented reality; social media platforms—and how they affect the art market, museums, artists and curators.
Can graphic imagination wake audiences up to the climate emergency? This multimedia artist believes so
Berlin-based Michael Najjar has been working with scientists in Greenland to tell stories with images designed to replace familiar memes of environmental journalism
An inside track on the Huntington’s rapid social media growth
The California institution is one of the top five museums for social media growth in the world in the past year. We spoke to the museum's director of digital and social content strategy
How AI models are helping to reveal South America's archaeological sites
Analysis of aerial and satellite images has rapidly identified ancient sites, but human expertise is still essential in refining the outcomes
Jeu de Paume puts on wide-ranging survey of work created by artists working with artificial intelligence
With “Le Monde Selon L’IA”, the Paris media art centre takes a broad look at work made using both analytical AI and generative AI
Museums are losing social media followers amid users' mass X-odus
Some institutions have ditched their accounts in protest, while others have chosen to “quiet quit” and stopped posting on the Elon Musk-owned platform
Book Club
The trials and tribulations of putting together Lucian Freud’s catalogue raisonné
The forensically researched volume on the British artist's oil paintings offers a depth of scrutiny that he himself was famous for
An expert’s guide to Ruth Asawa: five must-read books on the Japanese American artist
All you ever wanted to know about Asawa, from a graphic novel biography to tales from her time at the celebrated Black Mountain College—selected by the curator Janet Bishop
April Book Bag: from a new angle on Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel to the re-issuing of bell hooks’s art essays
Our round-up of the latest art publications
New book looks at the shaping of Modern art in the Middle East beyond politics and war
The Arab art specialist Saeb Eigner talks about his comprehensive new biography spanning from 1900 to today
Books
Japan is opening its eyes to women photographers—and to the female gaze
Denied recognition and even credit for their work until recent times, Japan’s women photographers are challenging and subverting traditional assumptions about the female body
Review | ‘An utterly positive and dangerously irrelevant’ book written by the chief executive of Arts Council England
This journey through the UK’s publicly funded arts carefully averts its eyes from the many signs of crisis
A new monograph places the writing, painting and archive photographs of Aubrey Williams in thrilling conversation
The publication about the Guyanese-born artist includes diary entries and several works that have been photographed for the first time
New book celebrates William Butterfield, a master of High Victorian Gothic architecture
Nicholas Olsberg’s publication offers a learned analysis of the architect’s work, which includes Oxford’s Keble College and central London’s All Saints church
A new volume explores the intimate art of drawing, as seen through a wider lens
This “alternative” history navigates the medium through artists on the margins, as well as established practitioners
Diary
The story of the Met’s ‘missing’ Banksy
The New York museum’s former security head admits to taking the street artist's work after it was illicitly hung on the wall in 2005
Howay man, that was one hell of a night! Antony Gormley's Angel of the North celebrates Newcastle United's victory
The Gateshead sculpture was dressed up in a Newcastle United football shirt for the Carabao Cup final at Wembley, drawing fans to the site when the team won 2-1 against Liverpool
King Charles III gets busy with his pencil
The monarch will unveil one of his own drawings in a special exhibition marking the 25th anniversary of the Royal Drawing School
No one wants my art, sulks Hunter Biden
Sales of Joe Biden’s son’s artworks have nosedived since his father left office
Snap! Miles Aldridge takes polaroid pics at Sotheby’s
Maurizio Cattelan was among those papped—all for charity
Obituaries
Zurab Tsereteli, Georgian-born artist and Russian patriot, has died aged 91
Artist, who also ran museums and institutions in Russia, was best known for his monumental sculptures, including a 30m-high memorial to victims of 9/11 in the US
Guy Ullens, collector and patron of Chinese contemporary art, has died, aged 90
The Belgian businessman co-founded Beijing’s Ullens Center for Contemporary Art (UCCA) in 2007 with his wife Myriam Ullens
Remembering Rosalind Savill, the porcelain expert who transformed the Wallace Collection
During her 19-year tenure as its director, she turned a sedate institution into a vibrant tribute to the culture of 18th-century France
Remembering Jack Vettriano, an immensely popular artist whose market success reflected 'an appetite for the glamorous'
The sale of “The Singing Butler” at Sotheby’s in 2004, for a record price for a painting by a Scottish artist, caused a sensation and turned attention on Vettriano's critical and institutional neglect
Serge Lasvignes, former president of Centre Pompidou, has died aged 70
The Centre Pompidou extended its international reach during Lasvignes's tenure
Adventures with Van Gogh
Adventures with Van Gogh is a weekly blog by Martin Bailey, our long-standing correspondent and expert on the artist. Published every Friday, his stories range from newsy items about this most intriguing artist to scholarly pieces based on his own meticulous investigations and discoveries.
When—and why—did Van Gogh paint a pair of crabs?
Vincent’s audacious still-life was the first painting bought by a British collector, only three years after his death