Latest

The Louvre’s new director is inheriting a troubled, traumatised museum—can he repair the damage?

Christophe Leribault, the former director of the Château de Versailles, faces a “derelict” infrastructure at the Paris museum and the fallout from last year’s devastating theft

Vincent Noceabout 5 hours ago

Artist Ali Cherri files war crimes complaint in France over Israeli airstrike in Beirut that killed his parents

The airstrike killed seven people in a residential building in central Beirut that independent researchers have found to have no clear military function

Gabriella Angeleti39 minutes ago

Santiago museum, set on fire during 2020 protests, reopens

The works of Chile’s most famous folk artist, singer and composer return to the Violeta Parra Museum, which now has enhanced security

Graciela Ibáñezabout 3 hours ago

Christie’s to sell an almost unknown Van Gogh double-sided drawing

These were sketches for paintings which were never completed - or are lost

Martin Baileyabout 8 hours ago

Arts organisation enlists celebrities in fight to save Manhattan church

The Center at West Park has been marshalling support from famous actors led by Mark Ruffalo to stop the demolition of West Park Presbyterian Church

Fred Voonabout 23 hours ago

Visitor Figures 2025

The Art Newspaper’s Visitor Figures survey is conducted annually, and is the foremost authority on the attendance of art museums worldwide

Exclusive | The world's 100 most visited art museums in 2025: new venues a big hit with visitors

Our annual survey shows that some of the world’s most venerable institutions are still struggling to attract the number of visitors they had before Covid, but there is enthusiasm for new museums, and in regions such as Asia and Latin America

National Museum of Korea Seoul sees a surge in visitor numbers

According to our 2025 Visitor Figures survey, the Seoul location of the museum is attracting more international guests

Lisa Movius1 day ago

How museum funding in Denmark has become reliant on visitor numbers

Danish government reforms have resulted in increased funds for museums, but some question the equity of grants based on footfall

Art market

Vaccine billionaire buys $17.9m Raja Ravi Varma, setting new record for Indian painting at auction

Cyrus Poonawalla is the latest collector to pay top prices for South Asian art, as the Indian art market continues a bull run

Kabir Jhala1 day ago

Art crowd saddles up at the High Desert Art Fair

A motel in Pioneertown, a community in California's Mojave Desert, offers local grit and an antidote to art fair fatigue

Trey the Triceratops sells for $5.5m via Pharrell Williams's auction site

The skeleton of a young adult dinosaur, excavated in Wyoming during the 1990s "Bone Rush", sold on the musician's online Joopiter platform

Christie’s to hold its first South Asian Modern art sale in London in seven years

The auction, scheduled for 11 June, will bring together 93 works including rare Bengali pieces

Guillaume Cerutti departs Christie's and other positions in Pinault’s companies

The news follows his sudden departure as president of the Pinault Collection

Museums & Heritage

Unesco grants enhanced protection to 39 Lebanese heritage sites as war escalates

The cultural body has also unlocked more than $100,000 in emergency funding for urgent operations on the ground

Arts and heritage organisations largely exempted from new UK regulations on memberships

Representatives for the Victoria and Albert Museum, the National Trust and the Tate had warned that the legislation could have severely impacted their funding

Gareth Harris1 day ago

In a month of war, Iran’s cultural heritage has suffered huge damage

Some of the country’s most precious historic sites and buildings are in need of major repair following bombing by Israel and the US

Sussan Babaie

Ancient golden helmet recovered after Dutch museum heist

The helmet and two golden bracelets, belonging to the eastern European Dacian civilisation, were returned as part off a court case against the alleged thieves

Senay Boztas1 day ago

Mexico’s art community calls for greater transparency in management of treasured collection

More than 300 Mexican cultural professionals are calling for clarity surrounding the Gelman Santander Collection, a trove of works by Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco, María Izquierdo and others

Exhibitions

New York’s Jewish Museum opens Paul Klee exhibition without its centrepiece

The German artist's "Angelus Novus", once owned by Walter Benjamin, remains at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem due to war-related flight suspensions

‘Maurizio will offer the chance of a miracle’: artist-provocateur Cattelan opens hotline for confessions and reimagines pope-themed work

The conceptual artist revives his sculptural portrait of John Paul II in a confessional-raffle this Easter

Exhibition of UAE-based art in Seoul looks beyond the gilded stereotypes

Collaboration between Seoul Museum of Art and Abu Dhabi Music and Arts Foundation presented works by 47 UAE-based artists in Korea

Lisa Movius1 day ago

Members of European Parliament call on EU to pull Venice Biennale funding over Russian participation

Dozens of MEPs signed a letter decrying Russia’s plan to return to the Biennale and urging the suspension of all EU funding

The Week in Art

A podcast bringing you the latest news from the art world, every week

Should English museums charge tourists? Plus, Raphael at the Met and Senga Nengudi at the Whitechapel Gallery—podcast

In this week's episode, Ben Luke discusses the UK government’s response to a report about the future of Arts Council England, talks to the curator of a new Raphael exhibition in New York, and takes a look at a work by the multimedia artist Senga Nengudi

Hosted by Ben Luke. Produced by David. Clack and Alexander Morrisonabout 11 hours ago

Opinion

Comment | A generational moment for Nazi-looted art claims in the US

Expanded version of the Holocaust Expropriated Art Recovery (Hear) Act in the US fundamentally alters the legal landscape for both claimants and current owners

Comment | All hail the rise of the art internship

Against a backdrop of a contracting job market for graduates, initiatives such as the Sotheby’s Institute’s fellowship programme are supporting the next generation of art industry experts

Comment | Climate change is forcing tough choices—how much heritage can we save before it is too late?

As increasingly extreme weather threatens cultural sites, archaeologists are turning to technology to try and record them before they are lost forever

Comment | Art is more than its original context

The place where we observe a work of art—and the feelings we have—play a crucial role in our experience

Comment | Time for a rethink: women artists were never meant to merely be canon fodder

Exhibitions pairing Munch with Paula Modersohn-Becker and Maria Lassnig provide opportunities to subvert the established order

Obituaries

Obituary | Umberto Allemandi, visionary publisher who founded 'Il Giornale dell’Arte', has died aged 88

The editor built an international network of publications—including 'The Art Newspaper'—that transformed cultural journalism

Pedro Friedeberg, key figure in Mexican art renowned for hand-shaped chair, has died at age 90

Beyond his famous chair design, Friedeberg created a singular world of ornament, architecture, and irony

Liliana Angulo Cortés, director of Bogotá’s Museo Nacional de Colombia, has died, aged 51

Angulo’s work was devoted to decolonising the museum, anti-racism and reparation with a special focus on diversifying narratives to include more Black and Indigenous voices

Renowned gallerist Marian Goodman has died, aged 97

The dealer was known for her support of conceptually challenging artistic practices, and credited with bringing key European figures like Gerhard Richter and Marcel Broodthaers to the US

Remembering Gathie Falk, Canadian artist whose singular practice sparked comparisons to Surrealism and Pop art

Shaped by the austerity of her Mennonite upbringing and the bustling Vancouver art scene of the 1960s and 70s, she developed a playful, poignant and exacting visual language

Books

An expert's guide to Alexander Calder: six must-read books on the US sculptor

The best Calder publications, from a comprehensive two-volume biography to a children’s book about his moveable circus—selected by the curators Dieter Buchhart and Anna Karina Hofbauer

New book digs into the little-known gallery that brought Modern art to America

The publication's author on how it has taken decades of research to tell the story of the New York gallery, which exhibited artists such Picasso and Mondrian

Textiles weave tales of Palestine’s rich but troubled history

Embroidery has long been a key form of artistic expression

A short guide to the hidden meanings in great paintings

An A to C extract from the glossary of Painted Mysteries, which deciphers common motifs and symbols in famous works

An expert's guide to John Constable: five must-read books on the British painter

The best publications to learn all about Constable, from a journey through the landscapes that inspired him to a children's activity book—selected by the curator Emma Roodhouse

A brush with... podcast

A podcast that asks artists the questions you've always wanted to

A brush with… Danh Vo—podcast

Danh Vo talks to Ben Luke about her influences—from writers to musicians, film-makers and, of course, other artists—and the cultural experiences that have shaped her life and work

Hosted by Ben Luke. Produced by David Clack and Aimee Dawson
Sponsored by Bloomberg Connects

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.

Epstein files reveal Leon Black as a key collector of Van Gogh works

The New York collector Black is revealed to have bought five of the artist’s pieces

Damien Hirst offers his hot take on art dealers

Speaking on a podcast, the artist likened art galleries to estate agents

Innocent mistake? Italy's prime minister appears as a cherub in Rome church

A double of Georgia Meloni was spotted in the chapel of the Basilica of St Lawrence in Lucina

Can you feel the love tonight? Elton John's cosy family portrait captured by Catherine Opie

Picture featuring his sons, husband David and their dogs goes on show at the National Portrait Gallery in London

‘Haters will say this urn is mid’: US National Gallery of Art curator is Insta hit with Gen Z

Deputy head of sculpture's slang-heavy posts appeal to a new generation of art lovers

See you, Searle: Guardian chief art critic bows out after 30 years

Adrian Searle has described writing for the paper as “an exhilarating ride”

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