The entirety of the East Wing of the White House has been torn down to make way for a new 90,000 square-foot state ballroom only days after work on the site began on 19 October. Plans for the ballroom were first announced by the White House in July, with the entire project, which is expected to cost around $300m, to be funded by President Trump himself and private donors. At that point, Trump had promised that the addition would not affect the existing building. The East Wing, traditionally used by the first lady and her office, was built in 1902 and expanded in 1942. On 21 October, Reuters reported that the White House said it would submit plans to the National Capital Planning Commission, a body that oversees federal building construction, even though demolition had already begun.
The director of the Musée du Louvre, Laurence des Cars, has acknowledged a ‘terrible failure’ after four thieves stole eight items of jewellery – which have since been valued at €88m – from the museum on Sunday morning. Speaking at a senate hearing on 22 October, des Cars said that the robbery was ‘not inevitable’, adding that she had raised concerns about the museums ‘general state of deterioration and obsolescence’ several times since becoming director in September 2021. She described CCTV around the Louvre as ‘ageing’, and said that the only external camera in place to cover the area where the thieves entered the museum was pointing in the wrong direction, the BBC reports. At the hearing, des Cars confirmed that she had offered her resignation following the robbery to French culture minister Rachida Dati but was refused.
The UK government has blocked plans to construct a road tunnel beneath Stonehenge, ending years of legal disputes surrounding the controversial project. After much stopping and starting, plans for the tunnel were finally given the green light in 2023 by the then Conservative government. However, the new Labour government indefinitely paused the project in July 2024 after the World Heritage Committee delayed making a decision on whether Stonehenge should be added to UNESCO’s World Heritage in Danger list. On 22 October, transport secretary Heidi Alexander moved to revoke the development consent order for the tunnel due to ‘exceptional circumstances’. In a statement shared with Apollo, a spokesperson for the department for transport said that ‘given the challenging financial picture we inherited, we had to make difficult decisions about a number of road projects as they were unfunded or unaffordable’. In July 2024, Artnet reported that the project was expected to cost £2bn, £166m of which has already been spent during the planning phase.
Greek authorities have accused the British Museum of disrespecting Greece’s cultural heritage at the museum’s recent Pink Ball, calling the fundraising event – which took place in the hall that houses the Parthenon Marbles – ‘offensive’, Artnet reports. Lina Mendoni, Greece’s culture minister, said in a statement that ‘the safety, integrity, and ethics of the monuments should be the main concern of the British Museum, which, once again, demonstrates provocative indifference’. Last year, similar concerns were raised after the museum hosted a fashion show by the British designer Erdem in front of the marbles, with Mendoni saying that the display showed ‘zero respect for the masterpieces of Pheidias’.
The artists Jane Evelyn Atwood, Weronika Gęsicka, Amak Mahmoodian and Rene Matić have been shortlisted for this year’s Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize. The ‘though-provoking, powerful’ shortlisted artists, read a statement on the prize website, explore themes including gender exile and memory, identity and belonging, and the ‘shifting boundaries between photographic fact and fiction’. The winner of the £30,000 prize will be announced on 14 May 2026. In other award news, the Chinese-born painter Xie Lei has been awarded the 2025 Marcel Duchamp Prize. The artist, who is best known for his neon paintings of spectral figures, will receive a €35,000 prize on top of the €10,000 given to each shortlisted artist. The other artists on the shortlist were Bianca Bondi, Eva Nielsen and Lionel Sabatté. Their work is on display at the Musée d’Art Moderne in Paris until 22 February 2026.