The French parliament has voted unanimously to pass a law that makes it easier to return objects looted from former colonies, Le Monde reports. In 2017 President Emmanuel Macron pledged that cultural items seized from Africa would be returned within five years, but the passage of the bill was delayed by changes of government and political instability. Now it has passed after several amendments. The Art Newspaper reports that these include the requirement that requests for restitution are brought by a state, which must commit to protecting the objects and displaying them publicly; and that requests are examined by a bilateral scientific committee. The bill also applies only to works seized between 1815, the year the Treaty of Paris was signed after Napoleon’s defeat at the Battle of Waterloo, and 1972, when the UNESCO convention on the protection of cultural heritage came into force. Military items, public archives and shares of archaeological digs are excluded.
The European Commission has given the Venice Biennale 30 days to ‘clear its name’ after the organisers allowed Russia to participate in this year’s edition of the event. In a letter seen by La Repubblica and reported on by ARTnews, the Commission asked the Biennale to respond to allegations that it had violated sanctions against Russia and to ‘inform [them] of any corrective measures [the Biennale intends] to adopt’. If the organisers proceed with Russia’s inclusion, the Commission will likely proceed with its threat to terminate its €2m grant for the 2028 edition. The Commission has also written to Italy’s foreign ministry asking it to state its position on Russia’s inclusion, though La Repubblica reports that the foreign ministry is awaiting information from the culture ministry before it can respond.
Jurors at the Kunstfonds Foundation, a German organisation that funds contemporary art projects, have accused the culture minister Wolfram Weimer of ‘political interference’ after he requested the names of its jury members. Their outrage, reports Der Speigel, comes after Weimer is said to have contacted Germany’s domestic intelligence agency to exclude certain bookstores from the shortlist for the Deutscher Buchhandlungspreis (German Booksellers’ Award). In a statement shared on its website on 17 April, the Kunstfonds Foundation said that the ‘mere fear that artists […] could be investigated by the BKM (Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media) creates mistrust and uncertainty’, and that ‘the absolute independence of its expert juries is of paramount importance’.
Sotheby’s is offering seven per cent interest to sellers who put off receiving proceeds from sales for at least six months, the Financial Times reports. A person familiar with Sotheby’s told the FT that it was ‘extremely common’ for the auction house – which had a pre-tax loss of $248m in 2024 – to delay making payments to clients ‘at the end of difficult quarters’, with some clients waiting up to eight months for payment. The FT also reports that Sotheby’s reported a pre-tax profit of $53m for 2025, with sales rising by almost a fifth from 2024 to $7.1bn. Meanwhile, Artnet reports that the auction house is being sued by real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield for failing to pay a $10.2m commission on the sale of its former New York headquarters. In a lawsuit filed in New York State Supreme Court on 9 April, the firm claims that its brokering of Weill Cornell Medicine (WCM)’s 200,000 square-foot lease of the building from Sotheby’s in 2023 ‘laid the groundwork’ for the eventual sale of the property to WCM for $510m in October last year. A Sotheby’s spokesperson told Artnet that the lawsuit was ‘baseless’.
Staff at Goldsmiths, University of London, are planning industrial action in response to the university’s plans to cut staffing costs by £22m, the University and College Union (UCU) announced this week. ‘Future Goldsmiths’ – the third round of restructuring carried out at the university in the past five years – involves reducing its workforce by some 25 per cent by the end of the next academic year (2026/27). The UCU said that, despite the university’s claim that the cuts are necessary, an FOI request has revealed that Goldsmiths has spent some £16m in consultancy and legal fees in recent years.
The UK government has announced that 130 cultural venues, museums and libraries will receive a share of £127.8m in funding for capital projects. The money comes from the Department of Culture, Media and Sport’s £1.5bn Arts Everywhere Fund and will be distributed by Arts Council England. The biggest recipient is the Southbank Centre, which will receive £10m. Around £96m will come from the Creative Foundations Fund and will go to venues including the Lowry Centre Trust in Salford and Theatre Royal Stratford East in London. The Museum Estate and Development Fund will allocate £25.5m for infrastructure works at institutions such as the Black Country Living Museum in Dudley. The remaining £6.3m comes from the Libraries Endowment Fund, which will be used for works such as the refurbishment of the sites overseen by Derbyshire Libraries.
After DCMS announced in March that it was exploring introducing fees for overseas visitors to national museums – a proposal laid out in Margaret Hodge’s review of Arts Council England – Hodge has clarified her position on the proposal. It should be implemented only alongside a universal identification system, she said this week, in order to avoid discrimination.
