Art news daily: 19 November

Our daily round-up of news from the art world

Baltimore Museum of Art pledges to collect only work by women in 2020 | The Baltimore Museum of Art will only purchase or receive donations of artworks produced by women in 2020, part of the institution’s ‘2020 Vision’, a programme which focuses on female-identifying artists and marks the centenary of women’s suffrage in the US. This follows the institution’s decision in 2018 to deaccession several works by white male artists, using the funds raised to acquire art by people of colour and women.

France returns sword of Omar Saïdou Tall to Senegal | In a ceremony in Dakar, the French prime minister Édouard Philippe handed a historic sword to Macky Sall, the president of Senegal, a symbolic move intended to indicate the French government’s commitment to the restitution of African cultural heritage. The curved sword once belonged to Omar Saïdou Tall, a 19th-century leader in the struggle against French colonial forces. This is not an official restitution, but a five-year loan to the Museum of Black Civilisations in Dakar; French law still currently prohibits the permanent restitution of artefacts in museum collections.

Stephanie Comilang Wins 2019 Sobey Art Award | The artist Stephanie Comilang has won the 2019 Sobey Art Award. With the first prize set at $100,000 (CAD), the annual award presented by the National Gallery of Canada and the Sobey Art Foundation recognises the accomplishments of Canadian artists aged forty or younger. Comilang’s films, which explore the experiences of the Filipino diaspora, are presented alongside works by the other artists shortlisted for the prize in an exhibition at the Art Gallery of Alberta (until 5 January 2020).