News

The week in art news – cyber-attack sends US museums offline

Plus: Poland withdraws its Biennale submission | swingeing cuts to UK arts budgets by local councils cuts continue | and Ian Wardropper to retire as Frick director

7 Jan 2024
Uffizi director Eike Schmidt in front of Botticelli’s Birth of Venus, at the reopening of the gallery’s room dedicated to the artist in 2016. Photo: Alberto Pizzoli/AFP/Getty Images

Major leadership changes in Italian museums

Plus: the Academy of Arts in Berlin warns against violations of civil liberties in Germany and the Met returns 14 trafficked artefacts to Cambodia and Thailand

20 Dec 2023

British Museum report into thefts recommends reforms – and deputy director Jonathan Williams is leaving

Plus: the new president of Argentina has abolished the ministry of culture | and Notre-Dame is to reopen in December 2024

15 Dec 2023

Russian billionaire and Swiss art dealer finally settle nine-year legal dispute

Plus: Virginia Museum of Fine Arts restitutes 44 antiquities | Jesse Darling wins the Turner Prize | and more art news

10 Dec 2023

The week in art news – entire Documenta selection committee resigns

Plus: Russian artist Aleksandra Skochilenko jailed for seven years for anti-war protest, Joe Tilson (1928–2023), and B.N. Goswamy (1933–2023)

19 Nov 2023

The week in art news – climate activists attack Velázquez painting at the National Gallery

Plus: director of Hungarian National Museum sacked, Odesa museum damaged by Russian missile strike, and the rest of the week’s top stories

10 Nov 2023

Artforum editor fired over publication of open letter about Gaza

Plus: Robert Irwin (1928–2023), Italy appoints right-wing journalist as Venice Biennale director and the rest of the week’s top stories

28 Oct 2023

Thefts were an ‘inside job’, British Museum chair tells Parliament

Plus: The Cleveland Museum of Art is suing the Manhattan DA’s office and bomb threats have led to multiple evacuations of Versailles and the Louvre

20 Oct 2023

The week in art news – Swiss museum asked to cancel Cézanne sale

Plus: France and German set up a joint fund to research colonial provenance and hoard of coins with links to the Glencoe massacre discovered in Scotland

15 Oct 2023

UK government publishes ‘retain and explain’ policy for controversial statues

Plus: Carnegie Museum of Natural History will no longer show humans remains and US tourist smashes Roman statues in the Israel Museum

6 Oct 2023

British Museum launches public appeal for the return of stolen objects

Plus: Buddha sculpture stolen from Bakarat Gallery, Asian Art Museum of San Francisco sues its architect, and the rest of the week’s top stories

29 Sep 2023

The week in art news – Full scope of Roman Abramovich’s art collection revealed for the first time

Plus: curator in Florida fired over provenance concerns, Guy Wildenstein on trial again in Paris, and the rest of the week’s top stories

24 Sep 2023
A cruise ship passes close to the church San Giorgio Maggiore, in Venice on 26 September 2014.

The week in art news – UNESCO keeps Venice off the endangered list again

Plus: Egon Schiele works seized from US museums, Moroccan heritage sites damaged in earthquake, and the rest of the week’s top stories

17 Sep 2023
Bust thought to depict a daughter of Marcus Aurelius (c. 160–80). Photo: Daderot/Public domain via Wikimedia Commons

Roman bust seized from Worcester Art Museum

Plus: Polish museum director dismissed by local government, Manchester Museum returns 174 items to Indigenous Australians, and the rest of the week’s art news

8 Sep 2023

Mark Jones to be appointed interim director of crisis-hit British Museum

Plus: British Museum appoints new acting deputy director amid scandal; Christie’s cancels further sales from the collection of Heidi Horten, and the rest of the week’s art news

1 Sep 2023

British Museum director Hartwig Fischer announces immediate departure after suspected thefts

Plus: South-east Asian countries are demanding return of looted objects from Denver Art Museum, and the rest of the week’s top stories

25 Aug 2023

British Museum sacks staff member accused of stealing from collections

Plus: the gallerist Angela Flowers has died at the age of 90 and the Orlando Museum of Art is suing its former director over an alleged scheme to sell forged Basquiats

18 Aug 2023

The week in art news – Brice Marden (1938–2023)

Plus: Ukrainian government releases online database of artworks in the possession of Russian nationals, and the rest of the week’s top stories

11 Aug 2023

Hartwig Fischer to step down as director of the British Museum

Plus: Russian missiles have damaged Odesa Cathedral and Joop Sanders (1921–2023)

30 Jul 2023
Photo: Mößbauer/Wikimedia Commons (public domain)

The week in art news – arrests made in connection with Celtic coin heist

Plus: two looted sculptures returned to Libya, the Dutch national photography museum to receive a new home, and the rest of the week’s top stories

21 Jul 2023

The week in art news – Frieze buys the Armory Show and Expo Chicago

Plus: a Pistoletto sculpture has been destroyed in a suspected arson attack and Simon Lee Gallery has been placed under administration

14 Jul 2023

Institutions cut ties with David Adjaye after sexual misconduct allegations

Plus: report outlines destruction of cultural property in Sudan and Michael Kauffmann (1931–2023)

9 Jul 2023

France passes law allowing museums to return Nazi-looted art

Plus: French artist Claude Lévêque is charged with rape and the Hermitage Amsterdam is changing its name

30 Jun 2023

Douglas Latchford estate forfeits $12m to settle looted antiquities case

Plus: Austrian government proposes new restitution laws and the rest of the week’s top stories

23 Jun 2023