Features
The making of one of the greatest Islamic art museums in the world
‘When this collection began, no one thought that Islam would be on everyone’s lips’
Why Austria’s leading museum has cause to celebrate
Sabine Haag, the director-general of the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, discusses how one of the world’s grandest museums is preparing for the future
What’s in store at the National Portrait Gallery?
A tour of some of the highlights of the NPG’s hidden collection
Acquisitions of the month: October
MoMA and the Musée d’Orsay are the big winners: they both received landmark gifts from prominent collectors that will transform their holdings
What’s behind jade’s mystical appeal?
Throughout Chinese history, jade has been prized for its beauty and its spiritual associations. Its appeal continues today, but its role is changing
The rise, fall, and rise of Battersea Power Station
For all its fame, Giles Gilbert Scott’s ‘temple of power’ in Battersea has had a chequered and difficult history. Is its future finally secure?
A tribute to Giles Waterfield (1949–2016)
The curator, academic critic, and novelist was an inspirational figure, but also a dear friend to many in the art world
A closer look at the Chinese and Japanese masterpieces in the Royal Collection
More than 2,000 objects of porcelain, lacquer, jade, enamel and ivory have been catalogued, researched, conserved, and photographed
The effort to save Italy’s earthquake-damaged art and architecture
Two months after the devastating quake in central Italy, it’s still not clear how much of the region’s heritage has been destroyed
The revolutionary collector who changed the course of Russian art
How Sergei Shchukin brought paintings by the most trailblazing members of the French avant-garde to Russia
The art that built Martin Luther’s brand
Lucas Cranach’s service to the Reformation went beyond creating iconic images of the Protestant reformer Martin Luther
A fresh look at Philadelphia’s unrivalled collection of South Asian art
A renovation project at the Philadelphia Museum of Art pays tribute to Stella Kramrisch, the woman who made their collection possible
Rethinking Iraq’s past – and its future – at the Basrah Museum
One of Saddam Hussein’s crumbling former palaces has been transformed into a state of the art display space for Iraqi antiquities
‘The biggest single bunch of eccentrics in Europe’. Celebrating a century of SOAS
London’s School of Oriental and African Studies has taught scholars, spies and Hollywood stars
Acquisitions of the month: September 2016
September sees multiple new additions to museum collections, including the Getty’s record-breaking purchase of a Roman cabinet once owned by a Pope and a King
Borrowing a baroque masterpiece
Xavier F. Salomon explains why he is so keen to show one of Guido Cagnacci’s most important paintings at the Frick
It’s time to look again at the golden age of sleaze and splendour
Was the French Second Empire as morally and artistically bankrupt as its critics made it out to be?
The Limbach Commission: What is it and will reforms make a difference?
The Limbach Commission mediates Nazi-looted art restitution disputes – but is it effective?
What are design museums for?
As London’s Design Museum is set to reopen in its new home, the role of design museums is still surprisingly unclear
Stepping out of Caravaggio’s shadow
Plus: Neo Rauch finally comes to London; John Wesley’s odd eroticism; and Alighiero Boetti’s monumental use of mementoes
Saudi Arabia’s lost railway in Fitzroy Square
Plus: Virginia Chihota’s claustrophobic blast of colour; a surreal spectacle from James Richards at the ICA; and Suzanne Treister’s sinister take on technology
Lygia Pape’s fragile threads
Plus: The final painting of Francis West; Yinka Shonibare without his trademark fabric; and Paula Rego’s first tapestry
The quiet importance of Marisa Merz
Plus: Abstract expressionism outside the RA; Njideka Akunyili Crosby at Victoria Miro; Helen Marten’s rise to stardom; and Philippe Parreno in the Turbine Hall
Smoking with Hockney and Tacita Dean
Plus: lining up the evidence at Michael Hoppen Gallery; Fausto Melotti’s ingenious sculptures; and an unsung branch of the Bauhaus
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Are the art market’s problems being blown out of proportion?