Entry to national museums in the UK will be free to all visitors ‘forever’, Lisa Nandy, Secretary of State of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), announced on Tuesday. At an event at Tate Liverpool, Nandy confirmed the continuation of the 25-year-old policy brought in by a previous Labour government. There has been renewed debate surrounding free admission since December 2025, when Baroness Hodge’s review of Arts Council England recommended abolishing it for foreign tourists – conditional on the introduction of digital ID. DCMS’s published statement says that the government has rejected charging overseas visitors because it could deter domestic ones and because the effects of making them pay would not be felt ‘equally across the sector’. The announcement has been publicly welcomed by a string of national museum directors and the artists Bridget Riley and Rachel Whiteread.
Two archaeologists have been arrested in Iraq this month for, it is thought, comments about corruption at the State Board of Antiquities and Heritage (SBAH), the Art Newspaper reports. On 17 September, Ali Tabar was arrested for extortion, with the SBAH claiming that he took money from foreign archaeologists working in Iraq without its knowledge. Tabar has denied these accusations. Many claim his arrest was in retaliation against his criticism of an investment law that, as Tabar wrote in a Facebook post on 19 April, allows for archaeological sites to be demolished for real-estate development. The case is ongoing. Meanwhile, Amir Al-Jumaili, a professor at Mosul University, was reportedly arrested this week after criticising the SBAH’s seizure of land in Nineveh. Whether he has been released or is awaiting trial is unclear.
The American Institute of Architects (AIA) has said that construction on Trump’s triumphal arch in Washington, D.C., ‘must not proceed’. In a letter sent on 29 September to the director of the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (ACHP), the AIA said that the National Park Service should be urged to reconsider the 75-metre arch planned for Memorial Circle. This comes after the ACHP – the federal agency protecting historic sites – cancelled public consultation on the arch, bypassing Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act. Organisations such as the Cultural Landscape Foundation (TCLF) have criticised the move. The ACHP will submit its final comments to interior secretary Doug Burgum by 7 October.
Staff at the Whitney Museum of American Art have voted to go on strike. Workers who are represented by the United Auto Workers (UAW) Local 2110 will strike on 5 October if they can’t reach a fair contract with the museum’s leadership, the Art Newspaper reports. The union is calling for the museum to raise salaries to $71,000, believed to be the minimum needed for a single person to live in New York City. Maida Rosenstein, a UAW representative, said the strike could continue indefinitely; a spokesperson for the Whitney said that the museum ‘remains committed to arriving at a fair, reasonable contract that respects the needs of all parties’.
Ann Temkin will step down as chief curator of painting and sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in January after nearly two decades. Temkin joined the museum as a curator in 2003, taking up her current role five years later. As head of paintings and sculpture she has curated exhibitions on artists such as Jasper Johns, Barnett Newman and Marcel Duchamp. Temkin is often credited with revolutionising MoMA’s programming by breaking down the separation between mediums, showing works from her department alongside film, photography and design. Next year, she will begin advising on the museum’s centenary celebrations in 2029.
Stephanie Rosenthal will be the next artistic director of the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam. Rosenthal is currently director of the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, which is set to open in December; before that, she was director of the Gropius Bau in Berlin and has also worked as chief curator at the Hayward Gallery in London. She will take up her new role in early 2027.
The National Gallery of Singapore (NGS) has changed its leadership structure. Chng Hak-Peng, a previous CEO of the Singapore Symphony Group, will perform the same function at NGS. He takes over from Eugene Tan, who will continue as director of the NGS and also Singapore Art Museum (SAM). Tan, who will continue in his dual role at SAM said ‘this is the ‘right time for each [museum] to benefit from dedicated leadership’.