The Trump administration has given the Smithsonian Institution until 13 January to provide all remaining documents related to a review of the content and plans of eight of the institution’s 21 museums, the New York Times reports. The government first requested these materials on 12 August in a letter addressed to Smithsonian secretary Lonnie G. Bunch III, which stated that a review would ‘ensure alignment with the President’s directive to celebrate American exceptionalism’ and ‘remove divisive or partisan narratives’. Although the Smithsonian has provided the White House with some internal materials, a letter sent to Bunch on 18 December said that these ‘fell far short of what was requested’. It also stated that the government’s funding of the museum, which makes up some 62 per cent of the museum’s budget, was contingent on the Smithsonian’s compliance with both Trump’s executive order ‘Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History’, issued in March 2025, and the terms of the review. The New York Times reports that in a letter sent to Smithsonian staff late last year, Bunch said that some aspects of the request would require ‘a significant amount of time’. The administration has not stipulated what penalty the museum might face if it does not meet the deadline.

President Trump has announced that the United States is withdrawing from more than 60 international organisations and United Nations agencies, including two dedicated to the protection of cultural heritage, the Art Newspaper reports. In a presidential memorandum issued on 7 January, Trump named 66 international organisations considered ‘contrary to the interests of the United States’. Among them is the International Federation of Arts Councils and Culture Agencies and the International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property, both of which conduct research and facilitate exchange between global arts agencies. In a subsequent statement issued by secretary of state Marco Rubio, all named organisations were denounced as ‘mismanaged, unnecessary, wasteful’ and ‘a threat to [the] nation’s sovereignty, freedoms and general prosperity’. Rubio added that a review of additional organisations ‘remains ongoing’.

The Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp (M HKA) has denounced the Flemish government’s plans to dissolve the museum as ‘unlawful’ after a legal review initiated by staff and artists including Luc Tuymans, reports Art News. Plans to turn the museum into an arts centre and move its collection to a new museum in Ghent were announced in October and met with immediate criticism by the arts community. Belgian outlet VRT News reports that in a press conference on 6 January, acting director of the museum Dieter Vankeirsbilck said that the plans should have been ‘open to consultation’ but had been presented as ‘definitive policy’, undermining the museum’s autonomy. In response to the review, Flemish culture minister Caroline Gennez said that she understood the ‘difficulties and concerns’ surrounding the plan, adding that the government was in discussions with the museum and was ‘open to further dialogue’.

Staff at the Musée du Louvre in Paris went on strike on 5 January in protest against understaffing and ‘unrealistic’ plans for a €666m renovation, and called for funds to be redirected towards building maintenance, the Art Newspaper reports. The walk-out was unanimously agreed upon by 350 staff members, including curators, and forced the museum to close for the morning. ‘No one has ever seen that level of tension in a national museum,’ said a representative of the French Democratic Confederation of Labour (CFDT), a trade union representing Louvre workers. The strike follows a three-day walk-out in December, when three unions stated that staff felt they had become ‘the last bastion before collapse’. In her 2026 budget, director Laurence des Cars has reportedly allocated only €15m for building maintenance, including €1.8m for artwork protection, despite reports that serious structural faults at the museum were putting visitors and artworks at risk and contributed to the heist of €77m worth of jewellery in October. Le Monde reports that the strike is currently on pause but that a CFDT representative confirmed that the ‘movement was not over’.

In Florence, staff at the Gallerie degli Uffizi have gone on strike after several temporary workers lost their jobs when the museum changed one of its​ service providers, the Art Newspaper reports. On 4 January, demonstrators carrying flags and flares protested in the museum’s internal courtyard behind a banner that read ‘no more precarious lives’. The strike was organised by trade union Sudd Cobas, which stated that the dismissal of workers from across the museum’s security, ticketing, reception, bookshop and coatroom teams – some of whom had worked there for a decade – was ‘impossible to justify’. An Uffizi spokesperson told the Art Newspaper that ‘for seasonal or temporary workers not retained by the new concessionaire, the museum can only exert moral suasion’. Discussions between union representatives and Florence’s deputy mayor for labour, Dario Danti, will take place in the coming days.