The White House has published a report accusing the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History (NMAH) of ‘extreme political activism’. ‘Saving America’s Story’, a 162-page report published by the Domestic Policy Council on 4 July, is part of the Trump administration’s ongoing review of the Smithsonian Institution. The report claims that the NMAH has become a place of ‘radical, activist ideology’ that has ‘denigrated and displaced whites, males, Christians, and Americans’ in its programming. The New York Times reports that Smithsonian secretary Lonnie G. Bunch III wrote to museum staff on 7 July to say that the report was ‘not a fair characterisation of the work and totality’ of the museum, and that its work is ‘driven by scholarship, accuracy, and an uncompromising commitment to tell the fullness of America’s story’.
A federal court of appeals has denied the Trump administration’s request for the president’s name to be reinscribed on the facade of the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. This follows a ruling in May in which US district judge Christopher Cooper stated that the board of the Kennedy Center – which has been chaired by Trump since February 2025 – had acted unlawfully in adding Trump’s name to the building in December 2025, and that only Congress could vote to change the name of the centre. Trump’s name was removed on 13 June.
The Manhattan District Attorney’s office announced on 8 July that it has returned 59 antiquities to Italy, Iraq and Indonesia through three ceremonies in New York. Among the 48 objects repatriated to Italy is a marble plate dating to 400 BC seized from the Metropolitan Museum of Art as part of the authorities’ long-running crackdown on the trafficking of ancient objects. Nine antiquities, including two figures of worship dating to 2750–2600 BC, were returned to Iraq; Indonesia received two skulls of members of the Dayak people of Borneo that were smuggled out of Indonesia and seized by the D.A.’s office in 2024. Altogether the objects have an estimated value of $600,000.
Thieves have stolen some €4.5m-worth of jewellery from the Musée Lalique, a museum in north-eastern France dedicated to the jeweller and glassmaker René Lalique. The Art Newspaper reports that three masked men broke into the museum during the early hours of 5 July and made off with 27 crystal pieces. The museum announced on its website that it would remain closed ‘for several days’ as investigations continue.
A UK judge has dismissed charges filed against Hauser & Wirth for allegedly breaching sanctions against Russia. Last November, prosecutors claimed that the gallery sold a work by George Condo to the Russian collector Alexander Popov in 2022 after the UK had banned the export of luxury goods to Russia or to those ‘connected’ to the country. However, Southwark Crown Court judge Tony Baumgartner ruled on 9 July that the prosecution could not prove that Popov was resident in Russia when the work was purchased, clearing Hauser & Wirth of wrongdoing. London-based art shipping company Artay Rauchwerger Solomons, which transported the work to Popov, was also cleared of all charges.
The New Museum in New York has appointed Massimiliano Gioni as its new director. Gioni has been artistic director of the museum since 2014, having joined as a curator in 2006, and has curated exhibitions of work by artists including Judy Chicago, Sarah Lucas and Ragnar Kjartansson. He also curated the Venice Biennale in 2013. Gioni begins his new role on 1 August, taking over from Lisa Phillips, who announced her departure late last year. In other appointment news, Sheikha Hoor Al Qasimi, a member of the Sharjah royal family, has been named the new chairperson of the Sharjah Museums Authority. Established in 2006, the authority manages 16 cultural institutions in the emirate of Sharjah in the UAE. Al Qasimi is also president and director of the Sharjah Art Foundation, which she founded in 2009, and director of the Sharjah Biennial.