Latest
Regional strength helps insulate Art Dubai from tariff-related turbulence
Lower price points and Dubai's enduring status as a tax haven buoyed sales
Democratic lawmakers urge J.D. Vance to save the Smithsonian from Trump
Four members of the House of Representatives wrote a letter to the US Vice-President to articular their "great concern over [the Smithsonian's] future"
David Geffen files countersuit against Justin Sun as collectors' fight over $78m Giacometti escalates
Geffen's countersuit comes two months after Sun, the crypto investor and buyer of Cattelan's Comedian, sued claiming ownership of the sculpture Le Nez
Basquiat's family portrait painting could bring $30m at Christie's auction
The painting "Baby Boom" was featured in one of the artist's first solo exhibitions at Fun Gallery
Los Angeles wildfire memorial project seeks to save chimneys from famous architects’ houses
Chimneys from Pacific Palisades homes designed by Richard Neutra, Eric Lloyd Wright and others—in many cases the homes’ only remaining elements—would be turned into a memorial for wildfire victims
The Week in Art
A podcast bringing you the latest news from the art world, every week
teamLab in Abu Dhabi, Christine Sun Kim and Thomas Mader, Vermeer’s final painting?—podcast
The lowdown on the Japanese collective teamLab’s new immersive art space, plus two artists discuss their London show exploring languages and stigma in Deaf and hearing cultures, and a chat about a Vermeer dated with the help of pollution
Art market
Qatari sheikh wins case against Phoenix Ancient Art over allegedly forged antiquity
The New York- and Geneva-based gallery says it will appeal the ruling in the case brought by Sheikh Hamad Bin Abdullah al-Thani
Monet riverscape could splash down for more than $30m during New York auctions
The painting headed to Christie's, "Peupliers au bord de l’Epte, crépuscule", was on display at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston for more than 30 years
New app for antiques dealers hopes to make streamlining inventory ‘less daunting’
Online software platform Ronati Studio, which is aimed primarily at vendors of antiques and collectable artefacts, manages inventory from acquisition to resale
Is the art market coming to the end of the age of eternal growth?
Further weak auction results, plus economic turmoil, raise fears the trade may have passed its peak
Miami dealer charged for hawking fake Warhols
Leslie Roberts, whose Miami Fine Art Gallery was recently raided by the FBI, faces up to 30 years in prison for wire fraud conspiracy and money laundering
Museums & Heritage
How the Imperial War Museum became the reluctant owner of an official Nazi portrait of Adolf Hitler
The painting by the Nazi artist Heinrich Knirr was originally installed in the German embassy in London in 1937
Canadian art museum gets $36m funding boost for expansion from provincial government
The McMichael Canadian Art Collection, the country’s largest museum devoted to Canadian art, has also received $18m from the federal government toward the renovation and expansion project
Tune in and zone out: new project shares the sounds of Unesco World Heritage Sites
Released to mark World Heritage Day, soundscapes include the “cacophony” of the Sistine Chapel and the “reverberating” Taj Mahal
Getty Museum acquires painting by Spanish Renaissance master Luis de Morales following extensive conservation
The painting, “Christ Carrying the Cross”, from around 1565, had been enlarged in the 18th century, work the Getty’s conservators had to painstakingly undo
Catholic artists celebrate Antoni Gaudí’s place on the path to sainthood
Known as “God’s architect”, Gaudí was earlier this week declared “venerable” by the Vatican
Art Dubai 2025
What’s on: Our pick of some of the best exhibitions to see during Art Dubai
Contemporary and performance art, plus a sprawling survey of sub-Saharan art are all on offer during the fair
Art Dubai is cementing its position as the region’s key art market
As the UAE’s art scene continues to grow, Art Dubai is looking to expand too, including expanding its Downtown Design event to Saudi Arabia next month
teamlab’s vast new interactive art museum opens in Abu Dhabi
TeamLab Phenomena is the first of several major museum openings due this year in the UAE capital, including the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi
UAE launches fund to help local artists participate in global art fairs
The new scheme, managed by Art Dubai, will provide up to half the stand costs for galleries to exhibit at major fairs
In pictures: Art Dubai’s Bawwaba section
Mirjam Varadinis of the Kunsthaus Zurich, who curated Bawwaba, chooses ten works in the section, from painting to neon sculpture to mosaics
Exhibitions
The future is sexy—at least in Syd Mead’s visionary science-fiction art
The late artist’s first retrospective, at a pop-up space in Manhattan, offers an idealised, futuristic take on the 21st century
Yinka Shonibare’s first major solo show in Africa opens in Madagascar
The exhibition at the Fondation H in Antananarivo includes the British Nigerian artist’s 6,000-book installation The African Library
Guggenheim shows to champion Maria Helena Vieira da Silva, who still ‘needs to be rediscovered by many audiences’
The career survey of the Portuguese abstract painter starts in Venice before moving to Bilbao
David Hockney 25 review: an absolutely enormous splash ★★★★
The artist’s largest ever show—at Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris—requires patience at times, but is overall a triumphant celebration of his inexhaustible eye
With ‘Art and Design in the 1940s’, Philadelphia Museum of Art is exploring a decade of two halves
Using the museum's vast archive, this exhibition highlights the impact of war followed by optimism
Visitor Figures 2024
Insights from The Art Newspaper's annual, exclusive and worldwide visitor figures survey
Exclusive | The world’s most-visited museums 2024: normality returns—for some
A new museum in Shanghai leaps into our top ten and European museums continue their strong performance, but our exclusive annual survey finds that some British institutions are still lagging behind
How many visitors is too many? Paris museums confront ‘over-attendance’
Visitors have streamed back after Covid-19, but the influx has been a double-edged sword, forcing some institutions to consider their long-term sustainability
Museums are losing social media followers amid users' mass X-odus
Some institutions have ditched their accounts in protest, while others have chosen to “quiet quit” and stopped posting on the Elon Musk-owned platform
Museums in southern Brazil still recovering after last year’s floods
Damage and destruction decimated visitor numbers to cultural events and institutions last year but optimism is high they will return in 2025
Comment | Scrapping DEI initiatives could damage US museums’ visitor numbers
As art institutions—particularly in Washington, DC—succumb to the White House’s anti-diversity directives, a veteran of the museum world warns of the dangers of giving in to the whims of the Trump administration
Opinion
Comment | A buoyant art scene—and an exciting new generation of artists—mean this could be ‘the African century’
Long overlooked or stereotyped, African contemporary art is finally receiving global attention, writes Wim Pijbes, former director of the Rijksmuseum
Comment | The 1930s all over again? Trump and ‘Entartete Kunst’ revisited
There are alarming echoes of the notorious Nazi-organised exhibition in America today—but we also need to acknowledge the differences between the world today and 1930s Europe
Comment | Why Edinburgh was the obvious location for the Palestine Museum's first satellite branch
While many jurisdictions are making it increasingly hard for Palestinian artists, Scotland's hospitality has been heartwarming, says the Connecticut-based institution's director
Comment | Works of art are living things—so should we let them die?
The cost—financially and environmentally—of preserving works of art can be huge. Perhaps it is time to rethink how we look after them
Comment | Balanchine is Modern master whose impact on contemporary art should not be overlooked
The choreographer’s formal gestures and patterns make him crucial to contemporary performance art
Technology
News, background and analysis on the latest tech developments—artificial intelligence tools; Web3, the blockchain, NFTs; virtual and augmented reality; social media platforms—and how they affect the art market, museums, artists and curators.
An inside track on the Huntington’s rapid social media growth
The California institution is one of the top five museums for social media growth in the world in the past year. We spoke to the museum's director of digital and social content strategy
How AI models are helping to reveal South America's archaeological sites
Analysis of aerial and satellite images has rapidly identified ancient sites, but human expertise is still essential in refining the outcomes
Jeu de Paume puts on wide-ranging survey of work created by artists working with artificial intelligence
With “Le Monde Selon L’IA”, the Paris media art centre takes a broad look at work made using both analytical AI and generative AI
Museums are losing social media followers amid users' mass X-odus
Some institutions have ditched their accounts in protest, while others have chosen to “quiet quit” and stopped posting on the Elon Musk-owned platform
Did AI just authenticate a version of one of Rubens’s most famous works?
A Swiss company has examined a version of Rubens’s ‘The Bath of Diana’, which was long thought to be a copy, and believes it could be authentic—the leading authority on the artist takes a different view
Book Club
The trials and tribulations of putting together Lucian Freud’s catalogue raisonné
The forensically researched volume on the British artist's oil paintings offers a depth of scrutiny that he himself was famous for
An expert’s guide to Ruth Asawa: five must-read books on the Japanese American artist
All you ever wanted to know about Asawa, from a graphic novel biography to tales from her time at the celebrated Black Mountain College—selected by the curator Janet Bishop
April Book Bag: from a new angle on Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel to the re-issuing of bell hooks’s art essays
Our round-up of the latest art publications
New book looks at the shaping of Modern art in the Middle East beyond politics and war
The Arab art specialist Saeb Eigner talks about his comprehensive new biography spanning from 1900 to today
Books
Japan is opening its eyes to women photographers—and to the female gaze
Denied recognition and even credit for their work until recent times, Japan’s women photographers are challenging and subverting traditional assumptions about the female body
Review | ‘An utterly positive and dangerously irrelevant’ book written by the chief executive of Arts Council England
This journey through the UK’s publicly funded arts carefully averts its eyes from the many signs of crisis
A new monograph places the writing, painting and archive photographs of Aubrey Williams in thrilling conversation
The publication about the Guyanese-born artist includes diary entries and several works that have been photographed for the first time
New book celebrates William Butterfield, a master of High Victorian Gothic architecture
Nicholas Olsberg’s publication offers a learned analysis of the architect’s work, which includes Oxford’s Keble College and central London’s All Saints church
A new volume explores the intimate art of drawing, as seen through a wider lens
This “alternative” history navigates the medium through artists on the margins, as well as established practitioners
Diary
Howay man, that was one hell of a night! Antony Gormley's Angel of the North celebrates Newcastle United's victory
The Gateshead sculpture was dressed up in a Newcastle United football shirt for the Carabao Cup final at Wembley, drawing fans to the site when the team won 2-1 against Liverpool
King Charles III gets busy with his pencil
The monarch will unveil one of his own drawings in a special exhibition marking the 25th anniversary of the Royal Drawing School
No one wants my art, sulks Hunter Biden
Sales of Joe Biden’s son’s artworks have nosedived since his father left office
Snap! Miles Aldridge takes polaroid pics at Sotheby’s
Maurizio Cattelan was among those papped—all for charity
Want to sleep with Botticelli and Titian? London’s National Gallery launches sleepover prize
Dinner at Locatelli and a guided tour of the redisplay are part of the prize package
A brush with... podcast
A podcast that asks artists the questions you've always wanted to
A brush with… Kent Monkman — podcast
Kent Monkman talks to Ben Luke about his influences—from writers to musicians, film-makers and, of course, other artists—and the cultural experiences that have shaped his life and work
Obituaries
Remembering Rosalind Savill, the porcelain expert who transformed the Wallace Collection
During her 19-year tenure as its director, she turned a sedate institution into a vibrant tribute to the culture of 18th-century France
Remembering Jack Vettriano, an immensely popular artist whose market success reflected 'an appetite for the glamorous'
The sale of “The Singing Butler” at Sotheby’s in 2004, for a record price for a painting by a Scottish artist, caused a sensation and turned attention on Vettriano's critical and institutional neglect
Serge Lasvignes, former president of Centre Pompidou, has died aged 70
The Centre Pompidou extended its international reach during Lasvignes's tenure
Mel Bochner, conceptual artist known for text paintings and wry humour, has died, aged 84
Bochner was a pioneer of conceptual art, creating works rooted in information systems and decontextualised language
Remembering John Mawurndjul AM (Balang Nakurulk), the Australian Indigenous artist whose meticulous bark paintings captured a hidden power
The painter was also a keen supporter of women artists
Adventures with Van Gogh
Adventures with Van Gogh is a weekly blog by Martin Bailey, our long-standing correspondent and expert on the artist. Published every Friday, his stories range from newsy items about this most intriguing artist to scholarly pieces based on his own meticulous investigations and discoveries.
Van Gogh’s love of Hiroshige, the Japanese master of the landscape, will be reflected in a British Museum exhibition
Vincent’s own copy of print which inspired one of his paintings is to be shown in London