Catherine Hickley

Documenta appoints Sabine Schormann as third director in less than a year

She will take over following last edition's €5.4m budget fiasco

Turkmenistan sends treasures to Berlin in diplomatic move

Bronze Age artefacts from historical region of Margiana go on show at the Neues Museum

Germany to pilot free-entry museums at Humboldt Forum

New coalition government waives charges for permanent collections in Berlin complex for first three years—but critics warn of consequences

Documenta appoints musical producer as interim manager amid budget debacle

Wolfgang Orthmayr to replace Annette Kulenkampff, who left before her contract ended

Kassel seeks three new 'Documenta professors'

Scholars will conduct research for a new institute of the quinquennial show based in the city

From Gerhard Richter to Dürer: Christie’s to showcase German art and collecting during Berlin Gallery Weekend

Exhibition targeted at Old Master collectors will not compete with the contemporary art event, auction house says

Cranach portrait stolen almost 80 years ago returns to heirs of Jewish banker

Christie’s to auction portrait of John Frederick the Magnanimous in New York next month

Hartmut Dorgerloh nominated to head Berlin’s Humboldt Forum

If appointed, Dorgerloh, who currently manages the Prussian Palaces and Gardens Foundation, will replace the three founding directors

Beer and bread rolls for a vandalised sculpture in Münster

City residents aim to raise €1.2 million for Nicole Eisenman’s Sketch for a Fountain

Featurespreview

East German ‘arseholes’ are reappraised

The painter Georg Baselitz once profanely dismissed artists behind the Iron Curtain—but their work is now experiencing a long-overdue rediscovery

Widow of Hitler’s art dealer, Erhard Göpel, bequeaths Max Beckmann works to Berlin

Initial research into provenance 'gave no concrete cause for suspicion that these works were looted', Berlin State Museums says

Berlin Museums chief calls for rules on restitution of colonial artefacts

Hermann Parzinger has global support for the equivalent of Washington Principles on Nazi-confiscated art for objects from former colonies

Düsseldorf gears up for the battle of the photography festivals

Düsseldorf Photo Weekend kicks off its seventh edition on 16 February

Estate of Nazi propaganda film-maker, Leni Riefenstahl, donated to Berlin museums

Trove of photographs, films, manuscripts and letters date back to the 1920s

Germany to set up help desk for victims of abuse in creative industries

Announcement comes ahead of Berlin Film Festival which will have sexual harassment, abuse and discrimination in the performing arts as central theme

Rubens and the works that inspired him brought together at Städel Museum

Flemish master had access to art from across the ages and assiduously reworked drawings by other artists

Boris Johnson related to mummy found in Basel crypt

Corpse is identified as Anna Catharina Bischoff, who is great-great-great-great-great-great-grandmother of British foreign secretary

Kassel launches funding campaign for Documenta obelisk

The work by Olu Oguibe calls for hospitality towards refugees

Birthday bash for Baselitz as he turns 80

Simultaneous exhibitions dedicated to German artist open in Basel

Artists, museum directors, scholars voice concern about Documenta’s future

An open letter calls for business chief Kulenkampff’s reinstatement and a new budget plan

Paris's Dapper Foundation stalls talks over Cameroonian sculpture

Known as the Bangwa Queen, the object was either given to or looted by the German colonial agent Gustav Conrau

Ethicsnews

Should museums display human remains from other cultures?

Vienna’s Weltmuseum criticised for displaying a trophy head

German museums report 2.5 million drop in visitor numbers in 2016

Number of people visiting art museums in the country has dropped by 7.4 per cent

Lasers and water gel used to restore Medieval altarpiece from Rimini

The treatment of Frankfurt’s Liebieghaus museum's fragile alabaster ensemble could pave the way for future loans

Carsten Höller to build slide for Bonn Bundeskunsthalle

Installation will form part of an exhibition on playgrounds

Qatar brings desert sands to snowy Berlin

Contemporary Art Qatar transcends cultural boundaries at the Kraftwerk

Documenta manager to leave post after budget overruns

Annette Kulenkampff departs on “mutual agreement” a year before contract ends

Germany names new head of Nazi-looted art panel

Hans-Jürgen Papier fills post held by Jutta Limbach until her death last year