Catherine Hickley

German medieval altarpiece wings that remained in one family for 500 years to be auctioned at Sotheby’s

The portraits painted by Bartholomäus Zeitblom carry an estimate of £400,000-£600,000

Germany slashes VAT on art sales to 7%

The reduction, which comes into effect next year, meets long-standing demands from German dealers

Almost untouched for a century, Swiss painter Albert Anker’s rural home opens to visitors

The Centre Albert Anker in Ins, Switzerland, is set to open to visitors on 7 June with an exhibition on the artist's travels to Italy

Berlin’s Brücke Museum settles with the heirs of a Jewish collector on Kirchner painting

The work, showing two of Kirchner’s fellow artists playing chess, was sold under duress by the Berlin dealer Victor Wallerstein after he fled to Italy from Nazi Germany

Icom names Medea Ekner as director general

Ekner, who was appointed interim director general last year, has 25 years of museum experience in Sweden and New Zealand

Ukrainian museums call for better recognition of their role in reconstruction

More than 100 Ukrainian museum professionals, meeting in Berlin, pledge to rebuild a modern, inclusive cultural sector

Nazi-loot panel set up by private Swiss collection to evaluate painting by Hodler

The painting, purchased by the real estate magnate Bruno Stefanini in 1998, was once owned by a Jewish woman who fled Hitler’s Germany

Baroque guardhouse’s floating concrete cube in Dresden holds vast avant-garde gift

Archive of the Avant-Garde in German city’s renovated Blockhaus hosts Egidio Marzona’s collection of paintings, drawings and vast documentary archive of letters, manuscripts, sketches, invitations and stickers

Prizesnews

Young V&A makes shortlist for UK museum of the year prize

The shortlist of five for Art Fund's ₤120,000 award also includes the Craven Museum, Dundee Contemporary Arts, the National Portrait Gallery and the Manchester Museum

Anger as Vienna's new Actionism museum shows child abuser's art

The inclusion of Otto Muehl, who was convicted of sexual abuses against minors, has triggered protests at the Vienna Actionism Museum, which opened in March

Klimt portrait surrounded by mystery sells for €30m in Vienna

The price paid by a buyer from Hong Kong was at the lower end of the estimate range, but still an auction record for Austria

Stolen Italian landscape returned to Oxford's Christ Church Picture Gallery from Romania

Police are appealing for information about two other paintings stolen in the same 2020 burglary

Monira Al Qadiri exhibition to open Johann König’s new Munich gallery in a former power plant

König says the new space, König Bergson, is one of the largest commercial galleries for contemporary art in Germany

Austria names Fatima Hellberg to run Mumok, Vienna’s museum of Modern art

Currently director of Bonn’s Kunstverein, Hellberg takes up her new post in October 2025

UK museums take global lead in sustainability

However arts organisations worldwide trail behind the corporate sector and academia, according to a study, often because of limited resources

War, refugees, destruction: how Venice Biennale 2024 will reflect our era

Thousands have called for Israel’s pavilion to be cancelled, a proposed Palestinian exhibition was rejected, while Ukraine’s pavilion deals with its ongoing war

French authorities seize Russian avant-garde paintings believed stolen

The haul includes works purportedly by Wassily Kandinsky, Kazimir Malevich and Natalia Goncharova

Nicholas Cullinan is appointed director of the British Museum

Cullinan, currently the director of the National Portrait Gallery, faces an array of challenges in rebuilding the oldest national museum in the world’s reputation

How allegations about David Adjaye continue to impact global museum projects he has been involved with

While the architect, who has been accused of sexual misconduct, has been fired or stepped down from a number of contracts, other institutions continue to work with Adjaye Associates

Germany to replace Nazi-loot advisory panel with binding arbitration

The changes will allow Germany to better meet its commitments under the Washington Principles, the country's culture minister says

Early Gerhard Richter mural, painted over in 1979, resurfaces in Dresden

Painting in a stairwell and foyer at the German Hygiene Museum is one of the few early works to survive

German Academy of Arts opens Otto Dix archive—and recalls a scandal

Dix’s war painting The Trench, lost during the Second World War, is in focus at the opening

Laurie Anderson withdraws from German professorship after criticism of Israel

The artist and Grammy winner supported a 2021 petition by Palestinian artists titled “Letter Against Apartheid”

Klimt portrait believed lost for a century to be auctioned in Vienna

The auction house Im Kinsky estimates the price of the 1917 painting at between €30m and €50m

Berlin Senate drops 'anti-discrimination clause' in funding agreements after protests

Senator Joe Chialo says he is responding to criticism that the clause restricted the freedom of art

Frankfurt’s Städel shows anniversary gift of works by Honoré Daumier

Collector Hans-Jürgen Hellwig will donate more than 4,000 works by the French artist best-known for his cartoons

German culture minister implements changes to ease restitution of Nazi-looted art

But her most important reform proposal faces opposition from the state of Bavaria

Artistsfeature

Caspar David Friedrich: his rise from obscurity to fame

Slew of shows this year mark 250th anniversary of German artist who, as a favourite of Hitler, had fallen out of favour