Catherine Hickley
Catherine Hickley is the Museums & Heritage Editor of The Art Newspaper
London's prestigious Courtauld Institute to create British art centre with $12m donation
US-based Manton Foundation's gift will establish a research facility and "intellectual hub" at Somerset House
Rare Caspar David Friedrich sketchbook jointly acquired by Berlin, Dresden and Weimar museums
The sketchbook will be shown in all three cities to mark what would be the artist's 250th birthday
Hartwig Fischer, former British Museum director, is appointed to run Saudi museum of world cultures
Fischer, who resigned after a thefts scandal at the British Museum, has been announced as the founding director of the new institution, which is expected to open in 2026
Young V&A wins UK Art Fund Museum of the Year prize
The prize rewards a space for children that “will cement museums as places they belong and feel welcome as they grow up, regardless of their background”
Marion Ackermann appointed first woman to run Berlin state museums
Ackermann is to take up the post in June 2025 after nine years managing Dresden’s state art collections
British Museum’s historic Reading Room opens to the public after 11 years
The space, once used by the likes of Karl Marx, is finally available for all visitors to the London institution to see
Jordaens painting to be sold after settlement with heirs of Jewish bank shareholders
The work, to be auctioned at Sotheby’s today, was one of more than 2,500 held as collateral and sold, shortly before the Nazi invasion, by the Dutch bank Lisser & Rosenkranz
Bührle Foundation’s provenance research is inadequate, report finds
The report by Raphael Gross calls for more research and details how Jewish owners are omitted from the published provenance
Stedelijk Museum restitutes Matisse Odalisque to Jewish arts patrons’ heirs
Albert Stern, the former owner, sold the painting “out of necessity” in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam, the Dutch Restitutions Committee says
Collector Reinhard Ernst’s abstract art gets a new home in Germany
The Museum Reinhard Ernst, opening this week in the city of Wiesbaden, houses works by Frank Stella, Jackson Pollock, Damien Hirst and Neo Rauch
Monet to go on sale after Kunsthaus Zurich reaches settlement with Jewish heirs
The collector and textiles entrepreneur Carl Sachs sold the painting after fleeing to Switzerland from Nazi Germany in 1939
Swiss Bührle Foundation seeks to settle with Jewish heirs on major Impressionist works
Paintings by Courbet, Monet, Toulouse-Lautrec, Van Gogh and Gauguin are to be removed from display at Zurich’s Kunsthaus
Germany returns looted antiquities in Berlin’s Altes Museum to Italy
As a “thank you” gesture, Italy is reciprocating with loans from Paestum and Naples
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
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