Gareth Harris

Gareth Harris is the Chief Contributing Editor of The Art Newspaper

Coronavirus travel restrictions force Venice Architecture Biennale to postpone opening until August

The biennial's 17th edition will now only run for three months rather than six

Louvre reopens after closing because of coronavirus

The Paris museum held talks with union officials yesterday

Kurdish artist Fatos Irwen released from Turkish jail after more than three years

Irwen was sentenced in 2016 on charges that included resisting the police at a protest she attended in 2013

Top five museum acquisitions of the month

Our pick of the latest gifts and purchases to enter international museum collections—from a pot by an African-American slave to the earliest depiction of Highland dress

Madridnews

Collector Francesca Thyssen-Bornemisza invests in Madrid after leaving Vienna

Austrian patron donates work to Reina Sofia and commissions new piece by Ragnar Kjartansson to be shown at Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza

Coronavirus: Louvre closes while Italian museums reopen following government green light

Italian officials say cultural institutions can open to the public so long as they ensure “visitors respect a distance of at least a metre between each other”

Collector Patrizia Sandretto Re Rebaudengo drops plans for new Madrid space in former slaughterhouse

Italian patron is looking for an alternative site in the Spanish capital after encountering "structural problems" with Matadero's Nave 9 building

Leading French auctioneer François Tajan dies, aged 57

The deputy chairman of the Paris-based auction house Artcurial was suffering from food poisoning

Iraqi-US artist Michael Rakowitz's new anti-war monument in Margate points accusing finger at UK government

Seafront commission, which references the invasion of Iraq in 2003, is part of England’s Creative Coast: Waterfronts initiative

Green energy company powers Madagascar's first contemporary art non-profit

Hakanto Contemporary, sponsored by the eco-friendly Filatex group, is directed by the artist Joël Andrianomearisoa

Louvre's Leonardo da Vinci show smashes attendance record with more than one million visitors

Previous highest figure was 540,000 people for the Eugène Delacroix show in 2018

Arab Springanalysis

The ripple effect of the Arab Spring

Political upheaval across the region presents challenges—and opportunities—for artists and collectors

Mass museum shutdown in northern Italy—including Peggy Guggenheim Collection and Fondazione Prada—as coronavirus spreads

Public and private institutions in Venice, Milan and Turin will stay closed for at least a week as more than 200 cases of Covid-2019 are confirmed

UK art schools begin 14-day strike action

Dispute centres on zero-hours contracts, pay devaluation, rising workloads and the gender and ethnicity pay gap

Suspect list in stolen Klimt saga grows

A woman connected to the museum where the painting was found is under investigation by the Italian police

Russian artist Pyotr Pavlensky caught up in politician sex tape scandal is arrested in Paris

Dissident wants to create a “political porn” website focusing on behaviour of people in power

Plans for Berggruen Institute's 'scholars' campus' in the Santa Monica Mountains move forward

First cohort of artist fellows includes Nancy Baker Cahill, Agnieszka Kurant and Pierre Huyghe

Tate Modern to show Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity Room in year-long exhibition marking 20th anniversary

Louise Bourgeois’s Maman spider sculpture will also return to the Turbine Hall

Sonia Boyce chosen as UK's first post-Brexit Venice Biennale artist

Selection committee says British Afro-Caribbean artist "has consistently probed one of society’s big questions: how do we live with difference?”

When will the art TV binge begin? Platforms like Netflix and Amazon are slow to show original cultural content

Streaming services have changed the way we watch television, but while they feature plenty of arts programming, there are few new commissions

South African architectural practice Counterspace to design 20th Serpentine summer pavilion

Structure is inspired by places where people gather across London including migrant community hubs

Louvre to open non-stop over closing weekend of Leonardo blockbuster show

Free entry—plus coffee and madeleines—promised for nocturnal visitors in a move that will allow an extra 30,000 people to see the exhibition

Teenager who threw boy from Tate Modern viewing platform told carers about his plan to kill

Jonty Bravery said he wanted to “push somebody off” more than a year ago

Three exhibitions to see in London this weekend

From today's finest figurative painters to British Baroque in the post-Brexit age

Uffizi wins legal battle against 'cybersquatter' owner of Uffizi.com domain name

The unofficial websites were used to sell tickets to the Florentine museum at inflated prices

From Bristol to Bermuda: satirical artist Cold War Steve asks public to download and exhibit his work

Exhibition project You, Me & Cold War Steve: the International Exhibition of the People has already been downloaded 3,000 times with scheduled venues across the globe

Collector David Roberts—who closed London gallery to bring art to the regions—will focus 2020 programme on Scotland

Artists Lina Lapelytė, Paul Maheke and Nina Beier will present new live performance works at Glasgow International contemporary art festival

Lootnews

Looted ancient temple sculpture—seized by UK police—will go home to Afghanistan

British Museum and Art Loss Register collaborate over recovery of ancient bull decoration that was consigned to an online auction