Gareth Harris

Gareth Harris is the Chief Contributing Editor of The Art Newspaper

UK general election 2024: what art world figures want from the new Labour government

After a landslide victory for the Labour party, we asked museum directors, artists and art historians what they hoped the new political era could mean for culture

Oldest example of figurative art found in Indonesian cave

The picture depicting a wild pig and a trio of human figures dates from 51,000 years ago, according to researchers, and suggests that Europe was not the birthplace of cave art

French parliamentary elections 2024: candidates outline plans for arts and culture

Rassemblement National, New Popular Front and Renaissance politicians discuss policy areas, closing the Centre Pompidou and free entry to museums

Alexandre Crochet. Additional reporting by Gareth Harris

Antony Gormley donates art worth £500,000 to the UK Labour party ahead of general election

Fellow artists Grayson Perry and Maggi Hambling have also made “non-cash” contributions

Buckingham Palace opens newly restored wing with Gainsborough and Winterhalter works

Building’s East Wing, displaying 30 paintings and examples of Chinese porcelain, will be open to visitors from July

UK arts bodies urge incoming government to stand up for the culture sector

More than 20 organisations have called for improved arts education and freedom of movement in Europe

Marina Abramović to ask Glastonbury crowd to stay silent for seven minutes

A sculpture by Hank Willis Thomas and a Mark Wallinger film will also be shown at the celebrated UK music festival

Ex-Uffizi chief Eike Schmidt loses bid to become Mayor of Florence

Sara Funaro, a local councillor with the centre-left Democratic Party, reportedly took more than 60% of the vote

Non! Artist Shepard Fairey criticises France’s far-right party president for featuring his work in campaign films

The artist’s image of Marianne, a symbol of the French Republic, was featured in two videos posted by the National Rally’s Jordan Bardella

‘There is no panic’: artist Pavlo Makov on working in the beleaguered Ukrainian city of Kharkiv

Meanwhile, the Royal Academy in London prepares to launch a major survey of Ukrainian Modernist art in the wake of Russia’s invasion

UK export bar placed on Louis XIV’s £7.5m table top

The decision was made in the hope that a buyer can be found to “save the” object “for the nation”

Human rights body ‘dismayed’ after Iranian artist Atena Farghadani handed six-year prison sentence

The activist was arrested after attempting to hang one of her works on presidential palace wall

Two eco-activists arrested after Stonehenge sprayed with orange powder

The ancient site remains open as curators investigate the damage

From one hand to another: painting reworked by Rubens to be sold at Sotheby’s

Conservation has revealed the extensive changes Rubens made to a work originally by Herri Met de Bles

Centre Pompidou must not close for five years, say French critics and curators

An open letter has called for the public to have access to the complex during its major forthcoming renovation—and for the role of Paris’s state institutions to be protected as a result

Art created in response to Aids crisis resonates at Art Basel

Peter Hujar, whose work is still being uncovered posthumously, is among artists receiving acclaim

UBS and Art Basel mark 30th anniversary of their collaboration

As the milestone is celebrated with a joint commission, protestors attack UBS’s record on fossil-fuel investment

Anya Gallaccio wins commission for London’s first ever HIV/Aids memorial

The winning proposal features a tree trunk from which rings have been extracted and displayed nearby

Animal rights protestors cover painting of King Charles III in Wallace and Gromit stickers

Jonathan Yeo’s work was defaced by activists from the Animal Rising group

Would you Adam and Eve it? Michael Landy’s new public art piece brings Cockney Rhyming Slang alive

Signs on show across London’s East Bank highlight the endangered rhyming dialect

UK foundation makes mark ahead of general election with £30m gift aimed at promoting arts education

Clore Duffield organisation will back the creation of extra learning spaces and a new garden at Tate Britain

British Museum opens new storage and research facility

Known as BM_ARC, the site in Berkshire houses around 1.3 million objects from the London museum and is intended for scholars as well as members of the public

Student sit-in at Goldsmiths in protest over planned job cuts

The college—an alma mater of Sarah Lucas and Damien Hirst—faces a restructure and more than 130 possible redundancies

Book Clubinterview

Tears, tantrums and Turner Prize titbits: Lynn Barber on the messy art of interviewing artists

In her latest book, the veteran UK journalist recalls her many encounters with artists such as Salvador Dalí, Howard Hodgkin and the Chapman brothers

‘It must stop!’: French culture minister pursuing new law to deter art activists

Rachida Dati tweeted about implementing a penal policy to combat the vandalism of works of art following an attack on a Monet masterpiece

UK General Election | ‘End the culture of culture washing': art world figures express hopes and fears for the forthcoming vote

We spoke to cultural historians, former ministers and museum directors about the changes they hope to see for the culture sector—and crucially, who they will vote for

Tate director Maria Balshaw criticises British Museum’s sponsorship deal with BP

In an interview in the Observer newspaper, Balshaw also discussed the controversy around Tate Britain's Hogarth show, which one art critic described as "wokeish drivel"