Martin Bailey

Dürer’s “Virgin of the Sorrows”: almost too terrible to show in Munich

Three works by the German master went on show last month following an acid attack a decade ago. Two have been restored with a new ion-exchange technique used on paintings for the first time

Art marketarchive

German Renaissance altarpiece dismembered

Edinburgh buys central panel, but the wings may have escaped

Looted artarchive

From the archive (1998): How The Art Newspaper tracked down Ethiopia’s greatest icon after its looting by a British agent in 1868

The Kwer'ata Re'esu was kept in a bank vault in Portugal, where our correspondent examined it and took colour photographs in 1998

From the archive | By George! How Roy Strong acquired admired paintings of Handel and Stubbs in his first year at the National Portrait Gallery

Archives telling the story of Strong’s first years as director of the London museum, released under the 30-year rule, reveal how money was raised for two of the finest 18th-century portraits in its collection

From the archive | When Jacob Rothschild spoke out about the challenges of running the Heritage Lottery Fund

Rothschild retired as the first chairman of the Heritage Lottery Fund at the end of March 1998. In a rare interview, he described its relationship with government

Pleasant and acceptable: how Pietro Annigoni came to create a second portrait of Queen Elizabeth II in 1970

In 1967 the National Portrait Gallery in London did not own a portrait of the monarch—but commissioning one was to prove a challenge

Biggest Art Nouveau show ever at the V&A

Exhibition promises to be “the largest and most comprehensive exhibition of Art Nouveau ever staged”

Nazi lootarchive

Search continues for missing Raphael painting

Stolen in 1945 from a Polish prince’s museum, it is now thought to be in Bavaria

Tatearchive

A Tate for the 21st century: decisions to be made about the collection remaining at Millbank Tate

With modern foreign art to be displayed at Bankside, opinion within the Tate differs as to how the story of British art should be told

Collectorsarchive

Sir Denis Mahon retracts his gift to the Walker in protest against entry charges

Baroque paintings given to National Gallery of Ireland instead

Tatearchive

Bringing British art out of the shadows

Sir Edwin Manton, an American-based insurance executive, has donated £7 million ($11.2 million)

July 1997archive

At least 45 Van Goghs may well be fakes: The Art Newspaper investigates

Sixteen of the doubted paintings are displayed in the Van Gogh museum; leading scholars to consider another 21 dubious works

Unescoarchive

The aspirations of Chris Smith, new Labour Secretary of State for National Heritage

Smith hopes for Britain to rejoin UNESCO, aiming divert Lottery funds to health and education

Archivesarchive

Revealed: what happened to the “degenerate” art in Germany’s museums, from G to Z

A 1941 typescript has been discovered that fills in the missing history of 16,588 works of art seized by the Nazis

Holbein's 500th birthday receives international recognition

It is marked by three celebrations in his native Basel and an exhibition at London's National Gallery on his renowned “Ambassadors”

Mysterious religious treasures from Mount Athos go on display in Thessaloniki

The monastery has been forbidden to women since 1060 and remains barely accessible to laymen, making this public exhibition an opportunity of a lifetime

Twenty-five Hermitage “treasures” gained as war loot still unclaimed

Watercolours and drawings seized by the Red Army in a Berlin bunker in 1945 have been on show in the Hermitage earlier this year for the first time

Lottery winners and losers. £150 million to make Britain’s museums and galleries into world leaders

But Victoria and Albert Museum’s £23m British Galleries project sent back to the drawing board

Sir Denis Mahon threatens to withdraw pictures from Liverpool's Walker Art Gallery

Veteran collector and lobbyist for the arts opposes introduction of entrance fees

Suffocation is the new non-toxic way of eliminating insect pests

Getty conservators research new methods of protecting museum works from pests

Lawarchive

Vast exodus of art from Hong Kong due to fears of a Chinese clamp-down after the handover

Collectors fear changes to export regulations after British departure

Afghanistan’s historical sites devastated: An up-to-date survey

Looting, conflict and mining have caused terrible destruction

Gilbert collection of gold and silver to go to Medici palace as well as the V&A

Timothy Schroder named curator for the collection, and will start work on the Somerset House displays

Tatearchive

The Tate Gallery: What The Queen, Mark Rothko, Peggy Guggenheim and Barbara Hepworth all said.

In Britain, official papers are revealed after thirty years. The Art Newspaper was ready and waiting to see what was—and what might have been