Latest
Technology reveals ancient text inside burnt Herculaneum scroll
Scientists used artificial intelligence and X-ray imaging to decipher the Roman object's contents
‘The story is more complex than just what you see’: Amsterdam exhibition explores the courtroom as a landscape
Over 250 pastel drawings by Dutch artist Machteld Aardse were created in courthouses and secure facilities
Classic Art London rises from the ashes of London Art Week
After the Old Master focused gallery trail was forced to wind down due to lack of funding, a new visitor engagement effort is launching this summer
Operations staff make the art world go round—so why are they undervalued?
First survey of gallery and auction house staff reveals problems with job security, career paths and inequality
The Big Review: Rachel Ruysch: Nature into Art at the Alte Pinakothek ★★★★
An extensive exhibition dedicated to the Dutch artist highlights her beautifully detailed still-lifes. But do these paintings offer more than splendid decoration?
Zona Maco 2025
Tariff anxieties are no match for buoyant mood at Mexico City’s Zona Maco
The fair’s VIP preview saw a rush of collectors and museum groups, many sales and little hand-wringing over a possible Mexico-US trade war
Lucía Sanromán, the new chief curator of Mexico City's Muac, has a vision for a more socially engaged museum
Sanromán has an ambitious agenda for the Museo Universitario Arte Contemporáneo that includes repairing its fractured relationship with the local community
El escenario artísico de la Ciudad de México mira hacia el futuro
A pesar de los recortes, la amenaza de aranceles y la gentrificación, nuevas voces le dan vida a la vibrante mezcla de museos y galerías en la capital
Unique Design X, Mexico City's newest art fair, returns for second edition
The nomadic fair has also held editions in Shanghai, Paris, Miami and Savannah
Jaime Gorozpe comparte su filosofía de coleccionismo y sus lugares favoritos para comer y ver arte en la Ciudad de México
El coleccionista advierte a los visitantes de la Ciudad de México que deben planificar con anticipación y no ser demasiado ambiciosos en cuanto a qué parte de la extensa ciudad pueden cubrir en un día
India Art Fair 2025
Indian government remains ‘evasive’ over plans for the world’s biggest museum
The ambitious project will replace the National Museum in New Delhi—but crucial details remain under wraps
As competition heats up, India Art Fair refines its vision
The New Delhi fair's 16th edition—its biggest yet—welcomes 78 galleries and an expanded design section which builds on the country's ancient craft tradition
Khoj artists’ association in Delhi holds fundraising show at perilous time for India’s non-profits
Seventy former resident artists nurtured at the pioneering organisation have donated works to help ensure its support for future generations
Ayesha Singh’s India Art Fair tent commission remembers the forgotten women of Indian architecture
Singh considers the vast scale of India's religious, cultural and ideological movements at a time of charged historical revisionism
Collector Jaiveer Johal on staging a 'milestone moment' in queer Indian art
The Chennai-based logistics director, who has recently launched a foundation to promote art in the city, is helping to fund the first Indian retrospective of the gay photographer Sunil Gupta
Art market
Justin Sun, the buyer of Sotheby’s $6m banana, sues megacollector David Geffen over $78m Giacometti sculpture
Sun claims he is the rightful owner of Le Nez, which is purportedly now in Geffen’s possession in New York
Christie's pulls El Greco work from sale after Romanian government intervenes
Romanian prime minister Marcel Ciolacu said a legal team is pursuing the recovery of the painting once owned by King Carol I of Romania
Classic Art London rises from the ashes of London Art Week
After the Old Master focused gallery trail was forced to wind down due to lack of funding, a new visitor engagement effort is launching this summer
Former owners of insolvent Galerie Thomas in Munich are under fraud investigation
The Munich state prosecutor says the office is looking into “breach of trust in a number of cases,” with damages amounting to millions of euros
1-54 Marrakech fair opens with strong sales and a spotlight on Morocco’s growing art scene
Sales highlights from the VIP preview include a major Amoako Boafo acquisition and works by leading Moroccan artists
Museums & Heritage
Unesco completes restoration of Mosul heritage sites damaged under Isis
The UN body has brought several religious and other buildings in the Iraqi city back to life as part of an $115m programme
Collector removes Boccioni sculpture from major Futurism exhibition citing misleading texts and safety concerns
Roberto Bilotti has removed the piece from Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea in Rome, claiming it was being exhibited in “a dark corner” and was “not valued at all”
Egyptologists raise ‘mismanagement’ concerns after worker seen hammering at Great Pyramid of Giza
Viral footage of a worker apparently using a hammer and chisel to chip at the stones of the pyramid has prompted debate across Egypt's heritage sector
Museums in Kansas City and Philadelphia wager art loan on Super Bowl's outcome—again
As in 2023, the American football championship game on 9 February pits the Kansas City Chiefs against the Philadelphia Eagles
Palazzo where Byron had lengthy affair opens as a museum
The institution in Ravenna houses objects kept by Countess Teresa Gamba Guicciolo, the noblewoman who had a relationship with Byron in his final years
Exhibitions
Art from a conflicted time: Anselm Kiefer's early works head to Oxford
An exhibition at the Ashmolean Museum brings together 42 paintings, watercolours, artist books, photos and woodcuts made between 1969 and 1982—along with three new works
Joshua Reynolds’s Portrait of Mai to hit the road on UK tour
The masterpiece will leave the National Portrait Gallery and head to Bradford and Cambridge
February's must-see exhibitions: Leigh Bowery, Scottish Colourists and a Surrealist with a taste for the occult
The Art Newspaper's pick of the top shows to see around the world this month
American Artist builds on author Octavia Butler’s prescient, dystopian vision
In their new show at Pioneer Works in New York, American Artist reflects on Butler’s most famous series of novels and her archives
Early Palestinian photographer's exhibition at Tel Aviv museum follows renewed study of her work
Karimeh Abbud, one of the earliest female Palestinian photographers, comes into greater focus in her biggest show to date in Israel
Books
A new volume explores the intimate art of drawing, as seen through a wider lens
This “alternative” history navigates the medium through artists on the margins, as well as established practitioners
Beetlejuice and beyond: the origins of Tim Burton’s world of gothic romance and its enduring influence
Catalogue accompanying exhibition at London’s Design Museum explores the US film-maker’s unique aesthetic
Intense repartee: a collection of letters that the critic John Berger exchanged with his artist son
The correspondence between John and Yves Berger is both moving and enlightening
Two books explore Piet Mondrian's journey into abstraction—and his posthumous influence on 1960s fashion
How, two decades after his death, did Mondrian become a brand icon, and make a lasting contribution to the “youthquake”?
This newly translated volume compiles the photographic traces of a libidinous love affair
Author Annie Ernaux and journalist Marc Marie’s collaborative memoir documents a passionate yet haunted relationship
Diary
Parkinson’s charity sale presents cubed art by Rana Begum and George Shaw
Works by 118 artists, on show at Bonhams, will be sold in aid of the Cure3 initiative
Curator formerly known as Aaron Cezar wows as Prince
The director of the Delfina Foundation showed off his inner purple during Singapore's Art SG fair
Activist Coco Fusco is using laughter to trump fear
The Cuban American artist has created a satirical newspaper lambasting the new US president
Parkinson’s charity sale presents cubed art by Rana Begum and George Shaw
Works by 118 artists, on show at Bonhams, will be sold in aid of the Cure3 initiative
Tom Hanks reverts to type for New York exhibition
Highlights from the Hollywood actor's 300-strong collection of typewriters will go on show in New York state
Book Club
Don McCullin on swapping war zones for museums and why his ‘printing days are over’
The revered photojournalist has turned his focus to ancient statues for a new photography book
An expert’s guide to Anselm Kiefer: five must-read books on the German artist
All you ever wanted to know about Kiefer, from a deep dive into his studios to the poetry that inspires him—selected by the curators Emilie Gordenker, Edwin Becker and Leontine Coelewij
February Book Bag: from a history of Māori art to T.J. Clark’s essays on politics and art
Our round-up of the latest art publications
‘I thought I would be trampled to death’: travelling with Gilbert & George to put on a show in 1990s Beijing
An exclusive extract from a new book by James Birch who helped organise exhibitions for the artist duo in Communist Russia and China
Obituaries
Remembering Leonid Bazhanov, larger-than-life curator who pushed Russian contemporary art in new directions
The death of Bazhanov, who founded institutions including the groundbreaking National Centre for Contemporary Art, follows that of two other leading figures of the Conceptualist movement
Remembering Colin Renfrew, a lover of Modern art who revolutionised archaeology
His championing of radiocarbon dating and other new scientific approaches demonstrated the untenability of the conventional explanation for cultural change
Jo Baer, painter who pivoted from abstraction to ‘radical figuration’, has died, aged 95
Baer was equally renowned for her work in Minimalist abstraction and figurative painting
Aaron De Groft, Orlando Museum of Art director fired in Basquiat forgery scandal, has died, aged 59
Following successful stints at museums in Virginia and on Florida’s Gulf Coast, De Groft’s career became mired in the Basquiat fakes fiasco
David Lynch, artist and film-maker who portrayed America’s dark side with surreal humour and violence, has died, aged 78
Lynch trained as a painter before becoming a successful film-maker and ultimately returning to visual art in recent decades
Opinion
Comment | Sotheby’s fees fiasco displays terrible timing and a miscalculation of market dynamics
The auction house's swift reversal of its recently overhauled premium structure is an admission of how wrongly it read the runes, writes Melanie Gerlis
Comment | Why seeing art by train should be the next big thing
Flying to an exhibition is increasingly unjustifiable. But by choosing the train, visitors can enjoy endless, inspiring encounters with art and life
Comment | What happens behind the scenes at the museum is what really matters
From delicate cleaning to forklifts, the unseen, but crucial, investment often goes unnoticed
Comment | Why the road to the sale of Frieze is a winding one
The potential sale raises questions around how to value the prestigious and unique art brand
Comment | Despite what some critics claim, art today isn’t really too obsessed with ‘social justice’
In viral essays and beyond, those who bemoan the dominance of identity politics in museums often reveal more of their own biases than of the art world's
A brush with... podcast
A podcast that asks artists the questions you've always wanted to
A brush with… Linder — podcast
In the first episode of 2025, Linder, best known for gritty and glamorous photomontages, discusses the Manchester punk scene of the 1970s, the impact of reading Germaine Greer and the Brontës and using her scalpel as a ‘magic wand’
The Week in Art
A podcast bringing you the latest news from the art world, every week
Peter Hujar, Gregg Bordowitz and Rotimi Fani-Kayode: art and the Aids struggle— podcast
A special episode on three artists dealing with the crisis in different ways
Adventures with Van Gogh
Adventures with Van Gogh is a weekly blog by Martin Bailey, our long-standing correspondent and expert on the artist. Published every Friday, his stories range from newsy items about this most intriguing artist to scholarly pieces based on his own meticulous investigations and discoveries.
How many Van Goghs have been stolen—and where are they now?
A new Dutch book provides the first comprehensive account of how the artist’s work has been targeted by thieves
Technology
News, background and analysis on the latest tech developments—artificial intelligence tools; Web3, the blockchain, NFTs; virtual and augmented reality; social media platforms—and how they affect the art market, museums, artists and curators.
Artists can copyright works made using AI as an ‘assistive tool’, US Copyright Office concludes
The Copyright Office’s new report also concluded that “the incorporation of AI-generated content into a larger copyrightable work” is acceptable
Comment | How technology can help the art world take a big step towards sustainability
A new report published by the virtual reality platform Vortic makes clear the environmental benefits of going digital—and a hybrid approach could a way forward in the short term
Immersive inspirations: three key developments from 2024
It was a big year for immersive art, with major institutions getting involved, new virtual reality kit, and a groundbreaking event in Venice
Does Trump’s return spell boom or bust for the NFT art market?
Experts are sceptical that the NFT market will ever rebound to its 2021 levels, but the crypto asset sector may still manage to take over the art world one way or the other
Palestine Museum US launches NFT collection in support of Gaza artists
The museum released a non-fungible token of a work by the Gazan artist Mohammed Alhaj to kick off the new initiative