Italy

From Roman dining to the victims of Vesuvius: Pompeii hails reopening of archaeological museum

The Antiquarium reveals treasures and recent discoveries charting the ancient Roman city's rich history before deadly volcanic eruption

QAnon: the Italian artists who may have inspired America's most dangerous conspiracy theory

An anonymous left-wing art group known in the 1990s as Luther Blissett are wondering what they have unwittingly helped create

Culture war erupts over Venice mayor's closure of Doge's Palace and other civic museums until April

Luigi Brugnaro's "entrepreneurial" decision violates Venice's historic agreement with Italian state to keep the landmark open to the public

Ancient ‘fast food’ stall comes to light during Pompeii dig

Thermopolium snack bar is revealed in full, providing "extraordinary evidence of the Mediterranean diet', says director

Racist or responsive? Italy to exhume Mussolini's colonial museum collection in 'critical' new display

Alarmed post-colonial researchers have raised concerns over plans to open Museo Italo Africano "Ilaria Alpi" in late 2021

Venice Biennale pleads with Christoph Büchel to return migrant boat to Sicily

Biennale officials and Sicilian town council call on artist to honour his commitment to return controversial Barca Nostra exhibit after one year

Uffizi director Eike Schmidt has contracted coronavirus

Museum chief is asymptomatic and says he will continue working in quarantine

Historic churches of Naples are at risk from sinkholes

Researchers have identified nine buildings that require a “quick response” and a further 57 places of worship that could suffer from future cavity collapses

In search of la bella vita, Mendes Wood sets up in bucolic Italian villa

Gallery opens an exhibition of works by Cristina Canale, Vojtěch Kovařík, Paulo Nazareth and Brice Guilbert at Villa Era as clients seek a more rural art experience during pandemic

Six women, one foreigner: Italy appoints 13 new museum and heritage directors

Culture minister Dario Franceschini reverses trend for appointing foreign leaders for its leading institutions

Venice comment

How to save Venice: a five-point plan by a leading citizen

Polls show that Venetians are about to re-elect a populist mayor who promises to bring back all the tourists—but none of the other eight candidates has presented a realistic alternative

MaXXInews

MaXXI to open new museum in earthquake-ravaged L'Aquila in October

Contemporary art outpost of Rome museum will be housed in an 18th-century palace rebuilt with Russian government funds

Snap! Tourist takes a selfie on a 19th-century Canova sculpture—and breaks off two toes

Concerns raised about how the visitor gained access to the Paolina Bonaparte cast

Cultural love-in between Italy and Russia sets ‘soft power’ alarm bells ringing

Growing unease as the special relationship between the two countries gains momentum during the Covid-19 crisis

Real life art without the masks: Italian dealer sidesteps pandemic with drive-through exhibition

Massimo Minini and BelleArti are opening a show of 16 site-specific works in an underground car park in Brescia

Send the religious art in museums back to the churches, says the director of the Uffizi gallery

Eike Schmidt says up to a thousand works are languishing in state-run stores all over Italy

Five European museum directors explain their reopening strategies

From capped visitor numbers to surgical gloves and temperature checks, here's how cultural institutions are getting ready to leave lockdown

Steve Bannon wins first major battle for medieval monastery

Italy retaliates with criminal prosecution of right-wing religious group funded by US President Donald Trump’s former chief strategist

Major Raphael show in Rome returns for three-month run

Securing the loan extensions was “really easy” says director of the Scuderie del Quirinale

Italian museums start to reopen from today after €55bn lifeline from government

National spending package includes emergency support for state museums, arts organisations and cultural businesses

Explosion in chemicals factory threatens Venice with cloud of toxic smoke

The fire is now under control, but the mayor warns people to stay indoors and keep their windows closed

Museums in Belgium and Italy to reopen mid-May under phased lifting of lockdown

Belgian museum director says his institution is “ready to serve as a test room”

Pope Francis, his crucifix and the Virgin Mary: miraculous or merely traditional?

Art history removes the numinous from art. At the Vatican’s Covid-19 blessing we saw it invoked again

Inspired by Italy's spontaneous singing, museums commission artists to make 'balcony art' during coronavirus crisis

Fourteen artists have been asked by the L’Internationale museum group to participate in the project, which supports artists with "quick, modest commissions"

'Save Italian culture from suffocation': art world leaders sign petition calling for national art fund in the wake of coronavirus crisis

Signatories include leaders at Rome's MaXXI Museum and Venice’s civic museums as well as the artist Paola Pivi

Take a virtual tour of once-in-a-lifetime Raphael show in Rome that closed after four days due to coronavirus

Video is part of Italy's "Culture never stops!" initiative providing online access to cultural and heritage sites

Letter from Italy: the churches—open, but without services—are the only place to see art

The Art Newspaper's founder-editor Anna Somers Cocks on the impact of Covid-19 on Turin, where she is in lockdown

'Italy, I love you': Marina Abramovic releases moving video message during the coronavirus crisis

Performance artist says we "must learn a lesson" from the disaster of the pandemic in her contribution to Palazzo Strozzi's new digital project

Podcastspodcast

Coronavirus: dispatches from Italy and China

We speak to our journalists Anna Somers Cocks and Lisa Movius about their experiences of lockdown. Plus, we begin a new feature—Lonely Works—where we look at individual works of art that are now hanging unseen in galleries. Produced in association with Bonhams, auctioneers since 1793

Hosted by Ben Luke. with guest speakers Anna Somers Cocks, Lisa Movius and Bendor Grosvenor. Produced by Julia Michalska, David Clack and Aimee Dawson