Leaders

Comment | The 1930s all over again? Trump and ‘Entartete Kunst’ revisited

There are alarming echoes of the notorious Nazi-organised exhibition in America today—but we also need to acknowledge the differences between the world today and 1930s Europe

Technologyanalysis

Here's how the EU is aiding artists in tackling social media moderation issues

Out-of-court dispute settlement bodies are an important development in supporting creative expression

Opinioncomment

Comment | The UK is attempting to pry open a notorious data ‘backdoor’—here's why that's alarming for artists

Emma Shapiro on the UK government's secret order to break end-to-end encryption and allow access to all citizens’ Apple iCloud data

Tristram Hunt: 'The government needs to cancel the British Council’s debt'

The V&A director on the dangers of the cash-strapped cultural organisation disappearing

Non-profitcomment

Comment | For non-profits the bottom line is about impact rather than income—but that doesn't mean we are ‘for loss’

Adam M. Levine, the director of the Toledo Museum of Art, argues that non-profits must embrace sound financial practices as a strategy to sustain and amplify their missions

Comment | In restitution cases, the law is not the only answer

To make progress in returning countries’ heritage taken by previous generations, museums must take a pragmatic, ethical stance

Opinioncomment

Comment | Don’t try to keep working-class students in a narrow educational lane

This idea of exposing working-class school students only to the stories of working-class heroes, at the expense of “middle-class pursuits” such as museums, is misguided

Antony Micallef
Protestscomment

The Year in Review: escalating art attacks and responses to war

This year has been marked by a rising number of politically-motivated attacks on art. But we should not forget the power of art to unite diverse groups of people

Opinioncomment

Comment | Why it's important to find hope for—and through—the arts after the US election

The divisions within American society cannot be ignored, but let’s focus on where the country is united, and how the cultural sector can foster that unity

Jamie Bennett and Suzy Delvalle
Art marketcomment

Comment | EU’s new anti-looting law is another blow for legitimate trade

Though laudible in its aim to kerb trafficking of stolen goods, planned rules will impose unreasonable burdens on lawful and genuine trade

Rudy Capildeo

Comment | In the run up to the US election, Boston's Museum of Fine Art is hopeful about art's role in a democratic future

The museum's latest exhibition explains and scrutinises democracy through objects spanning 2,500 years

Phoebe Segal
Lootingcomment

The case for a cross-border approach for recovering Europe's Nazi-looted art

If governments are committed to the Washington Principles, they should create a co-ordinating body

Ten years on from the genocide, Yazidi culture is still absent from Western museums

Institutions have a moral duty to better represent the persecuted Kurdish religious minority

Why it's time for museums to take risks—or risk obsolescence

Jorrit Britschgi, executive director of the Rubin Museum of Art, on ‘embracing non-attachment and impermanence’

Sasha Skochilenko: I just happened to be the winner of the ‘Hunger Games’

The Russian artist, who was freed in a prison swap, on life under President Putin and spending more than two years in prison for an art intervention opposing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine

Conflictcomment

Why cultural destruction is such a dangerous military tactic

A landmark report shows how attacks on heritage can cause “psychosocial, economic, and other types of harm”—but laws need to go further

Leaderscomment

The US needs an independent commission for Nazi loot claims

‘If an artwork is located in the US, its fate cannot be decided in any other state, and any wrong decisions cannot be corrected elsewhere’

Leaderscomment

Simple steps art museums can take to drive sustainability

Reducing the art sector’s ecological footprint can seem daunting, but art institutions can implement these two impactful changes with relative ease

Leaderscomment

Now is the time to give artists a thriving wage

Paying artists properly enables them not only to meet their needs equitably but also to flourish, fostering future savings and investments within their communities

Jeffreen M. Hayes
Leaderscomment

How artists are uniting to defeat Donald Trump at the polls

The Artists For Democracy 2024 project is working with world-renowned artists including Shepard Fairey and Carrie Mae Weems to mobilise voters

Leaderscomment

In Javier Milei’s Argentina, artists—like everyone else—face uncertainty and scarcity

Since taking office, the country’s far-right president has created a situation where millions of people are slowly being pushed to their limits

Art marketcomment

It’s time to end the predatory practices of 'sleeper hunters'

Sleeper hunter dealers must recognise they have an asymmetrical relationship to vulnerable people pressured by circumstance to sell off their treasured heirlooms

Leaderscomment

How the Rybolovlev vs Sotheby's case shows the need for greater transparency in the art market

As the trial between the Russian billionaire and the auction house is thrashed out, it may be time to consider incorporating blockchain into the art scholarship process

Leaderscomment

The next urgent -ism: museums must change their ageist ways

Museums in the US and beyond are neglecting members of a rapidly expanding demographic who also historically have been the sector’s biggest donors

The Parthenon Marbles and the myth of the slippery slope

There are some very spurious arguments coming from those resisting the return of the marbles to Greece

Alexander Herman

Art is fanciful? The opposite is true as artists and designers address the most urgent global challenges

Rhode Island School of Design is participating in the Sustainable Markets Initiative’s Terra Carta Design Lab, leveraging art and design to address social issues

Time for the UK to adopt US-style rules on holding artists' funds

Primary-market sale proceeds should be held on trust so artists are never left out of pocket by a gallery's insolvency, writes IP and art lawyer Jon Sharples

Hawaiicomment

Picking up the pieces of Hawaii’s heritage after the devastating Maui wildfires

All but one of the 14 historic sites the Lahaina Restoration Foundation owned or managed was critically damaged in the deadly fires

'Never trustee an MP: why politicians should stay off boards of cultural institutions'

The "arm's length" principle, which frowns on political meddling in museums, is being eroded by policy hawks, writes artist and activist Bob and Roberta Smith