Museums

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Comment | When did US museum design get so boring?

While art-museum architecture remains vibrant across the globe, many US institutions are both uninspiring and unwelcoming

Art Fund awards £1.2m to 29 UK museums to support ‘innovative’ projects

Charity's “Reimagine” programme will fund a variety of initiatives, from developing a new model for provenance research to preserving digital heritage

London's Brutalist Barbican Centre to close for £240m renovation

The building, which houses three gallery spaces, will close for a year from June 2028

The best exhibitions of 2025, as chosen by curators and museum directors

From Wolfgang Tillmans at Centre Pompidou to Linder at the Hayward, these are the shows that stood out this year

Compiled by José da Silva

Taichung’s new ‘Museumbrary’ expands Taiwan’s culture credentials

The cutting-edge institution, which opens tomorrow, fuses museum and library in decommissioned military airport

UK police hunt suspects in ‘high-value’ Bristol museum heist

More than 600 objects were stolen from the collection of the British Empire and Commonwealth Museum, which closed in 2008

Museumsanalysis

Saudi art world questions widespread use of consultancies in shaping culture landscape

As the country's art scene continues to expand, the reliance on external companies such as McKinsey and Boston Consulting Group is raising eyebrows

Diaryblog

We will always love you: museum dedicated to Dolly Parton to open in her Nashville hotel

The singer and actor’s life story will be told through the Dolly’s Life of Many Colours Museum

Disruption expected at British Library as hundreds of workers strike over pay

The Public and Commercial Service union says library staff face “increased poverty and debt, with a concurrent rise in health issues”

Immersive institution could replace South Beach cinema

The Superhuman Museum will combine ‘elements of theme parks, of art museums and of experiential museums worldwide’

Two more mega museums open in Abu Dhabi

The Zayed National Museum, designed by Norman Foster, and the Natural History Museum, are both located on the emirate’s Saadiyat Island

Prizesnews

New £200,000 contemporary art prize is biggest in UK

The Serpentine x Flag Art Foundation Prize is open to artists of any age, based anywhere worldwide, who have been exhibiting professionally for less than ten years

British Museum's looted ewer set for return to Ghana on long-term loan

The 14th-century, English-made Asante Ewer was seized from the royal palace in Kumasi in 1896 and has been held by the British Museum ever since

Despite Putin’s repressive regime, a new private museum opens in Moscow

Zilart will house the huge collection of St Petersburg property developer Andrey Molchanov and his wife, Yelizaveta Molchanov

New UK law makes restitution easier—but excludes national museums, such as the British Museum

Legislation allows non-national museums established as charities to transfer property on a “moral basis” depending on its value

Palazzo of Pop Art: new gallery in Italy will house major collection of 20th-century art

Sonnabend Collection in Mantua—home to the collection of the late dealer Ileana Sonnabend—includes works by Jasper Johns and Andy Warhol as well as contemporary artists

Museumscomment

Comment | Turner gets all the kudos, but it was Constable who was the truly radical painter

John-Paul Stonard argues the case for honouring Constable at London's soon-to-be expanded National Gallery

UK government's tourist tax plans could boost funds for culture sector, industry leaders say

The fee, announced ahead of today's budget, would apply to overnight stays, with England's mayors and local leaders able to decide what revenue should be spent on

In bid to diversify KW Institute in Berlin, artist Sung Tieu sells work to fund new board member

The contractual work was sold for €25,000 to appoint curator Mi You to the institution's board

Where will Labour government’s local reforms leave England’s cash-strapped museums?

Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ planned overhaul of regional councils promises stability, but delivers confusion for the cultural sector

France's Bonnat-Helleu museum reopens after 14-year renovation with new discoveries and 2,500 loans from the Louvre

Museum in Bayonne, in the southwest of the country, has spruced up its historic building and doubled its display area

Politician demands end to Grand Egyptian Museum ticketing system that leaves locals in ‘secondary category’

The newly opened museum currently allocates a percentage of its daily ticket limit to both Egyptians and foreigners

Rijksmuseum to host study exploring potential benefits of art for people with Parkinson’s

A leading neurologist is working with the Amsterdam museum to see if making or encountering art can help ease symptoms of the degenerative disease

Acquisitions round-up: an ‘exceptionally rare’ portrait of an enslaved person and two large-scale donations

Our pick of the latest gifts and purchases to enter institutional collections worldwide, including the enigmatic “Portrait of Frederick”

Portland Art Museum to unveil $116m transformation with Mark Rothko at its heart

After more than a decade of planning, the US state’s largest ever capital investment in the arts opens with a new pavilion named for Rothko and a gallery devoted to Black artists

In southern Italy, a long-planned excavation is revealing the secrets of an ancient Greek sanctuary

This summer a team of archaeologists resumed their work on a site dating back to around 600BC, known for its three well-preserved Doric temples

Museumsanalysis

Do museums need to crack down on selfies?

The Uffizi in Florence is restricting selfies, and New York’s Frick Collection bans all photography—but other museums encourage them

New York’s Studio Museum—known for championing Black artists—reopens in $300m new home

The legendary institution, which took seven years to build, reopens with an exhibition devoted to the works of Tom Lloyd

How China’s private museums are navigating a post-boom era

Some museums have closed, falling victim to Covid-19 and a slowing economy, while others are scaling back or regrouping

How an old conservation technique involving salts is winning over museums

Research shows that the solutions long used in a German castle are a cheap, effective conservation method with advantages over silica and air-conditioning