Museums

Hong Kong’s West Kowloon Cultural District signs partnerships with 12 international institutions

The agreements will see an artist-in-residence pilot programme established with the Misk Art Institute in Riyadh and collaborations with Museums Victoria in Australia

Chinafeature

Museums in Shenzhen and Guangzhou are building bridges between Hong Kong and mainland China

Cultural exchanges in both directions have been created via new infrastructure, rail routes and flights, but also organically, through artist and institutional collaborations

Zurich's Museum Rietberg transfers 11 Benin Bronzes to Nigerian government

Nine of the objects will stay in Switzerland despite the change of ownership

British Museum did not remove Palestine from labels due to pressure campaign, museum sources say—as backlash continues

Some scholars however have questioned the wording used in the new labels in the Ancient Levant and Egyptian galleries

Helen Legg appointed artistic director of London's Royal Academy of Arts

Currently director of Tate Liverpool, Legg will be responsible for the RA’s exhibitions, collection and public programme

‘I don’t like that idea’: outgoing Tate director Maria Balshaw enters debate on museum admission charges

Balshaw says a proposed 'tourist tax' would be a better source of revenue for UK museums

Art marketanalysis

The rise and fall of ‘buy-one, give-one’ art sales

A once-popular mechanism that allowed collectors to secure an in-demand work if they gifted a second to an institution, market shifts have made "bogos" less viable

Comment | Why museum leadership needs to decentralise

It is time to rethink leadership that is framed as a top-down, heroic and deeply individualised pursuit

Aindrea Emelife

Snuffboxes stolen in Paris daylight robbery to go on display at V&A

The snuffboxes, made in 18th-century Berlin, come from the Gilbert Collection, and will go on display in a new gallery space at the V&A in South Kensington

Self-generated income for UK museums ‘can only go so far’ in filling gaps left by funding cuts, report says

Such income streams are “riskier” according to a new report by the National Audit Office

Unesco World Heritage buildings in Tel Aviv damaged by Iranian missile strike

Cultural sites and museums in Israel have closed and have been instructed to move their collections into bomb shelters

Paris to host first museum devoted to Alberto Giacometti with more than 10,000 artworks and objects

The Giacometti Museum and School will open in 2028 with a vast collection of masterpieces, many of which have never been exhibited

Australia’s coal city flexes culture muscle with major gallery expansion

Redevelopment makes Newcastle Art Gallery biggest regional collection in New South Wales

Museumscomment

Comment | Art is more than its original context

The place where we observe a work of art—and the feelings we have—play a crucial role in our experience

Los Angeles museums on the cusp of new golden age

Could the city’s cultural cachet soon match that of New York? A slew of multi-million-dollar projects, from dramatic new museums to major renovations, suggest that it could

New leaders of France's Louvre and Orsay museums announced

Christophe Léribault will replace Laurence des Cars following her resignation and Annick Lemoine will take up the vacant position after the sudden death of Sylvain Amic

Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor post-arrest photograph hung in Louvre by activists

Anti-billionaire campaign group Everyone Hates Elon put the photograph up and called for "justice for all Epstein survivors"

YouTube’s first ever video upload acquired by Victoria and Albert Museum in London

A reconstruction of an early YouTube watch page shows the 19-second clip "Me at the zoo" from 2005

Museum dedicated to the Romantic movement reopens in Paris on Valentine’s Day

Former home of painter Ary Scheffer celebrates the Romantic period through art, music and soundscapes

London’s National Gallery to cut staff as it faces £8.2m deficit

The institution is offering a “voluntary exit scheme” for all employees and will be reducing its activities

Syria’s Hasakah Museum—occupied by military for more than a decade—to finally open

The archaeological museum in northeast Syria—which was out of sight of many local residents until late 2024—is opening 24 years after construction on it began

London's Brutalist Southbank Centre awarded protected heritage status

The post-war arts complex has been Grade II listed but one critic has responded by calling it a “concrete monstrosity”

UK’s Hepworth Wakefield announces new co-directors

Hepworth insiders Laura Smith and Olivia Colling have been appointed into new roles as the gallery celebrates its 15th anniversary this year

Giorgia Meloni’s face removed from Rome fresco after complaints

An artist was asked by Vatican officials to paint over the image he had created during a restoration last year

Celebrations at Mexico's Museo Experimental El Eco

The museum marks the 20th anniversary of its reopening with new commissions and Art Week performance

Museumsinterview

'Still young and going strong': Berlin's pioneering contemporary art space Hamburger Bahnhof turns 30

Born out of the merger of East and West Germany's collections, the institution, which propelled the careers of Anne Imhof and Tomás Saraceno among many others, is celebrating its birthday with a year-long programme of events and a star-studded gala

Alabama advocacy group expands its historical sites

After building a museum, memorial and sculpture park, the Equal Justice Initiative opens a new site celebrating Civil Rights Era resistance in Montgomery

New Doha museum celebrates M.F. Husain’s global legacy

Launched by Qatar Foundation, Lawh Wa Qalam: M. F. Husain Museum is dedicated to the restlessly energetic Indian artist, who spent his final years in Qatar working on an ambitious new body of work

In partnership withQatar Foundation

‘An institution where you delve into works’: details of AlUla Contemporary Art Museum announced

The vision and name for the new institution, opening in the AlUla culture and heritage site in northwest Saudi Arabia, were revealed on 1 February