Museums

Museumsanalysis

The Louvre’s new director is inheriting a troubled, traumatised museum—can he repair the damage?

Christophe Leribault, the former director of the Château de Versailles, faces a “derelict” infrastructure at the Paris museum and the fallout from last year’s devastating theft

Raphaelpodcast

Should English museums charge tourists? Plus, Raphael at the Met and Senga Nengudi at the Whitechapel Gallery—podcast

In this week's episode, Ben Luke discusses the UK government’s response to a report about the future of Arts Council England, talks to the curator of a new Raphael exhibition in New York, and takes a look at a work by the multimedia artist Senga Nengudi

Hosted by Ben Luke. Produced by David. Clack and Alexander Morrison

National Museum of Korea Seoul sees a surge in visitor numbers

According to our 2025 Visitor Figures survey, the Seoul location of the museum is attracting more international guests

How museum funding in Denmark has become reliant on visitor numbers

Danish government reforms have resulted in increased funds for museums, but some question the equity of grants based on footfall

Exclusive | The world's 100 most visited art museums in 2025: new venues a big hit with visitors

Our annual survey shows that some of the world’s most venerable institutions are still struggling to attract the number of visitors they had before Covid, but there is enthusiasm for new museums, and in regions such as Asia and Latin America

Barn at Henry Moore’s former home redeveloped into exhibition space

Following a £5m refit, the Sheep Field Barn gallery at the sculptor’s farmhouse in Hertfordshire, England, will also house an education centre

Museumscomment

Comment | Museums must be the leaders in a moral revolution

Museums are “remarkably unwilling to acknowledge their own status as democratic institutions, the bedrock of civic society and our most important public spaces”

UK government to ‘explore’ charging international visitors to museums in England

The government's favourable response comes three months after the publication of Margaret Hodge's landmark Arts Council England review

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”