Museums & Heritage

1,375-year-old pyramid structure found in Hidalgo, Mexico

Highway road work has uncovered an ancient civilisation’s ceremonial centrepiece

Polychrome 17th-century statue that was stolen from a church in 2007 is returned to Mexico

The artefact had been recovered from a US gallery in 2017, but since then its status was a mystery

Louise Bourgeois’s mammoth spider will return to Tate Modern for the gallery's 25th anniversary

A new “capsule collection” trail will also feature works by Mark Rothko and Dorothea Tanning

Women-only art installation reopens at Mona, allowing some men to enter—and learn about housework

Kirsha Kaechele' Ladies Lounge will be reinstalled at the Hobart museum for a month after the supreme court overturned a ruling that the work was discriminatory

President Biden establishes national monument acknowledging history of forced assimilation at Native American boarding schools

The monument, at the site of the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania, will ensure nobody forgets one of the “most horrific chapters in American history”, Biden said

Metropolitan Museum reveals design for new $550m wing for Modern and contemporary art

Designs for the Oscar L. Tang and H.M. Agnes Hsu-Tang Wing, conceived by the architect Frida Escobedo, show a stepped exterior of latticed limestone

Protestsinterview

‘There won’t be any artefacts if we don’t turn this crisis around’: the retired priest, 82, facing prison for Magna Carta protest

Revd Sue Parfitt is “quite relaxed” about the prospect of prison for attacking the foundational document as part of climate action but she is upset that her licence to officiate as a priest has been revoked

UK strikes culture partnership deal with Saudi Arabia

The new bilateral agreement is intended to help Saudi Arabia “fulfil its ambition to become a global visitor destination”

MoMA PS1 receives $1m gift from trailblazing collector’s foundation

The gift to the New York contemporary art centre from the organisation named after David Teiger will help to fund an upcoming exhibition programme

Seattle Art Museum visitor services workers are on strike

The action comes after 27 months of contract negotiations reached an impasse; the museum is working with a third-party security firm to keep the galleries open

Saudi Arabia to give €50m towards Centre Pompidou refurbishment

France will also help develop a raft of new museums in the kingdom, including a photography institution

Vatican gives Apollo a hand—literally—ahead of Jubilee Year

Restoration of the marble is expected to be a draw for the year-long event, which will allow public access to works in the Pope’s private collection as well as exhibitions across the Holy See and Rome

Museums without vitrines: the Scottish research team transforming the way we view art

An extended reality platform being developed by a Scottish university allows users to “teleport” around virtual museums

National Portrait Gallery partners with immersive institution to tell the human stories behind its collection

New experience produced by Frameless Creative with London museum to launch national and international tour at MediaCity, Salford, in May 2025

Vancouver Art Gallery scraps plan for new, $444m Herzog and de Meuron-designed building

The institution ended its partnership with the Swiss firm, begun nearly a decade ago, as it reassesses its plans

Influencers: is it time for museums to go all in?

As an advertising agency pays Instagram influencers to promote museums, is it really worth shelling out thousands of dollars for added publicity and to reach new audiences?

Museums turn to consultants to help them go green

Climate experts are helping museums, to create systemic change

Who was buried in Ornans? Restoration of Gustave Courbet’s intriguing masterwork may offer clues

The Musée d’Orsay hopes the restoration of ‘A Burial at Ornans’—once a Salon scandal, now a pride of the Paris museum—will unlock some of its secrets and reveal the painting to be even bigger and bolder than it appears now

France returns ancient artefacts to Ethiopia in diplomatic ‘handover’

The French culture minister insists the move is “a handover, not a restitution, in that these objects have never been part of French public collections”

Museum’s therapeutic art programme helps military veterans find their voices

Art for Vets initiative at Currier Museum of Art in the US encourages personal expression under the care of a full-time art therapist

Inside Aliph, the organisation racing to save the world’s heritage

An in-depth look at the inner workings of the International Alliance for the Protection of Heritage in Conflict Areas

Ancient Maya city of Ucanal was contaminated with mercury, study reveals

Newly published research shows just how pervasive mercury—an essential element in the red cinnabar pigment favoured by the Maya—is at the site in Guatemala

A bridge between worlds: Central Asia’s first private Modern and contemporary art museum to open in Kazakhstan

Almaty Museum of Arts will house more than 700 works by Kazakh and Central Asian artists, while also presenting an substantial collection of international art

Prizesnews

‘Intimate, personal, nuanced, complex’: Victoria and Albert Museum reveals winner of Jameel Prize 2024

The latest edition of the £25,000 prize, awarded every three years to an artist inspired by Islamic traditions, is themed around moving image and digital media

US authorities return four artefacts from Ban Chiang archaeological site to Thailand

The items, which include a vessel and bracelet, had been gifted to a US soldier more than 50 years ago

Museu de Arte de São Paulo to finally open $43m expansion project in March 2025

A new building adjacent to the Brazilian museum’s original home will more than double its total space

Seven years on from Emmanuel Macron’s pledge to return Africa’s heritage, frustration grows about the lack of progress

An Ivorian drum will be returned—though only under a special “deposit agreement”—while a crucial colonial bill has stalled

Fit for a king: Egyptian museum in Turin unveils new galleries for monumental ancient sculptures

The dramatic revamp of the Italian institution’s Gallery of the Kings is part of a broader renovation that is due to complete in 2025

Welsh government hopes to boost tourism and heritage with proposed ‘tourist tax’

Wales may follow cities such as Venice in introducing the controversial levy