Museums & Heritage

Canada returns 11 artefacts to Turkey in the first repatriation between the countries

The manuscript pages, prints and calligraphy had been seized by Canadian authorities as they arrived in Vancouver from Istanbul

Smithsonian’s governing body quietly losing members

Two people finished their terms on the institution’s Board of Regents in early March and have yet to be replaced

Santiago museum, set on fire during 2020 protests, reopens

The works of Chile’s most famous folk artist, singer and composer return to the Violeta Parra Museum, which now has enhanced security

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Arts organisation enlists celebrities in fight to save Manhattan church

The Center at West Park has been marshalling support from famous actors led by Mark Ruffalo to stop the demolition of West Park Presbyterian Church

Arts and heritage organisations largely exempted from new UK regulations on memberships

Representatives for the Victoria and Albert Museum, the National Trust and the Tate had warned that the legislation could have severely impacted their funding

Unesco grants enhanced protection to 39 Lebanese heritage sites as war escalates

The cultural body has also unlocked more than $100,000 in emergency funding for urgent operations on the ground

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

Construction of White House ballroom must stop, federal judge orders

The order by a district court judge for Washington, DC, requires the White House to seek approval from Congress for Donald Trump’s $400m construction project

Mexico’s art community calls for greater transparency in management of treasured collection

More than 300 Mexican cultural professionals are calling for clarity surrounding the Gelman Santander Collection, a trove of works by Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco, María Izquierdo and others

Germany to create council to oversee restitution of colonial-era acquisitions

The new panel is intended to “shape ongoing and future restitution processes more effectively” and coordinate with counterparts in receiving countries

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

Copy of Rembrandt portrait on display in Chicago is by the master himself, scholar claims

The art historian Gary Schwartz argues that the copy of “Old Man with a Gold Chain” currently hanging alongside the original at the Art Institute of Chicago is by Rembrandt himself, not his workshop

New £5m cultural centre in Northampton, UK to pursue model that ‘embeds artists in social and economic fabric of a place’

The Arts Collective complex, five years in the making, will feature galleries, learning spaces and 17 artists’ studios

Comment | Inside the preservation of the largest fortress in the Americas

A trek to Haiti’s Citadelle Laferrière, a Unesco World Heritage site that has been undergoing conservation for 25 years

Contemporary Jewish Museum puts its Libeskind-designed building in San Francisco up for sale

The museum, which has been closed since December 2024, will continue its programming in collaboration with other cultural institutions

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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”

Hirshhorn Museum’s revamped sculpture garden will feature new acquisitions by Mark Grotjahn, Lauren Halsey and more

The Smithsonian’s Modern and contemporary art museum in Washington, DC revealed eight recent acquisitions that will be displayed in the garden when it reopens this autumn

Excavations at Alexander the Great's rediscovered city in Iraq postponed due to war

New research has confirmed the site of the giant ancient metropolis, but further archaeological work has been delayed due to issues such as travel restrictions

Unesco-protected monastery in Lviv damaged by Russian drone strike

The 17th-century Bernardine Monastery was one of several buildings hit in the Ukrainian city’s historic centre, which is a Unesco World Heritage Site

Researchers at Art Gallery of Ontario identify painter and subject of 18th-century portrait of Black woman

Curators at the gallery are now piecing together the transatlantic journeys of Eleonora Susette, an enslaved woman who travelled from present-day Guyana to Amsterdam and back

Art Fund launches new fellowship scheme for global majority curators

The scheme will aim to address imbalances in the cultural sector, explore transcultural perspectives and engage with communities

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

Comment | Climate change is forcing tough choices—how much heritage can we save before it is too late?

As increasingly extreme weather threatens cultural sites, archaeologists are turning to technology to try and record them before they are lost forever

The new New Museum: now with twice the space

The New York institution opens its $82m expansion with a huge exhibition of works by more than 200 artists, from Salvador Dalí to Precious Okoyomon

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

500-year-old Aztec ritual offering uncovered in Mexico City

Six volcanic-stone boxes found at Templo Mayor reveal a ceremony linked to Moctezuma I’s imperial expansion

Next edition of Getty's PST Art initiative will focus on Los Angeles’s connections around the Pacific Rim

The initiative’s fourth edition in 2030 will be devoted to transpacific cultural exchange, with grant applications opening to institutions across eight Southern California counties this June

Endemic leaking problems at Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater finally come to an end

A $7m conservation project has focused on mitigating the engineering issues of the architect's masterpiece as well as preparing the building for a changing climate