Museums & Heritage

Cattelan's £4.8m gold toilet stolen in five minute raid and split into smaller parts, court hears

The court case of three men charged with the 2019 theft has begun in Oxford, and is expected to last four weeks

Three years on from Russia’s invasion, Ukraine’s art world figures are keeping up the fight for their country’s culture

From an artists’ handbook addressing life under occupation to exhibitions combatting colonial narratives, the examples of resistance are various—despite growing pressure caused by US funding cuts

Archaeologist behind discovery of pharaoh's tomb says he may have found another

Piers Litherland, who led the team which discovered Thutmose II's tomb, believes this latest chamber could contain the ancient king's mummy

‘One night I slept under my desk’: Getty leader Katherine Fleming reflects on solidarity in the wake of the Los Angeles wildfires

The chief executive of the J. Paul Getty Trust shares her experience of the disaster, how the institution is supporting artists in the aftermath and the important capital projects that are on the way

National Trust paint archive promises to bring secrets to light

Thousands of historic paint samples—'miniature cultural assets packed with answers to questions yet to be asked'—will be analysed at Kent facility

Culture and heritage ignite the regeneration fire in Sheffield

The Steel City is excavating its buried medieval castle and building new cultural spaces

Three in five small UK museums and galleries fear closure amid declining revenue, new research suggests

The survey of independent cultural attractions found that three quarters of respondents were concerned for the future of the wider sector

Architect Lina Ghotmeh wins competition to revamp British Museum’s vast Western Range galleries

Ghotmeh beat five architect-led teams to land what the museum has called “one of the biggest cultural renovations undertaken anywhere in the world”

The Netherlands to return 113 Benin Bronzes to Nigeria

It is the latest example of a country announcing that it will repatriate a group of these objects, which were looted by the British as part of a punitive expedition in 1897

Why newly appointed museum directors fail, and how to avoid it: Kaywin Feldman’s new book on leadership

The director of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, offers sage advice on how non-profits can best manage personnel changes at the top

UK government aims to keep cash-strapped cultural venues ‘up and running’ with £270m funding package

Culture secretary Lisa Nandy announced today that funding will be shared between arts venues, museums, libraries and heritage buildings across England that are in “urgent need of financial support”

Museum of Contemporary Art Australia reverses ban on admission fees

Government funding for the Sydney institution, which is already closed one day a week and is now charging A$20 entry, remains the same as in 2008

Shifting sands of diplomacy between Europe and Middle East see institutions struggling

Cultural collaborations have become more centred outside European countries, leaving bodies such as Paris’s Institut du Monde Arabe adrift

Egypt announces discovery of first royal tomb since King Tutankhamun's was found over a century ago

The unearthing of King Thutmose II's tomb has been described as “one of the most important archaeological discoveries in recent years”

Chinese ceramics take centre stage at new museum in Portugal

The Albuquerque Foundation will show works from Brazilian collector’s holdings in a historic quinta

Laser mapping reveals massive ancient Zapotec city in Mexican forest

Long thought to be a fortress, Guiengola has been revealed as a sprawling city thanks to airborne lidar analysis

Serge Lasvignes, former president of Centre Pompidou, has died aged 70

The Centre Pompidou extended its international reach during Lasvignes's tenure

Banksynews

Migration season: Banksy’s animal art heads to new London Museum

A Piranha sentry box will be displayed at the new institution, previously known as the Museum of London

‘Let’s finally get on with it’: V&A director voices support for UK tourist tax

Tristram Hunt’s proposal would see funds ring fenced for cash-strapped cultural infrastructure

Suspended prison sentences sought in Versailles lead poisoning trial

Restorers were contaminated by lead dust when they scrubbed down the sculptures and decoration of the royal opera in the Château de Versailles

Private museum addressing gender inequality in Norway’s art scene opens

Sixty percent of the acquisitions at PoMo in Trondheim will be by women artists

Madrid's Reina Sofia museum acquires hundreds of works to diversify its collection

Spain’s national museum of contemporary art has purchased 470 works, most by women, and many by artists from ethnic minorities

Cleveland Museum of Art will return looted Greco-Roman bronze to Turkey

Scientific analysis confirmed that the ancient, headless sculpture had been looted from a shrine in Bubon

Indigenous communities assist with reinterpretation of Arizona petroglyphs

At the Deer Valley Petroglyph Preserve, a new project seeks to update the antiquated archaeological records of thousands of ancient motifs

Cemetery for enslaved people rediscovered at Andrew Jackson’s Tennessee plantation

Long-obscured and forgotten, the burial plots of more than two dozen people enslaved by the seventh president of the US are located and honoured

As Sudan’s civil war rages on, its heritage is under siege

At least six museums and multiple historic sites have suffered looting or damage as a result of the conflict

Roman basilica discovered beneath London office block

The 2,000-year-old ruins were found close to Bank tube station and London Bridge

Mentions of ‘transgender’ and ‘queer’ removed from US government website dedicated to Stonewall National Monument

Other pages on the National Park Service site related to diversity, equity and inclusion also appear affected

Textile Museum of Canada closing until autumn amid ‘unexpected shortfall in our finances’

The museum’s board chair also cited the need for “urgent repairs” to its building in downtown Toronto