Museums & Heritage

Museums in the changing world order: the rise of authoritarian nationalism

In the third part of a new series, Adrian Ellis looks at the cost of state support in illiberal democracies and the insidious erosion of institutional independence

The kids are alright: Art Gallery of Ontario offers free admission for visitors 25 and under, and reduced yearly passes for all

The Canadian institution aims to double its membership and expand its audience with one-year pilot programme

Uzbekistan’s troubled Nukus Museum embroiled in new row

Museum seeks fourth director in as many years amid claims its renowned avant-garde collection is being “mistreated”

Top five acquisitions of the month

Our pick of the most significant new gifts and purchases to enter museum collections worldwide, from Delacroix’s sketchbooks to a pair of Brexit vases

Hidden Cupid resurfaces in one of Vermeer’s best-known works after two and a half centuries

Laboratory tests revealed "sensational" discovery that the figure in Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window was overpainted decades after the artist’s death

Carolyn Christov-Barkargiev on the opening of the Cerruti Villa and its $600m, 'near-secret' collection

The house and collection of Turinese collector Francesco Federico Cerruti will go on show this week

Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection can keep a painting that the Nazis stole, US judge rules

The judge says the work should have raised suspicions, but that he must apply Spanish law

Newly restored Hillsborough Castle brims with clues to its past at the heart of Irish politics

Georgian mansion, the Queen’s official residence in Northern Ireland, has reopened to the public

Culture Pass brings library patrons to New York museums—and now, museums to libraries

Branches across the boroughs are now hosting museums' educational programmes

Many Whitney Biennial artists sign letter calling for museum vice chairman's removal

Letter cites Warren B. Kanders's role in company that manufactured tear gas used at US border

Italian prosecutor claims Medieval missal in Morgan Library was stolen from parish church

Official argues that its return could help boost tourism in an area that has suffered economically from earthquake damage

Nancy Kenney. , with additional reporting by Stefano Miliani

Notre Dame: experts explain why Macron's five-year restoration deadline is impossible

Complex conservation issues mean it could easily take a decade or more to rebuild the Medieval cathedral

Nancy Holt’s desert Sun Tunnels will be cleaned and repaired—but the bullet marks are staying

The artist considered the streaks left by gunfire to be part of the Land Art work's evolution

Uzbekistan opens new art centre to boost 'undeveloped' local scene

Moscow's Garage Museum of Contemporary Art is offering curatorial expertise as part of growing network of partnerships with post-Soviet countries

Guggenheim Abu Dhabi is 'on track, on budget', director Richard Armstrong says

Construction on the long-delayed project is expected to take three to four years

London’s Warburg Institute launches £14.5m expansion to revive the 'science of culture'

Research centre based on the library of German art historian Aby Warburg plans to open new public spaces in 2022

Canadian Museums Association launches $1m programme to recognise indigenous culture

The initiative is part of a broader reconciliation effort by the government

How to future-proof a work of art that will not be completed for 100 years

As Katie Paterson's sand castle project goes on tour, we look at how her Future Library is being made to outlive the artist

Nearly €1bn raised for Notre-Dame over two days

Several charitable and crowdfunding campaigns have launched since the fire

Battered London tomb of the great French tightrope walker Blondin restored

The 19th-century daredevil is most famous for crossing Niagara Falls 17 times—once with a stove on which he cooked an omelette

Alexandra Suda takes over as director of the National Gallery of Canada

The Ontario native is just the fourth woman to take the post, and the youngest in more than a century

Fire destroys roof of Notre Dame cathedral in Paris

The 19th-century spire has collapsed on the medieval landmark

The Getty Conservation Institute maps out a plan to preserve the Eames House

The Los Angeles Modernist home was designed and lived in by Charles and Ray Eames

Nineteenth-century realists pull in mega-crowds as Russian museum attendance peaks

Exhibitions in Russia of homegrown artists attract proportionally greater numbers than blockbusters in other countries

Conceptual and Minimalist trove raises bedeviling questions for the Guggenheim

Grappling with questions of authenticity, museum 'decommissions' some works from the Panza Collection

X-ray of Uffizi's Artemisia Gentileschi reveals a tantalising underpainting

The portrait has striking similarities to a recent acquisition by the National Gallery in London

São Paulo's new millionaire governor João Doria proposes massive cuts to culture budget

Museums and cultural institutions in the Brazilian state prepare for closures and cancelled programmes

A train wreck in slow motion? Why Lacma’s new building is an impending disaster

County officials prepare to vote on the $650m project this week, but the museum’s next incarnation could come at too high a cost for culture

Cause of Rio de Janeiro’s National Museum fire revealed

An overheated air conditioning unit was the starting point of the inferno that destroyed the building last year