Museums & Heritage

DR Congo to request restitution of works from former coloniser Belgium

Country's president Joseph Kabila made the announcement ahead of opening of revamped Africa Museum outside Brussels

Protesters stream into Whitney, calling for removal of board vice chairman

They assailed the trustee's business ties to the tear gas fired by US border agents

You have to renovate to accumulate: three South Florida museums expand in very different ways

The Norton Museum of Art, the Boca Raton Museum of Art and the Museum of Art and Design at Miami Dade College show that museum expansions can take different sizes and forms

Jillian Steinhauer. with additional reporting by Helen Stoilas

Pitzhanger Manor, the country estate of Sir John Soane, to open in west London next Spring

The English architect’s “jewel box” weekend retreat has been restored to its original condition

Lawnews

Italian court says Getty Museum must surrender prized bronze Statue of a Victorious Youth

The Los Angeles institution counters that it will keep on fighting to maintain the linchpin of its collection

Unesconews

Goodbye Venice, goodbye Ravenna, goodbye Ferrara, goodbye Carthage?

Many World Heritage Sites around the Mediterranean are at grave risk from sea-level rise by 2100, report says

Forensic examination of all Modigliani works in French museums gets under way

Comprehensive analysis of 29 pieces from ten institutions could be “the best weapon against forgery”

Cambridge Museums to pilot LGBTQ+ tours

Visitors at the Polar Museum might learn incidence of homosexuality among penguins

ERICA EISEN
Viennanews

Albertina Museum director defends landmark gift of Essl collection

Klaus Albrecht Schröder says contemporary art acquisitions, criticised by Austrian Court of Audit, will fill a gap in country’s public museums

Legal challenges remain for restituting African artefacts from French museums

Getting around the inalienability of public collections is dealt with in the report—but it might not work legally and practically

Wallace Collection crowdfunds to conserve Canaletto works in room with many views

Museum aims to clean and analyse all 28 of its vedute paintings of Venice by spring 2020

Hala Wardé dismissed as architect of planned Beirut Museum of Art

Difficulties began when the museum asked HW Architecture to work pro bono

V&A opens up towering replica of Trajan's column in revamped Cast Courts

New-look galleries invite visitors to explore inside Victorian plaster cast of Roman monument

Rain threatens recovery effort at Brazil’s National Museum

Meanwhile, the museum partners with a Chinese tech firm to digitise its catalogued collection

Astronomy, unknown trailblazers and failed monuments: new Collective space opens in Edinburgh's old observatory

Works by Dineo Seshee Bopape and Klaus Weber go on show in the revamped 19th-century neoclassical complex

Couple donates $40m for MoMA's renovation and expansion

The museum will name a film centre after Debra and Leon Black

The Met looks back at Max Hollein’s first 100 days as director—and forward to its 150th birthday

The museum will mark its anniversary in 2020 by launching a renovation of the Rockefeller Wing and celebrating its permanent collection

Portrait of Gainsborough's nephew will sparkle in National Portrait Gallery show thanks to conservators

The painting, which took the artist less than an hour to paint, was restored for the National Portrait Gallery's exhibition opening in London this week

Mass Moca adds another decade to its long-running Sol LeWitt show

The museum celebrates the tenth anniversary of the installation, which is still "full of surprises"

Rachel Whiteread’s breakthrough work Ghost gets complex conservation treatment

Structural engineers and architects were among those restoring the room-sized cast at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC

The Getty’s Renaissance Nude explores issues of power and sexuality—but don’t expect a #metoo reckoning

The show includes male and female examples for historic accuracy, its lead curator says

Back from the brink: Jean Tinguely’s beloved music machine

Sculptor’s Méta-Harmonie II is ready for action after a year-long conservation effort in Basel

SculptureCenter’s Mary Ceruti named as new executive director of the Walker Art Center

The Minneapolis museum’s former director, Olga Viso, announced her departure a year ago

Restoration of rare English Medieval altarpiece reveals a history of serial vandalism

The Battel Hall retable, which survived the fury of 16th-century iconoclasts, bears later scars of graffiti and "witchmarks" against evil spirits

Dubai news

Jameel Arts Centre: Dubai gets first non-governmental contemporary art space

Four solo shows of female artists are part of efforts to “redress the gender balance” in the Middle East, says director