Museums & Heritage

UK government places export bar on ‘rare’ Renaissance sculpture worth £4.6m

‘Seated Nymph’ was created in the early 16th century by the Italian sculptor Antico, nicknamed for his Classical-inspired bronzes

Hundreds gather at Kennedy Center to protest Trump’s attacks

More than 1,000 attendees formed a human chain around the Washington, DC, performing arts centre that Trump has taken over, sought to rebrand and threatened to shutter and demolish

600-year-old funerary platform discovered in Peru

The massive burial site containing human remains and rich offerings likely belonged to Chimú elites

Cave markings discovered in Ireland could transform understanding of when humans first settled there

Researchers believe that humans may have walked across the sea from Wales during the last Ice Age and made art

Malba picks architect for expansion that will double its exhibition space

The Buenos Aires museum has selected the Mexican architect Frida Escobedo to lead its ambitious build-out

Researchers rescuing war-damaged manuscripts in Gaza receive Unesco prize

Abdul Latif Hashim and Haneen Al-Amassi have been awarded the $40,000 Unesco/Jikji Memory of the World Prize

One of Lima’s oldest mills, uncovered by chance in 2020, to open to visitors in January

The Molino de Aliaga, the Peruvian capital’s earliest colonial structure discovered to date, was built by the Spanish conquistador Jerónimo de Aliaga in the 16th century

New cultural centre focused on archiving Ghana's history to open in Accra

The members-only organisation will open during Accra Cultural Week in October

Major Swiss museum acquisition proves far larger after extra works revealed in donor’s unopened portfolios

Philippe Bodenmann has gifted his entire collection—including pieces by Joseph Kosuth, Lawrence Weiner and Max Bill—to the Musée des beaux-arts de La Chaux-de-Fonds

Paris's Picasso museum reveals designers shortlisted for €55m sculpture garden project

Five teams of designers, featuring architects and landscape designers, will compete for the project, expected to be completed by 2030

‘Rembrandt’s DNA would be the Holy Grail’: new research samples bacteria on the surface of The Night Watch

A installation developed by the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam and a microbes museum in the city’s zoo will depict microbes found in the Old Master painting

UK government's proposed ‘tourist tax’ should be ring-fenced for the arts, cultural leaders say

There are few controls over how mayors spend the Overnight Visitor Levy income, according to plans announced earlier this week

Portrait of Bayeux Tapestry exhibition sponsor goes on view at British Museum amid scrutiny over ties to IDF

A painting of Igor Tulchinsky is on display within the museum’s blockbuster Bayeux Tapestry show

Smithsonian leader Lonnie G. Bunch to retire

The steadfast historian leaves the institution after 38 years, the past couple of them marred by political tensions with the Trump administration

Exhibitionsinterview

‘It was a calling’: 25 years after the 11 September attacks, Joel Meyerowitz reflects on his photos of Ground Zero

The legendary photographer spent nine months documenting the cleanup in Lower Manhattan to complete his series “Aftermath”, which is currently on view at Florida’s NSU Art Museum Fort Lauderdale

England’s Pitt Rivers Museum announces its largest repatriation of human remains

Institution at the University of Oxford will return 39 pieces of remains, primarily skulls, to the Indigenous Naga people of the Indian subcontinent by the end of the year

Greece rejects Parthenon marbles loan request from Frankfurt due to British Museum involvement, reports say

The British Museum has agreed to loan two marble fragments to the Liebieghaus exhibition, which recreates the east pediment of the temple for the first time

Catherine Hickley. With additional reporting by Martin Bailey

Museum acquisitions round-up: an unsettling French mask and a portrait of Queen Elizabeth I

Our pick of the latest gifts and purchases to enter institutional collections worldwide

Collector Dimitris Daskalopoulos donates 51 contemporary works to four museums in Greece and Scotland

The works—mostly by Greek artists—will go to the National Gallery of Greece in Athens, Momus-Museum of Contemporary Art Thessaloniki, the Museum of Contemporary Art of Crete and National Galleries Scotland in Edinburgh

Bank opens museum in Spanish city of Santander to display its 1,000-strong art collection

David Chipperfield has converted Banco Santander’s former headquarters into Faro Santander, a new home for works by artists including Velásquez, Titian, Goya, Picasso and Sorolla

A big B’Day gift: Beyoncé gives $2m to the Studio Museum in Harlem

To mark her 45th birthday, the pop music superstar and art collector gave generously to the revered New York City museum

Toledo Museum of Art partners with Ethiopian Heritage Authority to find solutions for ‘objects in limbo’

Through the new partnership, the museum is already in the process of returning five artefacts from a private collection to Ethiopian authorities

House that featured second-oldest astronomical observatory in the Americas reopens after $1m conservation project

The National Service for Cultural Heritage financed the project at Casa Mouat in Valparaíso, Chile

Man discovers Denmark’s largest Viking Age silver hoard while digging a terrace in his garden

Treasure trove comprises 700 10th-century objects and fragments, weighing almost 18.5kg

Rembrandt self-portrait returns to German city 80 years after it was illegally removed

The work is on loan to the exhibition ‘Rembrandt 1632: The Creation of a Brand’ at the Ducal Museum Gotha

Leader of the Art Gallery of Ontario will step down after a decade at the helm

During Stephan Jost’s tenure, the leading art museum in Toronto has launched construction of a new contemporary art gallery, added more than 18,000 pieces to its collection and navigated plenty of drama

Institute of Contemporary Art, San Diego faces financial and leadership crisis

After the museum laid off almost half its staff over the summer, its main campus was shut down and employees are calling for the removal of its director

Metropolitan Museum and designer John Galliano cancel planned Costume Institute exhibition amid backlash

A chorus of Jewish community leaders, donors, politicians and others criticised the Met’s decision to honour Galliano in light of a 2011 conviction for an antisemitic hate crime

UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham reverses position on returning Parthenon Marbles to Greece

In 2023, when he was mayor of greater Manchester, Burnham had expressed unequivocal support for returning the Parthenon Marbles with ‘no strings’ attached