Museums & Heritage

Inside Refik Anadol's Dataland, the world’s first AI art museum

An immersive “laboratory of imagination” from Anadol's studio boots up in Downtown Los Angeles

New textile museum in Mexico City celebrates Indigenous artistry

The new Museo de Arte Textil de los Pueblos Indígenas y Afromexicanos frames textiles as living heritage and explores ethical collaboration

Memphis Art Museum reveals opening date and inaugural exhibitions for new building

Entry to the institution’s new Herzog & de Meuron-designed mass timber home along the Mississippi River will be free to local residents in perpetuity

Right-wing politician’s complaint against Masp exhibition dismissed in Brazil

A member of Jair Bolsonaro’s Liberal Party attempted to censor the artist La Chola Poblete’s show, alleging religious offense

New York’s oldest museum votes for democracy with new wing

The New York Historical’s $175m project will house gallery spaces, library stacks, a conservation studio and the forthcoming American LGBTQ+ Museum

Getty launches art-focused meditation podcast

Each episode of Our Museum Mindfulness Meditation (or Ommm) spotlights a different work from the museum’s collection, followed by a guided mindfulness exercise

Mauritshuis able to keep its Rembrandts following legal dispute

A court ruled that the Dutch museum does not need to return a bequest of 25 paintings to a donor's heirs

Royal Ontario Museum acquires collection of nearly 600 Arab textiles and artefacts

The collection was assembled by the textile historian Widad Kamel Kawar and significantly bolsters the Toronto museum’s holdings of materials from the region

In museum first, MFA Boston pairs prized vessels by Paul Revere and enslaved artist David Drake

As part of a revamp of its galleries devoted to early American art, the museum is installing a clay jar by an enslaved artist alongside a bowl made by a hero of the US Revolutionary War

Construction of Trump’s Washington, DC arch could put archaeological sites at risk

There are more than a dozen documented archaeological and historic sites within one mile of the proposed arch location, according to a new report, and additional undocumented materials may be present

Rescued mural depicting Alice’s adventures in New York wonderland back on view for first time in decades

Saved from a children’s hospital marked for demolition, the 15 surviving panels of Abram Champanier’s WPA mural are the subject of a new exhibition at the Museum of the City of New York

‘Marks that speak across time’: rock carvings and drawings discovered in Oman

A newly discovered archaeological site has revealed a massive rock face covered in art that is believed to be ancient

Former director of Rio’s Museu de Arte Moderna ordered to pay breach-of-contract fine

Shortly before his departure from the museum, Fábio Szwarcwald had publicly stated that it lacked fire insurance between 2006 and 2022, which the museum claims undermined its credibility

Shipwrecks linked to the ‘golden age of piracy’ discovered in the Bahamas

Three sunken pirate ships, one of which may have belonged to Henry Every, were recently found in Nassau Harbour

International organisations and Lebanese culture ministry issue warnings amid Israeli capture of Beaufort Castle and strikes on Tyre

Unesco has increased support following confirmed damage to protected archaeological sites across southern Lebanon

National Galleries of Scotland announces £56m funding boost for V&A East Storehouse-like gallery in Edinburgh

The Art Works is a central feature of the NGS’s 2026-30 strategic plan, which focuses on improving access to Scotland’s national art collection

Victoria and Albert Museum to bring Istanbul to London in upcoming exhibition

Charting the Turkish city's history through the Byzantine and Ottoman empires, the V&A claims that the show will be “the first exhibition in the UK to tell this story in full”

The Phillips Collection in Washington, DC receives largest gift in museum’s history

The Washington, DC institution has received a $15m gift from the Sherman Fairchild Foundation, the bulk of which will go to shoring up its finances, infrastructure, staffing, conservation and digital systems

New photography museum in Cincinnati foregrounds the medium’s democratic power

The new FotoFocus Center gives the city’s popular photography biennial a permanent presence and an inclusive mandate

Mexico City museum with world's richest collection of Kahlo and Rivera works reopens after years of controversy

The Museo Dolores Olmedo is welcoming visitors again after a six-year-long closure during which plans were floated to relocate its prized collection

New digital archive reconstructs Leonardo da Vinci manuscripts for the first time in four centuries

The director of the Museo Galileo, which has led the Leonardotheka project, says it sets a “compelling precedent for how cultural institutions can and must retain intellectual ownership of their digital endeavours”

Stoke-on-Trent—the UK's home of ceramics—seeks emergency funds for crumbling heritage

Without urgent action, “the unique value of the landscape could be lost forever”, city council’s chief executive warns

Miami Beach’s Bass Museum of Art hires Philippe Vergne as artistic director and chief curator

Vergne, who is currently the director of the Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art, previously held leadership roles at the Dia Art Foundation and Moca Los Angeles

Openingsfeature

Quentin Blake’s sprawling Centre for Illustration to launch in London

The hub, housed in complex of industrial buildings in north London, will showcase illustration and graphics by the celebrated British artist and many others

Gaudí’s Sagrada Família finally shakes off its ‘incompletable’ tag, as Pope prepares to inaugurate its tallest tower

Long considered forever unfinishable due to its extreme complexity and the loss of its architect’s original plans, the Barcelona basilica’s 14th tower has now been completed

Phoenix Art Museum gifted 185 works of Native American art

The acquisition, from the collection of William P. Healey, will form the basis of an exhibition opening at the museum in August

Chichén Itzá reopens after dispute with vendors that led to 13-day closure

A battle over new visitor facilities highlights tensions between tourism development and local livelihoods

Inside the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art's major expansion

The Arkansas museum now has 50% more space for its ever-expanding collection and art-and-wellness programming

The 2026 Whitney Biennial in five key themes

Many patterns emerge across the 56 participants’ works, from an interest in complicating our understandings of US history and interventionism, to new approaches to looking at and making images