Museums & Heritage

With new Costume Institute exhibition and galleries, the Met makes powerful statement about fashion's place in museums

Featuring nearly 400 objects ranging from gowns to ancient Greek armour and vases, “Costume Art” argues the dressed body is the only form of artistic expression that connects each of the museum’s collecting areas

19th-century European weapons found in cenote in Mexico

More than 150 guns and an iron cannon were recently documented at the Síis Já cenote in Yucatán

Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit reopens, with the local community front and centre

Showing off its upgrades after being closed for almost a year, the Midwestern kunsthalle hopes to inspire dialogue in its galleries using a method called Visual Thinking Strategies

Fire erupts at San Francisco's Vaillancourt Fountain during its dismantling

The controversial San Francisco landmark has met its end after a contentious fight to save it failed

Trump’s plan to paint Washington, DC's Eisenhower Building could cost more than $7.5m

In a National Capital Planning Commission meeting, one public commenter compared the project to the ending of ‘Death Becomes Her’

Dancereview

Brendan Fernandes animates a century-old Chicago auditorium through dance

The artist’s year-long residency at the Driehaus Museum centres on a recurring dance piece in the recently renovated Murphy Auditorium

Metropolitan Museum receives $23m to endow internship programme

The gift, from the foundation of Jennifer Rubio and Stewart Butterfield, is the latest example of donors offering targeted support that goes beyond funding institutional acquisitions

Rio’s Museum of Image and Sound finally opens after 16 years in development

Located just off of Copacabana Beach, the new museum celebrates the artists and musicians that helped make the city a global cultural destination

Museumsanalysis

No money, more problems: 85% of US museums in urgent need of building repairs

A survey by the federal Government Accountability Office shows that a majority of the nation’s museums lack the resources to maintain their buildings, putting collections at risk

Latino community organisation opens $33m arts centre in Boston

La Casa, the new home of Inquilinos Boricuas en Acción, will be a hub for civic engagement, education and artistic expression

Brandywine Conservancy and Museum picks architects for $100m expansion project

The Pennsylvania museum and land trust plans an ambitious overhaul of its campus, which will connect gallery buildings to the original studios of N.C. Wyeth and Andrew Wyeth

1,000-year-old archaeological site bulldozed during construction of Mexico-US border wall

A contractor for the Department of Homeland Security destroyed a 1,000-year-old etching in the sand of the Sonoran Desert

Artists made their mark at 2026 Met Gala

Amy Sherald, Tschabalala Self and Jordan Roth turned heads at the annual benefit for the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute

Pedro Reyes’s new Lacma commission sparks criticism in Mexico

Mexican cultural figures say the Olmec-inspired sculpture reprises a work that was previously rejected in Mexico City

Filippo Lippi painting—once the centrepiece of Florence's Palazzo Medici chapel—to undergo two-year restoration

The varnish layer of the work, which is held in Berlin's Gemäldegalerie, is degrading the tempera paint

Van Gogh Museum in funding mediation with Dutch government following threats of closure

Legal proceedings—begun by the museum to demand more public funding for a renovation—have now been postponed

Botticelli under UK export ban purchased by Klesch Collection

The Quattrocento Renaissance painting will be on loan to the Ashmolean Museum for three years

Museo de Arte Moderno de Bogotá's director departs amid accusations she harassed staff

Martha Ortiz is out only two months after the sudden dismissal of artistic director Eugenio Viola

US National Gallery of Art receives $116m gift to continue nationwide lending programme

The donation, from the foundation of the collector and NGA trustee Mitchell P. Rales, is the largest programming gift in the gallery’s history

Oldest astronomical observatory in the Americas discovered in Peru

The Caral civilisation used the structure thousands of years ago to track the sun, moon and stars to determine conditions for fishing and gathering shellfish

The curator awakens: Lucas Museum of Narrative Art reveals inaugural exhibition lineup

George Lucas is curating 18 thematic exhibitions that will fill 100,000 sq. ft of the $1bn museum he and his wife Mellody Hobson are building in Los Angeles

UK’s Brighton & Hove Museums to return 45 artefacts to Botswana

The objects, acquired by English reverend William Charles Willoughby in the 19th century, will now form part of a permanent display in Serowe

Director of the Buffalo AKG Art Museum to depart in October

During Janne Sirén’s tenure at the Western New York institution, its global influence and physical footprint expanded significantly

Recent discoveries reveal how natural disasters shaped past civilisations: can it help us plan for the future?

New technologies used in archaeological research provide insights into how climate change has long-changed empires and societies

Barbados's slavery museum and memorial faces major delays

Designed by Adjaye Associates and first announced in 2021, work on the Barbados Heritage District continues with an expanded scope—but a completion date has yet to be announced

Leaderscomment

Comment | Museums are civic institutions. It’s time we acted like it

At the Oakland Museum of California we often say: “Keep doing the good work.” We need to be clearer about what the work is and how we commit to it

Titian's ‘Bacchus and Ariadne’ to get a refresh with bank conservation grant

Major conservation funding, sponsored by Bank of America, has been granted to London's National Gallery as well as 17 additional projects at other international institutions

Booksreview

Final book in trilogy asks: What is the future of the art world?

Writer and researcher András Szántó speaks to art-world movers and shakers for predictions and insights

The Big Review | Lacma's David Geffen Galleries ★★★★

This vast, visionary new building on the Los Angeles County Museum of Art campus flaunts strengths in displaying antiquities