Museums & Heritage

Iraq's important archaeological sites under threat from real-estate development

Tell Al Sayyagh, in the heart of the ancient city of Kufa, is in danger because of the country’s investment law, which many say is being abused

Water leaks into the Louvre’s Cimabue exhibition, landing close to the master’s greatest early painting

A violent hailstorm on Saturday caused water to drip into the room hosting the important show, but “no works were damaged”, a spokesperson says

Art Institute of Chicago’s director on leave amid investigation into airplane incident

James Rondeau, the museum’s president and director, is on voluntary leave after reportedly removing his clothes on a flight from Chicago to Munich

MoMA acquires works featured in monumental Adam Pendleton installation

The museum has acquired 35 pieces—including videos, drawings and paintings—that made up Pendleton’s sprawling atrium installation in 2021-22

Megasculpture workshop and landscape reclamation drive Storm King Art Center regeneration

The biggest sculpture park in the US starts its visitor season with a bang—unveiling a first-ever conservation and fabrication building, major relandscaping, and monumental works by Kevin Beasley, Sonia Gomes and Dionne Lee

First look: the ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ rehang at London's National Gallery

The reopening of the Sainsbury Wing on 10 May will allow the gallery to show nearly 40% of its collection. The Art Newspaper took an early tour

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Comment | Losing federal funding for emergency heritage conservation in the US is a disaster

The Foundation for Advancement in Conservation’s National Heritage Responders programme has channelled federal funding and support from local organisations to help communities struck by natural disasters to preserve their culture

Masterworks from Jacob Rothschild collection go to London's National Gallery and V&A under acceptance in lieu scheme

Guercino’s “King David” and a rare relief by John Deare have been allocated to the London institutions in lieu of inheritance tax on the estate of the celebrated financier, philanthropist and heritage leader

Lacma acquires self-portrait by long-overlooked female Old Master

Virginia Vezzi's "Self-Portrait as Saint Catherine of Alexandria" is one of the 112 pieces acquired during the museum's annual Collectors Committee Weekend

As Kazakhstan cautiously strengthens ties with western Europe, new art venues herald a change of direction

Due to open in September, the Tselinny Center and the Almaty Museum of the Arts are both financed by Kazakh entrepreneurs

Two new art centres set to open in Venice

The new San Marco Art Centre will be based in St Mark’s Square from next month, while the Nicoletta Fiorucci Foundation will take over the Dorsoduro building

Chicago's Intuit Art Museum set to unveil $10m renovation

The small but mighty museum for outsider art is reopening after a two-year overhaul

MFA Boston to return Benin Bronzes to wealthy donor, close gallery

The unusual move follows years of negotiations between the museum, the collector and the Kingdom of Benin

Sistine Chapel to close for conclave preparations

Other cultural sites have also been steadily shutting down to visitors as the Vatican marks the death of Pope Francis

Holy ground: why Persian carpets played an important symbolic role in the funeral of Pope Francis

For over 600 years carpets from Turkey and Iran have been used in Catholic ceremony and religious paintings by artists, including Andrea del Verrochio, to indicate a carefully defined, sacred space

Judge orders the Art Institute of Chicago to restitute Nazi-looted Schiele drawing

The latest development in the ongoing dispute over a 1916 portrait believed to have been stolen from Fritz Grünbaum by the Nazis

Antoni Gaudí’s Casa Batlló is reaping the rewards from its continual reinvention

The Barcelona museum's latest revamp has added 2,000 sq. m for immersive exhibitions

Nelson-Atkins Museum picks architect for $160m expansion

The museum in Kansas City has tapped the firm Weiss Manfredi to overhaul its campus

Taiwan's newest art institution taps into a flourishing local scene

The New Taipei City Art Museum, which opens to the public on 25 April, is part of a drive to distinguish the municipality from the neighbouring capital

Swiss Bührle Foundation reaches settlement with heirs of Jewish collector over Manet’s ‘La Sultane’

The settlement with the successor of Max Silberberg, of which details are confidential, allows the painting to remain on display at the Kunsthaus Zurich

Jeremy Deller to close National Gallery's bicentenary celebrations with ‘first of its kind’ parade and party

The event, planned to take place in London's Trafalgar Square on 26 July, will draw folklore and traditions from across the UK

Spencer Finch and Lindsay Adams to create large-scale commissions for Obama Presidential Center

The centre in Chicago will feature a tiled installation by Finch and a bright, abstract composition by Adams

World leaders pay tribute to Pope Francis, spiritual leader of the Catholic church and custodian of the Vatican’s treasures, who has died, aged 88

The election of the new pope will be closely watched by supporters of the Argentinian pontiff’s legacy looking for a successor who will act as a progressive voice, highlighting global climate crisis and the needs of immigrants and the poor

Democratic lawmakers urge J.D. Vance to save the Smithsonian from Trump

Four members of the House of Representatives wrote a letter to the US Vice-President to articular their "great concern over [the Smithsonian's] future"

Canadian art museum gets $36m funding boost for expansion from provincial government

The McMichael Canadian Art Collection, the country’s largest museum devoted to Canadian art, has also received $18m from the federal government toward the renovation and expansion project

Getty Museum acquires painting by Spanish Renaissance master Luis de Morales following extensive conservation

The painting, “Christ Carrying the Cross”, from around 1565, had been enlarged in the 18th century, work the Getty’s conservators had to painstakingly undo

How the Imperial War Museum became the reluctant owner of an official Nazi portrait of Adolf Hitler

The painting by the Nazi artist Heinrich Knirr was originally installed in the German embassy in London in 1937

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This art historian is on a quest to ensure the story of Arab art is not lost

Salwa Mikdadi’s Abu Dhabi-based institution is digitising and cataloguing tens of thousands of documents and artefacts

British Museum to loan ‘some of the rarest surviving examples’ of Ice Age art to UK's City of Culture

The objects, including what the museum describes as England's oldest known figurative art work, will head to Bradford for a major exhibition opening this summer

Work honouring anarchist sparks outrage in Milan

Politicians in the city say the “inadequate” display of the mixed-media piece depicting Giuseppe Pinelli, who died after falling out of a police station window, fails to properly confront a dark chapter in the city’s history