Museums & Heritage

Van Gogh’s Sunflowers covered in tomato soup by eco activists

The environmental group Just Stop Oil says it attacked the painting in response to the UK government’s inaction on the cost-of-living and climate crises

Minneapolis to host 'most comprehensive US show of Botticelli' with major loans from the Uffizi

The exhibition at the Minneapolis Institute of Art features more than 45 works from the Florentine museum

Top-shelf secrets lie behind the Victorian respectability of newly restored Sambourne House

House in London's Kensington includes hundreds of commercial artist Linley Sambourne’s illustrations and cartoons—and (not on view) his pornographic photographs

Protestors at British Museum demand release of writer imprisoned in Egypt

Plight of British-Egyptian Alaa Abd El-Fattah, currently on hunger strike, is focal point of protest as hieroglyphs exhibition opens

Archaeologists discover mural of Aztec god of alcohol in Mexican convent

Archaeologists believe the pre-Columbian wall drawing of a god wearing a feathered headdress likely depicts Tepoztēcatl, the god of pulque

Museums must unite over Iran's human rights abuses, say art-world figures

Institutions are urged to show solidarity following Mahsa Amini's death after her detention by the morality police

Canova’s monument gets protection from Venice's challenging conditions

Vast pyramid containing sculptor’s heart has been restored with Venice in Peril funding, but will need continuous care and protection from worsening weather and pollution

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky applies for Unesco World Heritage status for Odesa

The strategic Black Sea port city, home to a famous opera house and controversial Catherine the Great statue, has been the target of Russian bombing

‘More serious than the pandemic’: UK museums will struggle to keep doors open without government intervention, top director warns

Director-general of National Galleries of Scotland warns the country's most historic art institutions will face partial closure without support, as energy bills are forecast to double next year

Michelangelo's masterpiece David gets new lighting as part of renovation at Galleria dell'Accademia in Florence

A two-year museum overhaul has cleaned a skylight above the famous sculpture and also reinstalled its gallery of 19th-century plaster casts

The global mental health crisis: Wellcome Trust launches international science and art project to help people cope

Mindscape initiative is a programme of residencies and exhibitions in museums across the world that explore psychological wellbeing post-pandemic

The Photographers' Gallery in London appoints Shoair Mavlian as new director

A former intern will replace Brett Rogers as the new figurehead of the photography space, but will face immediate pressures concerning income, footfall and sponsorship

Wildfire on Easter Island causes 'irreparable' damage to ancient moai head statues

The Unesco World Heritage Site is closed while conservators assess the damage to the almost 1,000 ancient statues, while the island's mayor claims the fire was started deliberately

Chris Dercon quits French cultural body Rmn-GP for leadership role at Fondation Cartier pour l’art Contemporain

Belgian curator, who once headed Tate Modern, recently backed decision to kick Fiac out of Grand Palais in Paris

London's Wellcome Collection returns remains of death camp victim to Denmark

Research carried out in 2019 helped identify the remains as Preben Holger Larsen, a 26-year-old artist and member of the Danish resistance

Rijksmuseum strongly denies claims it is sinking due to wood-rotting fungi

Dutch national museum opposes the report claiming its foundations have been infected, stating the building “has not sunk a millimetre”

'It repurposes a building that was first made to cause terror': arts centre in former Ku Klux Klan auditorium names inaugural leader

Renovation work at the future Fred Rouse Center for Arts and Community Healing in Fort Worth, Texas, is expected to begin early next year

A museum dedicated to homelessness will open in London next year

Founded in 2015 by a cultural professional who was once homeless, the Museum of Homelessness will now have a permanent space in Finsbury Park

Mumbainews

Mumbai to get major new venue for art and performance—funded by one of India's richest families

The Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre will include exhibition halls and a 2,000-seat theatre

Legislation to create national LGBTQ museum in Washington, DC introduced to US Congress

Representative Mark Pocan of Wisconsin introduced legislation to establish the National Museum of American LGBTQ+ History and Culture within the Smithsonian Institution

A dark winter looms for UK museums as energy costs and fewer visitors continue to hit revenue

The UK's 15 nationally funded museums have seen visitor numbers drop by over a third compared to June 2019, thanks in large part to the pandemic. They are now facing price rises, with government support still unclear

UK Prime Minister Liz Truss rules out deal with Greece over Parthenon Marbles

Move rebuffs George Osborne, the chair of the British Museum, who proposed a new collaborative arrangement

Orange County Museum of Art carries its history forward with inaugural exhibitions in new building

From a show honouring the women who founded the institution to a call-back to a mid-1970s Light and Space exhibition, the OCMA is moving forward and looking back

Paris court dismisses bribery charges brought against Marlborough Gallery, French curator and artist’s family

The charges, brought ten years ago by a rival gallerist, revolved around allegations that a curator at France’s national museum of Asian art had received favours in exchange for organising a Chu Teh-Chun exhibition

State Hermitage Museum curator quits over Russia's war in Ukraine

Dimitri Ozerkov, the head of the contemporary art department, made the announcement on Instagram after months of silence

London's Victoria and Albert museum announces it will 'no longer carry the Sackler name'

Institution cuts ties with the family behind the highly addictive drug Oxycontin

My plea to London’s National Gallery to scrap its £35m Sainsbury Wing new entrance plans

Architecture critic Hugh Pearman argues that the gallery is making irreversible changes to a Grade I listed building—while removing most of its early Renaissance collection from display until 2025

Acquisitions round-up: National Museum of Women in the Arts receives bequest of more than 60 works

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

With new $94m building, the Orange County Museum of Art gets its own version of the Met museum steps

Fourteen years in the making, the new 53,000 sq. ft building designed by Thom Mayne of architecture firm Morphosis features a wide outdoor staircase intended to serve as a gathering place

Following controversial sales, US museums association revises its deaccessioning policy

The new rule includes a definition of the term “direct care”, whose ambiguity had led to divergent interpretations by museums selling works from their collections