Museums & Heritage

Smithsonian to display 77 looted artefacts from Yemen in shared stewardship agreement

The artefacts will go on view at the National Museum of Asian Art, rather than be returned to Yemen, due to the ongoing humanitarian crisis there

Art Bridges acquires $4.5m Robert Colescott painting at Bonhams auction

The Arkansas-based non-profit was founded by Walmart heiress Alice Walton

Los Angeles Natural History Museum’s $75m expansion to create new, free spaces

The ambitious campus revamp will include construction of an admission-free entry pavilion and “sustainable” gardens designed in consultation with a new Indigenous advisory council

Los Angeles museums are conducting the US’s biggest free admission experiment

Multiple free-admission policies have been introduced in the Los Angeles area—and early results are looking promising

Hogarth's forgotten stairwell: hidden in a 900-year-old London hospital are painter's vast canvases

Works will be restored and opened to the public to mark 900th anniversary of the St Bartholomew’s Hospital

Even restituted artefacts—like Benin bronzes—need export licences from UK, says arts minister

Formal requirement for government licences may well prove to be yet another obstacle to a loan agreement for the Parthenon Marbles

Britain's oldest prayer beads—buried more than 1,000 years ago—to be displayed in new museum on remote island

It is one of several artefacts making their first public appearance at Lindisfarne Priory

British Museum's chairman suggests 'hybrid' deal with Greece over Parthenon Marbles

"I think there is a way forward where the sculptures could be seen both in London and in Athens, and that will be a win-win for Greece and for us,” George Osborne says

Museum of Natural History’s new science and nature centre to open to New York public this spring

Dramatic extension to the 140-year-old building is inspired by the “Manhattanhenge” illusion

Museumsfeature

Goodbye pink marble, farewell 1980s office vibe: inside the Hammer Museum’s 24-year transformation

A radical renovation and expansion overseen by director Ann Philbin and architect Michael Maltzan is just weeks from completion

Protests erupt outside Archaeological Museum in Athens as David Chipperfield revamp announced

Riot police watched over crowds at the media launch, attended by the Greek prime minister

Women artists gain wall space at Tate Britain as museum rehangs collection

Popular galleries dedicated to Pre-Raphaelite artists and JMW Turner will also be rehung with new rooms dedicated to John Constable and William Blake

Princeton University Art Museum acquires historic, record-breaking Native American basket

The large, woven basket by the the Mono Lake Paiute artist Wutoni won first prize at a 1929 competition and, in 2005, set an auction record for a Native American basket

US National Museum of Women in the Arts to reopen in October following $67.5m renovation

Described as “the first major museum solely dedicated to championing women artists”, the Washington, DC museum is adding 20% more gallery space

Art from persecuted Jewish dealer draws scrutiny at National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC

Findings about the provenance of two Old Master drawings in the museum’s collection may test the pro-restitution stance recently adopted at US national institutions

Paris's Centre Pompidou breaks new ground by acquiring 18 NFTs

The acquisition, the first of its kind by a major French public museum, includes works by Jonas Lund, Robness, Agnieszka Kurant and Sarah Meyohas

Mysterious NFT collector—who may actually be the rapper Snoop Dogg—gifts 22 blockchain works to Lacma

Pseudonymous NFT collector Cozomo de’ Medici gives Los Angeles County Museum of Art "largest collection of its kind in a US museum"

Panama Canal Museum to undergo major anniversary expansion—and bring to light troubling national histories

To celebrate 25 years, the institution will add new spaces and programmes, while also rethinking how it can strengthen the local art scene

LGBTQnews

Drag queen event at Tate Britain sparks protests between trans-rights activists and right-wing groups

Aida H Dee’s storytelling event disrupted by fighting outside London museum

Appeals court upholds antiquities trafficking charges against former Louvre director Jean-Luc Martinez and curator Jean-François Charnier

The appellate court judges’ decision came as a surprise, as the general prosecutor had asked for the charges—which relate to the acquisition of Egyptian antiquities by the Louvre Abu Dhabi—to be dropped

Museum community must agree on binding protocols to counter 'increasing political interference' across Europe, leading directors say

A slew of cases of museum directors forced from their positions is a "spectacular moment of crisis,” the Museum Watch Committee chair said at annual museums conference

The Smithsonian and MTV are launching a reality television art competition

The winner of “The Exhibit” will receive $100,000 and a solo exhibition at the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum

Moscow museum director removed after complaint against institution’s lack of ‘traditional Russian spiritual and moral values’

Zelfira Tregulova, who has headed the State Tretyakov Gallery since 2015, will be replaced by Elena Pronicheva, who has links to Vladimir Putin

An art bet for the big game: US museums wager loan of painting on outcome of Super Bowl

Philadelphia Museum of Art and Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art have agreed that the institution in the losing city will send a work to the victorious city #MuseumBowl23

France makes art inroads in Saudi Arabia with Centre Pompidou project allegedly on the horizon

The outpost would be the gallery's latest international satellite and the latest of many France-driven arts initiative in the Middle Eastern country

UK culture ministry shake up: Lucy Frazer named secretary for 'refocussed' department

Prime minister Rishi Sunak has overhauled the country's Department for Culture, Media and Sport Digital, dropping "digital" from its mandate

Heritageanalysis

Art damaged in Brazil's revolt could become part of a memorial

Attack by far-right supporters of former president Jair Bolsonaro has left some works of art beyond repair

Huge earthquakes in Turkey and Syria devastate heritage sites including 2,000-year-old castle

Gaziantep Castle has been heavily damaged by quakes that have killed more than 1,000 people

Ancient Pompeii site installs 'invisible' solar panels that look like Roman terracotta tiles

New invisible technology is being used to generate electricity at the archaeological site—and will also be used for other historic buildings in Italy, Portugal and Croatia