Museums & Heritage

San Francisco museums will waive admissions for a weekend thanks to anonymous donation

Twenty-one museums across the city will be free during the inaugural San Francisco Free Museum Weekend on 3-4 December

'A discovery that will rewrite history': 24 exceptionally well preserved bronzes unearthed by archaeologists in Tuscany

The artefacts, found at ancient Roman baths, are among the most “significant bronzes ever produced in the history of the ancient Mediterranean”

'Don't expect us to be passive' in the face of restitution: British Museum chair defies return of looted artefacts

In speech at the annual trustees dinner George Osborne said that "dismantling" the collection "must not become the careless act of a single generation”

Antiquities trafficking charges against former Louvre director Jean-Luc Martinez and curator Jean-François Charnier could be dropped

The ruling of the examining chamber, expected next year, could overturn the investigation against both curators in a case implicating the Louvre Abu Dhabi and the Metropolitan Museum

Three decades ago, US museums were told to report all Native remains in their collections—so why are they still there?

American institutions have catalogued 208,698 entries since the law went into effect in 1990—but less than half of those holdings have been repatriated

Italy's Uffizi Galleries forced to stay shut over public holiday due to staff shortage

Culture minister Gennaro Sangiuliano criticises museum for not opening on the Monday before All Saints Day but director Eike Schmidt says government must step in to find "reinforcements"

'In 100 years, all these antiquities will be gone': as Cop27 opens in Egypt, climate crisis is still taboo subject at art and heritage institutions

As the latest UN Climate Change Conference opens in Egypt, art institutions have yet to take the climate lessons to heart

Brutal cuts to London arts organisations as national funds are moved away from capital

“We’ve had to make invidious choices”, says Arts Council England’s chair, Nicholas Serota, as funding portfolio for 2023-26 announced

Oil sketch in Dutch museum could be by Rembrandt, says art historian

The work, housed at The Hague's Museum Bredius, will now undergo further study by Rijksmuseum experts

London's National Gallery revamp row: is it a sensitive makeover or like 'an airport lounge'?

Plus, contemporary art in Lagos and Chagall's falling angel

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Qatari sheikh’s rare ivory mask, stolen from Benin City by the British, is one of five on public display—none in Nigeria

The 16th-century mask was withdrawn from sale at Sotheby’s over a decade ago amid escalating calls for restitution

Museumscomment

We, the original donors, entirely accept the suggested changes to the National Gallery's Sainsbury Wing

Timothy Sainsbury says he disagrees with the view that all of the functional parts of the building should be "preserved in aspic"

American billionaire's Cycladic antiquities collection unveiled in Athens as Greece and Metropolitan Museum of Art reach agreement

The Greek state is now the sole owner of the artefacts but all 161 pieces will be on a 25-year loan to the Met from January 2024

As infrastructure crumbles, British Museum plans to fix Parthenon Marbles gallery next

The decision to prioritise the revamp of the museum’s Greek and Assyrian displays comes amid escalating calls for the permanent return of the Parthenon sculptures to Athens

Roaming climate change museum pops up in New York—and sets sights on a permanent space

Climate Museum’s pop-up exhibition in Manhattan hopes to spur visitors to action, and raise money for a long-term venue

Disgraced antiquities dealer Subhash Kapoor sentenced to ten years in prison by Indian court

The ruling culminates an extensive investigation into a smuggling ring headed by Kapoor

Climate change is destroying archaeological sites before we can study them, scientists warn

Ancient remains are best preserved in oceans, ice patches and wetlands—which are at risk of rising temperatures

US National Gallery of Art gifted $10m to fund acquisitions of works by women

The programme's launch follows the recent acquisition of a painting by 16th-century Mannerist Lavinia Fontana and a polychrome statue by 17th-century sculptor Luisa Roldán

The forthcoming Chinese Canadian Museum names its first chief executive

The institution is scheduled to open in summer 2023 inside the oldest building in Vancouver’s Chinatown

Berlin museum unveils new Shirin Neshat banner in solidarity with protesters in Iran

Following the death of Mahsa Amini in September, the museum and art world have been called on to address the worsening human rights situation in the country

Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, DC picks architects for major revamp of its building and plaza

The renovation, to be executed in part by the architecture firm that designed the building’s original construction in 1974, comes after a contentious project to renovate its sculpture garden

Letterscomment

'Move London's National Gallery entrance from Trafalgar Square to a side street? No!'

Architect Edward Jones weighs in on the museum's controversial redevelopment plans

Frances Morris to leave Tate Modern in April after seven years as director

London museum's first female chief, who was pivotal in diversifying the collection and programme, departs to pursue curatorial projects related to climate change and Modernism

Faith Ringgold and Barbara Earl Thomas created stained-glass windows at Yale addressing the university’s ties to racist practices

Suites of windows by each artist replace windows that glorified the antebellum South and the life of John C. Calhoun, a US president who supported slavery

Vladimir Putin’s martial law decree has given Russian forces ‘legal’ cover to loot art in Ukraine

In a move similar to the Nazis’ self-legalised art thefts, ancient gold treasure, paintings and Prince Potemkin’s mummified remains all risk being “preserved” by “evacuation”

Rubell Museum DC opens in former school, with a mission to champion ‘the unique role of artists as teachers’

Collectors Don and Mera Rubell, who also operate a museum in Miami, have added a major contemporary art space to the US capital’s cultural offerings

Leaderscomment

'National Gallery's plans will create an entrance fit for today’s public' says London museum's director

Gabriele Finaldi responds to criticism over the gallery's proposed redesign for the Sainsbury Wing