Museums & Heritage

The cost of the cuts: what now for UK museums as the Covid-19 crisis bites?

Museum directors in London and the regions are cutting jobs and slashing budgets, raising concerns for the post-pandemic future of the sector

Gifted to the English city 80 years ago, Coventry's medieval Charterhouse will finally open to the public

After a £4.3m National Lottery Heritage Fund grant and years of restoration, the historic priory is set to open this summer

Getty acquires a striking painting by Artemisia Gentileschi of the Roman heroine Lucretia

The museum, which did not disclose the price, says the work reflects a shift to a more idealised style

Beirutnews

France gives €500,000 towards reconstruction of Beirut's blast-hit Sursock Museum

French aid will restore the stained-glass windows and Arab salon of the historic villa, which was severely damaged in port explosions last August

Musée d’Orsay in Paris renamed after late French president Valéry Giscard d’Estaing

The formal name change—an administrative move—also means the Musée de l’Orangerie will be rebranded

Several trustees resign from board of Detroit Institute of Arts as it reaffirms steps to monitor its besieged management

Director Salvador Salort-Pons was faulted in an independent review for authoritarian behaviour and insensitivity to race and gender

Can museums really make digital visits pay?

As venues experiment with selling virtual exhibition tours, talks and workshops online, the key to success may be an emphasis on the expert, bespoke and exclusive

Instagram overtakes Twitter as most popular platform for museums during Covid-19 pandemic

Our global Visitor Figures survey reveals huge growth in followings online as physical doors shut to the public in 2020

Plans to build new Museum of Brexit move ahead with plea for funds and objects

Institution initially called the Museum of Sovereignty will present a balanced picture of the divisive EU debate, say founders

Succession: critics take aim at Louvre chief Jean-Luc Martinez as he seeks reappointment

French president Emmanuel Macron will decide whether to renew or replace the museum's director in the coming weeks

Grayson Perry is casting a bell to ring at the end of the Covid-19 pandemic

As future of London's historic Whitechapel foundry hangs in the balance, artist’s bell will be made elsewhere

Louvre probes its collection for Nazi and colonial loot in massive provenance research project

Museum launches an online catalogue of 485,000 objects while curators comb through wartime acquisitions and works from former colonies

Greece completes long-awaited National Gallery revamp for Independence Day bicentenary

Greek culture minister promises €59m expansion will put the museum "on the map" ahead of public reopening

World's biggest Inuit art collection revealed at Winnipeg's new museum within a museum

Qaumajuq centre aims to reframe Winnipeg Art Gallery’s colonial past with displays of more than 10,000 rarely seen Inuit works

Uffizi Galleries' Botticelli masterpieces—currently kept in storage—are bound for Medici villa in the Tuscan hills

The Uffizi Diffusi project aims to "scatter" works from the Florence museum's collection around overlooked sites across Tuscany on short term loans

Museumsvideo

First look: Hong Kong's mighty M+ museum building is finally finished

Newly released footage shows the full extent of the vast 65,000 sq. m space and the designs striking use of straight lines and concrete

Baltimore Museum of Art director defends diversity goals that his institution hoped to meet through art sales

At a conference on deaccessioning, Christopher Bedford says that museum collections are “a literal manifestation” of prejudice and privilege

Street artist JR rips off the front of Florence's Palazzo Strozzi in new optical illusion work

Trompe l’oeil image called La Ferita (The Wound) reflects on the difficulties of accessing culture during Covid-19 and reveals Botticelli’s Primavera and The Birth of Venus

Robots and submarines: France's new state-of-the-art ship is a game changer for marine archaeology

Big enough to cross the Atlantic, the high-tech research vessel Alfred Merlin ushers in a new era for French underwater heritage

Victoria and Albert Museum backtracks on plans to cut its National Art Library staff

The announcement was met with public outrage prompting more than 10,000 people to sign a petition against the cuts

Members of US museums association narrowly reject proposal to contemplate a change in guidelines on art sales

Amid debate, AAMD votes 91-88 against exploring a controversial revision of rules to allow proceeds to finance collections care

Los Angeles museums are revving up to reopen

Amid decline in Covid-19 cases, governor lifts a closure mandate that had stirred some dissent

After leak of recording detailing missteps by director, Detroit Institute of Arts says it is working to ensure that he measures up

Inquiry by outside law firm found a climate of retaliation, but museum says that all employees’ concerns will be addressed

Virtual museum law conference shows how the pandemic has affected institutional administration

From dealing with cyberattacks on newly implemented digital offerings, to figuring out how to renegotiate a postponed loan, the coronavirus has raised a whole new crop of issues for museums

Racismnews

In diversity and equity campaign, Walters Art Museum recognises the tarnished history of its founders

Institution issues newly written history that discloses its founders’ pro-Confederacy stance and business ties to racist labour practices in the South

Facing protest, Museum of Chinese in America cancels exhibition about Asian American art collective Godzilla

Members of the collective argue that the museum implicitly supported construction of a jail

Artists withdraw their works from Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago group show

The move is the latest surge of simmering tensions between the museum, its workers and local arts groups

National Trust's report on colonial and slavery history did not breach charity law, regulator says

Research commissioned by the trust provoked complaints from Conservative politicians amid UK culture war around controversial monuments

Rose Art Museum, once on the brink of closure, celebrates 60th anniversary with gift of 86 works

After a proposed shutdown and sell-off in 2009, Brandeis University has repaired trust with donors, its director says