Museums & Heritage
What's the tea? Oldest brew in the world discovered in China
The 2,400-year-old remains of tea leaves were discovered in a royal tomb in Shandong province
'It’s time for museums to take critical race theory seriously'
There’s a campaign against discussions of race in the American education system—and museums have a part to play in fighting that
Nigeria seeks to calm tensions over return of Benin bronzes
Government museums body takes control of repatriated artefacts after ruler of Benin challenges new trust set up to unify Nigerian claimants
How an Australian collector’s strings-attached gift paved the way for a new $36m museum
Shepparton Art Museum opened late last year but a ballooning budget and conflicting local politics have made led to a mixed reception
The Virginia museum spotlighting overlooked histories and perspectives
In a trio of current and upcoming exhibitions, the Institute for Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University will showcase prints, paintings and a sonic environment that champion underrepresented narratives
Archival discovery prompts exploration of 1980s movement to support Central American artists at time of political upheaval
A dozen boxes of materials found in the Museum of Modern Art’s library served as the impetus for a new exhibition on the legacy of the Artists Call group at Tufts University Art Galleries
Louvre's attendance last year dropped to 1986 levels
Covid continued to impact on French museum visits, but the government provided a much-needed financial safety net
McDonald’s blocked from building drive-through at Rome's ancient Baths of Caracalla
The council of state upheld a previous ruling preventing the fast food chain from opening at the popular heritage site
Belgium plans to hand back colonial loot to DR Congo
New law will set up expert commission to sift through thousands of objects at the Royal Museum for Central Africa
Two years after forming union, MOCA Los Angeles employees still negotiating first contract with museum leaders
Negotiations have been delayed, with wages proving a major sticking point and with administrators proposing increases well below union members’ demands
US museums close or reduce capacity as Omicron variant causes surge in Covid-19 cases
The Metropolitan Museum will stay opened at reduced capacity, while others like the Yale University Art Gallery and the Baltimore Museum of Art close temporarily
Closed since early 2020, Puerto Rico’s Museo de Arte de Ponce faces long road to reopening
Despite challenges wrought by the pandemic and earthquake-caused damage to its building, the museum has a new director and new momentum
Utah museum acquires works by Japanese American artist Chiura Obata made in internment camp
Obata was incarcerated at the Topaz Relocation Center in Utah during the Second World War; now 35 of his works have been acquired by the Utah Museum of Fine Arts
Seoul, sneakers and the end of steel monoliths: the highs and the lows of the art world in 2021
Who had a good year and who had a bad one? We aim to find out
Museums in London start to shut down as Omicron wave sweeps capital
Natural History Museum closes due to front-of-house staff shortages caused by Covid-19
Nelson-Atkins Museum acquires one of the earliest daguerreotype portraits made in the US
The 1840 profile portrait is part of a collection of early photographic works by Henry Fitz Jr. that is joining the Kansas City museum’s holdings
Business as usual for European museums operating in China, despite genocide ruling
A London panel has assembled the largest cache of evidence on the concentration camps in Xinjiang, but museums will not say if they have examined it
Swiss museum to part with 29 works from Gurlitt trove suspected of being Nazi loot
Kunstmuseum Bern announces results of in-depth provenance investigation of controversial 2014 bequest
Saudi Arabia-led campaign puts Arabic calligraphy on Unesco heritage list
Proposal was put forward by 16 Arabic-speaking countries
From NFTs to LFTs: 2021's biggest art stories—and what they mean
The Art Newspaper team picks apart this year’s most important developments, from demands for colonial restitution to the return of culture wars
Bronx Museum of the Arts to undertake $21m expansion
The project includes the addition of a multi-storey entrance and lobby, and is being supported with state and city funds
Lacma acquires 60 works with a focus on Black representation
Among the works joining the museum’s collection are paintings by Amy Sherald and Kehinde Wiley as well as a self-portrait by an artist who worked as a preparator at Lacma for decades
True mettle: restoring Hampton Court Palace's glorious but scarred Baroque iron screens
Reviving 17th-century Tijou screens commissioned by Protestant monarchs William and Mary means undoing decades of damage and haphazard repairs
From artist residency to fully-fledged museum: Ghana's new space for contemporary African art prepares to open in March
Just a year after launching a studio programme in Accra, its ambitious young founder is turning it into a museum
The Met begins $70m renovation of African, ancient American and Oceanic art galleries
The galleries, housed in the Michael C. Rockefeller wing of the museum, will be modernised to better contextualise the collection and illustrate the ‘complex story of cultural development over the last 5,000 years’
Returning home: Italy pulls 100 works from major museums and sends them to regional institutions where they were previously shown
Loan initiative aims to decentralise Italian collections and encourage more people to visit smaller museums
Boston College museum receives $25m in art and grants from philanthropist Peter Lynch
The McMullen Museum of Art is gaining works by Winslow Homer, Mary Cassatt, Childe Hassam, Albert Bierstadt, and others
Macron's Gulf tour: UAE's Louvre Abu Dhabi contract extended to 2047 and more French-Saudi culture deals
Renewal of Abu Dhabi deal means the Louvre can partner with the network of museums planned for Saudi Arabia's AlUla region
Cy Twombly Foundation pulls lawsuit after Louvre agrees to rework renovation of gallery that bears artist's ceiling
The foundation said earlier this year that the “aggressive colours“ covering the walls “violated the harmonies“ of Twombly’s pale blue canopy
Buddhist composer Philip Glass in dialogue with a storied Tibetan art collection
The Smithsonian commissioned the composer to create a performance responding to an exhibition of objects from the illustrious Tibetan Buddhist art collection of Alice Kandell