Museums & Heritage

Looted archaeological artefacts worth more than $20m returned to Italy

The 60 objects included some that had been on display at the Metropolitan Museum and several that had been bought by billionaire collector Michael Steinhardt

Egon Schiele painting to be restored with €25,000 grant from Tefaf art fair

Once owned by Jewish collectors in Vienna, the landscape was exported to the US on condition it was exhibited in the Austrian pavilion at the 1948 Venice Biennale

Following Basquiat forgery scandal, Orlando Museum of Art placed on probation by US museums group

Loss of American Alliance of Museums accreditation, which the museum has had since 1971, could complicate processes like borrowing works from other institutions

More than 500 museums launch art project to confront mass biodiversity loss across UK

"The Wild Escape" responds to new research from London's Natural History Museum, which finds the UK is one of the most nature depleted countries in the world

Museumscomment

'This is a watershed moment for UK museums—their expanded civic role has never been more vital'

With cuts both to creative education in schools and learning departments in museums, its time for institutions to find vital new purposes, says Art Fund UK director Jenny Waldman

Overdue review shakes up Germany's largest cultural institution

World-famous museums overseen by the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation will be given more autonomy and their own budgets

Symbols of Iraqi civilisation unveiled at the Basrah Museum

A new project dubbed the “Garden of Civilization” is bringing replicas of iconic Iraqi heritage to the courtyard of the museum in Basra

National Gallery of Canada reopens after tumultuous end to 2022

From an exhibition celebrating Canadian women artists to a major centennial retrospective of Jean Paul Riopelle, the museum has ambitious plans for 2023

No plans to return Berlin's star museum attractions Nefertiti and Pergamon Altar, German official says

Statement comes after Berlin state secretary for diversity and anti-discrimination spoke out in favour of restituting the artefacts to their countries of origin

The Van Gogh Sunflowers lawsuit: the full story behind the Nazi-loot claim to Tokyo’s $250m painting

Plus, Singapore’s art hub ambitions and Grace Lau's project for Chinese New Year

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In dispute over Van Gogh painting, Detroit Institute of Arts is ‘blameless’, judge says

A Brazilian collector had sought to bar the museum from returning the artwork after its blockbuster Van Gogh exhibition closes

UK's oldest toy museum announces closure, sending thousands of antique toys into storage

Pollock's Toy Museum, a historic fixture of London's Fitzrovia district, will remain closed unless "major capital funding" is found

Groups in Guatemala demand return of Maya throne sent to New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art

Guatemalan law prohibits the export of such artefacts for exhibition, local culture organisations say

Former manager at the Art Institute of Chicago accused of stealing $2m from the museum

The former employee faces four federal charges over an alleged fraud scheme that went on for 13 years

Leaderscomment

'Wage transparency is the way forward for museums'

New York City law now requires information about salary ranges in job descriptions—a welcome change for fellow art workers, say Tom Finkelpearl and Pablo Helguera

Amid national crisis, Beirut builds museum to house hidden art collection

Two years after an explosion caused billions of dollars of damage, the Beirut Museum of Art has broken ground in the Lebanese capital

‘It’s not about wokeness, it’s about doing the right thing’: MoMA director Glenn Lowry on the new political landscape

Culture figurehead says that in the post-pandemic climate, museums should not be places that provide answers

British Museum's hopes of a 'loan arrangement' for the return of the Parthenon Marbles imperilled ahead of Greek elections

The Greek prime minister has pledged to repatriate the 2,500-year-old sculptures if re-elected

Charleston reckons with its role in the international slave trade through its museums

The historic Charleston Museum and the forthcoming International African American Museum will explore the city's painful past

New York's Frick Collection acquires its first-ever Renaissance portrait of a woman

According to the museum, the portrait by Giovanni Battista Moroni is “the most significant Italian Renaissance painting” it has acquired in more than half a century

Vast Pompeii residence unveiled with panel depicting a giant penis

Newly-refurbished home belonged to former slaves who made their wealth in the wine business

US considers rejoining Unesco despite more than $616m membership debt and Israel-Palestine controversies

America left the United Nations heritage organisation in 2019 after its members voted to accept Palestine as a member state

'Lost in limbo': Taliban’s application for Unesco protection of historic Kabul garden still unanswered after a year

United Nations culture organisation has not acknowledged the January 2022 request to add Afghanistan's Bagh-e Babur to the World Heritage List

Conservation of Spanish Armada invasion maps reveals red ink details were added hundreds of years later

Analysis of 16th-century, hand-drawn maps finds that the reds pigments were only available from the late 19th century

Genesis of Phil Collins’s collection of Alamo artefacts questioned ahead of museum opening

A new public exhibition hall is mired in controversy over the provenance of the musician’s collection of relics related to the Alamo in Texas

US government returns looted sarcophagus to Egypt

A trafficked coffin that may have belonged to an ancient priest has been returned

Lootnews

Revelations in Cambodia looting scandal name ‘scholar’ at Denver Art Museum as accomplice to disgraced dealer Douglas Latchford

Researcher Emma Bunker aided the notorious looter in sourcing and selling Southeast Asian antiquities