Museums & Heritage
Welcome to the slow museum, where less is more
In an effort to deepen existing programming and community engagement, some institutions are choosing to stage fewer exhibitions
Legal challenge to preserve Toronto's Ontario Place rejected as mega-spa project moves forward
In addition, it was discovered that the provincial government agreed to pay almost C$1m to make its controversial case for moving the Ontario Science Centre, which closed permanently Friday due to structural decay
MFA Boston director Matthew Teitelbaum will retire after ten-year stint
Teitelbaum has navigated one of the US’s most prominent art museums through a decade of renovations, revamped education initiatives, scandals and shutdowns
UK export bar placed on Louis XIV’s £7.5m table top
The decision was made in the hope that a buyer can be found to “save the” object “for the nation”
Walker Art Center invites visitors to reimagine its galleries
The Minneapolis institution has crowdsourced its rehang—which means a lot more than just new configurations of works
Judge dismisses Holocaust restitution claim to Guggenheim’s Blue Period Picasso
Karl and Rosi Adler’s heirs had claimed that “La repasseuse” (1904) had been sold under duress as the couple fled Nazi persecution
Two eco-activists arrested after Stonehenge sprayed with orange powder
The ancient site remains open as curators investigate the damage
Monet to go on sale after Kunsthaus Zurich reaches settlement with Jewish heirs
The collector and textiles entrepreneur Carl Sachs sold the painting after fleeing to Switzerland from Nazi Germany in 1939
Conservation experts deploying to Lahaina, Hawaii, to support recovery from 2023 wildfires
Thanks to a grant of almost $20,000 from the National Endowment for the Humanities, two experts will travel to Maui to assist affected museums and historic sites
Art Institute of Chicago to return 12th-century temple artefact to Thailand
The Krishna palister once stood along the doorframe of the most important monument to the Khmer dynasty in Thailand
Madagascar's nascent art scene gets boost from businesses
Two entrepreneurs have founded spaces and set up programmes in one of the world’s poorest countries
‘We are not seeing the picture Rubens intended’: conservation reveals drastic changes made to acclaimed Judgement of Paris
More than a year of meticulous research and work has led to the painting being glowingly restored—while revealing amendments by an unknown artist that “changed the narrative completely”
Swiss Bührle Foundation seeks to settle with Jewish heirs on major Impressionist works
Paintings by Courbet, Monet, Toulouse-Lautrec, Van Gogh and Gauguin are to be removed from display at Zurich’s Kunsthaus
UK party manifestos on culture: from more regional loans under Labour to the Greens’ EU pledge
The Conservatives, meanwhile, are focusing on protecting public monuments
Australian blockbuster Pharaoh show could inspire British Museum's revamped Ancient Egypt galleries
Curators from the London institution said they might adopt some of the innovative ways the objects were displayed at the National Gallery of Victoria
Centre Pompidou must not close for five years, say French critics and curators
An open letter has called for the public to have access to the complex during its major forthcoming renovation—and for the role of Paris’s state institutions to be protected as a result
New York's Center for Italian Modern Art to close permanently
The Soho space will close its doors for good on 22 June
Wreck of the ship Ernest Shackleton died on found off the coast of Canada
The famed explorer died aboard the Quest in 1922; the ship sank in the Labrador Sea 40 years later
Germany returns looted antiquities in Berlin’s Altes Museum to Italy
As a “thank you” gesture, Italy is reciprocating with loans from Paestum and Naples
Brooklyn Museum director’s home targeted by pro-Palestine activists
The entrance to museum director Anne Pasternak’s apartment building was vandalised with red paint and a banner describing her and the museum as a “White-Supremacist Zionist”
Migrant museum on the Italian island of Lampedusa closes after seven years
The Museum of Faith and Dialogue, which could not afford the new €10,000 annual rent, displayed items found at sea following shipwrecks
Fire guts historic Toronto church, destroying its Group of Seven murals
A restoration campaign for St Anne’s Anglican Church in Toronto is already underway, but its historic art is lost forever
Amid backlash, Academy Museum of Motion Pictures will modify exhibition on Hollywood’s Jewish founders
Organised in response to criticisms that its initial display did not acknowledge Hollywood’s Jewish origins, the exhibition now faces charges of antisemitism from Jewish activists
What do the Magna Carta and five small, costly, enamelled brackets have to do with each other?
A Paris dealer wants €50,000 for them, deadline the end of 2024, and a crowd-funding appeal has been launched in Italy
Campaign launched to stop demolition of Museum of London for office building
Although the controversial project has been green lit, it may take years before building work begins
Four must-see exhibitions during Art Basel
From Precious Okoyomon's nightmarish animatronic bear to a global survey of Black figurative painting, sci-fi chairs and Dan Flavin
Staff at the American Folk Art Museum vote unanimously to form a union
The institution’s new union, formed under UAW Local 2110, will represent workers across departments including curatorial, information technology, retail and more
Palm Springs Art Museum launches permanent LGBTQ+ programming
The California institution’s new Q+ Art initiative is the first of its kind in the US and includes exhibitions, public programming, acquisitions and awards
Fire that damaged Israel Museum being investigated as arson
The fire is believed to have been set at three different sites near the museum building
New arts complex to open in Philadelphia with help from Theaster Gates
The collectors Michael Forman and Jennifer Rice will both house their extensive collection there and engage the working-class neighbourhood where they bought almost a whole city block