Museums & Heritage

'Xavier Bray, end low pay!': Wallace Collection staff fight for London Living Wage

Museum is in discussion with trade union after 'final offer' 1.5% salary increase was deemed too low

Quai Branly to send fragment of feather belt worn by first King of Tahiti back to Polynesia

Rediscovered maro 'ura will go on show at Museum of Tahiti and the Islands on long-term loan from 2021

Stephen Garrett, inaugural director of the Getty and the Hammer, has died, aged 96

“Bon vivant” took over at the museum's villa and expanded its mission after J. Paul Getty died in 1976

What will cultural philanthropy look like in the 21st century? A new forum aims to find out

A survey of 500 art world professionals conducted by the Arts Funders Forum could help museums stay relevant to new patrons

Chinaanalysis

Why museum partnerships between China and the West are booming

Cultural institutions have embraced mutual benefits of collaboration, despite challenges of communication and censorship

Cuzco paintings meet colonial Cuban culture in Allapattah

Founders of museum of Latin American art believe they may also have a work by Raphael

New art space in Basel will offer free shows

The opening exhibition of the Kulturstiftung Basel H. Geiger, during next year's Art Basel fair, will focus on Caribbean artists

Turkeynews

Court ruling converting Turkish museum to mosque could set precedent for Hagia Sophia

Decision that Kariye Museum must become a Muslim house of worship again could imperil its Byzantine art and have repercussions for other early Christian monuments

Michael Rakowitz wants to pause his video work at MoMA PS1 as a protest against museum's ties to 'toxic philanthropy'

"It's censorship", the artist says of curators' denials to suspend work that is part of show on the artistic legacy of the Gulf War

Budapest’s green mayor puts brakes on €250m New National Gallery

Local politicians block construction on cultural quarter backed by right-wing government, citing “enormous impact on environment”

Cold War-era mosaic sees light of day again in eastern Germany

Reappearance of a Josep Renau mural hints at a greater acceptance of East German public art

Hong Kong plans 2020 Botticelli exhibition in unprecedented deal with Italy's Uffizi

This is the first time the Florentine museum has formed a long-term partnership with a foreign institution

Cambridge college returns Benin bronze to Nigeria

Statue of a cockerel was looted by the British in 1897 from the Court of Benin

Noguchi Museum launches digital archive about the globe-trotting artist’s life and career

Online trove includes 60,000 photographs, manuscripts, records and drawings and an updated catalogue raisonné

Hong Kong Museum of Art to reopen in spite of escalating violence of pro-democracy protests

Launch of revamped government-run museum to go ahead as planned following $119m facelift

Derelict iron flaxmill is brought back to life in Shrewsbury

Building was considered an audacious architectural experiment when it was built in 1797

Thieves steal priceless Baroque jewels from Dresden museum

After breaking in through a window at the Green Vault, the intruders grabbed three royal jewellery ensembles containing diamonds and pearls

Chinanews

Guangzhou museum given three days’ notice to evacuate before demolition

Privately funded Redtory Museum of Contemporary Art says its forced closure follows “a long period of disputation” with the local authorities

Conservators to restore Michelangelo’s Florence Pietà in full view of visitors

Restoration will remove centuries of grime and stabilise the sculpture at the Museo dell’Opera del Duomo

Paris news

Special delivery: Musée de la Poste reopens in Paris—with art to boot

Museum's little known, 6,000-strong Modern and contemporary art collection includes a ball gown made of 2,000 stamps

Former factory in Iraqi Kurdistan stirs hope for cultural tourism

From studio spaces to museums, a future complex holds the promise of galvanising artists

The Marciano masquerade is exposed

The art foundation, which has closed its doors, was never more than the shell of a museum

Terra Foundation plans 2024 sequel to Art Design Chicago

Yearlong 2018 effort drew 2.5 million people and brought attention to overlooked artists

German parliament approves institute for photographic legacy based in Dusseldorf

Government says institute is necessary to address “considerable backlog in securing the visual memory of our society”

New Hampshire museum acquires a rare house by Frank Lloyd Wright

The 1957 home, the Currier Museum of Art's second Wright dwelling, is built in the “Usonian Automatic” style, with rectangular concrete blocks

What is art for? Why, to help sell arms, silly!

October saw full deployment of culture in Russian and French political and commercial diplomacy with Saudi Arabia

The French general’s advice to Notre Dame's chief architect: ‘Just shut up!’

A public spat between officials erupted this week in Paris over the reconstruction of the fire-ravaged cathedral and whether its historic spire should be restored as it was or a new spire built in its place

Three ways museums can face up to the climate crisis

No issue is more relevant—and relevance is the cultural sector’s current leitmotif

The Huntington Library acquires two collections of US slavery and abolition records

The historic documents “highlight the complexities of documenting America’s ‘peculiar institution’”

Opening new galleries and showcasing its sphinx, Penn Museum rebrands its image

Museum at the University of Pennsylvania will open 10,000 sq. ft of reimagined spaces