Museums

UK heritage minister says government has no plans to amend law that prevents museums from 'disposing' of objects

The 1983 National Heritage Act was debated in the House of Lords—but the issue of reform will be further discussed ahead of its 40-year anniversary in May 2023

Protestors at British Museum demand release of writer imprisoned in Egypt

Plight of British-Egyptian Alaa Abd El-Fattah, currently on hunger strike, is focal point of protest as hieroglyphs exhibition opens

Museums must unite over Iran's human rights abuses, say art-world figures

Institutions are urged to show solidarity following Mahsa Amini's death after her detention by the morality police

The global mental health crisis: Wellcome Trust launches international science and art project to help people cope

Mindscape initiative is a programme of residencies and exhibitions in museums across the world that explore psychological wellbeing post-pandemic

The Photographers' Gallery in London appoints Shoair Mavlian as new director

A former intern will replace Brett Rogers as the new figurehead of the photography space, but will face immediate pressures concerning income, footfall and sponsorship

De Kooning’s Woman Ochre returns to the museum it was stolen from in 1985

The painting, which was missing for more than 30 years after it was cut from its frame and stolen, made a stop at the Getty Center in Los Angeles for restoration

Rijksmuseum strongly denies claims it is sinking due to wood-rotting fungi

Dutch national museum opposes the report claiming its foundations have been infected, stating the building “has not sunk a millimetre”

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Energy crisis could prove more damaging to UK museums than global pandemic, expert says

Museums Association director Sharon Heal explains the long-term effects of systemically underfunding the UK's cultural sector

A dark winter looms for UK museums as energy costs and fewer visitors continue to hit revenue

The UK's 15 nationally funded museums have seen visitor numbers drop by over a third compared to June 2019, thanks in large part to the pandemic. They are now facing price rises, with government support still unclear

Art was never Queen Elizabeth II's passion—but her image was truly iconic

“You have to be seen to be believed,” was the Queen’s maxim for her own bold and supremely colourful attire

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Two Qatar exhibitions put Doha's vast forthcoming Art Mill Museum in the spotlight

The show will include contemporary art commissions by artists such as French-born Yasmina Benabderrahmane and Istanbul-based Ali Kazma

State Hermitage Museum curator quits over Russia's war in Ukraine

Dimitri Ozerkov, the head of the contemporary art department, made the announcement on Instagram after months of silence

London's Victoria and Albert museum announces it will 'no longer carry the Sackler name'

Institution cuts ties with the family behind the highly addictive drug Oxycontin

My plea to London’s National Gallery to scrap its £35m Sainsbury Wing new entrance plans

Architecture critic Hugh Pearman argues that the gallery is making irreversible changes to a Grade I listed building—while removing most of its early Renaissance collection from display until 2025

Acquisitions round-up: National Museum of Women in the Arts receives bequest of more than 60 works

Our pick of the latest gifts and purchases to enter institutional collections worldwide

A Danny Boyle dance show inspired by The Matrix and an inflatable Kusama room: Manchester's new art space set to open next year

Factory International is over budget and four years late, but will create 1,500 new jobs and inject a projected £1.1bn into the city's economy over the next decade, city council say

Cy Twombly double-header in Los Angeles shows two sides of the still-influential artist

An exhibition at the Getty focuses on Twombly’s early fascination with ancient Mediterranean cultures while a show of his later work at Gagosian gives a sense of how his practice changed and matured

Belgian museum looks unchanged after €100m restoration—but an entirely new building has been inserted within

Home to works by Old Masters including Peter Paul Rubens and Jan van Eyck, the Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp reopens after 11-year makeover

Sydney museum turns underground Second World War oil reservoir into dramatic new gallery space

The Tank is part of the Sydney Modern extension at the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Australia, due to open in December

Spain's Prado museum releases list of works with murky civil war and Francoist provenance

Up to 62 works in the collection, including paintings by Joaquín Sorolla and François Boucher copies, could be returned to their original owners under the current investigation

Lights go out early at the Louvre in bid to slash high energy costs

Paris museum's pyramid joins the Eiffel Tower, Musée d'Orsay and Chateau Versailles in French government initiative to save power

Revealed: the hidden history of espionage in Britain’s heritage sites

New film uncovers how locations including Beaulieu, today home to the National Motor Museum, played a key role in intelligence training during the Second World War

Long-awaited Istanbul Modern museum nears completion

Renzo Piano-designed institution may coincide with this year's Istanbul Biennial

Museumsanalysis

Berlin's controversial Humboldt Forum is finally complete—but 'the work inside begins now', German Culture Minister says

Twenty years since its conception and at a cost of around €680m, the new German museum must now follow through on its restitution promises

Do good monarchs make bad art collectors? Inside the British Royal Collection

Plus, how UK museums can respond to the energy crisis, and a haunting Henry Fuseli painting

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UK museums to temporarily close out of respect for Elizabeth II's funeral

Tate Modern and Southbank Centre will be open overnight to provide toilet facilities to those queueing to see the Queen's coffin

Sotheby's to sell $70m of art stored at MoMA to benefit New York museum's digital initiatives

Francis Bacon triptych and Renoir still life among works from the collection of CBS founder William S. Paley that have been "under the museum's stewardship" since his death

Glenn Brown—Gagosian-backed appropriator of Old Masters—to open London museum dedicated to his art

Hoping to increase his visibility, Brown will self-fund a Marylebone space that will combine his work with those of historic artists in his private collection

Pressure on British Museum to ditch BP mounts following UK's record summer heatwave

Temperatures might now be cooling, but tensions around the London institution’s ties to the oil giant are reaching boiling point