Museums

'End BP sponsorship of British Museum': 90 heritage professionals sign open letter against oil giant

Archaeologists and museum professionals "urge" institution to cut ties with British Petroleum company

Skateboarders fight back against Berlin Neue Nationalgalerie ban

Museum says ban protects the building and sculptures—but has attracted criticism for ostracising younger generation

Experts raise alarm over fate of Georgia's leading art museum amid political upheaval

Concerns persist that a government-backed renovation of the Shalva Amiranashvili Museum of Fine Arts in Tbilisi could endanger its collection of 139,000 ancient and modern works

London’s National Gallery reveals slavery history in new research—including its founder’s ties to Caribbean

The data, published today, found 67 individuals connected to the slave trade including John Julius Angerstein who helped to establish the museum's collection

Humboldt Forum to remove medallion honouring far-right donor

Ehrhardt Bödecker’s family requested the removal after his “militaristic, anti-democratic and in some respects, radically right-wing and antisemitic” views became public

Removal of Welsh slave trader painting from National Museum Cardiff is ‘censoring history’, says BBC broadcaster

Newsreader Huw Edwards will now be invited to the museum to hear more about the reinterpretation process

Smithsonian Museum of African Art removes Benin bronzes from display and plans to repatriate them

“We cannot build for the future without making our best effort at healing the wounds of the past,” the museum’s director says

Crime news

Trial begins for Spanish museum director accused of spending €3.4m on forged works

Consuelo Císcar, the former director of the Institut Valencià d’Art Modern, is said to have bought works attributed to Gerardo Rueda—but that were painted by his son

Miss Clara, the Indian rhinoceros, and other fantastic beasts—a rich exhibition catalogue considers the cruel fashion for touring celebrity animals

This analysis, while celebrating the skill of artists and artisans, does not ignore the exploitative practices of previous centuries

Museums must take action on climate change now—before it’s too late

Cultural institutions have an ethical duty to speak out about the crisis, and are uniquely qualified to empower people to live more sustainably, says Horniman Museum director Nick Merriman

Official at St Petersburg's State Hermitage breaks visitor's nose—live on Instagram

Russian influencer posts aftermath of assault to her 1.5 million followers as state authorities target social media users posting in museums

More turmoil at UK Science Museum Group as two trustees step down over ties to coal conglomerate

Hannah Fry and Jo Foster quit museum as it partners with Indian company Adani to sponsor a new "green" gallery, due to open in 2023

15 seconds of art: Brazil's Instituto Inhotim embraces Instagram

Art space in Belo Horizonte found an innovative way to engage with its audience during the pandemic—and now it's here to stay

Angolanews

Major art space and residency programme opens in Angolan capital of Luanda

The Nesr Art Foundation, a philanthropic enterprise by the family behind Webcor Group, intends to counter under-representation of African art

Museumscomment

In returning an ancient gold ewer to Turkey, the UK's Gilbert Trust made the right decision

The Anatolian artefact had been on long-term loan to London's Victoria & Albert Museum, although not on display. Restitution is a complex issue, but in this case it was the right move

England's culture sector to receive £850m in extra funding from Treasury

The budget, to be announced by Chancellor Rishi Sunak on Wednesday, has earmarked £300m for museums to "redevelop and refurbish their sites"

Russia declares week of 'non-working days' following Covid spike, reducing museum capacity and closing cultural venues

Restrictions will come into force between 30 October and 7 November after cases reached highest-ever level since start of pandemic

As the Photographers’ Gallery in London turns 50, we look at five of its defining shows

The institution's director Brett Rogers has selected five key shows from the past five decades

Centre Pompidou's three-year closure delayed until after the Paris Olympics—but will it now miss its own 50th anniversary?

Crucial renovations will happen after the games in 2024, putting a question mark over whether the gallery will be open for its 50-year celebrations in 2027

'Most important gift in recent decades': trove of works by Kandinsky, Otto Dix and Max Ernst donated to Städel Museum in Frankfurt

The bequest from the estate of the German photographer Ulrike Crespo includes 90 works and will go on show in November.

Denver’s Gio Ponti-designed Art Museum gets a $150m revamp and a remix

Campus expansion opens up “standoffish” building and inspires a total rehang of the encyclopaedic art collections

French art foundation unveils plans for mobile museum on board a €32m catamaran

Art Explora, set up by the tech entrepreneur Frédéric Jousset, will launch the vessel in 2023 with a tour around the Mediterranean

Maltanews

Cristina Iglesias creates new cave-like sculpture for Malta's first contemporary art museum

Commissioned work—currently on view in a public garden in Valetta—will move to the Malta International Contemporary Art Space sculpture garden after it opens in 2023

Berlin museum restitutes—and then buys back—Nazi-looted Pissarro painting

The work was bought by Armand Dorville, a Jewish lawyer, but his heirs were forced to sell it at an auction in France

Small Northern English town gets UK’s first museum dedicated to Spanish art and culture

Many pieces on show in the Spanish Gallery are from the personal collection of financier Jonathan Ruffer, the main backer of a £150m regeneration project in Bishop Auckland

Buy one, gift one free: why collectors acquire two works and give one away

Buying a work and donating another to a museum sounds like a win-win—but who really benefits?

Mystery surrounds sudden closures of two major Shanghai museums

Long Museum West Bund and Shanghai Minsheng Art Museum both announced they would shut indefinitely for unspecified reasons