Museums

UK culture war: museum trustees are paying the price for disagreeing with government's policies

Several board members who do not support the "retain and explain" policy championed by the ruling party have recently left or lost their roles within the arts

Home truths: east London's museum of domestic life emerges from lockdown after £18.8m makeover

Museum of the Home reopens on 12 June with double the public space in its 18th-century almshouse buildings

Raphael Cartoons at Victoria and Albert Museum serenaded by live orchestral performance

The London museum’s newly refurbished Raphael Court plays host to a “visual album” of classical pieces on film

Belgian experts frustrated at 'lack of initiative from museums and government' call for restitution of colonial-era acquisitions

New report provides guidelines for the return of artefacts to Africa, where Belgium controlled territory that was 80 times its size

Don’t trash talk museums at this perilous time: we must adapt—not throw away—our cultural heritage

Cultural institutions—like religious buildings—can be spaces of good and harm, we cannot simply denounce their histories as one or the other, says museum director Nicholas Thomas

The David and Goliath of art collections team up—London’s National Gallery loans nine works to Southampton

Maverick museum chief Kenneth Clark helped shape the Southampton City Art Gallery's collection

What it's like to visit museums now—and how Covid-19 has fundamentally changed them long term

Coronavirus restrictions have dramatically altered the visitor experience, but the changes run deeper than mask-wearing and one-way systems

Germany launches African museum exchange programme to discuss returning looted objects

New government initiative MuseumsLab aims to foster more international co-operation and consider topics including decolonisation and restitution

Cubanews

Cuban artists ask Museum of Fine Arts to remove their work from display while Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara remains in government custody

The San Isidro Movement founder was forcibly taken to a Havana hospital in early May eight days into a hunger strike protesting the government's clampdown on artist's rights

Podcastspodcast

'Art is our spiritual oxygen': new shows to see in London and New York

We discuss Matthew Barney, Igshaan Adams, Eileen Agar and Louise Bourgeois

Hosted by Ben Luke. with guest speaker Louisa Buck. Produced by Julia Michalska, David Clack, Aimee Dawson and Henrietta Bentall
Sponsored byChristie's

How a Van Gogh painting was stolen from a Cairo museum—not once, but twice

The Khalil Museum, with its fabled Impressionists in a mansion by the Nile, has reopened after an 11-year renovation—without Vincent’s flower still-life

a blog by Martin Bailey

V&A confirms it will keep its focus on materials—but workforce will be reduced by 15% to cut costs

Following backlash over proposed chronological reorganisation of London museum, specialist departments will now remain

Openingsreview

After 21 years and $194m: Pinault opens Bourse museum in Paris

The French billionaire's long awaited contemporary art space contains works that champion his values of diversity—though many of these have been shown in Venice before

Hermitage Amsterdam close to reaching €1m in urgent crowdfunding appeal to survive Covid-19 crisis

The privately funded Dutch branch of the State Hermitage Museum has attracted 10,000 donations from the public but director says "we're not done yet"

Hug a museum: the best exhibitions to see around the UK as restrictions ease

From Rodin's plaster casts and Barbara Hepworth's bronzes, to flower arranging, disco dancing and the notorious Nero

Fuelling culture war, UK government forms new 'retain and explain' board for controversial monuments

"Independence cuts both ways," UK culture secretary Oliver Dowden warns museums and heritage bodies

German museums to receive up to €25,000 for research into their Benin bronzes ahead of restitutions next year

Grants are available for institutions with individual Benin artefacts or small collections

Prizesnews

Black Obsidian Sound System: 'Thanks for the Turner Prize nomination, here are our terms'

Group shortlisted by Tate for the prestigious contemporary art prize is calling out the institution’s hypocrisy and demanding working conditions that are “nurturing and supportive”

Crowds flock to revamped Uffizi Galleries

Florence museum unveiled new exhibition space and recent acquisitions

Germany pledges to return Benin bronzes to Nigeria starting in 2022

“We are facing up to our historical and moral responsibility”, says culture minister Monika Grütters

Podcastspodcast

Return to La La Land: art is back in California

Plus, artists' album covers, and Grace Jones in the Work of the Week

Indian museum brings artist M F Husain back from the dead using AI

Visitors to the Museum of Art and Photography in Bangalore can pose questions to a "digital twin" of the late Bombay Progressive Group painter

Korean museums to receive 23,000 works from Samsung estate in $11bn tax settlement

Lee Kun-hee, the Samsung Electronics chairman who died in October, leaves collection worth $2.2bn, including works by Monet, Dali and Chagall

Global survey: where in the world are the Benin bronzes?

Around 160 institutions hold looted Benin artefacts, but how many are prepared to give them back? We asked museums in five countries for their position on restitution

'We've had a lot of museums reaching out': how Nigeria is getting ready to receive the world’s Benin bronzes

With institutions across the globe rethinking their views on restitution, the African country’s focus is now on making a home for its heritage

Lawnews

Tate Modern neighbours head to Supreme Court over 'relentless' invasion of privacy

Residents next to the London museum continue legal battle after losing case to close viewing platform that allows visitors to see inside their flats

Museums weigh in on the vaccine passport debate, as countries are under pressure to open up their economies

As Israel and Denmark introduce Covid-19 status certificates, institutions are concerned that government schemes may keep visitors away