Politics

Activists deface American Museum of Natural History’s Theodore Roosevelt monument

The group says it splashed red paint on the statue as “an act of applied art criticism”

Erdogan responds to detention of leading cultural activist Osman Kavala

Chairman of the Anadolu Kültür centre, who is outspoken critic of Turkish president, was detained at Istanbul airport

Artists in Qatar take stand against blockade with super-sized graffiti

Qatar Museums has called for more anti-embargo art on “bridges, tunnels and walls” across the country

Brazilian arts group calls out censorship by 'arrogant fundamentalists' in open letter

More than 1,000 artists, curators and professionals have signed the protest document published by the pro-democracy collective Pela Democracia

Imperial War Museum explores artists’ responses to war and terror after 9/11

Show of more than 40 artists includes Jenny Holzer, Grayson Perry and Gerhard Richter

Ai Weiwei stopped from boarding flight from New York to São Paulo

Chinese artist was en route to premiere of his documentary Human Flow when staff wrongly claimed his visa was invalid

LaBeouf, Rönkkö & Turner’s anti-Trump work adopted in Nantes

The protest work He Will Not Divide US has been moved four times after attacks by far-right extremists and vandals in the US and UK

Performance artist Pyotr Pavlensky sets fire to a bank in Paris

Russian artist famous for nailing scrotum to Moscow’s Red Square invokes the “great French Revolution”

Ai Weiwei calls out Trump’s divisiveness and ‘super rich people’ at Cooper Union talk

The artist discussed the impetus behind his New York City-wide public art project Good Fences Makes Good Neighbors

Audrey Azoulay, former French culture minister, to be Unesco’s next director-general

In a surprise election, the dark-horse candidate won the vote of the culture agency’s executive board

US to pull out of Unesco by 2018

The State Department says the decision was based on concerns over funding and anti-Israel bias in the cultural organisation

Alfredo Jaar condemns 'brutal' CIA torture chambers

Artist unveils his “black site” installation in Yorkshire as Guardian article reveals the suffering of prisoners shackled in dungeons in Afghanistan and Thailand

Show by late curator Martin Roth goes ahead in Qatar despite Gulf blockade

German design survey has opened alongside Deutsche Bank collection exhibition in beleaguered state

UK could completely ban ivory trade by 2018

The government has launched an immediate consultation period with the aim of protecting African elephants

Politicsfeature

The sculptures that unite America

As the debate rages about divisive Confederate monuments, five leading US scholars and curators pick the nation’s greatest memorial sculptures

Artists step up to the plate in statues debate

Colonial monuments and the US flag are subverted at Frieze London

Berlin’s Volksbühne returns to business as usual after occupation ends with a whimper

Police oversaw end of protest as new director Chris Dercon said he could not find “common path” with occupiers

Leading German arts figures rise-up against AfD

Joint letter urges parliament not to appoint far-right party member as chair of culture committee

Saudi artists speak out over new law giving women the right to drive

While some hail the reform as progressive, others question it as a PR stunt

JR's border baby

The French street artist teams up with a very very young collaborator—one-year-old David

Female artists get the word out on political action with Times Square project

Artists Carrie Mae Weems and Wangechi Mutu have created new works for the show

Artist brings 50 US flags from 50 states to New York

For his travelling project, Mel Ziegler exchanged old flags—from private homeowners, a National Guard office and even a casino—for new ones

Immigration politics loom large in Pacific Standard Time

Shows about the collapse of borders between North and South America now face a new reality

Charlottesville riot hastens removal of Confederate monuments throughout the US

City and state governments around the country are looking at what to do with the controversial statues

India's new Partition Museum opens near Pakistani border

Crowdsourced collection of survivors’ artefacts includes identity cards, steamer trunks and clothing carried by refugees

Charlottesville protestor thought to have targeted LaBeouf, Rönkkö & Turner work with anti-Semitic comments

The man was photographed attending torch-lit white nationalist rally in Virginia

Will the land surrounding Michael Heizer’s City stay protected?

US Interior Secretary hinted at downsizing after visiting two of Nevada’s national monuments, as part of review ordered by President Trump