Art Basel Curbs Pre-Fair Sales—and More Art Industry News

Art Basel has launched a "Basel Exclusive" initiative to curb pre-fair PDF sales, encouraging galleries to withhold works from previews to drive in-person discovery at its flagship Swiss event (June 16–21). Around 170 of 232 exhibitors have opted in. Meanwhile, Volta returns to Basel with a new "5,000 Edit" section for works under CHF 5,000 to attract younger collectors, and the alternative fair Esther will hold its third edition in New York during Frieze Week. In other news, Sotheby's set a U.S. record for design auctions with the Jean and Terry de Gunzburg collection totaling $96 million, and billionaire collector Mitchell P. Rales pledged $116 million to the National Gallery of Art to fund loans to smaller museums. The Smithsonian American Art Museum named Lynda Roscoe Hartigan as its new director, and Gladstone Gallery plans a new Seoul space for 2026.

New Louvre Chief Christophe Leribault Reveals His Vision for the Museum Post-Heist

Christophe Leribault, the new director of the Louvre, has outlined his vision for the museum following a $100 million heist in October 2025. The Apollo Gallery, where the theft occurred, will reopen in July with a redesigned display that removes mineral cases to highlight its Romantic wall paintings, inspired by Versailles’s Hall of Mirrors. Empress Eugénie’s diamond-and-emerald crown, crushed by the thieves, is being restored and will become a new highlight. Security upgrades include window bars, 100 new cameras by 2026, a mobile police station, and a new security coordinator. The heist led to the resignation of former director Laurence des Cars in February.

Researchers Identify Enslaved Boy in Joshua Reynolds Painting

Researchers in the U.K. have identified the enslaved boy depicted in Joshua Reynolds's 1748 painting of Royal Navy lieutenant Paul Henry Ourry. For centuries known only as "Jersey," the boy has been identified as George Walker, also called Boston Jersey, through baptismal and admiralty records. Walker was baptized at age 15 in Westminster in 1752, served on HMS Monmouth and HMS Deptford, and was discharged in 1753, after which his fate remains unknown. The research, a collaboration between the National Trust, the National Gallery in London, and Royal Museums Greenwich, also used scientific analysis to reveal Reynolds's original compositional intentions.

Tate Britain will Exhibit ‘90s Art and Fashion, and Other News.

Tate Britain will stage "The 90s: Art and Fashion" in autumn 2026, guest curated by Edward Enninful, featuring nearly 70 artists, designers, and photographers including Steve McQueen, Damien Hirst, Alexander McQueen, and Vivienne Westwood. The exhibition explores how the decade reshaped British cultural identity through art, fashion, and social commentary, highlighting DIY anti-fashion aesthetics and themes of identity, race, class, and representation. Separately, Gagosian opened a new ground-floor flagship at 980 Madison Avenue in New York, replacing its longtime sixth-floor space after 37 years. A rare 17th-century Mughal astrolabe is heading to Sotheby's London with a £1.5–2.5 million estimate. Fondazione Sozzani launched an award for emerging creative talent. A Manhattan federal jury ordered art publisher Michael McKenzie to pay $102.2 million in damages to the Morgan Art Foundation for producing unauthorized works by Robert Indiana.

‘Woman Impressionist’ No More: A New Catalogue Raisonné Restores Eva Gonzalès’s Legacy

The Wildenstein Plattner Institute (WPI) has released a new digital catalogue raisonné for French painter Eva Gonzalès, correcting long-standing misattributions and omissions from the 1990 printed edition. The project reattributes works like *Apples in Basket* (previously assigned to Belgian painter Isidore Verheyden) and adds newly discovered pieces, including a portrait of Madame Georges Haquette and Gonzalès’s sketchbooks now held by the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. WPI executive director Elizabeth Gorayeb emphasizes that the digital format allows for iterative updates and brings overlooked figures in Gonzalès’s orbit to light.

Filippo Lippi painting—once the centrepiece of Florence's Palazzo Medici Chapel—to undergo two-year restoration

The Staatliche Museen zu Berlin has announced a two-year restoration of Filippo Lippi’s 1459 painting *The Adoration in the Forest*, funded by the Ernst von Siemens Kunststiftung and the Schoof’schen Stiftung. The tempera-on-panel work, a centerpiece of the Palazzo Medici chapel in Florence, is now in the Gemäldegalerie’s collection. Conservators discovered that a 19th-century varnish layer is degrading the paint, causing it to lift off the panel, particularly affecting the Virgin’s blue cloak, skin, and gold leaf areas. The treatment aims to remove the varnish while stabilizing the paint layer, and may also reveal Lippi’s use of oil paint alongside egg tempera.

Banksy’s Venice mural has been restored and will now tour city

A Banksy mural titled "Migrant Child," originally sprayed onto a 17th-century palazzo in Venice in 2019, has been restored and will tour the city's canals this weekend. The work, which depicts a child holding a flare and wearing a life vest, was removed from the Palazzo San Pantalon after six years of neglect and environmental damage had caused about a third of it to deteriorate. The restoration was funded by Banca Ifis, which purchased the palazzo in 2024 and commissioned Zaha Hadid Architects for the building's renovation. The conservation was supervised by Federico Borgogni, who previously oversaw the removal of another Banksy work in Bristol.

Embattled US Venice Biennale Pavilion is Seeking Donations

The American Arts Conservancy (AAC), an organization founded last year by the Trump administration, has launched a crowdfunding campaign to support the United States Pavilion at the Venice Biennale. This comes amid widespread controversy and calls to exclude the US, Russia, and Israel from the event. The AAC website solicits donations starting at $100, claiming a "once-in-a-generation opportunity" to restore America's artistic presence abroad. The US government has already contributed $375,000, but the State Department says the total exhibition cost far exceeds that amount. This year's pavilion will feature sculptor Alma Allen, after Barbara Chase-Riboud and William Eggleston declined to participate.

A Dismembered Album by Gerard van Honthorst (1592-1656): Unpublished Drawings and Reconstruction of a Corpus

Un album démembré de Gerard van Honthorst (1592-1656) : dessins inédits et reconstitution d'un corpus

An article in La Tribune de l'Art presents a significant expansion of the known corpus of drawings by Dutch Golden Age painter Gerard van Honthorst (1592-1656). Following the 2014 exhibition of twenty-seven drawings identified by the author, this study adds thirty-two more sheets—twenty-two of which are previously unpublished—as a preliminary step toward reconstructing a dismembered album. The research, conducted with direct observation and advanced imaging techniques (digital microscopy, ultraviolet, raking light), aims to restore the album's original order and shed light on the role of drawing in Honthorst's workshop and creative process.

Museo de Arte Moderno de Bogotá's director departs amid accusations she harassed staff

The Museo de Arte Moderno de Bogotá (Mambo) is in a leadership crisis after its director, Martha Ortiz, resigned amid accusations of harassment and creating a toxic work environment. Her departure follows the dismissal of artistic director Eugenio Viola in February, which sparked an open letter signed by over 140 cultural figures demanding transparency. The museum's board chair, Ángela Royo, and financial manager Francy Hernández are temporarily overseeing operations while searches for both director and artistic director are underway.

Healing From the Burns: How The Getty Recovered From the LA Fires

On January 7, 2025, a wildfire driven by extreme winds reached the Getty Villa in Los Angeles. Thanks to years of preparation, staff efforts, and firefighter support, the museum buildings and art collection survived undamaged, though the landscape suffered severe damage. The Villa closed for about six months, during which staff removed 1,400 burned trees, cleaned soot and ash, restored water service, and installed a new exhibition. It reopened in late June 2025, welcoming visitors back to the galleries and gardens.

Una delle opere più importante esposte alla Galleria Nazionale di Roma sta ammuffendo

An article by Laura Carlotta Cortoni on Artribune reports that Pino Pascali's iconic 1967 work "32 mq di mare circa" ("32 square meters of sea approximately"), on display at the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea (GNAMC) in Rome, is covered in mold, dust, and insects due to a total lack of maintenance. The author describes the installation as resembling a neglected warehouse and notes that visitors unfamiliar with the piece mistake the decay for an intentional environmental statement, creating a critical paradox given Pascali's own series of works titled "Muffe" (Molds).

Notre-Dame : les travaux commencent, le combat se poursuit

Work has begun on replacing the stained-glass windows at Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris, with scaffolding installed immediately after the work permit was posted. The project involves removing six ornamental windows created in 1864 by Alfred Gérente under Eugène Viollet-le-Duc and installing six new windows by artist Claire Tabouret and the master glassmakers Simon-Marq. The authorization, signed by the prefect, has sparked legal challenges from the heritage association Sites & Monuments, who argue the replacement is neither conservation nor restoration. The article details how the state's own authorization document inadvertently strengthens opponents' arguments by affirming that the entire cathedral, including Viollet-le-Duc's windows, is protected as a historic monument.

À Florence, une touriste poursuivie pour avoir endommagé la fontaine de Neptune

In Florence, Italy, a 28-year-old tourist is being prosecuted for damaging the historic Neptune Fountain during a bachelorette party on the night of April 18-19. She allegedly climbed the monument on Piazza della Signoria after a dare from friends to touch the statue's intimate parts, causing an estimated €5,000 in damages to the horses' legs and a decorative frieze. This follows a similar incident in September 2023, when a 22-year-old German tourist caused €5,000 in damage to the same fountain while posing for photos.

Doyen retrouve la chapelle Saint-Louis

A cycle of eleven paintings commissioned in 1772 for the Chapelle Saint-Louis at the École Militaire in Paris, depicting the life of Saint Louis, has been rediscovered. The chapel was built under Louis XV by architect Ange-Jacques Gabriel, and the paintings were executed by Jean-Baptiste-Marie Pierre following a carefully devised iconographic program. The discovery sheds new light on a major decorative ensemble from the Ancien Régime.