The National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa has received a donation of 24 contemporary artworks from Vancouver-based collector and real estate tycoon Bob Rennie and his family. The gift includes works by American artists Kerry James Marshall and Christopher Williams, and Canadian artists Brian Jungen and Jin-me Yoon, bringing the total number of works donated by the Rennie family to the NGC since 2012 to 284.
The New York Academy of Art has donated $66,000 in funds originally received from convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein to Girls Educational and Mentoring Services (GEMS), a nonprofit supporting sexually exploited girls. The move redirects all donations the school accepted from Epstein after his 2008 conviction. The academy's board chair, Eileen Guggenheim, who solicited the funds, will retire from her role a month early on April 1, following renewed scrutiny of the institution's Epstein ties.
Major international institutions have secured significant new acquisitions, ranging from intimate photographic archives to monumental silver reliefs. The Smithsonian’s Archives of American Art received over 400 stereoscopic slides by Ronnie Cutrone documenting Andy Warhol’s Factory, while the Germanisches Nationalmuseum acquired Luigi Valadier’s final silver masterpiece, 'Lamentation of Christ'. Additionally, the Christo and Jeanne-Claude Foundation donated 14 works to the City of Paris, including the early sculpture 'Package on a Luggage Rack' for the Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris.
French engineer Ari Hodara has won a 1941 Pablo Picasso painting titled 'Tête de Femme' through a charity raffle after purchasing a single €100 ticket. The draw, held at Christie’s Paris, sold 120,000 tickets globally and raised €12 million for the Alzheimer’s Research Foundation. The artwork was sourced from the Opera Gallery, which will receive approximately €1 million of the proceeds.
The Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister in Dresden has received the Tefaf Museum Restoration Fund award for its ongoing restoration of Peter Paul Rubens's 17th-century painting 'The Boar Hunt'. The project involves removing discolored 19th-century varnish and undoing damaging 19th-century stabilization attempts that caused cracks in the wooden panel, aiming to reveal the work's original dynamism and palette.
Nicéphore Niépce en 2 minutes
Joseph Nicéphore Niépce, a Burgundian engineer and inventor, is credited with creating the world's first permanent photograph, "Point de vue du Gras," in 1827. Using a process he termed heliography, Niépce utilized bitumen of Judea on pewter plates to fix images captured in a camera obscura. Despite his groundbreaking achievement, he died in relative obscurity in 1833, shortly after entering a partnership with Louis Daguerre, who would later receive the primary credit for the invention of photography.
Guillermo del Toro received a rare painting of Frankenstein's Monster by the late British artist Josh Kirby as a gift from collaborators during Oscars festivities, despite his film not winning Best Picture. The painting, which depicts Boris Karloff's iconic portrayal, was previously owned by famed horror collector Forrest J. Ackerman and was sourced through a gallery specializing in pop culture art.
The Southampton Arts Center (SAC) has been awarded a $50,000 grant from the Robert David Lion Gardiner Foundation to support its upcoming exhibition, "The Story of America: 1776-2026, A Celebration of Freedom and Independence." Organized in collaboration with the Museum of Democracy, the show will feature over 250 years of American presidential campaign history through artifacts from the Wright Family Collection. Notable items on display will include the original flag from George Washington’s inauguration and political memorabilia ranging from 19th-century torches to 1960s paper campaign dresses.
The London Camera Exchange has announced the winners of its 2026 Photographer of the Year competition, which received nearly 14,500 entries across 14 categories. The overall winner is UK-based retired teacher Sophia Spurgin for her spontaneous portrait 'Fish Eyes,' capturing a fisherman in Hoi An, Vietnam. Other category winners include Colin Page, Dikye Ariani, and Brooke Shaden.
Les écoles d’art privées traversent une zone de turbulence
A wave of bankruptcies and judicial reorganizations is hitting the private art education sector in France. Following the closure of the École d’art de Montreuil, the Académie des arts appliqués (AAA) in Dijon and the École supérieure de design in Troyes have both entered receivership. These institutions are struggling with severe financial deficits, unpaid staff, and a sharp decline in student enrollment, with some schools seeing their student bodies shrink by two-thirds in just four years.
The Tulsa Artist Fellowship has announced an open call for its 2027–2029 award cycle, seeking ten artists and arts workers for a three-year residency in Oklahoma. Selected fellows receive a comprehensive financial package totaling over $150,000 in stipends, plus housing and relocation support, in exchange for committing to live and work in Tulsa. The program, established by the George Kaiser Family Foundation, emphasizes long-term community engagement and the development of ambitious, site-specific projects.
The Musée d’Orsay has acquired a significant collection of 17 Impressionist and post-Impressionist fan paintings donated by Hong Kong-based collector Ms. Kan, featuring works by Pissarro, Gauguin, and Degas. In other major news, Helen Legg has been appointed the next director of London’s Royal Academy of Arts, and the New Museum premiered a new film by Camille Henrot. Additionally, the Jim Irsay Collection achieved a "white glove" result at Christie’s, totaling $94.5 million and setting 28 world records for pop-culture memorabilia.
The European Alliance of Academies has launched 'Re:Create Europe,' a four-year, $2 million initiative designed to safeguard artistic freedom and cultural autonomy across the continent. Funded largely by the European Union, the program will provide financial aid, residencies, and digital resources to artists and institutions facing political censorship, economic precarity, and the impacts of war. Notable beneficiaries include Madrid’s Círculo de Bellas Artes, which will receive funding to offset recent politically motivated local budget cuts.
The Birmingham Museum of Art has launched a public appeal to locate missing artworks by Corietta Mitchell, the first Black artist to receive a solo exhibition at the institution during the Jim Crow era. Staged quietly in March 1963 just months before the repeal of local segregation ordinances, the exhibition is documented only by a checklist and a single grainy photograph. As the museum celebrates its 75th anniversary, officials are seeking to recover these works to address a significant gap in their institutional archives.
The Bunny Museum in Altadena, California, which was destroyed during the 2025 Greater Los Angeles Wildfires, has received a major donation in the form of a 14-foot-tall stainless steel sculpture titled "Scanner." Created by Chinese artist Jesse Zhao and donated by local resident Wesley Zucco, the 1,100-pound work was unveiled on February 20 as part of the museum's rebuilding efforts. The institution, which previously held over 45,000 rabbit-related items ranging from Egyptian antiquities to pop culture memorabilia, lost its entire physical collection in the blaze, though its live animals were rescued.
Hounslow Council, in partnership with arts agency Parker Harris, has launched the Hogarth Prize, a new national art award based at Hogarth’s House in Chiswick. The competition is open to UK-based artists of all career stages working in any wall-hanging medium, with a judging panel featuring artists Robyn Graham, Hero Johnson, and Steven King. The winner will receive a £3,000 cash prize and a solo exhibition at the historic site in 2027.