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.
Recent scientific and archival investigations have led to two significant new attributions to the Renaissance master Michelangelo Buonarroti. The first involves a painting titled 'Spirituali Pietà,' which was previously sold as an anonymous work but has now been linked to the artist through pigment analysis, X-ray fluorescence of monograms, and stylistic parallels to his known masterpieces. Simultaneously, researcher Valentina Salerno has identified a marble bust of Christ the Savior in Rome’s Basilica of St. Agnes Outside the Walls as a potential Michelangelo original, based on a decade of archival research.
Was das Met mit der Neuen Galerie gewinnt
The Neue Galerie, a private museum for German and Austrian art founded by billionaire collector Ronald S. Lauder, will be integrated into the Metropolitan Museum of Art (the Met) as an auxiliary branch under the new name "The Met Ronald S. Lauder Neue Galerie." The transition, announced by founding director Renée Price, is set to be completed by 2028, with the Met assuming full operational control after a planned renovation of the historic townhouse on Fifth Avenue. The merger follows years of Lauder's stewardship and ensures the long-term future of the collection, which includes masterpieces by Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele, Wassily Kandinsky, and Max Beckmann.
Des chefs-d’œuvre de l’art modélisés et imprimés en très haute définition : le défi relevé par LITO
Beaux Arts Magazine partnered with the Austrian printing and publishing company LITO to stage a challenge at its 500th-issue launch party. Guests were asked to identify the authentic 15th-century painting by Giovanni Bellini's circle from among four seemingly identical works, three of which were ultra-high-definition reproductions created by LITO. The company's patented modeling and printing technology replicates the texture of brushstrokes, varnish sheen, canvas grain, and even craquelure with unprecedented precision.
In Spagna è nata una nuova fondazione per l’arte contemporanea. Il collezionista Gabriel Calparsoro ce l’ha raccontata
The Calparsoro Foundation, a new contemporary art foundation, has been launched in Spain by collector Gabriel Calparsoro. Its inaugural event was the presentation of Isaac Julien's video installation "Once Again … (Statues never die)" at the Museo Lazaro Galdiano in Madrid. The foundation aims to share Calparsoro's private collection of around 180 works, which focuses on North American and international artists addressing political and social issues related to ethnic and gender minorities.
A valuable work on paper by Pablo Picasso, titled *Still Life with Guitar* (1919), has gone missing during transport from Madrid to Granada, Spain. The piece was part of a shipment of 57 artworks destined for the exhibition 'Still Life. The Eternity of the Inert' at the CajaGranada Cultural Center. The vehicle transporting the works made an unusual overnight stop just 20 miles from its destination, and despite video surveillance at the delivery site, the Picasso was discovered missing during inventory the following Monday. Insured for €600,000 (around $700,000), the work belongs to an unnamed private collector, and police are investigating the presumed theft, though no arrests have been made.
The article previews eight major art-venue openings expected in 2026, including the long-awaited Guggenheim Abu Dhabi on Saadiyat Island, Cardiff's first contemporary art museum (AMOCA), the V&A East Museum in London, the revived Palais de Danse studio of Barbara Hepworth in St Ives, and the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in Los Angeles. It also notes the uncertain status of the Museum of West African Art in Benin City amid political disputes. These projects range from vast new museums and subterranean expansions to restored artist studios, many delayed by funding, planning, or construction challenges.
The Philadelphia Convention and Visitors Bureau, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and the Middleton family have announced major art installations for 2026 to celebrate America's 250th anniversary. A dual-venue exhibition titled "A Nation of Artists" will open in April 2026 at the PMA and PAFA, featuring over 1,000 works of American art, including pieces from the private collection of Phillies majority owner John S. Middleton. Additionally, renowned muralist Meg Saligman will launch "Ministry of Awe," a six-story immersive art experience housed in a 19th-century bank.
Mapping Saudi Modern Art’s Origins: “Bedayat” in Riyadh
The exhibition 'Bedayat: Beginnings of the Saudi Art Movement' at Riyadh's National Museum showcased over 250 artworks from the 1960s to 1980s, a period of rapid modernization. It featured archival materials like exhibition catalogs and scholarship letters, alongside paintings grouped into themes such as 'Faces and Features' and 'Social Life,' though the curation largely avoided direct commentary on the era's intense socio-political debates.
A researcher has identified a long-lost page from the Archimedes Palimpsest, a 10th-century manuscript containing copies of the Greek mathematician's treatises. The page, held at the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Blois, France, was matched to a leaf documented in 1906 photographs and contains diagrams from "On the Sphere and the Cylinder" on one side and a later-added religious illustration on the other.
Un important relief italien pour Nüremberg
The Germanisches Nationalmuseum in Nuremberg has acquired and publicly unveiled a previously unknown masterpiece: a large silver relief depicting the Lamentation of Christ, created in the workshop of Luigi Valadier in 1786. The work, purchased from a private collector in 2024 with support from several foundations, is now on temporary display and will later join the museum's permanent collection.