Art News. Vasari Codex

gavel restitution schedule May 16, 2025 visibility 19 link 7 artists

botticelli virgin and child export bar 2643265

The United Kingdom has imposed a temporary export bar on Sandro Botticelli's painting "The Virgin and Child Enthroned" (c. 1470), valued at £10.2 million ($13.5 million). The work was sold to a foreign buyer at Sotheby's London last fall for £8.6 million, but the export license deferral—recommended by the Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art—gives British institutions until August 8 to express interest in acquiring it. The painting, previously attributed to Botticelli's workshop, was confirmed as an autograph work through new scientific analyses and has been in the private collection of Lady Wantage since 1904.

newspaper Artnet News open_in_new Read original

gavel restitution schedule Dec 12, 2025 visibility 12 link 2 artists

us turkey sculptures repatriated aaron mendelsohn 2726367

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office has successfully repatriated eight life-sized Roman sculptures that were illegally removed from Bubon, Turkey, 60 years ago. The sculptures, part of a shrine honoring Roman emperors, were sold to Americans by Turkish villagers in the 1960s without required permits. After a two-year legal battle involving two lawsuits and an arrest warrant, the final sculpture—a headless bronze piece—was surrendered by collector Aaron Mendelsohn, who had acquired it for $1.33 million. The sculpture was returned to Turkish officials at a ceremony hosted by Bragg's office, alongside dozens of other looted Turkish antiquities, including a marble head of Demosthenes seized from the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

newspaper Artnet News open_in_new Read original

gavel restitution schedule Apr 15, 2026 visibility 20 link 7 artists

Valuable Art Collection Featuring Frida Kahlo Set To Leave Mexico Sparks Concern in Art Community

The Mexican art community is voicing alarm over the relocation of the prestigious Gelman Collection to Spain, where it is slated to become the centerpiece of the new Foro Santander cultural center. Managed by Santander Bank and previously acquired by the Zambrano family, the collection includes 160 works by modern masters such as Diego Rivera and David Alfaro Siqueiros, including 18 rare paintings by Frida Kahlo. Critics and academics have signed an open letter demanding transparency from the Mexican government regarding the legality of this long-term export, given that many of these works are designated as national artistic monuments.

newspaper My Modern Met open_in_new Read original

gavel restitution schedule Nov 7, 2025 visibility 14 link 6 artists

MFA Boston returns work by enslaved artist David Drake to his heirs, Wifredo Lam, Ghirlandaio’s Adoration of the Magi—podcast

The Museum of Fine Arts (MFA) in Boston has agreed to return two 1857 works by the enslaved potter David Drake to his descendants. One vessel will remain on loan to the museum for at least two years, while the other, known as the "Poem Jar," has been purchased back by the museum for an undisclosed sum, now carrying a certificate of ethical ownership. The episode also covers the opening of the exhibition "Wifredo Lam: When I Don’t Sleep, I Dream" at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, featuring the modernist painter of African and Chinese descent, and discusses Domenico Ghirlandaio's "Adoration of the Magi" (1488) in the context of a new book on Renaissance foundlings.

newspaper The Art Newspaper open_in_new Read original

gavel restitution schedule May 14, 2026 visibility 11

Who Owns These Artworks? Musée d’Orsay Hopes Visitors Can Help Find Out.

The Musée d’Orsay in Paris has opened a new room in its permanent display featuring 13 artworks recovered from Germany and Austria after World War II, whose provenance remains unknown. The museum is inviting visitors to help identify the original owners of these pieces, which were looted or displaced during the war and later restituted to France.

newspaper New York Times Art open_in_new Read original

gavel restitution schedule Jan 6, 2026 visibility 9 link 1 artist

france mexico celebrate 200th anniversary pre hispanic manuscripts 1234768914

In May 2025, French President Emmanuel Macron visited Mexico City for his first official trip to Mexico, where President Claudia Sheinbaum announced a temporary exchange of two pre-Hispanic codices. The Codex Azcatitlán, held at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France in Paris, will travel to Mexico City, while the Codex Boturini, housed at Mexico's Biblioteca Nacional de Antropología e Historia, will go to Paris. Both illustrated manuscripts, rarely displayed due to conservation concerns, recount the Aztecs' migration to Tenochtitlan. The exchange comes amid ongoing Mexican efforts to repatriate Mesoamerican codices from European collections, including the Codex Borgia and Codex Vaticanus in the Vatican and the Codex Borbonicus in France.

newspaper ARTnews open_in_new Read original

gavel restitution schedule Jan 25, 2026 visibility 7

Sotheby’s to Hold Auction in Diriyah Featuring over 60 Artworks

A priceless 2,500-year-old golden helmet and three golden bracelets from Romania's Dacia civilization, stolen from the Drents Museum in the Netherlands in January 2025, were returned to Romania on Tuesday. The artifacts arrived at Bucharest Henri Coanda International Airport under guard and were displayed at Bucharest's National History Museum, flanked by armed security. The recovery followed 14 months of investigations, diplomatic tensions, and an ongoing trial of three suspects; one bracelet remains missing but Dutch authorities vow to continue the search.

newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat open_in_new Read original