NEON, the Athens-based contemporary art initiative founded by collector Dimitris Daskalopoulos, will conclude its activities later this year after 14 years. Its final project is a trilogy of exhibitions by artist Michael Rakowitz at the Acropolis Museum, with the last installment set for 2026. The organization also announced it has fulfilled its cultural and social mission.
Gagosian has secured special permission from Art Basel Paris to exhibit a rediscovered Old Master painting by Peter Paul Rubens, titled "The Virgin and Christ Child, with Saints Elizabeth and John the Baptist" (c. 1611–14), at a fair that typically restricts its main sector to works created between 1900 and 2025. The painting, last sold at Sotheby’s New York in 2020 for just over $7 million, will be shown alongside modern and contemporary works by artists such as John Currin, Jenny Saville, and Pablo Picasso. The exception was granted by Art Basel’s management and Selection Committee due to the work's exceptional quality and its resonance with the gallery's booth.
Un face-à-face titanesque réunit les corps vibrants de Rodin et Michel-Ange au Louvre
The Louvre has mounted an exhibition that places the works of Auguste Rodin in direct dialogue with those of Michelangelo, focusing on the profound influence of the Renaissance master on the 19th-century sculptor. Key sculptures like Rodin's 'Adam' and 'The Age of Bronze' are juxtaposed with Michelangelo's 'Dying Slave' and 'Rebellious Slave', highlighting shared themes of contorted male forms and masterful use of contrapposto.
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.
The Seoul Museum of Art (SeMA) is hosting "Proximities: Contemporary Art from the United Arab Emirates," a major survey featuring over 110 works by 47 artists. Co-curated by Maya El Khalil and Eunju Kim in collaboration with the Abu Dhabi Music & Arts Foundation (ADMAF), the exhibition eschews traditional chronological narratives in favor of a dense, non-linear exploration of Emirati identity. The show is organized into thematic chapters led by artist-curators, featuring works ranging from Shaikha Al Mazrou’s precarious sculptures to Raja’a Khalid’s olfactory installations.
The Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) in London has admitted to removing maps and images from two exhibition catalogs following censorship demands from a Chinese printing firm. Documents revealed that C&C Offset Printing flagged content in the catalogs for the exhibitions "Music Is Black" and "Fabergé: Romance to Revolution" as violating Chinese law. The censored items included a 1930s map of British trade routes and a photograph of Vladimir Lenin, which the printer claimed could not be produced under Beijing’s strict regulations.
The 2026 Whitney Biennial features a wave of artists grappling with the unsettling intersection of human identity and advanced technology. Works by Cooper Jacoby and Isabelle Frances McGuire highlight a shift away from the sleek, optimistic 'Y2K' tech aesthetic toward a 'techno-horror' that explores data extraction and biometric surveillance. Jacoby’s 'Estate' series uses AI-generated scripts derived from the social media data of deceased individuals, while McGuire’s sculptures utilize 3D medical scans to create distorted, ghostly figures that blur the line between the organic and the digital.
The British Museum has disputed a Telegraph report claiming it removed the word 'Palestinian' from wall texts under pressure from the pro-Israel group UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI). The museum stated that while some text was changed last year, using 'Canaanite descent' for a specific historical period, it continues to use 'Palestinian' as a cultural identifier where appropriate and that the changes predated the UKLFI letter. Museum director Nicholas Cullinan denied the changes were a response to the group's complaint, expressing frustration over the situation.
NYU Abu Dhabi Art Gallery has launched its first Gulf Quinquennial, titled "Between the Tides," featuring around 30 artists from the Gulf Cooperation Council countries. The exhibition presents a coherent selection of videos, installations, paintings, and traditional record-keeping practices, aiming to deepen and complicate the cultural narrative of the Arabian Peninsula by highlighting its diversity, linguistic interactions, and migrant labor.
The Ayala Foundation has appointed Reuben Keehan as the incoming artistic director of Kontempo, a new contemporary art space set to open in Manila. Designed by Kulapat Yantrasat of WHY Architecture, the venue will feature over 26,000 square feet of exhibition space across three galleries and nearly four acres of green space for sculptures and installations, located in the Circuit Makati development. Keehan joins from the Queensland Art Gallery / Gallery of Modern Art, where he served as curator of contemporary art, and has curated the Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art since 2013.
Lucia Di Luciano, an Italian painter associated with the 1960s Arte Programmata movement, has died at age 93. Her death was announced by her Milan gallery, 10 A.M. Art, without specifying a cause. Di Luciano was known for her hand-painted, gridded black-and-white abstractions that mimicked computer-generated patterns, made with house paint and acrylic. Despite painting for nearly eight decades, she only gained wider international recognition in 2022 when her work was included in the main exhibition of the Venice Biennale, curated by Cecilia Alemani. Her career saw a late surge, with appearances at Tate Modern's "Electric Dreams" exhibition, art fairs like Frieze Masters and Independent 20th Century, and a solo show at Herald St. in London. The Maxxi museum in Rome is organizing a retrospective set to open in 2027.
The article reviews "Legacies: Asian American Art Movements in New York City," an exhibition at 80WSE in New York, curated by Howie Chen, Jayne Cole Southard, and christina ong, running from September 11 to December 20, 2024. Billed as the first institutional survey of Asian American artists in New York City, the show features 90 artists and spans the period from 1969 to 2001, centering on three key organizations: Godzilla: Asian American Art Network, the Basement Workshop, and the Asian American Arts Centre. The exhibition highlights how many of these artists did not solely make work about their race, complicating the link between identity and art, and includes lesser-known pieces such as David Diao's 1974 painting "Odd Man Out" and a provocative 1985 photograph by Hanh Thi Pham.
Christopher Knight, the Pulitzer Prize-winning art critic for the Los Angeles Times, is retiring after a 45-year career in criticism, including 36 years at the newspaper. His final day is Friday. Knight, one of the few remaining full-time art critics in American journalism, was praised by colleagues for his encyclopedic knowledge and razor-sharp assessments. He won the Pulitzer Prize for criticism in 2020, notably for a series of articles that harshly critiqued the Los Angeles County Museum of Art's (LACMA) proposed redesign by architect Peter Zumthor. He also received a lifetime achievement award from the Dorothea and Leo Rabkin Foundation in 2020, and the College Art Association's Frank Jewett Mather Award in 1997. Before his journalism career, Knight worked as a curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego and consulted for the Lannan Foundation and the Smithsonian Institution's Archives of American Art.
The V&A East, a new museum complex in London's Olympic Park, will open on April 18, 2025, with director Gus Casely-Hayford aiming to engage Gen Z audiences. The museum spans two sites: the V&A Storehouse, which opened in May and exceeded visitor targets, and the V&A East Museum, a five-story building by Irish architects O'Donnell & Tuomey. Casely-Hayford, who felt excluded from museums as a Black British child, wants the institution to spark creative passion in young people. Separately, Gideon Taylor of the World Jewish Restitution Organization calls for US museums to return Nazi-looted artworks, highlighting the case of Paul and Alice Leffmann's Picasso painting *The Actor* (1904), now at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and urging passage of the 2025 HEAR Act to remove legal barriers to restitution.
The Palais de Tokyo in Paris removed Cameron Rowland's artwork "Replacement" (2025) just one day after it went on view in the exhibition "ECHO DELAY REVERB." The piece replaced the French flag above the museum with the flag of Martinique, adopted in 2023, and included a wall text criticizing French colonial rule and quoting the Martinican independence movement. The museum appended a new label stating the work "could be considered illegal" and was no longer included. Neither the Palais de Tokyo nor Rowland's representative commented.
As the U.S. government shutdown enters its third week, museums that had remained open are now closing. The National Portrait Gallery (NPG), part of the Smithsonian Institution, postponed its exhibition “The Outwin 2025: American Portraiture Today,” originally set to open October 18, after the Smithsonian’s surplus funds run out on October 11. The National Gallery of Art (NGA) closed on October 1, leaving two major works by Houston-based multimedia artist Dario Robleto—the film *Until We Are Forged: Hymns for the Elements* and the sculpture *Small Crafts on Sisyphean Seas*—inaccessible to the public.
Museums Galleries Scotland, the umbrella body for 455 museums and galleries in Scotland, has warned that its member institutions face an 'environment of suspicion and policing of gender' in restrooms following a UK Supreme Court ruling that defines 'man,' 'woman,' and 'sex' in the Equality Act 2010 as referring to biological sex. The publicly funded body criticized interim guidelines from the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), arguing they fail to include trans people and could force some museums to close or leave trans individuals with no facilities. Separately, Russia has filed criminal charges against Maria Smorževskihh-Smirnova, director of the Narva Museum in Estonia, for 'rehabilitating Nazism' over a banner displaying Vladimir Putin and Adolf Hitler with the caption 'Putler War Criminal!' displayed on Russia's Victory Day.
Inside Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s Radical Reinvention
Milan’s art scene takes center stage during the Miart fair with a diverse array of institutional and gallery exhibitions. Highlights include Cao Fei’s exploration of global farming and technology at Pirelli HangarBicocca, Anselm Kiefer’s monumental tributes to female alchemists at Palazzo Reale, and a survey of Italian conceptualist Salvo at Pinacoteca di Brera.
London’s Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) has come under fire following reports that it altered exhibition catalogues to comply with Chinese government censorship. To reduce production costs, the museum utilized printers in China, which are subject to Beijing’s General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP) regulations. Consequently, the museum removed historical maps and an image of Vladimir Lenin from publications for the "Music is Black" and "Fabergé: Romance to Revolution" exhibitions after they were flagged by Chinese authorities.
Greece has enacted a comprehensive new law to combat art crime, establishing a specialized unit within the Ministry of Culture to target forgery, antiquities trafficking, and vandalism. The legislation introduces significantly harsher penalties, including fines up to €300,000 and prison sentences of up to 10 years, while expanding the scope of criminal activity to include the mere possession of forged works with intent to distribute.
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The Royal Collection Trust has announced that Queen Elizabeth II’s private apartments at the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh will open to the public for the first time. This limited 100-day engagement, running from May 21 to September 10, commemorates what would have been the late monarch’s 100th birthday. Visitors will gain access to the Breakfast Room, Dressing Room, and Sitting Room, which feature a mix of historic Flemish tapestries, Qing dynasty decorative arts, and personal clothing ensembles.
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The Louvre Museum has announced a massive €80 million ($92 million) security overhaul following a brazen daytime heist on October 19, where thieves stole imperial jewels valued at €88 million. The investigation revealed significant institutional failures, including outdated software and weak passwords like "Louvre," allowing local thieves to enter via a movers' lift and escape on scooters in under seven minutes. While four suspects from the Paris suburbs have been charged, the majority of the stolen items remain unrecovered.
London's National Gallery has acquired a recently rediscovered self-portrait by Artemisia Gentileschi, 'Self Portrait as Saint Catherine of Alexandria' (c. 1615–17), for £3.6 million ($4.7 million). The painting was purchased from a London dealer who had secured it at a Paris auction in December, where it set a new auction record for the artist. The acquisition marks a significant addition to the museum's holdings, as it is only the 21st work by a female artist in its collection of over 2,300 pieces.
Artemisia Gentileschi's 17th-century painting 'Lucretia' sold for €1.88 million ($2 million) at Dorotheum's Old Master sale in Vienna, more than double its high estimate. The work, previously unseen in public, was acquired by an Australian collection, continuing a trend of strong auction results for the Baroque artist.
Digital artist Mike Winkelmann, known as Beeple, joined Ben Davis on the Artnet News podcast "The Art Angle" to discuss his work and the evolving perception of digital art. Beeple first gained global attention in 2021 when his NFT artwork "Everydays, The First 5,000 Days" sold for $69 million at Christie's, making him a symbol of the NFT boom. Since then, he has continued to experiment with new media, including interactive video sculptures shown at LACMA and robot dogs with human heads displayed at Art Basel Miami Beach 2025.
The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) has updated its 2026 fiscal year grant guidelines, cancelling the Challenge America grants that targeted underserved communities and replacing them with a focus on projects celebrating the 250th anniversary of the United States (America250). The changes, announced in response to executive orders by President Donald Trump, eliminate DEI-related funding and require applicants to have a five-year history of arts programming. Organizations that had applied for the $10,000 Challenge America grants must now resubmit under the broader Grants for Arts Projects category, with extended deadlines.
Writer and curator Laura Raicovich is organizing a weekend-long festival called the "Circus of Life" in St. Louis, Missouri, taking place October 24–26 at the Big Top circus grounds in the Grand Center Arts District. The event is part of Counterpublic, a triennial civic exhibition founded in 2019 by James McAnally, and will feature artists, writers, theater groups, performers, and activists. Raicovich leads a team of four "ringleaders" including Kenneth Bailey, Galen Gritts, Jeanne van Heeswijk, and Nontsikelelo Mutiti, with additional participants such as Chloë Bass, Hilma's Ghost, and Kameelah Janan Rasheed. The program includes performances by Bread and Puppet Theater, conversations with Roxane Gay and Nermeen Shaikh, workshops, a parade, and communal meals, all free and open to the public.
At the Armory Show in New York, psychic medium Sarah Potter is offering tarot card readings at the booth of Chicago's Carrie Secrist Gallery using a deck designed by the feminist art collective Hilma's Ghost. The collective, formed during lockdown by abstract artists Dannielle Tegeder and Sharmistha Ray, created "Abstract Futures Tarot," a series of 78 gouache, ink, and colored pencil paintings inspired by pioneering abstractionist Hilma af Klint and the Rider–Waite tarot deck by Pamela Colman Smith. The works, priced at $4,000 each, are the result of 500 hours of collaborative painting, and the deck is also sold in a limited edition of 300, with 215 already sold.
TEFAF has selected the Black Book of Hours, a rare 15th-century illuminated manuscript from the Hispanic Society Museum and Library in New York, as the recipient of its 2025 Museum Restoration Fund. The manuscript, one of only seven known black vellum books of hours, will be displayed at TEFAF New York at the Park Avenue Armory before undergoing conservation treatment by the Conservation Center for Art and Historic Artifacts in Philadelphia. The work involves disbinding the 149-folio volume, high-resolution imaging, and addressing centuries of wear.
The National Gallery in Athens is hosting a major exhibition celebrating the legacy of George Costakis, the visionary collector who rescued thousands of Russian and Soviet avant-garde works from state-sponsored oblivion. Born in Moscow to Greek parents, Costakis spent decades acquiring pieces by artists like Kazimir Malevich and Liubov Popova at a time when such art was vilified by the Soviet regime. The new exhibition reinterprets these works through the lens of humanity's relationship with the environment, marking 30 years since the collection was first shown in Greece.