La nouvelle entrée du Louvre
The article, titled "La nouvelle entrée du Louvre," reports on the upcoming redesign of the main entrance to the Louvre Museum in Paris. It also covers several other art-world stories: the return of American Rousseau works to Paris, the growing trend of outsourcing museum reception services, the New Museum's expansion, the troubled Musée des Tissus project, and Art Brussels adapting to contemporary trends.
Externaliser un service n’est pas interdit, diriger les salariés du prestataire l’est
A wave of legal complaints has been filed against several major French cultural institutions, including the Louvre, the Pinault Collection, and the MuCEM, alleging illegal labor practices. Labor unions Sud-Culture, SUD-PTT, and Solidaires claim these museums are engaging in "illicit lending of labor" and "bargaining" by exercising direct authority over outsourced staff from third-party agencies like Marianne International and Pénélope. While outsourcing services like ticketing and reception is legal in France, the lawsuits argue that museums are illegally managing these external employees' daily schedules, rotations, and disciplinary actions as if they were their own staff.
Les musées britanniques échappent à une loi pénalisante sur les adhésions
The British government has officially exempted charitable museum memberships from the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act (DMCCA). Originally designed to target predatory subscription models like those used by streaming services, the law would have granted members a 14-day cooling-off period both at sign-up and upon annual renewal. Major institutions like the Tate and the Victoria & Albert Museum feared this would allow visitors to attend major exhibitions for free before canceling their memberships for a full refund.
Angélique Delorme prend du galon au Quai Branly
Angélique Delorme has been appointed as the new Deputy Director General of the Musée du Quai Branly in Paris. She succeeds Jérôme Bastianelli and will be responsible for defining and implementing the museum's strategy, particularly in the lead-up to its 20th anniversary celebrations in June.
“Tohé Commaret: Mala Onda” at ZOLLAMT MMK, Frankfurt
Chilean artist Tohé Commaret has opened her first institutional solo exhibition in Germany, "Mala Onda," at the ZOLLAMT MMK, a project space of the Museum für Moderne Kunst in Frankfurt. The exhibition features a new body of work, including large-scale paintings and a site-specific installation, that explores themes of memory, cultural displacement, and the lingering psychological effects of political violence.
The Munnings Art Museum in Dedham, England, is celebrating its 65th anniversary with two special exhibitions. 'Pictures from Private Collections' features rarely-seen works by equestrian artist Sir Alfred Munnings, loaned from private collections, while 'The Influence of John Constable' examines Constable's impact on Munnings' work, including sky studies and a presumed Constable sketchbook. The museum, formerly Munnings' home, also displays 150 permanent works and will host a side-saddle demonstration on May 30 honoring Lady Munnings.
The statute of limitations has officially expired on the 2006 heist at the Museu da Chácara do Céu in Rio de Janeiro, one of the most significant art thefts in Brazilian history. During the chaos of Carnival, armed thieves overpowered guards and stole masterpieces by Claude Monet, Henri Matisse, Salvador Dalí, and Pablo Picasso. Despite the works being valued at over $10 million and listed on international databases like Interpol and the Art Loss Register, the perpetrators were never identified and the art remains missing.
Washington and Lee University's Art Museum and Galleries is hosting five temporary exhibitions through Winter Term 2026, including "Edward Burtynsky: Taking Place" at the Reeves Museum of Ceramics, "Moffat Takadiwa: Recoded Memories" at the Watson Galleries, and "Luminous Layers: Glazed Surfaces and the Art of Reflection" alongside "Points of Exchange: Asian Ceramics in the Reeves Collection" at the Reeves Museum, plus "Expressions of Color: Paintings by Evelyn Dawson" at the McCarthy Gallery. The museum is also offering free public programming such as Artful Yoga sessions and an MLK Week Open House featuring artworks connected to the Civil Rights movement.
The National WWII Museum in New Orleans has opened a special exhibit titled 'Degenerate! Hitler’s War on Modern Art,' on loan from the Jewish Museum Milwaukee and running through May 10, 2026. The exhibit features over 65 works by artists deemed 'degenerate' by the Nazi regime, including Wassily Kandinsky, Max Beckmann, Pablo Picasso, and Marc Chagall, alongside documents and artifacts that explore how modernist art was suppressed and weaponized as propaganda. The museum has expanded the original exhibit to include a focus on suppressed music, featuring instruments from the era, such as a tenor saxophone played by Eddie Powers and a clarinet played by George Lewis, on loan from the New Orleans Jazz Museum.
The National WWII Museum in New Orleans will host the traveling exhibition "Degenerate! Hitler's War on Modern Art" from November 6, 2025, through May 10, 2026. Originally created by the Jewish Museum Milwaukee, the show examines the Nazi campaign against modern art and music, featuring over 65 original works by artists such as Wassily Kandinsky, Max Beckmann, Pablo Picasso, and Marc Chagall. It explores how modernist art was labeled "degenerate" by the Third Reich, used as propaganda, and systematically suppressed, with many works seized, destroyed, or sold. The exhibition also expands into music, highlighting the suppression of jazz and works by Jewish composers.
Two forged Pablo Picasso prints from his Suite Vollard series, sold at a Stuttgart auction house, have been recovered as part of an international police operation led by Italian authorities. The Baden-Württemberg State Criminal Police Office (LKA) announced that an Italian national, believed to be a professional art restorer, is suspected of consigning four forged works to the auction house over several years. Two prints were recovered—one in Germany's Rhineland region and one in Austria—while two others were seized before delivery. The operation, code-named "Minotauro bis," began in 2022 and has led to the seizure of 104 fake contemporary artworks, the dismantling of a forgery laboratory in Rome, and the freezing of bank accounts and vehicles. Forgers used complex methods including fake watermarks, scanned images, and aging paper with coffee or tea.
The Fenix Museum of Migration opens in Rotterdam on May 16, housed in a former warehouse transformed by MAD Architects into a dramatic space centered on a double-helix staircase called the Tornado. The museum explores migration through art, with a major exhibition titled *All Directions* featuring over 100 artists, a photography show *The Family of Migrants*, and a maze built from 2,000 suitcases. Director Anne Kremers and foundation director Wim Pijbes emphasize the museum's role in telling stories of both departure and arrival in a city shaped by centuries of global movement.
The Argentine artistic duo Roberto Behar and Rosario Marquardt have received the $75,000 Lifetime Achievement Award at The Ellies Oolite Arts Awards. The pair, founders of R&R STUDIOS, are recognized for their decades-long collaborative practice that merges art, architecture, and public space to create social sculptures.
The Wereldmuseum Amsterdam has announced it will no longer publicly exhibit any human remains from its colonial-era collection, which includes around 4,000 body parts such as skulls and a preserved Surinamese newborn. At the opening of the exhibition "Unfinished past: return, keep, or…?", director of content Wayne Modest suggested the museum may create a dedicated space for "ritual practices" where descendants can respectfully engage with ancestral remains until a permanent repatriation solution is found. The exhibition features contemporary artworks, including Pansee Atta's "To Make One Particle," which reproduces each body part as a small wooden token, and draws on a four-year research program called Pressing Matter.
On May 11, the Leeum Museum of Art in Seoul opened its entire museum on a Monday—its regular closing day—to host approximately 200 members of multicultural families. The event, organized in partnership with family centers and related organizations across Seoul, included exhibition tours of the permanent antique art collection, the special exhibition "Into Another Space: Synesthetic Environments by Women Artists 1956-1976," and the outdoor Orozco Garden. A curator provided explanations, and a magic show was held in celebration of Family Month. Participating organizations included the Yongsan-gu Family Center, Itaewon and Ichon Global Village Centers, the Mari Shelter for Migrant Women and Mari Community, and the Dongdaemun and Seocho Family Centers.
A new museum institution called GAMB (Galleria dell’Accademia di Firenze e Musei del Bargello) has been established in Florence, unifying seven cultural sites under a single autonomous museum system. The sites include the Galleria dell’Accademia, Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Orsanmichele, Casa Martelli, Palazzo Davanzati, Cappelle Medicee, and the former Church of San Procolo. A new visual identity designed by Milanese studio Migliore+Servetto features a pictogram that maps the geographic distribution of the venues, along with a custom typeface and color palette unique to each location. The launch also coincides with the start of a public restoration project for the base of Benvenuto Cellini’s *Perseo* at the Bargello, open to visitors from May 12 to September 5, 2026.
Elliot and Erick Jiménez, twin photographers from Miami, have debuted their first museum exhibition, 'El Monte,' at the Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM). The immersive installation transforms the gallery into a hybrid chapel-forest, drawing conceptual inspiration from Cuban ethnographer Lydia Cabrera's seminal 1954 book of the same name, which explores Afro-Cuban spiritual traditions. The artists present staged photographs featuring anonymous 'shadow figures' adorned in paint and costumes, creating archetypal representations of spiritual forces.
Danish museums have recovered strongly from the pandemic, with 2025 attendance matching 2024's record levels of around 9 million visitors. However, a new state-funding model introduced in January 2025 now makes government subsidies increasingly dependent on measurable outputs, primarily visitor numbers. Institutions must meet minimum thresholds for annual visitors and income, and produce peer-reviewed research to secure and retain funding.
The Minnesota Marine Art Museum in Winona is hosting a "Spring New Look Weekend" from Friday through Sunday to celebrate two new collections. The first, "Myths & Legends of Minnesota: An Exhibition of the Minnesota Plein Air Collective," features 43 paintings by 32 artists created outdoors across the state, focusing on folklore, oral traditions, and waterways. The second, "Gordon Coons: Gidibaajimomin / We Tell Stories," showcases 18 new works by Ojibwa artist Gordon Coons, along with earlier pieces and examples of Woodland Style art from Norval Morrisseau and Sam Ash. The weekend includes plein air painting demonstrations, a printmaking activity with Coons, meet-the-artist tours, and an evening social.
The National Museum of Military History in Bulgaria will open an exhibition titled “Created in War, Preserved through Art” on May 5, marking the Day of Bravery and the Bulgarian Armed Forces as well as the museum’s 110th anniversary. The exhibition transports visitors to 1916, during World War I, when the museum was founded to preserve the memory of the Bulgarian Army, and highlights how Bulgarian artists participated in an international exhibition in Berlin that year, with many of their war-inspired works later acquired by the Ministry of War to form a major art collection.
The Night of the Museums will take place in Tampere, Finland, on Saturday, May 16, featuring over 40 exhibitions across multiple venues including the Tampere Art Museum, Sara Hildén Art Museum, Museum Centre Vapriikki, Moomin Museum, Finnish Labour Museum Werstas, and others. The event offers special guided tours, children's activities with clowns and circus performances, art workshops led by visual artists, live music and poetry, dance lessons, and themed tours covering topics from football history to men's fashion.
The BANK Art Museum Moree (BAMM) is launching a suite of six new exhibitions on April 24, featuring works by artists Jo Norton, Penny Evans, Joan Ross, Melissa Spratt, Aaron Butt, and Pip Stalley. The shows, running until May 30, also include the Bleakley Collection, a group of First Nations objects curated by Robert Bleakley in the 1970s.
The Vantaa Art Museum Artsi has launched "Empathy," a multifaceted exhibition exploring the psychological, social, and technological dimensions of emotional connection. The show features diverse works that examine how facial expressions and gestures communicate feelings, while also addressing the power dynamics of who is allowed to tell their story. A central highlight is Ali Akbar Mehta’s immersive installation, which utilizes an archive of 30,000 video clips and XR technology to analyze how digital algorithms and visual overexposure to violence affect human compassion.
Mexico City is launching a major cultural initiative ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, including over 1,000 murals painted across the city inspired by Mesoamerican ball games, renovations at 12 museums and 46 archaeological sites, and the opening of a new Indigenous textile museum. The Museo Jumex will host the exhibition "Football & Art. A Shared Emotion" curated by Guillermo Santamarina, featuring a participatory installation by the Mexican collective Tercerunquinto using recycled Estadio Azteca seats.
Hope Donovan, a graduating art student at Western Michigan University, curated her senior exhibition in the DeVries Student Gallery at the Richmond Center for Visual Arts. Originally a music student at Loyola University New Orleans, she discovered her passion for painting and curation after selling her artwork under the alias Nervous Giraffe. Transferring to Western, she found community through Hillel at WMU and Alpha Chi Omega sorority, and gained leadership experience that shaped her career path in museum management.
Martha Ortiz has stepped down as director of Bogotá’s Museo de Arte Moderno (MAMBO) amid allegations of harassing staff and fostering a toxic work environment. The museum announced her retirement and will begin a search for a successor, with board president Ángela Royo and financial manager Francy Hernández assuming interim leadership. Ortiz, who had no prior museum management experience, took the role in March 2024. Her departure follows the ousting of artistic director Eugenio Viola less than three months earlier, after he raised concerns about deteriorating working conditions.
Salon 94 founder Jeanne Greenberg Rohatyn is pursuing an expansion of a historic building on Museum Mile at 3 East 89th Street in Manhattan. The project aims to enlarge the gallery's footprint on the Upper East Side, a move reported by Crain's New York Business.
The article highlights Memorial Day weekend art offerings in the Concord and Fitchburg, Massachusetts area, focusing on museums and galleries as cool retreats from the summer heat. It notes International Museum Day's theme "Museums Uniting a Divided World" and promotes special membership deals at Fitchburg Art Museum, an exhibit at the Arts League of Lowell Greenwald Gallery, and the Concord Museum's upcoming Garden Tour fundraiser.
En Grèce, le musée archéologique Thessalonikéon Métropolis ouvre ses portes
The Thessalonikéon Métropolis archaeological museum opened on May 7 in Thessaloniki, Greece, inside the renovated Pavlos Melas barracks (Building A3). Its collection of over 300,000 objects—including ceramics, jewelry, mosaics, sarcophagi, and architectural fragments—was unearthed during the construction of the city's metro system, which began in 2006 and became the largest rescue excavation in northern Greece. The centerpiece is the Decumanus Maximus, a well-preserved Roman-Byzantine commercial street discovered at the Venizelou station, nicknamed "Byzantine Pompeii." The museum's restoration cost about €14.5 million, partly funded by European Union funds, while the total archaeological interventions cost between €75 and €203 million.
Non abbiamo bisogno di nuovi musei (abbiamo bisogno di nuove forme museali!)
The Museum of Artificial Intelligence and Immersive Art (MAIIA) has announced the opening of a second location in Palermo, signaling a growing international interest in Italy's contemporary art scene. While the expansion is welcomed, critics warn that such developments often prioritize real estate investment over genuine cultural production, potentially leading to neighborhood gentrification rather than authentic community enrichment.