Art News. Vasari Codex

article culture schedule Jan 15, 2026 visibility 27 link 23 artists

art dead artists museum exhibitions politics

CULTURED reports that in 2025, nearly 50 percent of solo exhibitions at New York museums featuring modern and contemporary art focused on deceased artists, more than double the 18 percent share in 2019. Major institutions like MoMA, the Broad, ICA Miami, and the Whitney have programmed posthumous shows for figures such as Wifredo Lam, Helen Frankenthaler, Ruth Asawa, Robert Therrien, Joyce Pensato, Richard Hunt, and Roy Lichtenstein. The article traces this trend to a confluence of factors: ongoing scholarly revisionism, a cultural swing toward equity during the Biden administration, and the long lead times for museum exhibitions that have landed in a more polarized political climate under Trump II.

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article policy schedule Apr 22, 2026 visibility 19 link 5 artists

Architectural Competition for Louvre ‘New Renaissance’ Project Reportedly Set to Relaunch in May

The international architectural competition for the Louvre Museum's $778 million 'New Renaissance' renovation project is set to relaunch in mid-May, according to a report in Le Figaro. The jury will convene on May 13 to assess proposals from five shortlisted firms, ending a period of uncertainty and delays caused by staff unrest, leadership upheaval following a major jewel theft, and the French municipal elections. The project, championed by President Emmanuel Macron, aims to modernize the museum and reduce overcrowding.

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article news schedule Feb 6, 2026 visibility 15 link 2 artists

louvre indefinitely postpones announcing winning architect expansion project

The Louvre has indefinitely postponed the competition to select an architect for its expansion project, Louvre—Nouvelle Renaissance, just days before the jury was set to vote on a winning proposal. Announced by French President Emmanuel Macron in January 2025, the $778 million plan aimed to ease overcrowding at the museum, which hosts 9 million visitors annually, by creating a new entrance, upgrading infrastructure, and controversially building a dedicated 33,000-square-foot gallery for the Mona Lisa. Five firms—Amanda Levete Architects, architecturestudio, Dubuisson Architecture, Sou Fujimoto, and STUDIOS Architecture—had been shortlisted. The postponement follows staff walkouts, a leaked memo detailing structural issues, and a high-profile theft.

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article culture schedule Feb 4, 2026 visibility 15 link 4 artists

schiaparelli paris recreates stolen louvre jewels

Schiaparelli's artistic director Daniel Roseberry debuted dramatic recreations of crown jewels stolen from the Louvre during the brand's Paris Haute Couture Week show. The pieces, worn by actor Teyana Taylor, were inspired by a pearl-and-diamond tiara and bow brooch once owned by Empress Eugénie, which were among an estimated $102 million in gems taken in a heist last October.

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person people schedule Feb 2, 2026 visibility 18 link 3 artists

louvre abu dhabis manuel rabate tapped to lead indias largest private museum

Manuel Rabaté, the inaugural director of Louvre Abu Dhabi, has been appointed as the first chief executive and director of the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (KNMA) in New Delhi. He will lead the institution as it prepares to move from its current location in a shopping mall to a massive new purpose-built complex designed by David Adjaye Associates, which is slated to open within three years.

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article culture schedule Jan 28, 2026 visibility 19 link 5 artists

zahi hawass the man with the hat documentary

Zahi Hawass, the 78-year-old former Egyptian minister for antiquities, is the subject of a new self-mythologizing documentary titled "The Man With the Hat." The film recounts his rise to international fame through countless TV appearances, his role in overseeing major discoveries like the 3,000-year-old "lost golden city" in Luxor, and his leadership in building the $1 billion Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM). Hawass is also shown advocating for the repatriation of artifacts such as the Nefertiti bust and the Rosetta Stone, while sidestepping controversies that have marked his career.

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article news schedule Jan 20, 2026 visibility 20 link 5 artists

top architecture firm accused of illegally firing union supporting staff founding editor of artforum dies morning link for january 20 2025

The National Labor Relations Board has accused Snøhetta, a prominent New York-based architecture firm, of illegally firing eight employees who supported a 2023 unionization campaign. The NLRB complaint alleges that managers tracked union supporters and improperly questioned staff about their sympathies, while Snøhetta denies the claims, attributing layoffs to business pressures predating the union drive. Separately, Singapore Art Week is spotlighting women artists from Southeast Asia, with the launch of Krystina Lyon's book "You Are Seen" and the National Gallery Singapore exhibition "Fear No Power: Women Imagining Otherwise." Other news includes the death of Artforum founding editor Philip Leider at 96, LANZA chosen for the Serpentine Pavilion, and a Louvre heist caught on newly released footage.

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article news schedule Jan 15, 2026 visibility 20 link 5 artists

museo del prado visitor numbers

Museo del Prado director Miguel Falomir announced at a press conference unveiling the museum's 2026 exhibition schedule that the institution does not need more visitors, stating it is comfortable with 3.5 million annual visitors and fears becoming "over-saturated." Falomir cited concerns about circulation around iconic works like Velázquez's *Las Meninas* and Bosch's *The Garden of Earthly Delights*, and emphasized improving visitor experience through optimizing entrances, reducing group sizes, and enforcing photography bans. The Prado, last expanded in 2007, is significantly smaller than the Louvre, which topped 2024 visitor figures with 8.7 million.

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museum exhibitions schedule Jan 8, 2026 visibility 17 link 7 artists

marie antoinette arts patronage

Marie Antoinette, the final queen of France, is the subject of a blockbuster exhibition titled "Marie Antoinette Style" at London's V&A museum, running through March 22. The show highlights her boldly modern taste, her patronage of women artists like Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun and Anne Vallayer-Coster, and her role as the first French queen to own and redecorate her own palace, the Petit Trianon. The article details how she used her influence to secure Vigée Le Brun's admission to the Académie Royale and pressured the Louvre to exhibit Vallayer-Coster's work, while also exploring how her extravagant spending earned her the epithet "Madame Déficit" and contributed to her downfall during the French Revolution.

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museum exhibitions schedule Jan 6, 2026 visibility 14 link 6 artists

watteau self portrait

A restoration of Jean-Antoine Watteau's 1718–19 painting *Pierrot* (also known as *Gilles*) at the Louvre has revealed that a shadowy figure on the left side of the canvas—long identified as a doctor or grifter named Crispin—bears a striking resemblance to Watteau's own self-portrait. The discovery came after conservators removed an aged yellow varnish, prompting new questions about the painting's meaning and authorship. The work is currently featured in the Louvre exhibition “A New Look at Watteau,” part of the broader program “Figures of the Fool,” running through February 3, 2025.

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article culture schedule Dec 16, 2025 visibility 17 link 11 artists

illuminated medieval manuscripts to know

This article explores the history and significance of illuminated manuscripts, correcting the common misconception that they were exclusively produced by medieval European monks. It highlights five standout examples, including the Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry, made for Jean I, Duke of Berry around 1411 by the Limbourg brothers, and the Book of Kells, created around 800 C.E. by monks of Iona Abbey. The article notes that illuminated manuscripts, defined by the decorative use of gold or silver, date back to the 4th century B.C.E. and span cultures from the Middle East to Africa and Mesoamerica, serving primarily as status symbols rather than reading material.

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article news schedule Dec 9, 2025 visibility 18 link 4 artists

professor terminated art history paintings muhammad

An adjunct professor at Hamline University in St. Paul, Minnesota, Erika López Prater, lost her job after showing her art history class two Medieval paintings depicting the Prophet Muhammad during an online lecture on October 6, 2022. She issued a content warning before displaying the images, which came from a 14th-century manuscript by Rashīd al-Dīn and a 16th-century work by Mustafa ibn Vali. A student, Aram Wedatalla, complained, and the university's administration, including associate vice president David Everett, decided not to renew her contract, calling the incident Islamophobic. The decision has sparked widespread debate, with a Change.org petition signed by over 2,500 scholars and a condemnation from PEN America.

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article news schedule Oct 28, 2025 visibility 20 link 4 artists

curators museum directors offer support in letter to louvre

Fifty-seven curators and museum directors, including Christophe Cherix of MoMA and Michael Govan of LACMA, signed an open letter published by Le Monde expressing solidarity with Louvre director Laurence des Cars following the theft of the museum's crown jewels. The letter emphasizes that museums are not immune to global violence and that such thefts represent a profound fear for museum professionals, while reaffirming that museums must remain open and accessible despite security risks.

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article news schedule Oct 23, 2025 visibility 15

french culture ministry admits stolen louvre jewels valued at 102 m are not insured

Masked thieves stole jewels once belonging to Emperor Napoleon III and Empress Eugénie from the Louvre in a daylight smash-and-grab, using a furniture lift to access the first floor and cutting into display cases. The stolen items, including a diamond-encrusted brooch, diadems, necklaces, and the empress's crown (which was dropped during the escape), are valued at $102 million. French officials have admitted the loot is not privately insured, meaning the state will not be reimbursed if the items are not recovered. Louvre director Laurence des Cars blamed a "terrible failure" in security, offered her resignation (which was refused), and acknowledged staff did not detect the thieves soon enough.

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person people schedule Oct 3, 2025 visibility 18 link 4 artists

glenn lowry middle east podcast interview

Glenn Lowry, who stepped down last month after 30 years as director of the Museum of Modern Art, has given a wide-ranging interview on the podcast *The Art World: What If…?!* with Charlotte Burns. He discusses the Trump administration’s threats to museums’ tax-exempt status, his upcoming advisory roles for the Islamic Arts Biennale in Jeddah and the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art in Delhi, a prospective leadership campaign for Alice Walton’s Art Bridges Foundation, and a series of talks at the Louvre titled “I Want a Museum. I Need a Museum. I Imagine a Museum.”

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museum exhibitions schedule Sep 10, 2025 visibility 21 link 3 artists

raphael exhibition 2026 metropolitan museum new york

The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York will open a landmark exhibition dedicated to Renaissance master Raphael in 2026. Titled "Raphael: Sublime Poetry," the show runs from March 29 to June 28 and will be the first major Raphael retrospective ever mounted in the United States. Curated by Carmen Bambach, the exhibition brings together 200 works including paintings, drawings, tapestries, and decorative arts, with loans from major museums worldwide such as the Louvre, the Uffizi, the Prado, and the Vatican Museums. Key loans include the Louvre's "Portrait of Baldassarre Castiglione" and the Galleria Borghese's "Portrait of a Lady with a Unicorn."

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article news schedule Aug 5, 2025 visibility 17 link 3 artists

tate reports budget deficit critics respond

Tate Modern, the world's most visited modern and contemporary art museum, reported a budget deficit six months ago, prompting critics to blame its programming and curatorial strategies for declining foot traffic. While domestic attendance has recovered to 95% of pre-Covid levels, international visitors have dropped significantly—down 39% at Tate Modern, 32% at Tate Britain, and nearly 40% at Tate St Ives. Tate Liverpool remains closed until 2027. Research from The Art Newspaper's annual visitor report, however, points to external factors such as Brexit, socioeconomic shifts, and the cost-of-living crisis as key drivers of the decline, particularly among young European visitors aged 16 to 24.

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article news schedule May 30, 2025 visibility 18 link 5 artists

japanese sculptor kunimasa aoki wins 2025 loewe craft prize

Japanese sculptor Kunimasa Aoki won the 2025 Loewe Craft Prize on Thursday evening in Madrid, receiving a €50,000 cash prize. His anamorphic terracotta sculpture “Realm of Living Things 19” was selected by a 12-member jury from 30 shortlisted works on display at the Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum. The jury praised the work's honest expression of the ancestral coil process and the raw, unfinished form of the material. Two special mentions were awarded: Nigerian artist Nifemi Marcus-Bello for “TM Bench with Bowl” and Studio Sumakshi Singh from India for “Monument.”

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article news schedule May 6, 2025 visibility 16 link 3 artists

water leaks from louvres roof and misses prized cimabue painting

A powerful hailstorm caused water to leak through the Louvre's roof into the Salle Rosa room, where the exhibition "A New Look at Cimabue: At the Origins of Italian Painting" is on view. The water narrowly missed Giovanni Cimabue's unprotected "Maestà" panel painting (circa 1280), but drips hit the base of Nicola Pisano's "Three Acolytes" (1264-67) on loan from Florence's Museo Nazionale del Bargello. Another near miss occurred near Duccio di Buoninsegna's "Madonna of the Franciscans" (1285-88), which was protected by glass. The museum closed the exhibition early for firefighter inspection, identified a damaged glass seal as the cause, and reopened the next morning after repairs.

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museum exhibitions schedule Apr 23, 2025 visibility 21 link 9 artists

rachel ruysch toledo museum

The Toledo Museum of Art has opened "Rachel Ruysch: Nature Into Art," the first monographic exhibition dedicated to the 17th-century Dutch still-life painter Rachel Ruysch. Curated by Robert Schindler, the show brings together dozens of her paintings from public and private collections across Europe and America, including her only known work on paper, alongside manuscripts and works by contemporary women botanical artists. The exhibition originated at the Alte Pinakothek Munich and will travel to the Museum of Fine Arts Boston later this year.

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article culture schedule Apr 17, 2026 visibility 44 link 9 artists

Andrew Lloyd Webber Says He's Writing a New Musical About the Time the 'Mona Lisa' Vanished Without a Trace in 1911

Andrew Lloyd Webber, the legendary composer behind 'The Phantom of the Opera,' has announced he is developing a new musical centered on the 1911 theft of Leonardo da Vinci’s 'Mona Lisa.' The production will dramatize the true story of Vincenzo Peruggia, an Italian glazier who stole the masterpiece from the Louvre, leading to a two-year international search before the painting was recovered in Italy.

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article news schedule Nov 17, 2025 visibility 17 link 1 artist, 1 gallery

louvre museum closes gallery greek antiquities

The Louvre Museum in Paris has temporarily closed a gallery housing Greek antiquities and several offices after an audit revealed structural weaknesses in beams on the second level of the southern Sully wing. The affected gallery, the Campana Gallery, which displays antique Greek ceramics, was shut as a precaution, and 65 employees have been relocated while experts assess the damage. The closure comes amid a difficult period for the museum, following a $102 million theft of France's crown jewels in October and a scathing report criticizing leadership for prioritizing acquisitions over security upgrades.

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article news schedule Apr 7, 2026 visibility 46 link 3 artists, 1 gallery

NGV Has Been Named As One Of The Most Visited Art Museums In 2025, Ranking Among Other Notable Sites Like The Louvre And Tate Modern

The National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) has secured its position as Australia’s most visited art museum, ranking 25th globally in The Art Newspaper’s 2025 attendance report. The institution welcomed over 3 million visitors across its two Melbourne locations, bolstered significantly by a record-breaking Yayoi Kusama retrospective that drew 570,537 attendees. This blockbuster exhibition became the most popular ticketed show in the gallery's history, attracting international celebrities and a high percentage of overseas tourists.

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museum exhibitions schedule Apr 29, 2026 visibility 32 link 53 artists, 2 galleries

Exhibitions in May: our selection of Parisian outings

This article, published by La Rédac with photos by Audrey de Sortiraparis, presents a curated selection of exhibitions opening in Paris and the Île-de-France region in May 2026. Highlights include a Giovanni Segantini retrospective at the Marmottan Monet Museum, a porcelain exhibition titled "Sèvres, a Rothschild Passion" at the Mobilier National, a comparative show of Michelangelo and Rodin at the Louvre Museum, the return of the Colors Festival with a street-art exhibition called Colors Light, a historical tribute to Madame de Sévigné at the Carnavalet Museum, a major Lee Miller retrospective at the Musée d'Art Moderne, a family-friendly Lego brick exhibition by Dirk Denoyelle at Espace Champerret, and a video game music exhibition at the Philharmonie de Paris.

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museum exhibitions schedule Apr 16, 2026 visibility 33 link 20 artists, 1 gallery

The top 10 art exhibitions in London right now

London's 2026 exhibition season is anchored by major retrospectives and career-spanning surveys across the city's premier institutions. Highlights include a 40-year retrospective of Tracey Emin's provocative career at the Royal Academy, a significant solo exhibition of Hurvin Anderson’s vibrant paintings at Tate Britain, and a celebratory nine-room exhibition marking the 40th anniversary of the Saatchi Gallery.

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museum exhibitions schedule Feb 12, 2026 visibility 24 link 21 artists, 1 gallery

Plan Your Travel Year: 8 Art Shows Worth Traveling for This Year

Major museums across the United States are launching significant exhibitions in 2026, including retrospectives of Frida Kahlo in Houston and Nick Cave in Washington, D.C., and a landmark show on sculptor Edmonia Lewis in Salem. These shows are part of a broader cultural moment, with many institutions mounting exhibitions to coincide with the nation's 250th anniversary, aiming to reframe art historical narratives and highlight previously overlooked artists.

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museum exhibitions schedule Nov 12, 2025 visibility 20 link 11 artists, 1 gallery

Forever is Now has transformed Cairo's Giza Plateau into an open-air gallery

The fifth edition of 'Forever is Now' has transformed the Giza Plateau in Cairo into an open-air gallery, featuring 10 large-scale contemporary art installations by international artists. Running until December 6, the exhibition is organized by the cultural platform Art D’Egypte and invites artists to explore the theme of immortality, sparking a dialogue between ancient Egyptian heritage and contemporary art. Notable participants include 92-year-old Nobel Peace Prize nominee Michelangelo Pistoletto, Portuguese artist Vhils (Alexandre Farto), US-based Alex Proba, the Russian Recycle Group, Lebanese artist Nadim Karam, Franco-Beninese ceramicist King Houdekpinkou, and Turkish sculptor Mert Ege Köse, among others.

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article news schedule Oct 20, 2025 visibility 14 link 2 artists, 1 gallery

Louvre heist sparks cross-party ire amid reports of ‘persistent delays’ to security updates

Two masked thieves stole ten pieces of 19th-century royal and imperial jewelry from the Louvre in Paris on 19 October, using a goods lift and grinders to break into the Apollo Gallery. They escaped on scooters after seven minutes, leaving behind a broken crown and tools, while an employee prevented a fire. The stolen items include a diamond brooch and diadem belonging to Empress Eugénie, and a royal emerald necklace.

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article culture schedule May 4, 2026 source 2 sources visibility 33 link 22 artists

Met Gala guests from Beyoncé to Nicole Kidman set to flaunt fashion as art

The article previews the 2025 Met Gala, where celebrities including Beyoncé, Nicole Kidman, and Venus Williams will ascend the Metropolitan Museum of Art's steps dressed according to the dress code "Fashion is art." The event, which raises funds for the museum's Costume Institute, encourages guests to treat fashion as an embodied art form, drawing on historical collaborations between designers and artists—such as Elsa Schiaparelli with Salvador Dalí, Yves Saint Laurent with Piet Mondrian, and Marc Jacobs with Takashi Murakami. The red carpet will be livestreamed by Vogue and the Associated Press.

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museum exhibitions schedule Apr 9, 2026 source 2 sources visibility 22 link 4 artists

Salvator Mundi Museum of Art Opens New Exhibition: THE ORB SHOW - All About Balls

The Salvator Mundi Museum of Art has launched a new exhibition titled "THE ORB SHOW - All About Balls." This unconventional presentation focuses on the recurring motif of the sphere in art, drawing inspiration from the crystal orb held by Christ in the museum's namesake painting, the Salvator Mundi.

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