Art News. Vasari Codex

museum exhibitions schedule Dec 19, 2025 visibility 21 link 4 artists

mathaf museum campus expansion architect lina ghothem

Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art in Doha has appointed Lebanese architect Lina Ghotmeh to lead a major campus expansion, announced as the institution celebrates its 15th anniversary. The project will redesign the ground floor lobby and library as an open majlis-inspired space, expand the cafe and shop, add a monumental portrait by Yan Pei-Ming, and later transform the plaza and parking area into artist studios, ceramics facilities, glass and material labs, and a sound studio in collaboration with Tarek Atoui. Mathaf director Zeina Arida called the plan 'a new chapter' for the museum.

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museum exhibitions schedule Dec 12, 2025 visibility 15 link 2 artists, 1 gallery

william eggleston david zwirner books

David Zwirner Books has released a new monograph titled *William Eggleston: The Last Dyes* (2025), dedicated to the final major body of photographs by pioneering American color photographer William Eggleston using the now-discontinued dye-transfer printing process. A solo exhibition of these images will open at David Zwirner gallery in New York on January 15, 2026, following a presentation at the gallery’s Los Angeles location earlier this year. The book includes a newly commissioned essay by critic Jeffrey Kastner.

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article news schedule Dec 9, 2025 visibility 16 link 1 artist

swedish court acquits climate activists monet painting

A Swedish court acquitted six climate activists from the group Återställ Våtmarker (Restore Wetlands) who smeared red paint on the protective glass of Claude Monet's painting *The Artist’s Garden at Giverny* (1900) at the National Museum of Sweden in June 2023. The painting, on loan from the Musée d'Orsay in Paris, was unharmed; the court ruled the activists had no intent to damage the work, noting they used water-soluble paint and targeted a glass-covered piece, though some paint reached the frame.

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article news schedule Dec 9, 2025 visibility 11 link 5 artists

louvre leak strike

A water pipe burst at the Musée du Louvre in Paris on November 26, damaging 300 to 400 archival documents related to Egyptian history in the Mollien Pavilion. The leak, which also posed a fire risk due to a nearby electrical cabinet, was followed by a smaller leak days later. Employees, represented by a coalition of unions including CGT, CFDT, and Sud, have voted unanimously to begin a rolling strike next Monday, demanding urgent renovations and the hiring of 200 new staff to restore the workforce to 2014 levels. The Louvre's director Laurence des Cars had previously warned that the museum's buildings were in "poor condition" and "no longer water tight," and a major renovation was announced, but pipe repairs were not scheduled until September 2026.

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trending_up market schedule Dec 8, 2025 visibility 12 link 7 artists, 4 galleries

hauser and wirth sicily

Mega-gallery Hauser & Wirth is acquiring the historic Palazzo Forcella De Sata in Palermo, Sicily, as confirmed by president and cofounder Iwan Wirth. The property, a 19th-century eclectic architectural landmark that hosted Manifesta 12 in 2018, was purchased in mid-November, though Sicilian authorities and Italy’s Ministry of Culture have a two-month window to preempt the sale due to historical monument restrictions. The gallery plans to use the main floor as exhibition space, with renovations potentially completed by 2030.

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article policy schedule Dec 1, 2025 visibility 14 link 5 artists

louvre ticket price hike

The Louvre will raise ticket prices by 45 percent for non-E.U. visitors starting January 14, 2026, with tickets increasing to €32 ($37) for travelers from the U.S., U.K., and China, while E.U. visitors continue to pay €22. The price hike, announced on November 27, is expected to generate €15–20 million annually to fund modernization plans, following intense criticism over aging infrastructure and a $102 million jewel heist in October. The museum also faces structural issues, including the temporary closure of parts of its Sully wing due to fragile support beams, and has implemented an €80 million security master plan.

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article culture schedule Nov 25, 2025 visibility 14 link 4 artists

norman rockwell thanksgiving freedom from want three facts

Norman Rockwell's iconic painting "Freedom From Want" (1943), known as the quintessential Thanksgiving image, is examined through three lesser-known facts. The painting was part of a series responding to FDR's "Four Freedoms" speech, initially rejected by the military's Office of War Information before being embraced for a war bond campaign that raised over $132 million. Rockwell used friends and family as models, including his wife and the family cook, who actually prepared the turkey depicted. The work has recently returned to the spotlight: a four-panel Rockwell suite sold for $7.2 million at Heritage Auctions to the White House Historical Association, while Rockwell's family criticized the Department of Homeland Security for using his art in divisive social media posts.

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trending_up market schedule Nov 24, 2025 visibility 11 link 7 artists

art market minute nov 24

Last week's New York marquee auctions saw record-breaking sales and billions of dollars in transactions, providing a much-needed boost of confidence after nearly three years of market contraction. The article reviews top sales and notable flops from the week, analyzing how these results are shaping the current market outlook.

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article news schedule Nov 21, 2025 visibility 14 link 3 artists

mississippi museum of art frank lloyd wright home

The Mississippi Museum of Art (MMA) has acquired the Frank Lloyd Wright–designed property Fountainhead in Jackson, Mississippi, following approval from the Jackson Planning and Zoning Board and City Council. Originally designed in 1948 and completed in 1954 for oil speculator J. Willis Hughes, the 3,558-square-foot Usonian home was later restored by architect Robert Parker Adams and has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1980. The museum plans to open the home for public tours, with bus transportation from its main campus, and to establish community partnerships.

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article news schedule Nov 20, 2025 visibility 15 link 4 artists

frank lloyd wright usonian home jackson mississippi

The Mississippi Museum of Art (MMA) has acquired Fountainhead, a Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Usonian home in Jackson, Mississippi, for $1 million. The residence, built in 1954 for oilman J. Willis Hughes, is one of only four Wright homes in the state and the only one listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It was sold by the estate of late architect Robert Parker Adams, who had restored the property after purchasing it in 1980. The museum plans to preserve the home and open it to the public as a cultural destination.

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article culture schedule Nov 20, 2025 visibility 24 link 18 artists, 3 galleries

the push to preserve nina simones childhood home just got a 6 million boost thanks to venus williams and adam pendleton

The childhood home of legendary singer and activist Nina Simone in Tryon, North Carolina, has been fully restored after nine years of effort by an artist coalition led by Adam Pendleton, alongside Julie Mehretu, Rashid Johnson, and Ellen Gallagher. The restoration, completed with a $6 million boost from a charity auction and gala co-hosted by tennis star Venus Williams and Pace Gallery, preserved the 650-square-foot clapboard house to its 1933–1937 condition, including historically accurate materials, an ADA ramp, geothermal climate control, and a century-old magnolia tree named “Sweetie Mae.” The African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund announced the completion, and the property remains closed to the public while community programming and ethical cultural tourism are being planned.

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article culture schedule Nov 19, 2025 visibility 21 link 7 artists

peter hujar day biopic ira sachs

Filmmaker Ira Sachs has released a new film titled *Peter Hujar's Day*, based on a 1974 audio recording and subsequent book by writer Linda Rosenkrantz. The film captures a single day in the life of photographer Peter Hujar, who died of AIDS-related complications in 1987, as he recounts mundane details and artistic anxieties to Rosenkrantz. Starring Ben Whishaw as Hujar and Rebecca Hall as Rosenkrantz, the movie adapts a transcript Rosenkrantz rediscovered and published in 2021. Sachs describes the project as an exploration of portraiture, light, and emotion, contrasting with his earlier, more turbulent film *Passages*.

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person people schedule Nov 14, 2025 visibility 17 link 12 artists, 2 galleries

friedrich kunath

Artist Friedrich Kunath, known for his sincere yet absurd paintings, discusses his unlikely friendship with tennis star Reilly Opelka, who is also an art collector. The two share a mutual obsession with each other's crafts—Kunath coaches Opelka in tennis, while Opelka seeks Kunath's insights on artists like Philip Guston. Kunath is preparing for his solo debut at Pace Gallery in New York this November, following his move from Blum Gallery, which closed shortly after. He reflects on the loneliness of both tennis and art, and his creative process, which draws heavily from music and film.

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gavel restitution schedule Nov 11, 2025 visibility 18 link 4 artists

stolen painting saint francis returned mexico church

A painting of Saint Francis of Assisi, stolen from the Church of San Francisco de Asis in Teotihuacán, Mexico, in 2001, has been recovered and returned to the church. The six-foot-tall work, painted in 1747 by an unknown artist, was among 18 artworks taken in a nighttime theft. It resurfaced in 2018 when it was consigned to Mexico City auction house Morton Subastas, whose due diligence with the Art Loss Register flagged it as stolen. The painting, valued at 280,000 Mexican pesos ($15,000), was returned to the church in a ceremony led by Padre Teodoro García Romero.

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museum exhibitions schedule Oct 24, 2025 visibility 21 link 14 artists

symbolism art institute chicag van gogh munch redon

The Art Institute of Chicago has opened an exhibition titled 'Strange Realities: The Symbolist Imagination,' drawn entirely from its own collection. The show features works by Vincent van Gogh, Edvard Munch, Odilon Redon, and lesser-known artists like Gustaf Fjaestad, aiming to present Symbolism through its visual output rather than its often vague literary manifestos. The exhibition sidesteps strict definitions of the movement, instead offering a broad range of works from the late 1880s to early 1900s that evoke mystery, doubt, and inner realities.

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museum exhibitions schedule Oct 23, 2025 visibility 11 link 1 artist

james turrell skyspace aros museum denmark

A new James Turrell "Skyspace" titled *As Seen Below – The Dome, a Skyspace by James Turrell* will open in June at the ARoS Aarhus Art Museum in Denmark. Billed as the largest such work in a museum context, the installation features a domed space roughly 50 feet tall and 130 feet in diameter, accessible via an underground corridor, with an open aperture at the top that brings the sky into intimate focus. The work completes the museum's "Next Level" expansion, which already includes an underground exhibition space and an outdoor "Art Square" set to open next year.

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article news schedule Oct 23, 2025 visibility 20 link 3 artists

british museums controversy hit ball raises 3 3 m securing vital funding for its international partnerships

The British Museum held its inaugural fundraising ball, modeled after the Met Gala, raising over £2.5 million ($3.3 million) through ticket sales and a silent auction. The event, attended by celebrities including Mick Jagger, Janet Jackson, Tracey Emin, James Norton, and Naomi Campbell, also secured a £10.3 million pledge from the Garfield Weston Foundation for the museum's Visitor Welcome Program. However, the evening was marred by controversy: a protester from Energy Embargo for Palestine gained access and demonstrated against the museum's £50 million sponsorship from BP, and Greece's culture minister Lina Mendoni criticized the museum for hosting the event near the Elgin Marbles, accusing it of disrespecting the ancient sculptures.

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article news schedule Oct 20, 2025 visibility 16 link 2 artists

british museum fundraising gala interrupted by protestor

The British Museum's inaugural fundraising gala on October 18 was interrupted by a protester from the group Energy Embargo for Palestine. The woman, who gained access to the Great Court by working as a waitress, took the stage next to board chair George Osborne holding a sign reading 'DROP BP NOW.' She criticized the museum for accepting a £50 million sponsorship from BP, an oil and gas company she accused of causing climate collapse and enabling genocide in Gaza. The gala, co-chaired by Isha Ambani of Reliance Industries, raised over $2 million from ticket sales and featured a silent auction, including a pet portrait by Tracey Emin and a private tour of Coco Chanel's Paris apartment.

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museum exhibitions schedule Oct 8, 2025 visibility 17 link 11 artists

louvre jacques louis david museum retrospective

The Louvre in Paris is staging a major retrospective of Jacques-Louis David, featuring 100 works by the French Neoclassical painter, to mark the bicentenary of his death in 1825. The exhibition opens October 15 and runs through January, drawing on the Louvre's own collection and prestigious loans from institutions including the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Cleveland Museum of Art. Curator Sébastien Allard emphasizes that the show is not a conventional blockbuster but aims to explore under-examined aspects of David's practice, particularly his political engagement across the Ancien Régime, the French Revolution, and the Napoleonic Empire.

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trending_up market schedule Oct 7, 2025 visibility 21 link 1 artist, 1 gallery

wade guyton artwork inigo philbricks flops at sothebys

A Wade Guyton artwork (2007) that was forfeited by Inigo Philbrick's business partner Robert Newland failed to sell at Sotheby's New York in late March 2025, carrying an estimate of $200,000 to $300,000. The same piece had previously sold for $208,000 at a U.S. Marshals Service auction in Texas in August 2023, a steep decline from its $490,000 sale at Sotheby's in 2015. Another Guyton from the same forfeiture—a 2018 piece owned by Philbrick himself—sold for $215,100 at the Texas auction, representing a 65% drop from its 2018 Christie's Paris sale of €535,500 (about $625,000). The article also notes a curious discrepancy: the Texas auction catalog listed a Phillips auction house label on the 2007 Guyton, but Phillips does not appear in the work's provenance, and Philbrick was known to do business with Phillips.

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article news schedule Oct 1, 2025 visibility 16 link 1 artist

rembrandt masterpiece undergoes conservation at germanys stadel museum

The Städel Museum in Frankfurt, Germany, is undertaking a major conservation treatment of Rembrandt van Rijn's monumental painting *The Blinding of Samson* (1636). The project, expected to last three to four years, will address signs of aging and previous restorations, remove non-original paint, and create a historically accurate frame. The conservation follows a 2021 research seminar and technical studies published in the journal *ArtMatters*, which revealed previously unknown underdrawing techniques and adjustments to the artist's color palette and composition.

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trending_up market schedule Sep 26, 2025 visibility 17 link 8 artists, 1 gallery

perelman art insurance ruling

A New York judge has ruled against billionaire investor and art collector Ronald O. Perelman in his attempt to collect $400 million from insurers for five paintings allegedly damaged in a 2018 fire at his East Hampton estate. Justice Joel M. Cohen of State Supreme Court in Manhattan found no visible damage to the works—two by Andy Warhol, two by Ed Ruscha, and one by Cy Twombly—and nothing traceable to the fire that would reduce their value. Perelman claimed the fire robbed the paintings of their 'spark' and 'oomph,' but insurers including Lloyd's of London, Chubb, and AIG countered that the works were unscathed and accused Perelman of filing claims under severe financial pressure after a collapse in Revlon stock.

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article news schedule Sep 24, 2025 visibility 15 link 4 artists

the night watch dog inspiration rembrandt

The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam has discovered that the dog in the lower right corner of Rembrandt's "The Night Watch" (1642) was inspired by a 17th-century drawing by Adriaen van de Venne. Curator Anne Lenders spotted the resemblance while visiting an exhibition at the Zeeuws Museum, and subsequent research confirmed the connection. The finding emerged from Operation Night Watch, an ongoing restoration project that uses scientific analysis to study the painting.

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trending_up market schedule Sep 23, 2025 visibility 21 link 7 artists

leiden collection fractionalized thomas kaplan rembrandt

Billionaire investor Thomas S. Kaplan, owner of the Leiden Collection—the largest private holding of Rembrandt paintings and other Dutch/Flemish Old Masters—has announced plans to fractionalize his art holdings, potentially offering shares on a public stock exchange. In an interview with the Art Newspaper, Kaplan cited his children's lack of interest in the collection and a desire to democratize art ownership, inspired by the NFT craze of the early 2020s. The collection includes Vermeer's *Young Woman Seated at a Virginal* (ca. 1670–75) and works by Frans Hals, Gerard ter Borch, and others, and is regularly loaned to major museum exhibitions.

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candle obituary schedule Aug 11, 2025 visibility 33 link 46 artists, 1 gallery

legendary art collector sylvio perlstein has died

Sylvio Perlstein, the legendary art collector, patron, and impresario, died on August 6. Hauser & Wirth confirmed the news, calling him a visionary who shaped one of the most important art collections of the past century. In 2018, the gallery exhibited 380 pieces from his collection across its Chelsea and Hong Kong locations in the show 'The Sylvio Perlstein Collection – A Luta Continua'. Perlstein was born in Belgium in the 1930s, fled to Brazil with his family during World War II, and later joined the diamond business in Antwerp. His collection spanned Dada, Surrealism, American minimalism, and Land art, featuring works by Man Ray, René Magritte, Donald Judd, and many others. He maintained close friendships with artists and displayed works throughout his Paris home, which cultural critic Arthur Lubow described as 'a contemporary version of Ali Baba's cave'.

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museum exhibitions schedule Aug 5, 2025 visibility 15 link 10 artists

studio museum in harlem opening date new building november

The Studio Museum in Harlem will open its new building on Saturday, November 15, with a Community Day celebration, after being closed since 2018. Designed by Adjaye Associates, the 82,000-square-foot, seven-story structure features 14,000 square feet of exhibition space, expanded studios for its Artist-in-Residence program, and dedicated education areas. The reopening includes four exhibitions, two site-specific commissions, and reinstallations of iconic works, including a survey of Tom Lloyd, the subject of the museum's first exhibition in 1968. The museum has also updated its hours and admission policies, offering free entry on Sundays.

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trending_up market schedule Aug 4, 2025 visibility 20 link 12 artists

sothebys london to sell greatest collection of surrealism to emerge in recent history in september

Sotheby's London will auction the collection of British socialite, collector, and arts patron Pauline Karpidas on September 17 and 18. Described as the 'greatest collection of Surrealism to emerge in recent history,' it includes masterpieces by René Magritte, Salvador Dalí, Leonora Carrington, and Max Ernst, along with works by Andy Warhol, Pablo Picasso, and others. The sale is expected to fetch £60 million ($81 million), the highest estimate ever placed on a single collection at Sotheby's in Europe. Karpidas, who began collecting 50 years ago after meeting gallerist Alexander Iolas, views herself as a 'temporary custodian' for the artworks.

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trending_up market schedule Jul 16, 2025 visibility 19 link 6 artists

crystal bridges tiffany stained glass window acquisition

Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas, has acquired a monumental stained-glass window by Tiffany Studios, titled *Mountain Landscape (Root Memorial Window)* (1917). Measuring approximately nine feet by seven feet, the window was commissioned by the fraternal organization Woodmen of the World as a memorial to its founder, Joseph Cullen Root. Its design is attributed to Agnes F. Northrop, a lead designer at Tiffany Studios for half a century. The window was originally installed in Omaha, Nebraska, moved to San Antonio, Texas in 1931 for a tuberculosis hospital chapel, and later stewarded by the Sunset Ridge Church of Christ. The acquisition, facilitated by stained-glass restorer Bryant J. Stanton, took about a year to finalize.

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museum exhibitions schedule Jul 8, 2025 visibility 17 link 9 artists

why this french city just trademarked cezanne

The city of Aix-en-Provence has trademarked the name of Paul Cézanne and the phrase “Cézanne chez lui” as part of a major cultural tourism initiative called “Cézanne 2025.” The city has invested €30 million ($35 million) in a summer-long program of events, centered on a monumental retrospective of 130 works at the Musée Granet, titled “Cezanne au Jas de Bouffan.” The exhibition focuses on the artist’s family home, Bastide du Jas de Bouffan, which has undergone recent conservation and now allows visitors to see murals Cézanne painted on the walls in his twenties. Other highlights include the reopening of his first studio and the restored Atelier des Lauves, his last studio.

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museum exhibitions schedule Jul 4, 2025 visibility 15 link 6 artists

fra angelico fresco restored

A long-forgotten fresco by the early Renaissance master Fra Angelico, believed to be his earliest known work, has been restored in the chapter house of San Domenico in Fiesole, Tuscany. The painting, a Crucifixion dating to around 1420, was hidden under whitewash for centuries and rediscovered by Bottega Belacqua, a group of Renaissance art enthusiasts. Funding from Friends of Florence enabled conservators Alessandra Popple and Cristiana Conti to revive the work, just in time for a landmark exhibition in Florence.

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