A 66-million-year-old Triceratops skeleton, nicknamed Trey, sold for $5.55 million at the online auction platform Joopiter. The fossil, excavated in 1993, had been on continuous public display at the Wyoming Dinosaur Center for three decades and represents the first dinosaur skeleton sold by Joopiter, a platform founded by Pharrell Williams.
The Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco has announced plans to sell its iconic Daniel Libeskind-designed building in the Yerba Buena Gardens neighborhood. The institution has been closed to the public since December 2024, drastically reduced its staff and budget, and aims to use the sale to stabilize its finances, reduce debt, and ensure its long-term survival.
第61回ヴェネツィア・ビエンナーレ参加アーティストおよびキュレーターによる緊急要請
A group of 73 artists and curators participating in the 61st Venice Biennale, including Yoshiko Shimada and Bubu de la Madeleine, have issued an urgent demand to the Biennale's board to revoke Israel's participation. The collective specifically objects to the decision to relocate the Israeli pavilion to the Arsenale, arguing that its presence contradicts the curatorial vision of Artistic Director Koyo Kouoh, which emphasizes the dignity of all life. They contend that the military and police presence required for the pavilion introduces an atmosphere of violence and fear that undermines the exhibition's integrity.
Wohin am Wochenende?
This week's art tips include Anton Corbijn's birthday exhibition at Fotografiska Berlin, featuring iconic portraits alongside personal favorites; the 25th anniversary of Daniel Libeskind's extension at the Jewish Museum Berlin; Refik Anadol's first Belgian AI-driven installation at Brusk in Bruges; the Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt's 40th anniversary weekend with free entry and performances; and a Lee Ufan solo show at Dia Beacon in New York, following his Wolfgang Hahn Prize.
Lost for More Than a Century, the First ‘Sci-Fi’ Film Ever Made Resurfaces
A lost 1897 silent film by pioneering French director Georges Méliès, "Gugusse et l'Automate," has been rediscovered and digitally restored. The 45-second slapstick short, featuring a magician battling a robot, was found in a collection of early film reels passed down through a family of traveling showmen and has now been preserved in 4K by the Library of Congress.
Photographer Catherine Opie is experiencing an extraordinary year in 2026, with multiple major exhibitions opening simultaneously across Europe and Los Angeles. A career-spanning survey at London’s National Portrait Gallery will travel to Edinburgh’s Royal Scottish Academy, while other shows appear in Kassel, Germany, and Trondheim, Norway. In Los Angeles, her new exhibition “Holding Blue” opens May 28 at Regen Projects, featuring 44 images of Norwegian mountain landscapes shot over 20 days in early 2024, accompanied by nine ceramic sculptures. Her work also appears in group shows at the Autry Museum of the American West, Hauser & Wirth, and David Zwirner. Opie, who retired from UCLA after serving as chair of the art department and teaching photography for more than 20 years, describes this period as the “Catherine Opie World Tour 2026.”
This week, several Parisian galleries are opening new exhibitions, with a concentration in the Marais district. Highlights include Olivier Kaeppelin's group show of four female painters at H Gallery, Mamma Andersson's works on paper at David Zwirner, Lucio Fontana's ceramics at Karsten Greve, Michel François's entropic ensembles at Art: Concept, and Anselm Kiefer's show at Thaddaeus Ropac in Pantin. Other notable openings include Linda Sanchez at Galerie Papillon, Chechu Álava at Galerie Xippas, and group exhibitions at Galerie Allen and Galerie The Pill.
Rubens en chantier au Louvre
The Louvre Museum has launched a major four-year restoration project for the monumental 24-canvas 'Cycle of Marie de Médicis' by Peter Paul Rubens. The initiative, funded by the Société des Amis du Louvre with a budget of 4 million euros, aims to restore the works' chromatic power and stabilize their fragile paint layers. The Medici Gallery will close to the public in May, though some stages of the process will be viewable.
New York's Showplace is hosting its Important Fine Art and Design Auction on May 14, 2026, featuring 145 lots that span Old Masters to contemporary works. Key highlights include Yayoi Kusama's *Infinity Nets* (1995, est. $100,000–$200,000), Otis Kwame Kye Quaicoe's *Yellow Fanny Pack* (2021, est. $12,000–$18,000), Alexander Calder's *Paradis* (1976, est. $60,000–$80,000), Henri Martin's *L'Eglise de Labastide-du-Vert* (est. $60,000–$80,000), and Milton Avery's *Untitled (Winter Landscape Scene)* (est. $20,000–$40,000). The auction brings together blue-chip names like Warhol, Kusama, and Calder alongside emerging artists.
Artists Anne Imhof and Tyler Mitchell engage in a cross-disciplinary dialogue reflecting on their recent solo exhibitions, "Wish You Were Gay" at Kunsthaus Bregenz and "Wish This Was Real" at C/O Berlin. The conversation explores the intersection of performance, photography, and the choreography of space, with both artists discussing how they manipulate the viewer's physical and emotional presence within an installation.
Mikala Tai has been appointed curator of the tenth TarraWarra Biennial, scheduled to run from July 31 to November 14, 2027, at the TarraWarra Museum of Art in Healesville, Australia. Tai is a Sydney-based curator, writer, and academic specializing in contemporary Australian and Asian art.
PINTA PANAMA ART WEEK 2026 REAFFIRMS THE COUNTRY AS A HUB FOR REGIONAL CONTEMPORARY ART
The second edition of Pinta Panamá Art Week will be held from March 18-22, 2026, featuring works by Panamanian artists like Cisco Merel, Lulu Molinares, Arístides Ureña Ramos, and Isabel de Obaldía. Their projects, ranging from sculpture and textiles to immersive installations and studio visits, explore themes of memory, territory, and everyday life through the manipulation of materials and space.
Salvador Dalí's 1936 painting 'Necrophiliac Spring' will be exhibited in the UK for the first time as part of the 'Schiaparelli: Fashion Becomes Art' exhibition at London's Victoria and Albert Museum. The show, dedicated to designer Elsa Schiaparelli, runs from March 28th to November 8th.
American artist Lauren Halsey’s “sister dreamer” sculpture park opens in Los Angeles.
American artist Lauren Halsey has opened a new public sculpture park titled "sister dreamer" in Los Angeles. The installation, located in the city's historic West Adams neighborhood, features a series of large-scale, fantastical architectural forms that draw on Afrofuturism and the visual culture of the local community.
This article presents a conversation between artist Ali Cherri and writer Kaelen Wilson-Goldie, marking the second installment of a collaborative series between TextWork by Fondation Pernod Ricard and Mousse Magazine. The series features in-depth dialogues between artists from the TextWork program and magazine contributors, expanding on the traditional interview format, and is set to continue until 2027.
Lithuanian artist Lina Lapelytė has filled Berlin's Hamburger Bahnhof with 400,000 wooden blocks made of pine and spruce, creating a participatory installation titled “We Make Years Out of Hours.” Commissioned by Chanel, the work invites the public to build and rebuild structures from the 10-centimeter cubes. A series of weekly performances featuring a libretto by writers including Ocean Vuong, Etel Adnan, Forugh Farrokhzad, and Mahmoud Darwish will accompany the installation, which opens on May 1 and runs through January 10, 2027.
A major exhibition titled 'Let Us Gather In a Flourishing Way' has opened at the Buffalo AKG Art Museum, featuring 58 artists in a comprehensive survey of contemporary Latinx painting. The show, curated by Andrea Alvarez over several years, is organized into seven thematic sections and is designed as a fluid, conversational space that celebrates community and cultural convergence.
Spectral Birds Endemic to New Zealand Find New Life in Fiona Pardington’s Portraits
New Zealand artist Fiona Pardington will present her photographic series *Taharaki Skyside* in the Aotearoa New Zealand Pavilion at the 2026 Venice Biennale. The large-scale, spectral portraits depict preserved specimens of endemic birds, including extinct and critically endangered species like the huia and the South Island Takahe, captured from within the country's natural history collections.
The article profiles Egyptian Modernist artist and activist Inji Efflatoun, detailing her life from her birth in 1924 in Cairo to her political activism, arrest in 1959, and four-and-a-half-year imprisonment. It highlights a new biographical collection, *The Life and Work of Inji Efflatoun*, which includes her translated memoirs and critical essays, offering a comprehensive view of her art and revolutionary life.
The Yale Center for British Art has unveiled the 'Lucknow scroll,' a monumental 37-foot-long early 19th-century watercolor, following an extensive two-year conservation project. Part of the exhibition 'Painters, Ports and Profits,' the scroll offers a panoramic view of Lucknow, India, during the reign of Ghazi-ud-Din Haidar Shah. Due to its immense size and fragility, the museum is displaying the work in two stages, unrolling different sections over the course of the exhibition to manage light exposure and space constraints.
A major exhibition titled "Vivienne Westwood: Rebel – Storyteller – Visionary" has opened at the Bowes Museum in County Durham, England. The show features over 40 ensembles and numerous accessories drawn almost entirely from the private collection of Peter Smithson, a chemistry teacher and dedicated Westwood supercollector who has amassed these pieces over three decades.
Christie's London will auction a major collection of Indian paintings and calligraphy from the Seattle-based collectors Mary and Cheney Cowles on April 28, with an estimated total exceeding £1.5 million. The sale is dominated by Mughal-era works from the 16th to 19th centuries, including a highlight piece from the Fraser Album estimated at £180,000, and features rare examples of "Mughal Occidentalism" where court artists incorporated European motifs.
british museum removed palestinian uk lawyers for israel
The British Museum in London removed the word 'Palestinian' from certain display texts related to the ancient Middle East, replacing it with terms like 'Canaanite.' This action followed a letter from the pro-Israel advocacy group UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI) to the museum's director, Nicholas Cullinan, arguing that using 'Palestine' to describe the ancient region was historically inaccurate and erased the Kingdoms of Israel and Judea. The museum stated the changes were made last year, prior to receiving the letter, and that it uses UN terminology for modern maps and 'Palestinian' as a cultural identifier where appropriate.
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.
A long-lost portrait of Scottish poet Robert Burns, painted by Henry Raeburn in 1803, has been rediscovered after 200 years. The painting was found at a house clearance sale by Wimbledon Auctions in London, where it was estimated at just £300–£500 but sold for £68,000 after a bidding war. It has since been conserved and authenticated by the National Galleries of Scotland, and is now on public display in Edinburgh alongside the original 1787 portrait by Alexander Nasmyth, just in time for Burns Night celebrations.
Jack Vettriano, the self-taught Scottish painter behind Britain's best-selling image of 2012, *The Singing Butler* (1992), has announced that he may never paint again after dislocating his shoulder. Vettriano told the Independent that he is undergoing physiotherapy but faces a long recovery and cannot paint in the foreseeable future. The news comes as a blow to his devoted fan base, who had been hoping for new work following his 2013–14 retrospective at Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum in Glasgow, which drew 123,000 visitors.
The article reflects on the responsibility of critical art writing in the Southeast, sparked by the announcement that Art Papers, an international art magazine based in Atlanta, will sunset in 2026 after 50 years. The author recounts a debate among local art workers about reviewing the forthcoming Minnie Evans retrospective organized by the High Museum of Art and traveling to the Whitney Museum, which he initially declined due to a conflict of interest with curator Katherine Jentleson. He ultimately agrees to write, emphasizing the need for Black scholars to engage with self-taught Black artists. The piece examines how Evans's narrative has been mediated through the lens of white photographer and art historian Nina Howell Starr, questioning the power dynamics and what remains unknown about Evans's own agency.
A new report from Remuseum, an initiative of the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art funded by collector David Booth and the Ford Foundation, reveals that American museums are struggling with post-pandemic visitation declines and rising costs, yet they invest less than three percent of their operating budgets on marketing—comparable to mining and construction industries. The report contrasts historical resistance to marketing, exemplified by former Met president William Luers, with the Getty's Harold Williams, who embraced it. Case studies from the Art Gallery of Ontario and the Peabody Essex Museum show how museums can use audience personas to boost attendance, but current spending remains far below the 13.9 to 18.7 percent of revenues that consultant Colleen Dilenschneider says is needed to reach full market potential.
Sandra Poulson, a 30-year-old Angolan artist, has opened her first museum exhibition at MoMA PS1 in New York, titled "Este quarto parece uma República!" ("This bedroom looks like a Republic!"). The show features sculptures that explore how everyday objects carry social and political meaning, including a work critiquing the influence of mega-churches in Angola. Poulson, who splits her time between Luanda, London, and Amsterdam, drew inspiration from her childhood, local furniture practices in Luanda, and colonial-era wood exploitation. The works were initially produced for Condo London and commissioned by Jahmek Contemporary Art.
Eva, one half of the German artist duo EVA & ADELE, has died. Her passing was announced on the couple's Instagram page on Wednesday, with the German press agency dpa reporting that she died in Berlin after surgery on her lumbar spine. Eva never revealed her true age; the couple's representative, Galerie Nicole Gnesa, stated in an obituary that she was 34 years, one month, and 10 days old—using her chosen wedding day as her birthday. EVA & ADELE were known for treating their lives as a performance, appearing publicly in matching outfits to blur gender binaries and individuality, and were fixtures at major art events like the Venice Biennale, Documenta, and Manifesta.