La restitution du lit de Louis XVI

The Château de Versailles has inaugurated the restored private bedroom of King Louis XVI, featuring a fully recreated bed that was burned during the French Revolution. The project, which took forty years of research and craftsmanship, involved reconstructing the bed from sparse 18th-century archives, including a sculptor's memorandum by Babel and a fabric sample preserved by the silk manufacturer Tassinari & Chatel. The restoration also includes a commode from the Château de Compiègne, as the original is at Chantilly, and follows principles of harmony in gilding and textile motifs.

Galleries condemned, bones exploding… The National Museum of Natural History is in a serious state of disrepair, warns its president

Galeries condamnées, ossements qui explosent… Le Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle est dans un grave état de vétusté, alerte son président

The president of the Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle in Paris, Gilles Bloch, has issued a public alarm about the institution's severe state of disrepair. He warns that 74% of the museum complex is in grave danger, with urgent repairs costing an estimated €500 million needed to prevent collapse and reopen closed galleries. The deterioration includes mold-infested herbariums, flooded archives, and mineralized bones exploding due to heat and humidity, threatening the museum's world-class collection of over 70 million specimens.

Steven Durland, Champion of Performance Art, Dies at 75

Steven Durland, a longtime editor of *High Performance* magazine and a champion of performance art, died on March 11 at age 75 after a brief illness. His life partner, Linda Frye Burnham, confirmed his death in Saxapahaw, North Carolina. Durland was born in Long Beach, California, raised in South Dakota, and trained as a ceramic artist with a BFA from the University of South Dakota and an MFA from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He became deeply involved in performance and mail art, and from 1986 to 1994 served as editor of *High Performance*, a magazine founded by Burnham that featured thousands of artists including Nancy Buchanan, Carolee Schneemann, Paul McCarthy, Suzanne Lacy, and Ulysses Jenkins. Durland also maintained his own artistic practice, creating performances such as "Win Defeat/BID FOR POWER" (1978) and "Death and Taxis" (1982), and produced the micro-newspaper *Tacit*.

The Major Exhibitions at LUMA Arles in France: Zaha Hadid, Gerhard Richter and Patti Smith

Le grandi mostre al LUMA di Arles in Francia: Zaha Hadid, Gerhard Richter e Patti Smith

LUMA Arles in France will launch a new exhibition cycle on May 1, 2026, followed by a second series starting July 4. The program, presented by CEO Mustapha Bouhayati and artistic director Vassilis Oikonomopoulos, includes a major show of Gerhard Richter's "Overpainted Photographs" in the Frank Gehry-designed tower, a Zaha Hadid retrospective titled "I Think There Should Be No End to Experimentation" marking the tenth anniversary of her death, and a centennial celebration of the influential art magazine Cahiers d'Art. The exhibitions aim to bridge visual arts with music, performance, and live events, bringing together voices from diverse geographies and disciplines.

Nude Performance at MFA Boston Confronts One of Art’s Oldest Tropes

Artist Xandra Ibarra staged her performance "Nude Laughing" (2014–) at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston on April 16, appearing nude except for a breastplate and yellow heels while dragging a nylon stocking stuffed with blonde wigs and fake breasts. She moved through the galleries, laughing hysterically, and ultimately collapsed in front of Paul Gauguin's painting "Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?" (1897–98). The performance was part of the exhibition "Subvert, Repair, Reclaim: Contemporary Artists Take Back the Nude," which features 12 artists critiquing racial, gender, and power hierarchies in Western art history. The event sparked heated debate on the museum's Instagram, with hundreds of commenters arguing about its legitimacy and obscenity.

Joel Meyerowitz on Photographing Giorgio Morandi’s Studio

Photographer Joel Meyerowitz, renowned for his street photography, has a book of images documenting the preserved studio of painter Giorgio Morandi being re-released this spring. The book, "Morandi’s Objects: The Complete Archive of Casa Morandi," features over 130 new photographs of the artist's humble objects and workspace, capturing the essence of his still-life practice.

Brett Goodroad at Crèvecoeur, Left Bank

Brett Goodroad at Crèvecoeur, rive gauche

San Francisco-based artist Brett Goodroad presents a solo exhibition titled "Bells" at Crèvecoeur’s Rive Gauche location in Paris. The exhibition features a series of new paintings that showcase Goodroad’s signature style of fluid, gestural abstraction and figurative ambiguity, documented through an extensive digital archive of installation views and individual work shots.

Stories in Copper and Vinyl

Geschichten in Kupfer und Vinyl

The UCCA Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing is hosting "Hundreds and Thousands," the first institutional retrospective of the late American conceptual artist Rutherford Chang. The exhibition showcases Chang’s career-long obsession with collecting and cataloging mass-produced objects, most notably featuring his collection of over 3,700 first-pressings of the Beatles’ "White Album." Other significant works include a 31-kilogram copper cube created from 10,000 pre-1982 pennies and a digital archive of over 2,000 of the artist's own Game Boy Tetris sessions.

The Fruitful Dialogue Between AI, Knowledge, and Creation in a Free Festival at the BnF

Le dialogue fécond entre IA, savoir et création dans un festival gratuit à la BnF

The Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF) is hosting the inaugural edition of "Noûs," a free festival exploring the intersection of artificial intelligence, archival knowledge, and artistic creation. Located in the hall of the François-Mitterrand site, the event features eight artistic projects that utilize the library's vast catalog to reveal hidden histories rather than generate falsehoods. Highlights include Audrey Large’s 3D-printed sculptures exploring suppressed female knowledge, Justine Emard’s immersive digital cave of AI-generated sirens, and the collective Obvious’s speculative botanical frescoes based on historical scientific plates.

Lee Miller at the Musée d’Art Moderne: The Future Great Photographer Who Went from Rebel Child to Vogue Model

Lee Miller au musée d’Art moderne : la futur grande photographe passée de l’enfant rebelle au mannequin Vogue

The Musée d’Art Moderne in Paris is hosting a major retrospective dedicated to Lee Miller, tracing her evolution from a rebellious child in upstate New York to a celebrated Vogue model and pioneering surrealist photographer. The exhibition highlights her early life under the influence of her father, Theodore Miller, an amateur photographer who introduced her to the technical aspects of the darkroom, and her subsequent move to Paris in 1930 where she transitioned from being a muse for photographers like George Hoyningen-Huene to a formidable artist in her own right.

‘Between A Memory and Me’: Navigating Belonging

Photographer Rahim Fortune has opened a new exhibition titled 'Between A Memory and Me' at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. The show presents a series of photographs that map memory, land, and Black life across the American South, creating a lyrical cartography where landscape and personal lineage intertwine.

Thomas Hart Benton, Jessie Wlicox Smith announced for shows at Lucas Museum of Narrative Art.

The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in Los Angeles, co-founded by filmmaker George Lucas and businesswoman Mellody Hobson, has announced its inaugural exhibitions. The ambitious survey will feature over 1,200 works from a founding collection of more than 40,000 objects, including pieces by Thomas Hart Benton and Jessie Wilcox Smith. The museum is housed in a 300,000-square-foot building designed by Ma Yansong of MAD Architects with Stantec.

“Magnanrama. Portraits, Networks, and News of Nathalie Magnan” at Villa Arson, Nice

Mousse Magazine reports on the exhibition “Magnanrama. Portraits, Networks, and News of Nathalie Magnan” at Villa Arson in Nice, which celebrates the life and work of Nathalie Magnan (1956-2016). Magnan was a media theorist, filmmaker, cyberfeminist, educator, webmistress, hacktivist, and interdisciplinary figure who navigated the internet and the high seas, contributing to the history of thought, technology, feminism, and LGBTQI+ struggles. The show presents portraits, networks, and news related to her legacy, positioning her as a mediator and artist despite her reluctance to use that term.

Disobedience Archive (Canopy for Broken Time) In Dialogue with Raqs Media Collective at Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Zürich

The Disobedience Archive, a mobile video archive initiated by Marco Scotini in 2005, is presented in dialogue with Raqs Media Collective at the Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst in Zürich. The archive contains over one hundred documentary and art films at the intersection of art and activism, documenting forms of resistance, social struggle, and collective self-organization.

Italy’s Uffizi Hit by Cyberattack, Says Security Wasn’t Compromised

The Uffizi Galleries in Florence suffered a significant cyberattack in February, with hackers reportedly stealing access codes, internal maps, CCTV camera information, and the institution's entire photographic archive. The attackers issued a ransom demand to director Simone Verde. In response, the museum moved valuable jewels to the Bank of Italy, sealed emergency exits at the Palazzo Pitti with bricks, and closed a section of the palace, though it attributes some actions to planned renovations and fire-safety compliance.

Mysterious Lake District barn joins national treasures on heritage list

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport has granted Grade II* listed status to "Henry’s Castle," a mysterious limestone structure in the Lake District previously used as a livestock shelter. Following a four-year restoration project involving archaeologists and conservation engineers, experts identified high-status architectural features including a 14th-century oak roof truss, a corbelled chimneystack, and a garderobe. These elements suggest the building was originally a significant residence, such as a hunting lodge or a lookout dwelling, rather than a simple barn.

apple contract constitution christies sale

Christie's auction "We the People: America at 250" on January 23, 2026, achieved $35.5 million in total sales, doubling its presale estimate. The top lot was a draft of the U.S. Constitution annotated by founding father Rufus King, which sold for $7.3 million. Other highlights included a signed Emancipation Proclamation ($6.7 million), a 1776 Declaration of Independence copy ($5.6 million), and the Apple Computer Company Partnership Agreement from 1976, signed by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne, which fetched $2.5 million. A Gilbert Stuart portrait of George Washington (ca. 1804) realized $2.8 million, setting a new auction record for the Athenaeum type.

hispanic society spanish fashion

The article examines 'Spanish Style: Fashion Illuminated,' an exhibition at the Hispanic Society Museum in New York curated by Amanda Wunder. It explores how Spanish fashion from the Habsburg dynasty (1516–1700) used luxurious materials like logwood black, gold, silver, silk, and lace to project imperial power and religious austerity. The show features portraits of royalty and nobility, including works by Diego Velázquez and Juan de Pareja, highlighting how clothing served as a uniform of status and belonging rather than individual expression.

maria lai magazzino

Maria Lai (1919–2013), a Sardinian artist who blended abstraction, Arte Povera, and craft, is receiving her first North American museum retrospective at Magazzino Italian Art in Cold Spring, N.Y. The exhibition, curated by Paola Mura, features nearly 100 works drawn from the personal collection of founders Nancy Olnick and Giorgio Spanu, the artist's foundation, and Italian museums. It includes a permanent installation of Lai's 1992 cement sculpture *Colombe di Cemento* on the museum grounds.

gary burden album cover artist gary auction

Bonhams Los Angeles is auctioning the archive of legendary album cover designer Gary Burden, who died in 2018, in a sale titled "Cover to Cover" running from June 20 to 30. The collection includes original artwork, sketchbooks, and ephemera from Burden's five-decade career, featuring iconic covers for the Doors' *Morrison Hotel* (1970), the Eagles' *Desperado* (1973) and *One of These Nights* (1975), Joni Mitchell's *Ladies of the Canyon* (1970), and Jackson Browne's 1972 debut, among others. Highlights include a lithograph for the Eagles' *One of These Nights* (estimate $10,000–$15,000) and Burden's preparatory pencil sketch for *Desperado* (estimate $30,000–$40,000).

world war ii documents and artifacts auction

Boston's RR Auctions is offering a sale of over 170 World War II autographs and artifacts, live through June 11. Highlights include a German Enigma I Cipher Machine (estimated at over $200,000), a Navy ensign flag that flew on D-Day, and a letter of surrender signed by Reich President Karl Dönitz on May 6, 1945 (estimated at over $100,000). The sale also features handwritten drafts of radiotelegrams from Colonel General Alfred Jodl and a mimeograph copy of General Dwight D. Eisenhower's victory announcement, signed by him as a souvenir.

What Did Happen or What Might Have Happened or What Can Never Happen. Dustin Hodges by Nick Angelo

Dustin Hodges presents a new body of work across two exhibitions, "Barley Patch" at 15 Orient in New York and "Barley Patch 2" at Sebastian Gladstone in Los Angeles. The artist utilizes thin layers of pigment, color glazing, and distemper on linen to create compositions that superimpose cartoon motifs, such as black crows and characters from the "Arthur" series, over complex grids. His process involves a cyclical layering that drives a wedge between the logic of the image and the materiality of painting, resulting in works that feel both choreographed and visceral.

We the People: Iowa City’s ‘library lady’ lives on through art collection

The article details the enduring legacy of Hazel Westgate, a pioneering children's librarian who served the Iowa City Public Library for nearly 40 years until her death in 1988. Westgate's most visible contribution is a unique collection of original children's book illustrations, acquired through personal correspondence with legendary authors and illustrators like Dr. Seuss and Charles M. Schulz, many inscribed directly to her or the children of Iowa City. Her mission was to ensure the artwork reflected the children themselves, fostering a lifelong love of reading and literature.

Open Letter in Support of the Artist Asel Kadyrkhanova

An open letter initiated by members of the Kazakhstani and international art community protests the removal of artist Asel Kadyrkhanova's work *Machine* (2013) from the Kazakhstan pavilion at the 2026 Venice Biennale. The mixed-media installation, which addresses Stalinist repression through a vintage typewriter, arrest warrants, and red threads, was dismantled on May 5, 2026, reportedly by order of Kazakhstan's Ministry of Culture and Information, just before the pavilion's opening. The artist and curator were allegedly pressured to alter the work beforehand, and the ministry initially cited restrictions from the Italian side, but the Italian Ministry of Defense denied involvement.

Milwaukee Art Museum to Present Widline Cadet’s First U.S. Museum Solo Exhibition

The Milwaukee Art Museum has announced "Currents 40: Widline Cadet," the first U.S. museum solo exhibition for the Haitian-born artist. Running from May 8 through August 9, 2026, the show features the debut of her decade-long project, "Seremoni Disparisyon (Ritual [Dis]Appearance)." The exhibition utilizes photography, video, and installation to explore themes of Black diasporic life, migration, and the creation of a "living archive" through staged imagery and autobiographical details.

Opening reception at UWAG for "i look to the skies" an installation by Jude Abu Zaineh.

The University of Waterloo Art Gallery (UWAG) opened an exhibition titled "i look to the skies," a solo installation by Palestinian-Canadian interdisciplinary artist Jude Abu Zaineh. The work centers on Maqlouba, a traditional Palestinian dish, as a metaphor for diaspora, memory, and cultural preservation. The installation incorporates bioart, video, sculpture, textiles, and petri dishes cultivated from food remnants and foraged materials, creating a contemplative sanctuary that explores themes of exile, migration, and identity under colonial violence.

Long Live the King?

Sam Jacob's essay in ArtReview uses the upcoming Baz Luhrmann film 'EPIC: Elvis Presley in Concert' (2026) as a springboard to explore the cultural and technical implications of digital restoration. The film, a spinoff from Luhrmann's 2022 Elvis biopic, draws on 59 hours of previously unseen footage from Elvis Presley's 1970 and 1972 Las Vegas performances, recovered from Warner's Kansas salt-mine archive. Using Peter Jackson's Park Road Post technology—including Machine Assisted Learning (MAL) for demixing audio and video—the damaged, fragmented material has been digitally scanned, reconstructed, and enhanced to 4k resolution with 12-channel sound, presented in IMAX cinemas.

Chobi Mela XI Review: Can We Start Over?

The 11th edition of the Chobi Mela photography festival has opened in Dhaka, Bangladesh, under the curatorial direction of artists Munem Wasif and Sarker Protick. With the theme 'Re,' the festival presents work from 58 artists across nine exhibitions, aiming to explore renewal and tenacity in lens-based storytelling following the disruptions of the COVID-19 pandemic and the July 2024 uprising.

National Pavilions Review: Who’s Afraid of Meaning?

Andrew Durbin reviews national pavilions at a major biennial, contrasting a vacuous US presentation with incisive and moving installations from Britain and Germany. The review critiques the lack of meaningful content in the US pavilion while praising the depth and emotional resonance of the British and German contributions.

Director’s Notes with Adam Golfer | “Camille Henrot: In Movement”

Adam Golfer, the director of the short film "Camille Henrot: In Movement," reflects on the process of creating the documentary. He describes following the artist Camille Henrot over a full year in New York and Paris, capturing her wide-ranging creative process from sketches to paintings, model-making to large-scale sculptures, and the evolution of her film work.