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.

National Assembly Unanimously Votes on Law for Restitution of Looted Colonial Works, but with Restrictions

L’Assemblée vote à l’unanimité la loi sur la restitution des œuvres pillées pendant la colonisation, mais avec des restrictions

The French National Assembly has unanimously passed a landmark law establishing a permanent legal framework for the restitution of cultural property looted during the colonial era. Moving away from the previous requirement for case-by-case legislation, the new law allows the government to return artifacts via decree following consultations with scientific and parliamentary commissions. This shift fulfills a long-standing promise to simplify the return of African heritage currently held in French public collections.

Where did the great artist Joseph Beuys live? The comic story by Gianluca Costantini

Dove viveva il grande artista Joseph Beuys? Il racconto a fumetti di Gianluca Costantini

In the summer of 2022, the author visited Düsseldorf and discovered that Joseph Beuys's former home at Drakeplatz 4 in Oberkassel was for sale, but the city's cultural department declined to purchase it. Beuys lived and worked there from 1961 until his death in 1986, using the space as both a residence and studio. The article recounts the intimate details of family life there, including how Beuys painted the main room white for his wife Eva's photography, and how the family navigated the blend of private life and artistic practice. Two years later, the Brunhilde Moll Foundation acquired the house and opened it to the public, though it was closed for renovations when the author returned. The house now displays about sixty works from Beuys's creative period and will host artist residencies and events.

Chicana Painter Criselda Vasquez Says ICE Detained Her Father

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has detained the father of Chicana painter Criselda Vasquez, who served as the primary subject for her acclaimed 2017 painting "The New American Gothic." The artist reported that her father, a resident of the United States for over 40 years, was racially profiled and arrested while returning from work in California. In response, the family launched a successful crowdfunding campaign that raised nearly $68,000 in ten days to cover legal fees and lost wages.

Berlin Museum of Prints and Drawings Wins Award in New York

Berliner Kupferstichkabinett gewinnt Auszeichnung in New York

The Kupferstichkabinett (Museum of Prints and Drawings) in Berlin has acquired two new works from the IFPDA Fine Art Print Fair in New York. The purchases were funded by the museum winning the Richard Hamilton Acquisition Prize, which provided a $10,000 grant specifically for acquisitions at the fair. The new additions are a 2005 paper work titled "Europa" by German-American artist Kiki Smith and a 2001 lithograph titled "Pregnant Caryatid" by Louise Bourgeois.

Dream Win With a Catch

Traumgewinn mit Haken

A 58-year-old sales engineer from Paris has won a 1941 Pablo Picasso portrait titled "Tête de femme" through a charity raffle. The winner acquired the masterpiece, valued at approximately €1.45 million, by purchasing a single €100 ticket. Organized to benefit Alzheimer’s research, the international lottery sold 120,000 tickets across 152 countries, raising a total of €12 million.

The Palais des Papes in Avignon cancels Macha Makeïeff's exhibition

Le Palais des Papes d’Avignon renonce à l’exposition de Macha Makeïeff

The Palais des Papes in Avignon has cancelled its planned summer exhibition, 'Les Choses divines – Inventaire fantaisiste,' conceived by French director, scenographer, and visual artist Macha Makeïeff. The cancellation, officially attributed to a combination of administrative, technical, and budgetary constraints, may also be linked to the recent municipal election that saw Olivier Galzi succeed Cécile Helle as mayor.

Auction Record in India

Record aux enchères en Inde

The Indian art market has reached a new milestone with the sale of Raja Ravi Varma’s painting, 'Yashoda and Krishna,' which fetched $17.9 million (including fees) at a domestic auction. The masterpiece was acquired by the prominent industrialist Cyrus Poonawalla, setting a new world record for an Indian painting sold at auction.

A Frenchman wins a Picasso in a lottery

Un Français gagne un Picasso à la loterie

A Parisian resident has won a painting by Pablo Picasso valued at €1 million through a charity raffle. The winner acquired the masterpiece after purchasing a single lottery ticket for just €100.

Two 17th-Century Dutch Still Lifes Acquired by the Getty

Deux natures mortes hollandaises du XVIIe siècle acquises par le Getty

The J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles has acquired two 17th-century Dutch still-life paintings by Pieter Claesz and Jan Davidsz. de Heem, masters of the genre. The works, including de Heem's "Vase en verre avec fleurs et fruits," were purchased on the New York art market and fill a gap in the museum's Dutch still-life collection, which previously lacked examples by these two artists.

Richmond Acquires an 18th-Century Terracotta

Richmond s'enrichit d'une terre cuite du XVIIIe siècle

The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond has acquired a rare 18th-century terracotta sculpture by the French artist Jean-Baptiste Boudard. A winner of the Grand Prix de Sculpture in 1732, Boudard spent much of his career in Italy serving the court of Philip of Bourbon in Parma, which contributed to his relative obscurity in his native France despite his significant contributions to Roman and Parmese landmarks.

A New Roubiliac Enters the Louvre

Un nouveau Roubiliac entre au Louvre

The Musée du Louvre has acquired a bronze bust of the poet Alexander Pope by the 18th-century sculptor Louis François Roubiliac. The work was purchased via private treaty through Sotheby’s after failing to find a buyer during the Manny Davidson collection sale, despite an estimate of €60,000 to €80,000. This acquisition strengthens the museum’s modest but significant collection of non-French European sculpture and is expected to go on public display in the coming weeks.

An ecstatic Mary Magdalene for Washington

Une Marie-Madeleine extatique pour Washington

The National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., has acquired Artemisia Gentileschi's painting "Marie-Madeleine en extase" (Mary Magdalene in Ecstasy), dating from around 1625. The work was previously sold at a Sotheby's auction in France in 2014, continuing a trend of important Gentileschi works leaving Europe for American museums.

A Caravaggio for Rome

Un Caravage pour Rome

The Italian Ministry of Culture has acquired Caravaggio's 'Portrait of Maffeo Barberini' for the state. The painting, which had been on loan to the Palazzo Barberini from its private owner, will now be permanently deposited at the museum.

Au macLyon, l’art vidéo comme vecteur d’émotions

The article reports on the exhibition "Regards sensibles" at the macLyon (Musée d'Art Contemporain de Lyon), which showcases 28 video artworks from the collection of Isabelle and Jean-Conrad Lemaître. The exhibition celebrates the couple's complete donation of their video art collection to the museum. It begins with Gillian Wearing's 1996 video "Boytime," the first video artwork the Lemaîtres acquired, and spans works from 1984 to 2025 by artists of 43 nationalities, offering a broad panorama of the video art genre.

The Nahmad family ordered to return a Nazi-looted Modigliani, valued at 21.5 million euros, to a French farmer

La famille Nahmad sommée de restituer à un agriculteur français un Modigliani spolié par les nazis, estimé à 21,5 millions d’euros

The New York State Supreme Court has ordered the restitution of Amedeo Modigliani’s 1918 painting, 'Seated Man (with a Cane)', to Philippe Maestracci, the grandson of Jewish art dealer Oscar Stettiner. The artwork, valued at approximately €21.5 million, was looted from Stettiner’s Paris gallery by the Nazis in 1944. Despite a 1946 court ruling in Stettiner's favor, the painting remained hidden for decades before being acquired in 1996 by the billionaire Nahmad family through an offshore entity.

The Met Will Expand by Merging With the Nearby Neue Galerie

The Metropolitan Museum of Art will acquire the Neue Galerie's Fifth Avenue building and its collection of 20th-century Austrian and German art, starting in 2028. The collection was built by cosmetics magnate Ronald S. Lauder, who founded the Neue Galerie in 2001.

TikTok Shop adds ‘fine art’ category—will it disrupt the art market?

TikTok Shop has launched a new "fine art" category within its collectibles section, allowing artists to sell original artworks directly through shoppable videos, photographs, and livestreams. The category debuted with a three-hour live sale by artist Sophie Tea, who created a series of 20 oil paintings titled *Bric-a-Brac* and sold them for £2,800 each. The sale faced technical glitches—items added to baskets were prematurely marked as sold, causing confusion—and required workarounds for TikTok's pricing caps, automatic discounts, and shipping policies.

The Bennett Prize Just Raised Its Award to $75,000. These Artists Think You Should Apply.

The Bennett Prize, a biennial award dedicated to women figurative realist painters, has increased its grand prize from $50,000 to $75,000 for its fifth cycle. Founded by collectors Steven Alan Bennett and Dr. Elaine Melotti Schmidt, the prize aims to bridge the gender gap in the art world by providing substantial financial support and institutional recognition. The current call for entries is open to artists who have not yet reached a specific commercial price ceiling, culminating in a 2027 exhibition at the Muskegon Museum of Art.

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A newly discovered 1877 chalk portrait of the poet Christina Rossetti by her brother, the Pre-Raphaelite master Dante Gabriel Rossetti, has been unveiled at Wightwick Manor. The drawing, recently acquired by the National Trust, serves as the centerpiece for the exhibition "The Rossettis – Siblings and Spouses." Created during a period of shared family mourning following the death of their sister Maria, the work departs from Rossetti’s typical idealized style to offer a somber, realistic depiction of grief and resilience.

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A marble bust of Jesus Christ located in Rome’s Basilica of Sant’Agnese fuori le mura has been reattributed to Michelangelo. Independent researcher Valentina Salerno, a member of the Vatican committee for Michelangelo’s 500th anniversary, used archival records and inventories to trace the sculpture back to the Renaissance master, reversing a 19th-century dismissal of its origins. Simultaneously, a private owner in Belgium is claiming a recently acquired Pietà painting is also a work by Michelangelo, supported by carbon dating and stylistic analysis from art historian Michel Draguet.

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The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum has acquired a rare original copy of Captain America Comics No. 1, donated by Riot Games co-founder Brandon Beck. Published in 1940 by Jewish creators Jack Kirby and Joe Simon, the issue is iconic for its cover art depicting Captain America punching Adolf Hitler. The acquisition also includes Captain America Comics No. 46, which features one of the earliest pop-culture depictions of a concentration camp liberation.

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The Victoria & Albert Museum has acquired the first-ever YouTube video, "Me at the zoo," along with the platform's original 2006 front-end code and early advertisements. The 19-second clip, featuring co-founder Jawed Karim at the San Diego Zoo, has been integrated into a reconstructed version of the site’s early "watch page" through a collaboration between museum curators and YouTube’s design team. The installation is now on view at V&A South Kensington and the V&A East Storehouse.

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Nifty Gateway, an early NFT marketplace founded in 2018 and acquired by Gemini, will shut down on February 23 after entering withdrawal-only mode. The platform, which once reported $300 million in gross merchandise value in 2021 and partnered with Sotheby's for a $17 million NFT drop, is closing amid a sharp decline in NFT trading activity. Users must withdraw their assets by the deadline, after which they can no longer list, buy, or sell NFTs on the site.

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Gabrielle Goliath's planned South African pavilion at the Venice Biennale was abruptly canceled by South African culture minister Gayton McKenzie. McKenzie claimed the cancellation was not due to the pavilion's focus on Israel's war in Gaza, but because a foreign nation attempted to purchase the work after the show. The Daily Maverick reported that the foreign entity was actually Qatar Museums, which had expressed interest in acquiring a video recording of Goliath's performance piece 'Elegy,' which addressed violence against women and queer people in South Africa and a genocide in Namibia. McKenzie's statement contradicted earlier reports that he had privately called the pavilion 'polarizing.'

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The National Portrait Gallery in London has acquired the only surviving photographs of 19th-century mathematician Ada Lovelace, a group of three daguerreotypes that were originally offered at Bonhams in June 2025 with an estimate of £80,000 to £120,000. The lot was withdrawn from auction and the museum secured it via a private treaty sale, a confidential negotiation process that allows institutions to purchase significant artworks directly from private owners. Two of the daguerreotypes were taken by French photographer Antoine Claudet around 1843, the year Lovelace published her foundational paper on Charles Babbage's Analytical Engine, while the third, by an unknown photographer, reproduces an 1852 portrait by Henry Wyndham Phillips showing Lovelace near the end of her life.

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The Lazio Region of Rome and Italy's Ministry of Culture are undertaking a €35 million ($41.1 million) restoration of Villa Silvestri Rivaldi, a historic palazzo overlooking the Colosseum that has long fallen into disrepair. Originally commissioned by Pope Paul III in the 1540s and designed by Sangallo the Younger with gardens by Giacomo Del Duca, the villa has housed cardinals, served as a convent, textile factory, welfare institution, and school, and was even used by squatters and hostage-takers in the 1970s. Early restoration work since 2024 has focused on stabilizing the structure and cleaning its frescoes with laser technology, with full-scale restorations set to begin in 2026.

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The Vatican has repatriated 62 Indigenous cultural treasures to Canada, following years of negotiations that began with a visit by the late Pope Francis in 2022. The objects, which include a kayak made of driftwood and seal skin used for beluga whale hunting, were first sent to Rome for a 1925 exhibition organized by Pope Pius XI and remained there until Pope Francis called for their return. The handover was unveiled this week at a warehouse belonging to the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau, Quebec, where Indigenous elders and experts are now examining each piece to trace its origins. Vancouver Archbishop Richard Smith and Natan Obed, president of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, spoke at a news conference about the significance of the return.

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Antonio Canova's monumental plaster horse sculpture, *Cavallo Colossale* (1819–21), has been restored and returned to public display after spending 50 years in storage at the Museo Civico di Bassano. The sculpture, acquired by the museum in 1849, had deteriorated in storage since the late 1960s. A multi-year restoration led by Passarella Restauri involved reassembling over 200 fragments, removing 19th-century additions, and installing a new internal metal frame for earthquake protection. The project was funded by Intesa Sanpaolo and the Venice in Peril fund.

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The Dorset Museum & Art Gallery in England has launched a fundraising campaign to acquire a rare 15th-century Netherlandish altarpiece, known as *The Master of the Sherborne Almshouse Triptych*, valued at up to £3.5 million ($4.6 million). The work is set to be auctioned by Sotheby’s in an Old Master evening sale next month, and the museum aims to prevent it from entering a private collection or being exported. The triptych, which depicts five healings of Jesus Christ, was hidden during periods of iconoclastic destruction and rediscovered in St. John’s Almshouse in Sherborne in the 19th century; it has only left the site twice, for exhibitions at the Royal Academy in 1923 and the Victoria and Albert Museum in 2003.