New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and his wife Rama Duwaji will reportedly skip the 2025 Met Gala, breaking a long-standing tradition of mayoral attendance at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s premier fundraiser. Sources suggest the decision stems from a conflict between Mamdani’s socialist political platform and the event's association with billionaire sponsors, specifically Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez-Bezos.
medieval art christ side wound vulva
The Met Cloisters in New York is hosting "Spectrum of Desire: Love, Sex, and Gender in the Middle Ages," an exhibition exploring how medieval art depicted the body, sexuality, and gender. A central focus of the show is the intentional depiction of Christ’s side wound as a vulva-like shape, or mandorla, in illuminated manuscripts such as the 14th-century Prayer Book of Bonne of Luxembourg. These images were designed as intimate devotional tools, inviting viewers to meditate on Christ's suffering through a lens that transcended traditional gender binaries.
The École Van der Kelen-Logelain, a unique and mythologized painting school in Brussels founded in 1892, continues to operate under strict, traditional methods. Students endure a rigorous six-month winter course, adhering to rules like mandatory white lab coats, silence, and no phones, to master specialized decorative painting skills, most notably the art of trompe l'oeil, or illusionistic painting.
Police in Queensland, Australia, arrested a 52-year-old man suspected of stealing ancient Egyptian artifacts from the Abbey Museum of Art and Archaeology in Caboolture. The suspect was apprehended on Russell Island after police found part of the stolen haul, including a 2,600-year-old wooden cat figure, a 3,300-year-old necklace, and a mummy mask, in a camper van at a ferry terminal. The items were recovered and returned to the museum within two days of the brazen break-in.
A hidden camera was discovered in a women's restroom within the administrative offices of the Centre Pompidou in Paris. A female staff member found the device on January 14, leading to the immediate suspension of a suspected perpetrator and the filing of a legal complaint by the museum. The museum has stated that exhaustive inspections found no other devices and has offered support to staff.
The White House is pushing for a dedicated display of fan-created portraits of President Donald Trump at the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery. Administration officials, following a December tour, suggested installing a selection of artwork sent to the president by supporters, a move that would break with the museum's tradition of reserving multiple depictions for former presidents.
The British Museum announced that 2024 was a record year for archaeological discoveries made by the public in the UK, with 79,616 finds recorded. Of these, 1,540 were classified as "treasure" under the 1996 Treasure Act, the highest number ever in a single year and the third consecutive record-breaking year. Ninety-four percent of the discoveries were made by metal detectorists. The figures come from the Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS), a project jointly managed by the British Museum and Amgueddfa Cymru–Museums Wales. Notable finds include a hoard of silver pennies from Harold II's reign, a Roman vehicle fitting with a panther and severed human head, and early medieval gold and silver objects.
French broadcaster France Télévisions aired previously unseen footage of the October 2025 robbery at the Louvre Museum, in which thieves stole crown jewels worth approximately €88 million ($102 million). The four-minute video, shown on the investigative program Complément d'enquête, captures the thieves smashing display cases with their fists and an angle grinder while security guards remain largely motionless nearby. One guard briefly confronts the thieves with a rope stanchion before backing down, and another makes a phone call. The footage corroborates findings from a security audit that deemed the museum's system "outdated and inadequate," with a severe lack of functioning cameras. Louvre director Laurence des Cars had previously stated that the sole camera covering the gallery was facing the wrong direction, and it took guards eight minutes to access the correct feed during the break-in.
Police have identified a parking garage in Aubervilliers, a Paris suburb, as the last known location of the jewels stolen from the Louvre in a $102 million heist on October 19. Surveillance footage shows two suspects handling some of the stolen pieces less than an hour after the robbery. Four men have been arrested—including a former YouTube stunt rider known as “Doudou Cross Bitume”—and a fifth suspect, a woman, remains at large. The jewels themselves have not been recovered.
Over 600 artifacts were stolen from a storage building housing the Bristol Museum’s British Empire and Commonwealth collection in the early hours of September 25. The items included an ivory Buddha, copper medallions from the Emancipation campaign of 1838, a carved elephant ornament, and a copper and brass ship lantern. Local authorities have released descriptions of four suspects and images of stolen objects, appealing to the public for help in recovering the items and identifying the thieves.
Thieves broke into the Louvre Museum in Paris and stole several pieces of the French Crown Jewels from the Galerie d'Apollon, including a diadem, necklace, earrings, and brooches from the parures of Queen Marie-Amélie, Queen Hortense, Empress Marie-Louise, and Empress Eugénie. Two items—the reliquary brooch and the corsage bow—were dropped and recovered, and a ninth item, Empress Eugénie's crown, was also taken but later recovered. The thieves triggered alarms and fled after a fast, violent break-in, leaving behind a cherry picker; no injuries were reported.
The article uncovers the story of three secret sculptures carved by François Décure, a quarryman in the Catacombs of Paris during the late 18th century. Décure, a veteran of the Seven Years' War, used his lunch breaks and spare time to chisel detailed stone models of buildings he remembered from his imprisonment on the island of Menorca, including a fortress called Port Mahon. He died tragically when a staircase he was working on collapsed, but his sculptures survived, were restored in 1854, and remain a highlight of guided tours through the catacombs.
Sasha Suda, the former director and CEO of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, has filed a lawsuit against the institution less than a week after her abrupt firing. The legal complaint alleges breaches of contract, bad faith, unfair treatment, and abuse. Suda, who served for three years, is seeking two years' severance and damages, represented by high-profile art world attorney Luke Nikas of Quinn Emanuel. Her ouster came shortly after the museum unveiled a controversial rebranding, changing its name from the Philadelphia Museum of Art to the acronym PhAM and introducing an unpopular griffin logo. The museum has stated the lawsuit is without merit. Louis Marchesano, deputy director of curatorial affairs and conservation, is currently serving as interim leader.
The ABC television series *High Potential* aired a midseason finale episode titled “The One that Got Away,” in which protagonist Morgan Gillory, a cleaning lady turned police consultant, investigates a museum heist involving a $20 million Rembrandt painting, *Young Girl Leaning on a Windowsill*. The fictional theft—executed via a skylight rope descent, laser security disabling, and smoke bomb—eerily mirrored a real-life Louvre heist that occurred just a week after the episode was written, where thieves used a cherry picker and angle grinder to break through a window. The episode also touches on Nazi-looted art and a possible serial art thief named John Baptist.
A French court report reveals that the Louvre museum's security system was severely compromised at the time of a major jewel heist, with the password for its key surveillance server set to "Louvre" and another system protected by the password "THALES." The report from France's Court of Auditors, leaked to the press, details how the museum repeatedly postponed security upgrades while prioritizing high-profile acquisitions and renovations, despite an annual operating budget of €323 million. The heist saw roughly $102 million in French crown jewels stolen, and only 432 CCTV cameras monitored 465 galleries in 2024, leaving 61% of galleries without surveillance.
Heritage Auctions sold one of the last surviving Rosebud sleds from the 1941 film *Citizen Kane* for $14.75 million on July 16. The prop, made of pine hardwood with a red seat stenciled with “ROSEBUD,” came from the collection of director Joe Dante, who received it in 1984 from a crew member clearing out an old RKO Pictures lot. The sled was radiocarbon-dated to verify its authenticity. The sale makes it the most expensive Rosebud sled ever sold at auction and the second most valuable piece of movie memorabilia, after the ruby slippers from *The Wizard of Oz*.
Senegal and Ivory Coast have formally requested the repatriation of thousands of artifacts from French museum collections, following a groundbreaking French government report published on November 23 that recommends returning colonial-era objects taken before 1960. Senegalese culture minister Abdou Latif Coulibaly announced plans to file a formal request for up to 10,000 Senegalese objects, while Ivorian authorities have submitted a list of about 100 masterpieces, with director Silvie Memel Kassi noting up to 4,000 Ivorian objects remain in Paris's Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac Museum and New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art.
The Louvre in Paris was forced to close on Monday after museum docents, ticket sellers, and security workers staged a spontaneous strike to protest overcrowding and understaffing during the city's busiest tourist season. The walkout, announced during a routine internal meeting, left visitors frustrated and confused. Union representative Sarah Sefian of CGT-Culture said most staff planned to strike for the full day, though some might return to open a limited "masterpiece route" for ticket holders to see the Mona Lisa and Venus de Milo. The museum typically closes on Tuesdays, and workers may return Wednesday.
A shooting outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday night killed two Israeli embassy staff members, Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim, in what authorities have called an antisemitic attack. The gunman, Elias Rodriguez of Chicago, opened fire as the victims exited a diplomatic event hosted by the American Jewish Committee, then entered the museum where he was detained by security. Police reported that Rodriguez shouted “free, free Palestine” after being taken into custody. The museum expressed heartbreak and condemned the violence, while the Israeli embassy mourned the loss of the couple, who were engaged to be married.
Sotheby's Hong Kong offered the Qing dynasty imperial painting *The Blue Goats* as a single-lot sale during its Asian Art Week. Commissioned by Emperor Qianlong in the late 1750s, the seven-by-six-foot hanging scroll was created by Italian Jesuit painter Giuseppe Castiglione (Lang Shining) and Chinese court artist Jin Tingbiao, blending Western and Eastern techniques. Despite a presale estimate of HK$60–150 million ($7.7–19.3 million), the work sold for HK$58.9 million ($7.6 million) after fees, below the low estimate. The painting depicts a pair of gorals in a rocky landscape and is inscribed with a poem by the emperor symbolizing his military conquests.
New York's Spring Break Art Show has returned to its namesake season, opening alongside Frieze New York after abruptly canceling its Los Angeles edition due to January's devastating fires. Founded by artist duo Andrew Gori and Ambre Kelly, the fair is now held in a former book printing office on Varick Street, featuring offbeat emerging art and boundary-pushing installations. Roughly a third of the presentations were already planned under the theme "Paradise Lost and Found," but the accelerated timeline led to last-minute additions, with some artists joining just the night before. Standout works include Louis Sarowsky's carved stone food sculptures, Kate Rusek's zero-waste porcelain pieces molded from trash, and Colin J. Radcliffe's ceramic sculptures reimagining queer figures in classical iconography.
LA FORMA EN LA ERA DE LOS MATERIALES VIVOS. ENTREVISTA AL CURADOR PABLO JOSÉ RAMÍREZ
The Hammer Museum in Los Angeles is presenting "Several Eternities in a Day: Form in the Age of Living Materials," an exhibition curated by Pablo José Ramírez running until August 23. Featuring 22 artists from the Americas, the show explores materials such as avocado, cacao, achiote, cochineal, stone, clay, and natural dyes that evolve, degrade, or transform over time. Organized into three acts, the exhibition challenges conventional notions of the art object by treating these materials as living agents with memory and agency, rooted in Indigenous knowledge and the concept of "brownness." In an interview, Ramírez discusses how these materials destabilize extractivist logics and institutional frameworks, forcing a rethinking of conservation protocols and the very conditions of exhibition-making.
Diana Campbell, Chomwan Weeraworawit, and Paris-based art advisors Samy Ghiyati and Nicolas Nahab of NG Partners organized a pizza party called Pizzalo Mundo during the Venice Biennale. Each artist contributed an ingredient from home: Rirkrit Tiravanija brought a Penang coconut base, Precious Okoyomon added flowers, Daria Kim wild honey, Tarek Atoui za'atar on hummus, Miet Warlop artichoke hearts, Tori Wrånes self-grown potatoes, and Alexa Kumiko Hatanaka fig leaf oil with yuzu salt. The event drew a crowd of curators, directors, and collectors from institutions including Tate, Musée d'Orsay, Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, MoMA, and Centre Pompidou.
CULTURED magazine asked art collectors to share their strangest negotiation experiences with artists or dealers. Responses range from a late-night studio sale in a dark East Atlanta alleyway to accidentally bidding on a second impression of a Picasso etching at auction. Other tales include haggling over a borrowed frame after a Christie's purchase, a dealer insisting the artwork be displayed in a specific room, and acquiring a Rick Lowe painting sight unseen from Gagosian after seeing it at the Venice Biennale. The survey reveals the quirky, human side of art transactions often hidden behind market mythology.
Cultured magazine asked 10 art collectors to recommend books that changed how they think about art. The responses range from John Berger's "Ways of Seeing" (Matthew Harris) and Sarah Thornton's "Seven Days in the Art World" (Paola Creixell) to Peter Brook's "The Empty Space" (Brandon John Harrington) and Calvin Tomkins's "Off the Wall" (Francis J. Greenburger). Other collectors cite exhibition catalogs, biographies, and personal collection books as transformative reads.
Max Hollein, director and CEO of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, discusses the institution's upcoming major projects in an interview with a chair of the Met's Vanguard Council. These include the groundbreaking of the new Tang Wing for Modern and Contemporary Art, designed by Frida Escobedo, a major Raphael exhibition, and the Met Gala co-chaired by Beyoncé. Hollein reflects on the launch of the Vanguard Council, a next-generation patron group, and the museum's efforts to engage younger audiences.
CULTURED magazine hosted its third annual Frieze London breakfast at the Dorchester hotel, co-hosted by Editor-in-Chief Sarah Harrelson, European Contributor Georgina Cohen, and photographer Mary McCartney. The event drew a mix of art-world figures, celebrities, and cultural tastemakers, including actor Richard E. Grant, Tate director Maria Balshaw, musicians Jess Glynne and Sophie Ellis-Bextor, gallerists Lucy Chadwick and Pilar Corrias, and collectors Laura de Gunzburg and George Wells. Guests enjoyed a plant-based breakfast and copies of CULTURED's September issue amid the buzz of Frieze London.
Christie's is holding its 20/21 auction week in New York from May 9–22, 2026, featuring seven live auctions and two online sales at its Rockefeller Center galleries. Highlights include the dedicated sale "MASTERPIECES: The Private Collection of S.I. Newhouse" (led by Constantin Brancusi's *Danaïde* and Jackson Pollock's *Number 7A, 1948*), the Impressionist and Modern Art Day Sale, and "Defined Space: The Collection of Henry S. McNeil, Jr.," which focuses on Minimalist works by Donald Judd and Dan Flavin. Other consignors include prominent collectors Agnes Gund, Marian Goodman, and Joanna Carson. The public can view works for free from May 9–21.
Christie's will auction seven paintings by Gerhard Richter from the personal collection of legendary gallerist Marian Goodman in May 2026, headlining a series of sales titled "Breaking Ground: The Private Collection of Marian Goodman." The group includes the iconic 1982 work *Kerze (Candle)*, estimated at $35–50 million, and spans Richter's career from 1982 to 2009. Goodman, who died in 2024, began representing Richter in 1985 after writing him a letter, and her collection reflects their decades-long professional and personal relationship.
A comprehensive listing of current and upcoming visual art exhibitions, events, and installations in Athens, Georgia, is provided. The guide includes shows at venues ranging from the Georgia Museum of Art and the Lamar Dodd School of Art galleries to local breweries, coffee shops, and community centers. Featured exhibitions highlight work by students, local members, and established artists like Beverly Buchanan and Julie Green, alongside new murals and public art projects.