louvre director grilled in senate hearing

Louvre president Laurence des Cars faced a contentious Senate hearing on Wednesday, where lawmakers pressed her about ignored security warnings that preceded the October theft of $102 million in imperial jewels from the Apollo Gallery. Audits from 2017 and 2018 had flagged structural vulnerabilities, but Des Cars claimed she was not informed until after the theft. She defended the museum's response, citing new cameras, increased security training budgets, and an imminent senior security coordinator appointment. Conservative senators Jacques Grosperrin and Max Brisson demanded her resignation, with Brisson walking out when she declined to answer. Former president Jean-Luc Martinez also testified, saying he had not reinforced windows or balcony due to fire-safety concerns, a rationale security experts rejected.

The 10 Best Museum and Gallery Shows to See in the Bay Area This Summer

The article highlights ten notable museum and gallery exhibitions opening in the Bay Area during summer 2026, including Ranu Mukherjee's solo show 'The Long Middle' at Gallery Wendi Norris, a group survey 'Slice of the Pie' at Fraenkel Gallery featuring 14 Bay Area galleries, and 'Giant Steps' at Personal Space in Vallejo focusing on innovative ceramic works. Other featured shows include Will Yackulic's 'A Certain Slant of Light' at pt.2 in Oakland and several other exhibitions across San Francisco and Oakland.

The Best April Fools’ Jokes in the Art World This Year

Hyperallergic compiled a list of notable April Fools' Day pranks executed by major arts and cultural institutions in 2025. The jokes included the Morgan Library and Museum pretending to give its ornate interior a cheap "Landlord Special" makeover, the New York Public Library announcing it would replace its iconic lion statues with beaver sculptures, and the Brooklyn Museum and Brooklyn Botanic Garden proposing a whimsical, amusement park-style tunnel connecting their campuses.

A New Exhibition at the British Museum Dismantles the Popular Understanding of Samurai

The British Museum has opened a major exhibition titled 'Samurai,' which challenges the widespread, simplified portrayal of samurai as solely honor-bound, hyper-violent warriors. The show, curated by Rosina Buckland, presents them as a complex social class who were also bureaucrats, administrators, and cultural figures, emphasizing their roles during periods of peace and governance.

Ready for their close-ups: celebrity passport photos

Dave Sharkey, a former professional boxer, and his wife Ann founded a photographic studio on Oxford Street in London in 1953, offering passport photos with a 10-minute turnaround. The studio, later run by their son Philip, became a popular spot for celebrities including Muhammad Ali, Mick and Bianca Jagger, David Hockney, and Tilda Swinton. A new book titled 'Passport Photo Service,' published by Phaidon Press, compiles over 300 of these celebrity passport portraits from the 1950s to the 2010s.

the asia pivot tobias berger

Tobias Berger, a veteran curator who held senior roles at Hong Kong’s M+ and Tai Kwun, has transitioned from the public sector to lead two new private initiatives: Serakai Studio and the Tanoto Art Foundation. Ahead of Art Basel Hong Kong, Berger is launching "Gold," an experimental salon space in Wong Chuk Hang that merges contemporary art with design and fashion. These roles mark a shift toward agile, privately funded cultural models that prioritize regional focus and experimental programming over the bureaucratic structures of large public museums.

mierle laderman ukeles maintenance artist documentary review

A new documentary titled "Maintenance Artist," directed by Toby Perl Freilich, premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival. The film chronicles the career of Mierle Laderman Ukeles, who coined the term "Maintenance Art" in a 1969 manifesto to elevate everyday domestic and civic labor into art. It follows her decades-long collaborations with New York City agencies, including her seminal "Touch Sanitation Performance" (1979–80) with the NYC Department of Sanitation, and her ongoing struggle to realize the installation "Landing: Cantilevered Overlook" (2008) at Freshkills Park. The documentary weaves together archival footage, interviews, and analysis of second-wave feminism, conceptual art, and urban bureaucracy.

israel 2026 venice biennale budget issues

Israel’s participation in the 2026 Venice Biennale is at risk due to government delays in renovating its pavilion. According to a Haaretz report, the Israeli culture ministry and foreign ministry, which co-manage the pavilion, have struggled to agree on a budget and schedule for the renovation, with the foreign ministry citing budgetary issues and the culture ministry awaiting a timeline. This follows the 2024 Biennale, where artist Ruth Patir shuttered the pavilion on opening day in protest of the Gaza war, and Israel’s absence from the 2025 Architecture Biennale.

trump mausoleum andres serrano us pavilion venice biennale

Artist Andres Serrano has proposed a mausoleum dedicated to Donald Trump for the US pavilion at the 2026 Venice Biennale. The project, titled "The Game: All Things Trump," would feature thousands of Trump-signed and branded objects Serrano has collected since 2019, along with his 2022 film "Insurrection" about the January 6 Capitol attack. Serrano submitted the proposal to the US State Department Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, though US participation in the Biennale remains uncertain due to potential elimination of the National Endowment for the Arts under Trump.

british museums samurai show reveals the untold story of women warriors

The British Museum has opened a major exhibition titled "Samurai" that challenges popular perceptions of the warrior class. It reveals that after 1615, half of all samurai were women, though they did not engage in combat, and explores the evolution of samurai from medieval fighters to Edo-period bureaucrats and cultural figures. The show features over 280 objects, from armor and weapons to everyday items like a woman's dressing set, and examines the contrast between historical reality and modern pop culture portrayals.

art michele oka doner public installation

Michele Oka Doner, an 80-year-old artist known for her public installations, is preparing to unveil "Talisman," a new work composed of 300 illuminated heads that will create a sacred grove on the Park Avenue Mall at 66th Street in New York this spring. In an interview with CULTURED, she discusses the engineering challenges of the project, including weight limits imposed by the MTA due to the tunnel beneath the mall, and reflects on her earlier public works such as the mile-long floor installation at Miami International Airport and "Radiant Site" at the Herald Square subway station, which she won a national competition for in 1987.

Settlement allows Institute of Museum and Library Services to continue operations

The American Library Association (ALA) and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) have reached a settlement with the Trump administration to restore the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). The agreement follows a year-long legal battle sparked by an executive order that placed the agency's entire staff on administrative leave and attempted to dismantle the federal body. The settlement ensures the IMLS can resume awarding grants, conducting research, and operating programs while reversing previous staff terminations and grant cancellations.

‘Tide of Returns’: Ocean Space in Venice

The Repatriates Collective has launched 'Tide of Returns' at Ocean Space in Venice, an exhibition that redefines repatriation as a continuous process of spiritual and communal repair rather than a singular legal transaction. Set within the historic Church of San Lorenzo, the installation features immersive works such as 'From My Mother’s Country,' which utilizes thousands of handmade dolls from Namibia, and Verena Melgarejo Weinandt’s textile and video works exploring the symbolic power of water and braiding.

Giorno Poetry Systems Gives Grants to 12 Artists Including Jacolby Satterwhite, Puppies Puppies (Jade Guanaro Kuriki-Olivo), and the Late Agosto Machado

Giorno Poetry Systems, the nonprofit founded by artist John Giorno in 1965, has launched a new need-based grant program called the Treat a Stranger Grant. The inaugural round awards $4,545 each to 12 artists, including Jacolby Satterwhite, Puppies Puppies (Jade Guanaro Kuriki-Olivo), Samiya Bashir, Malcolm-X Betts, Pe Ferreira, Mercy Kelly, the late Agosto Machado (whose funds go to his estate), Gavilán Rayna Russom, Keioui Keijaun Thomas, Christopher Udemuezue, and two anonymous recipients. The program revives the spirit of Giorno's AIDS Treatment Project from the 1980s and '90s, which provided direct financial support to artists affected by the epidemic.

by the numbers sothebys london march 2026

Sotheby’s London Modern and Contemporary evening sale in March 2026 achieved a robust £130.6 million ($175 million), marking a significant 108.6 percent increase over the previous year's equivalent auction. The event was a "white glove" sale, with all 53 offered lots finding buyers, led by a Francis Bacon self-portrait that fetched £16 million. A notable highlight was a record-breaking £5.2 million sale for Leon Kossoff’s "Children’s Swimming Pool," which sparked a competitive ten-buyer bidding war.

dorothy waugh national park posters

Dorothy Waugh, a pioneering Modernist designer who created the U.S. government's first in-house National Parks poster campaign during the Great Depression, is the subject of her first-ever solo exhibition at New York's Poster House. Titled "Blazing a Trail: Dorothy Waugh's National Parks Posters," the show reunites all 17 posters Waugh designed for the National Park Service between 1934 and 1936, bold experimental works that helped define a new visual language for federal design. Guest curator Mark Resnick spent three decades tracking down Waugh's story, locating documents across the National Archives, the Library of Congress, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Jones Library in Amherst, Massachusetts.

pussy riot labeled extremist organization by russias justice ministry

Russia’s justice ministry has officially designated Pussy Riot, the feminist punk rock band and art collective co-founded by Nadya Tolokonnikova, as an “extremist organization.” The ruling follows a December 15 closed-door hearing at Moscow’s Tverskoy Court, where prosecutor general Alexander Gutsan filed a lawsuit against the group. The designation bans all Pussy Riot activities in Russia and allows the state to seize property of members and their families, and to prosecute anyone supporting the group. Tolokonnikova told ARTnews the group will appeal, calling the decision a source of “anxiety and bureaucratic nonsense.” In September, five members were sentenced to 8–13 years for spreading “fakes” about the Russian military, and Tolokonnikova was placed on Russia’s wanted list in 2023 after her performance *Putin’s Ashes*.

miami beach legacy purchase no vacancy 2025

Miami Beach announced Ximena Garrido-Lecca as the winner of its 2025 Legacy Purchase Program, acquiring her copper-rope work "Modulations – Sequence XXIX" for the municipal collection. The piece, shown with Livia Benavides Gallery, was selected by public vote and has been installed at the Miami Beach Convention Center. Separately, the sixth edition of the No Vacancy public-art program placed 12 site-specific installations in hotel lobbies across the city, running from November 13 through December 20, with $35,000 in total prizes.

glastonbury festival 2025 mark wallinger gaza children installation

At the 2025 Glastonbury Festival in the UK, Turner Prize-winning artist Mark Wallinger presented an anti-fascist installation titled "Jungle Gym" at the Terminal 1 Stage, curated by Oriana Garzón as part of the exhibition "No Human is Illegal." The work, built with chainlink fencing and using only Unicef blue, highlights the suffering of children in Gaza and the bureaucratic challenges faced by migrants. Festivalgoers entered by answering a British citizenship test question, with incorrect answers sending them to the back of the line, before passing through a cabin styled as a refugee camp to reach the installation.

the gates christo jeanne claude

Artist duo Christo and Jeanne-Claude developed 'The Gates' for New York City's Central Park in 1979, but the project faced over two decades of bureaucratic hurdles before finally being installed in 2005 under Mayor Michael Bloomberg. The work consisted of 7,503 steel gates with orange nylon fabric along 23 miles of pathways, using 5,390 tons of steel. Now, on its 20th anniversary, a comprehensive survey titled 'Christo and Jeanne-Claude: The Gates and Unrealized Projects for New York City' is being held at the Shed, accompanied by an augmented reality experience via the Bloomberg Connects app.

us pavilion 2026 venice biennale dissident right art hos

The United States has not yet announced its pavilion for the 2026 Venice Biennale, but a controversial proposal has emerged from far-right blogger Curtis Yarvin, who pitched a "dissident-right art hos" pavilion to Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy Darren Beattie in April 2025. The proposal, reported by the New Yorker, comes amid a delayed application process and changes to the pavilion's guidelines, which now emphasize a "non-political character" and remove previous language about diversity. The application deadline is July 30, with a $375,000 grant awarded by September, leaving an unusually short timeline for production.

amalia ulman film magic farm

Amalia Ulman's new film *Magic Farm* follows an American documentary crew that arrives in a rural Argentine town with a mandate to cover "crazy subcultures," only to find none. Led by a harried producer (Alex Wolff) and an anchor (Chloë Sevigny), the crew fabricates a zany trend while completely missing an environmental crisis affecting the village—no drinking water and widespread illness. Ulman describes the film as a critique of media bureaucracy, where content demands override actual news. The film continues her exploration of image-making and fiction, themes she previously investigated in her 2014 Instagram performance *Excellences & Perfections* and her 2021 debut feature *El Planeta*.

Blank Spaces. Sung Tieu by Sarah Johanna Theurer

Sung Tieu's installations, characterized by austere, bureaucratic surfaces, explore the hidden architectures of power embedded in everyday systems. The article examines her series of works that deconstruct administrative forms used in asylum procedures, reducing them to blank spaces and quantified grids to expose how institutional power operates through seemingly neutral documents. Her exhibition "In Cold Print" at Nottingham Contemporary physically manifests these themes by using steel fences to control viewer movement, drawing direct parallels between minimalist sculpture and the dehumanizing design of border controls.

art best painting shows guide new york

The article is a guide to three painting shows in New York's Tribeca neighborhood, curated by a critic who recommends visiting them in reverse order, ending with Nicole Eisenman's exhibition at 52 Walker. The featured shows are Katherine Bradford's "Communal Table" at Canada gallery (through December 13, 2025), Leslie Smith III's "Gentle Thoughts" at Chart gallery (through December 20, 2025), and Kate Spencer Stewart's exhibition at Bureau gallery (through December 20, 2025). Each show is described with critical observations about the artists' techniques, themes, and visual impact.

Sandra Gamarra: “Réplica” Is Not a Copy

Sandra Gamarra Heshiki's exhibition "Réplica" at MASP in São Paulo opens with an unplanned replica of Francisco Laso's "Habitante de las cordilleras del Perú" (1855), which could not travel from Lima due to bureaucracy. Gamarra produced an inverted, altered version, establishing a critical distinction between copying and responding. The exhibition is organized into sections that parody the classical chronology of encyclopedic museums—"Pre-colonial," "Colonial," "Post-independence," "Modern," and "Contemporary"—transforming the museum into an object of analysis. Gamarra's paintings engage with colonial iconographies, such as the pinturas de castas, by inscribing racial classifications directly onto the figures, making the colonial verdict inseparable from the bodies depicted.

United States Pavilion to Open at the 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia With Landmark Solo Presentation by Alma Allen: Call Me the Breeze

The United States Pavilion will open at the 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia with a landmark solo presentation by artist Alma Allen, titled "Call Me the Breeze." The exhibition marks the first time the U.S. Pavilion has dedicated its space to a single artist in this context, highlighting Allen's sculptural work that blends organic forms with industrial materials.

United States Pavilion to Open at the 61st International

The United States Pavilion at the 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia will open on May 6, 2026, featuring a solo presentation titled "Call Me the Breeze" by American artist Alma Allen. Curated by Jeffrey Uslip and commissioned by the American Arts Conservancy with support from the U.S. Department of State and the Guggenheim Foundation, the exhibition transforms the historic Giardini pavilion with sculptures in bronze, walnut burl, and various stones, including Colorado Yule marble used in the Lincoln Memorial.

Comment | Latest auctions prove Old Masters are not ‘out of fashion’

Recent Old Master auctions in New York have defied narratives of market decline, totaling over $185 million across Sotheby’s and Christie’s. High-profile sales included a newly discovered Michelangelo drawing for $27.2 million, a Canaletto masterpiece for $30.5 million, and a record-breaking Rembrandt drawing sold for $17.8 million. These results, alongside the Italian state's $14.9 million acquisition of an Antonello da Messina, suggest that historical masterpieces remain premier "civilisational assets" and stable financial havens during periods of economic volatility.

New York Galleries: Openings and Closings of the Week (12/15—12/21)

Art Week On A Budget: 16 Free Things To See And Do During Art Basel Miami 2025

Miami Art Week 2025 offers a wealth of free public art and events, from monumental installations to city-wide competitions. Highlights include Es Devlin's rotating sculpture 'Library of Us' on Miami Beach, Philippe Katerine's inflatable 'Mr. Pink Takes Flight' on Lincoln Road, and the juried hotel-art competition No Vacancy. Other free attractions include the immersive HIVE village in Wynwood, Katie Stout's fantastical 'Gargantua’s Thumb' in the Miami Design District, and the group exhibition CHROMA 2025 at Lucid Design District. The article serves as a budget-friendly guide for visitors.