The Metropolitan Museum of Art has partnered with Lego to release a $249.99 building set recreating Claude Monet's 1899 painting 'Bridge Over a Pond of Water Lilies.' The kit, containing 3,179 pieces, is the most expensive in Lego's Art series and launches March 4. The museum is also releasing a podcast hosted by curator Alison Hokanson to accompany the set.
The Smithsonian Institution faces a deadline to submit internal communications and exhibition materials to the White House as part of President Donald Trump's review aimed at eliminating so-called 'woke' ideology. Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie G. Bunch III has begun turning over documents from several galleries on a rolling basis, and the National Portrait Gallery has already complied by replacing Trump's portrait with a new photograph and removing mentions of his two impeachment trials from the wall text. The review, launched in August 2025, targets eight museums including the National Museum of African American History and Culture and the Hirshhorn Museum, following an April executive order titled 'Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History.'
Artnet News rounds up eight major controversies that shook the art world in 2025, including a brazen theft of crown jewels from the Louvre Museum in Paris, which exposed severe security gaps and led to a staff strike. Another key scandal involves a lawsuit filed by heirs of the Stern family against the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Basil and Elise Goulandris Foundation, alleging that a Van Gogh painting was looted by the Nazis and later concealed through a series of transactions in New York.
Kadist, a Paris-based nonprofit art organization, announced the closure of its San Francisco gallery after 14 years of operation. The space, which opened in 2011, was known for commissioning and exhibiting works by international artists such as Hank Willis Thomas, Jota Mombaça, and Ad Minoliti. Joseph Del Pesco, Kadist’s Americas director, stated that the closure was not due to funding issues but rather a strategic shift toward international collaborations with museums across the Americas and beyond. The organization will continue to operate its original space in Paris and maintain its collection of over 2,000 artworks.
Christian Marclay's latest supercut film, "Doors," is now on view at the Brooklyn Museum after stops in Boston and Europe. The 50-minute looped video compiles scenes of famous actors opening and closing doors from various movies, following the success of Marclay's 2011 hit "The Clock," a 24-hour video-clock that synchronizes on-screen timepieces with the viewer's actual time. The article critiques "Doors" as a less profound, more self-obsessed work that lacks the emotional resonance of its predecessor.
A new boutique art fair called Echo Soho, dedicated to women-led galleries, will debut in London from October 16 to 19, 2025, running alongside Frieze London. Founded by gallery owner India Rose James, the fair will take place at Artist’s House on Manette Street, featuring 12 exhibitors across two floors of a Georgian townhouse. With stand prices starting at £850 and booth sizes from 20 to 30 square feet, Echo Soho aims to lower barriers for mid-sized and emerging galleries, offering support with installations, art handlers, and booth photography. Confirmed participants include Pipeline, Gillian Jason Gallery, and Awita, with support from Soho Estates, Soho House, and Cass Art.
Artnet News published its quarterly museum artist ranking for June 2025, analyzing temporary exhibitions at over 250 U.S. museums to identify which living artists received the most institutional attention. The list includes over 4,500 names, with Indigenous contemporary artists dominating the top ranks: Cara Romero and Sky Hopinka remain highly visible, joined by Jeffrey Gibson and Andrea Carlson. Cindy Sherman appears in at least 10 group shows nationwide, while Alex Katz continues as a rare painter favored by museums at age 97. The ranking prioritizes career retrospectives, dedicated exhibitions, and special commissions over group show appearances.
New York Art Week 2026 brings a major convergence of art events across the city, including several prominent art fairs such as Frieze New York, Independent New York, TEFAF New York, and NADA New York. The week also features gallery openings spanning from Tribeca to the Upper East Side, as well as auction previews ahead of key sales at Sotheby’s, Christie’s, and Phillips.
Bénédicte Épinay, president and CEO of Comité Colbert, is organizing 'Hidden Treasures,' an exhibition of French luxury brands at The Shed in New York in late May 2025, timed after Frieze art fair and auction week. The show features 96 French luxury brands, 17 cultural institutions, and six European luxury brands, including Musée du Louvre, Balenciaga, Louis Vuitton, and Cartier. The initiative is part of a broader cultural diplomacy strategy, following a similar exhibition in Shanghai in 2024 that helped reduce tariffs on cognac. The article also notes shifting luxury market dynamics, with strong US sales growth projected at 8% in 2026, while Europe remains stagnant, and emerging markets like India show new wealthy buyers driving auction house growth.
ARTnews published a listicle on May 19, 2026, detailing 15 Van Gogh masterpieces that set auction records, from *Landscape with Rising Sun* (1985) to *Portrait of Dr. Gachet* (1990). The article recounts landmark sales including *Sunflowers* ($39.9 million in 1987), *Irises* ($53.9 million in 1987), and *Portrait of Dr. Gachet* ($82.5 million in 1990), highlighting the buyers, provenance, and institutional homes such as the Sompo Museum of Art and the J. Paul Getty Museum.
Tefaf New York returns to the Park Avenue Armory from 15 to 19 May, bringing together 88 exhibitors from 14 countries. The fair, which launched in 2016 as a two-part event and consolidated into a single annual edition in 2022, spans Greco-Roman antiquities, jewellery, 20th-century design, and contemporary art. This year’s edition includes nine new exhibitors such as David Lévy, Larkin Erdmann, Piano Nobile, Macklowe Gallery, and ML Fine Art, and sees the return of John Berggruen after a three-year absence. Fair leadership, including director Leanne Jagtiani and head of fairs Will Korner, emphasize the fair’s distinctive focus on Modern art, which they say differentiates it from other spring fairs in New York that are more heavily weighted toward contemporary work.
Los Angeles art dealer Matthew Brown is relocating his gallery to a significantly larger, 13,000-square-foot former warehouse in the Hollywood Media District. The new space, designed by architect Markus Dochantschi, more than doubles his exhibition area and includes offices, viewing rooms, and storage. The inaugural exhibition will feature artist Mimi Lauter, marking her first Los Angeles show in eight years.
cosima von bonin loewe paris
German artist Cosima von Bonin collaborated with Loewe for its Fall/Winter 2026-2027 womenswear show at the Château de Vincennes during Paris Fashion Week. The artist’s signature plush sculptures, including oversized octopuses and bug-eyed scallops, occupied front-row seats and populated the runway set. Beyond the scenography, von Bonin’s zoomorphic motifs were integrated directly into the collection as jewelry, charms, and minaudières.
Artnet News has compiled a list of the spookiest, bloodiest, and most gruesome works in art history to celebrate Halloween. The selection includes Francisco de Goya's "Saturn Devouring His Son" (ca. 1820–23), Hermann Nitsch's blood-soaked "Schuttbild" (2013), Tsukioka Yoshitoshi's woodblock print of a samurai drinking from a severed head, and Théodore Géricault's macabre still lifes of body parts. Other entries feature Goya's "The Witches' Flight," Katsushika Hokusai's ghost story print "The Lantern Ghost, Oiwa-San," John Henry Fuseli's "The Nightmare," Vincent van Gogh's "Skull of a Skeleton with Burning Cigarette," and Utagawa Kuniyoshi's "Takiyasha The Witch and the Skeleton Spectre."
The article reflects on the state of Latinx art in 2025, a year marked by devastating wildfires in Los Angeles and the start of the second Trump administration, which has intensified ICE raids and targeted communities of color. Amid this crisis, artists have created poignant responses, including AMBOS's ceramics project at Frieze Los Angeles benefiting migrants awaiting asylum hearings, and Consuelo Jimenez Underwood's solo exhibition at Artpace in San Antonio, which explored borders both literal and cosmic. The piece also highlights a two-person show by Beatriz Cortez and rafa esparza at the Americas Society, titled "Earth and Cosmos," featuring works that challenge time and space.
Uruguay's only art fair, Este Arte, is preparing for its 12th edition from January 4-7 at the Vik Pavilion in José Ignacio. Founded by curator Laura Bardier, the fair features just 14 galleries, including returnees like Galería del Paseo and Xippas Galleries, and newcomers such as Almeida & Dale and Galerie Jocelyn Wolff. Despite its small scale, with works priced from $500 to $400,000 (most under $20,000), the fair has intentionally reduced its exhibitor list since its inaugural edition, focusing on quality over quantity.
Mel Leipzig, a painter known for his intensely detailed, realistic portraits of everyday people and places, died on November 1 at age 90. Over a career spanning more than five decades, the Brooklyn-born artist taught at Mercer County Community College from 1968 to 2013, founded the Trenton Artist Workshop Association (TAWA) in 1979, and never painted from photographs, instead practicing what he called 'designing with reality.' His work is held by major institutions including the Whitney Museum, the National Academy Museum, and the New Jersey State Museum.
A rare exhibition of works by the late artist Matthew Wong, including never-before-exhibited pieces, will open in Venice during the 2026 Biennale. Titled “Matthew Wong: Interiors,” the show is curated by John Cheim and organized by the artist’s foundation, run by his mother Monita Wong. The 35-work exhibition focuses on interior spaces, both physical and psychological, and highlights Wong’s vibrant color palette and expressive brushwork, which he developed before his death by suicide at age 35 in 2019.
Luke Agada, a Nigerian painter who completed his MFA at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2023, chose to remain in Chicago rather than move to New York or Los Angeles, citing the city's balance of opportunities. He opened his solo exhibition "To Translate Is to Move Across" at Monique Meloche Gallery during the third edition of Chicago Exhibition Weekend (CXW), a four-day event involving over 70 galleries, talks, studio visits, and a tennis mixer. CXW was founded by Abby Pucker of the consultancy firm Gertie and co-organized with Expo Chicago, expanding this year to include the Chicago Architecture Biennial and a curated exhibition of conceptual art.
Brazilian sculptor Solange Pessoa is the subject of a solo exhibition at the Aspen Art Museum, featuring her evolving installation *Bags – Aspen version* (1994–2025). The work, originally created in 1994, consists of burlap sacks filled with organic materials such as coffee beans, seeds, feathers, dried peppers, and records by Brazilian musicians, arranged in towers on a dirt-covered floor. Pessoa, who has long been based in Belo Horizonte, has recreated the piece in various locations over three decades, and this iteration marks one of her few solo museum shows outside Brazil.
Rosemarie Beck, a once-promising abstract painter celebrated in the 1940s and 1950s by the Whitney Museum and mentored by Robert Motherwell, abandoned abstraction in 1958 to pursue figuration. Despite early success and shows at prestigious venues like the Stable Gallery, her shift to mythological and literary themes caused her to fade from art historical memory. A new exhibition, "Rosemarie Beck: Earthly Paradise," at Van Doren Waxter in New York, showcases over 25 figurative works from 1959 to 2000, marking a major reappraisal of her career.
Georgian-Russian artist Zurab Tsereteli has died at age 91. He served as the chief artist of the USSR’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and headed Russia’s Academy of Arts, and was a known supporter of Vladimir Putin. His monumental sculptures, favored by Russian elites, were controversial in his native Georgia.
Beaux Arts Magazine has published a comprehensive dossier on David Hockney, coinciding with his current exhibition at Galerie Lelong in Paris. The article presents a multi-episode series covering the British artist's career, from his iconic "Pool Paintings" like *A Bigger Splash* (1967) to his recent works created on iPad in Normandy. It highlights his ongoing exhibitions at multiple venues, including a major retrospective at the Centre Pompidou starting June 21, a dialogue with Matisse at the Musée Matisse in Nice, a show at the Van Gogh Museum, and a loan from Tate Britain to the Musée Granet in Aix-en-Provence. The piece also explores Hockney's fascination with Old Masters, his use of technology, and his enduring status as a pop art and hyperrealist superstar.
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) has announced that its highly anticipated David Geffen Galleries will officially open to the public on April 19, 2026. Designed by Pritzker Prize–winning architect Peter Zumthor in collaboration with director Michael Govan, the new facility features a horizontal, elevated design that spans Wilshire Boulevard. The structure will house 26 galleries on a single level, representing the culmination of a nearly two-decade redevelopment project.
Van Gogh Museum Acquires Only Third Painting by a Female Artist at TEFAF
The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam has acquired Virginie Demont-Breton's 1887-88 painting *L'homme est en mer* at the TEFAF Maastricht fair. The work, depicting a woman and child awaiting a sailor's return, becomes only the third painting by a female artist in the museum's collection and was purchased for a sum between $543,000 and $1.1 million.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute spring exhibition, featuring nearly 400 objects, pairs garments and ensembles with Western figurative artworks from the museum's permanent collection in dyadic, associative displays. The show eschews traditional art-historical timelines and context in favor of visual and thematic parallels—comparing, for example, Rudi Gernreich's Pubikini with an Egyptian statuette, or Ying Gao's sound-responsive dress with a David Hockney drawing. The exhibition is sponsored by Jeff and Lauren Sánchez Bezos.
Massimiliano Gioni reveals that for nearly a decade, from 1997 to 2006, he acted as Maurizio Cattelan's ghostwriter and public impersonator, writing all of Cattelan's texts, press releases, and interviews, and even giving lectures and television appearances in his place. Gioni describes how he fabricated lies and half-truths, speaking as Cattelan at universities like Yale and NYU, on Vatican Radio, and during the media storm over Cattelan's sculpture of hanged children in Milan, all for a monthly fee of $500.
A major new exhibition at Genoa's Palazzo Ducale, "Van Dyck: The European. The Journey of a Genius from Antwerp to Genoa and London," presents a comprehensive survey of Anthony van Dyck's formative years in Italy. Featuring around 60 works, including loans from the Louvre, Prado, and National Gallery, the show reveals how his six-year Italian sojourn was a period of intense experimentation and emancipation from his master Rubens, leading to his signature theatrical portrait style.
Blanche Lazzell (1878–1956), a pioneering American Modernist artist and printmaker largely forgotten today, is featured in the exhibition “Herself: American Artists of the 20th Century” at New York’s Lincoln Glenn Gallery. The show brings together 30 women artists spanning roughly 90 years, including Alice Neel, Grace Hartigan, Barbara Kruger, Sheila Hicks, and March Avery. Lazzell, who earned her fine arts degree at West Virginia University in 1905, studied at the Art Students League alongside Georgia O’Keeffe, traveled to Paris, and cofounded the Provincetown Printers, the nation’s first woodblock print society. She is credited with developing the white-line woodcut technique known as the Provincetown Print, and her work is held by major institutions including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
Cowley Abbott is staging its major spring sale, 'Select Masterworks of Indigenous and International Art,' at the Globe and Mail Centre in Toronto on May 27. The auction features a diverse range of works, including Pierre-Auguste Renoir's 'Paysage du Midi' (ca. 1900), Vincent van Gogh's 'Homme à la Pipe: Portrait du Docteur Gachet' (1890), Philip Russell Goodwin's 'Camping – Canadian Club' (1916), Emily Carr's 'Wind' (1936), and Lawren Stewart Harris's 'Above Coldwell Bay, North Shore, Lake Superior (Lake Superior Sketch XV)' (1925), with estimates ranging from CA$150,000 to CA$700,000.