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.
A rare 11th-century wax seal belonging to the Anglo-Saxon king Edward the Confessor has been rediscovered in France’s National Archives after being missing for over 40 years. The artifact, known as the Saint-Denis seal, was not stolen but rather misplaced due to a clerical error during a conservation transfer decades ago. It was identified by doctoral student Guilhem Dorandeu, who noticed the misfiled item while conducting research.
Un dessin de Hans Baldung Grien classé trésor national
A 1517 silverpoint drawing by German Renaissance artist Hans Baldung Grien, titled 'Portrait of Susanna Pfeffinger,' has been classified as a French national treasure. The work, which was set to be auctioned at the Hôtel Drouot by Beaussant-Lefèvre, is now subject to an export ban, giving French museums like the Louvre a 30-month window to acquire it.
The Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris has launched a major retrospective dedicated to the American artist Alexander Calder, featuring approximately 300 works. The exhibition showcases 139 of his signature kinetic sculptures and 33 paintings, utilizing the institution's vast internal galleries as well as its external gardens. This marks the first time the museum's outdoor spaces, designed by the late architect Frank Gehry, have been used to host such a comprehensive display of Calder's monumental works.
Hong Kong’s Kwai Fung Hin gallery has expanded internationally for the first time, opening a new outpost at 30 Beach Road in Singapore. Founded by former banker Catherine Kwai in 1991, the gallery specializes in 20th-century modern and contemporary art with a focus on cultural heritage. The new space launched with an exhibition titled “Worlds beyond Reality – Monet’s Legacy II,” featuring a masterpiece by Claude Monet alongside works by Zao Wou-Ki and Chu Teh-Chun.
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.
Multiple UNESCO World Heritage sites in Iran, including the 17th-century Chehel Sotoun palace in Isfahan, have sustained significant damage from recent US-Israeli airstrikes. The attacks shattered historic windows, doors, and decorative tiles at several monuments in Isfahan's historic center, and also damaged the third-century Falak-ol-Aflak Citadel, despite the display of protective Blue Shield emblems.
The Florida Museum of Photographic Arts has launched "Cigars! Photography, Industry and Identity," a new exhibition by local photographer Zack Wittman. The show documents the architectural remnants of Tampa’s historic cigar industry, which once boasted over 200 factories but has dwindled to approximately 25 standing brick buildings. Through a collaboration with the J.C. Newman Cigar Company, Wittman captured both preserved and derelict structures that define the unique personality of Ybor City.
Airstrikes conducted by the United States and Israel on Isfahan, Iran, have caused significant damage to the 17th-century Chehel Sotoun Palace and several other nearby cultural landmarks. The palace, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, suffered shattered windows, damaged vaulted ceilings, and cracked historic murals, likely due to shock waves from strikes on a nearby government building.
South Korean artist Lee Chae will present a solo exhibition titled "Imbued, Between Flower and Wind" at Whitestone Gallery Taipei from April 11 to May 16, 2026. The show features new series including "Afterimage of Wind" and "Wind-Infused," which utilize metaphors of flora and wind to explore the relationship between external stimuli and the human inner soul. Lee’s technique involves layering translucent pigments and then wiping them away to create poetic afterimages that visualize the transformation of emotions over time.
A remarkably complete 154-million-year-old theropod fossil, nicknamed Juliasaurus, has made its public debut at the Hollytrees Museum in Colchester, U.K. Discovered in Wyoming’s Morrison Formation in 2020 and sold by the David Aaron gallery to a private collector, the 20-foot-long specimen is currently part of the “Discover: Museum Wonders” exhibition. While initially thought to be an Allosaurus or Marshosaurus, unique anatomical features in its skull and pelvis suggest it may represent an entirely new species.
Archaeologists from the University of Tartu have discovered a 2,000-year-old Iron Age hillfort at Köstrimägi in Tartu County, Estonia. Using high-resolution terrain mapping, the team identified a 16,000-square-foot fortification featuring an unusual stepped rampart system that dates back to between 41 BCE and 9 CE. Despite its size, the site yielded few artifacts beyond pottery fragments and charcoal, suggesting a very brief period of occupation before it was destroyed by fire.
The Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, supported by the Windgate Foundation, has announced the eight recipients of its inaugural Artist Grant Initiative. Each emerging artist received an unrestricted $10,000 grant and participated in an online mentorship program with artists Vivian Chiu and Cedric Mitchell. The 2025 cohort, selected by jurors Curtis Arima and Annie Evelyn, includes Aminata Conteh, David Gutierrez, Payton Harris-Woodard, Celina Hernandez, Jason McDonald, Alex Paat, David Vuong, and Tzyy Yi (Amy) Young.
Archaeologists from the University of Tartu have discovered a massive 2,000-year-old hillfort at Köstrimägi in Tartu County, Estonia. Utilizing high-resolution terrain mapping, the team identified a 4,800-square-meter Iron Age fortification featuring concentric ramparts and shallow ditches, a structural complexity rarely seen in the region. Radiocarbon dating suggests the site was active for a relatively short period, specifically between 41 BCE and 9 CE.
A team of six graduates from the École des Nouvelles Images in Avignon has released 'Jour de Vent' (Windy Day), a sweeping animated short film that captures a transformative moment in a public park. The narrative follows a diverse cast of characters—ranging from a businessman to a picnicking family—whose mundane routines are abruptly upended by a powerful gust of wind. This meteorological disruption serves as a catalyst for themes of surrender and human connection, mirroring a fluid production process where the filmmakers finalized the story's conclusion just days before completion.
Le Journal des Antiquaires et Galeries n°10 vient de paraître
The tenth issue of Le Journal des Antiquaires et Galeries has been released, focusing on the resilience of the art market amidst geopolitical and economic headwinds. The publication highlights major spring events including Art Paris, Art Brussels, and the Paris Gallery Weekend, while introducing the newly formed Federation of Art Market Actors (FAM’Art).
Foundation, a prominent Ethereum-based NFT marketplace that launched during the 2021 digital art boom, has announced it will shut down following a failed acquisition by the digital art company Blackdove. CEO Kayvon Tehranian confirmed that the platform has entered a one-year wind-down phase, urging users to migrate their assets as no other viable buyers exist in the current market. The closure follows the collapse of a deal that was intended to provide long-term stewardship for the platform, which had facilitated over $230 million in sales since its inception.
The Center for Art, Research and Alliances (CARA) in New York is hosting "The Earth, the Fire, the Water, and the Winds: For a Museum of Errantry with Édouard Glissant," an exhibition traveling from the Instituto Tomie Ohtake in São Paulo. The show eschews traditional curatorial hierarchies, instead utilizing the theories of Martinican philosopher Édouard Glissant to present works by artists such as Gerardo Chávez and Eduardo Zamora. Rather than providing didactic labels, the installation encourages "errantry" and "relationality," allowing visitors to discover visual resonances and meanings through their own active engagement with the landscape of the gallery.
The Louvre Museum announced it will install locks on its doors for the first time in its history, following a brazen heist last fall where robbers stole priceless items in under seven minutes. The new "state-of-the-art entry inhibition protocol" will involve locking doors and windows after hours, with visitors being checked for bobby pins and paper clips, deemed the greatest security threats.
Saodat Ismailova “When the Water Turns to Wind” at Portikus, Frankfurt
Uzbek artist Saodat Ismailova has opened a major solo exhibition, "When the Water Turns to Wind," at Portikus in Frankfurt. The presentation features a new, immersive film installation that weaves together ancestral myths, sonic landscapes, and the ecological history of Central Asia, focusing on the region's disappearing rivers and steppes. The work continues her long-term exploration of memory and cultural preservation.
Artist Jenna Sutela has been selected to represent Finland at the 61st Venice Biennale in 2026 with a multisensory installation titled Aeolian Suite. Curated by Stefanie Hessler and commissioned by Frame Contemporary Art Finland, the project transforms the Alvar Aalto-designed pavilion into a dynamic windscape using meteorological data, wind machines, and a children’s woodwinds orchestra. The work personifies five specific Venetian winds as protagonists in an elemental drama that blends scientific data with the theatrical traditions of Commedia dell’arte.
The George Washington Carver Museum in Austin has unveiled its 2026 programming, headlined by the exhibition "Who Draws the Maps?" featuring three decades of work by the late artist Steven Bernard Jones. The museum is also debuting "And Still I Speak," a window installation of century-old photographs from Clarksville, one of the first freedman's communities in the United States, alongside a new core exhibition titled "The African American Presence in 19th Century Texas."
Archaeologists from the University of Tübingen and the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities have unearthed a massive collection of over 42,000 inscribed pottery shards, known as ostraca, at the ancient site of Athribis. The shards, dating from the 3rd century B.C.E. to the 11th century C.E., contain tax receipts, religious texts, school exercises, and personal notes written in Demotic, Greek, Hieratic, Coptic, and Arabic scripts, offering an unprecedented window into the daily lives of ordinary people.
Architect José Luis Morales Martín captured a photograph of two teenagers playing basketball in his Madrid apartment complex's courtyard from his living room window. He was struck by the interplay of light, shadow, and geometry, using his phone to seize the moment when the scene's 'magic' became apparent.
Indonesian artist Irfan Hendrian presented his solo exhibition "CLOSED" at ara contemporary in Jakarta. The show featured new works from his Chinatown Window Sample series, which use layered paper sculptures to replicate the ornate metal trellises found on Tionghoa (Chinese Indonesian) shophouse windows, alongside interactive installations like Paranoia Holder that invited visitors to deboss their keys.
Enfants et satyre : deux ventes Artcurial à Paris
Artcurial in Paris is holding two upcoming sales on March 25, featuring a diverse collection of works on paper. The sales include a drawing of a camel by Jean-Pierre Houël, a preparatory sketch of a plucked chicken by Jean-François Tourcaty, a study of a man wearing a satyr mask by Parmigianino, and a drawing by Thomas Couture depicting a scene from his painting 'Pierrot en correctionnelle.'
The City of Raleigh has detailed its diverse range of public art venues and exhibition programs, highlighting key spaces such as the Block Gallery, Pullen Arts Center, and Sertoma Arts Center. These sites collectively host a rotating schedule of five to six exhibitions annually, specifically designed to showcase the work of North Carolina-based creators and emerging artists from Wake County. Additionally, the city manages a Municipal Art Collection comprising over 600 pieces, including Telvin Wallace’s "Window Pain," which are integrated into the city's public infrastructure.
Acclaimed artist and illustrator Darrell Warner is set to debut a poignant solo exhibition titled 'Crucifixion' at the Nature in Art museum near Gloucester. Running from May 12 to June 21, 2026, the show features a series of striking watercolours depicting Britain's native birds—ranging from common blackbirds to elusive water rails—that have been killed by human interventions such as vehicle strikes and window collisions.
Bass Coast Shire Council has officially opened the call for Expressions of Interest for the 2027 exhibition season at Berninneit Art Gallery on Phillip Island. Artists, curators, and collectives are invited to submit proposals for six-week exhibition slots in the award-winning facility, which serves as the region's first purpose-built professional visual arts space. The application window remains open until May 29, 2026, targeting a diverse range of contemporary practices from local and national creators.
Capitolium Art has announced its upcoming "Modern & Contemporary Art - Selected" auction, scheduled to run from April 1st to April 15th, 2026. The sale, hosted in partnership with Artsy, features a curated selection of traditional modern and contemporary works subject to a 26% buyer’s premium plus an additional 5% platform fee for online bidders. The terms outline specific logistical requirements, including a 10-day payment and collection window and the application of Italian Artist’s Resale Right (Droit de Suite) fees.