The Malta Biennale 2026, titled "Clean / Clear / Cut," launched on March 11 and runs through May 29, transforming historical sites and cultural landmarks across Malta and Gozo into venues for contemporary art and critical dialogue. The biennale is under the artistic direction of international curator Rosa Martínez.
Pinacoteca Agnelli in Turin will present "Walter Pfeiffer: In Good Company," the first institutional survey in Italy dedicated to the Swiss artist's photographic work, running from April 30 to September 13, 2026. The exhibition features over one hundred photographs spanning from the 1970s to the present, exploring themes of artifice, desire, and the everyday.
An open letter signed by art historians, curators, and researchers protests an upcoming auction at Stanley's Auction House in Zaventem, Belgium, scheduled for April 23, titled “Tributes to the Russian Avant-Garde & Constructivists.” The second sale is organized in cooperation with Drouot, a major French auction platform, and offers approximately one hundred works from the so-called Toporovsky collection, which has been linked to a scandal involving forged Russian modernist paintings at the Museum of Fine Arts Ghent. The alleged suppliers, Igor Toporovsky and Olga Toporovsky, face criminal charges including the sale of 171 forged works for about €20 million, with court proceedings beginning in May in Ghent. The signatories argue that the auction, with works priced around €300 each, is deeply troubling given the pending legal case and the undisclosed consignor identity.
French-Lebanese artist Ali Cherri, in collaboration with the International Federation for Human Rights, has filed a civil complaint in a French court regarding a 2024 Israeli airstrike in Beirut. The strike, which occurred in the Noueiri neighborhood just hours before a ceasefire, destroyed Cherri’s family home and killed seven civilians, including his parents and their domestic helper. The legal action, submitted to a specialized war crimes unit, alleges that the targeting of a civilian residence constitutes a war crime under both French and international law.
On March 31, the research initiative Open Restitution Africa (ORA) launched the ORA Open Data Platform, a database providing information on the restitution of African artifacts and ancestral remains. Developed over six years by ORA’s all-woman, pan-African team, the site uses case histories and AI-powered tools to offer practical insights into the return process, available in French and English. It presents 25 case histories spanning 200 years, using data visualizations, essays, and interactive tools to help individuals and communities develop their own restitution strategies. ARTnews interviewed founders Chao Tayiana Maina and Molemo Moiloa about the project's origins and goals.
Shares in French luxury conglomerate LVMH fell roughly 7 percent following the release of its fourth-quarter results. The decline was driven by weaker-than-expected margins and a cautious outlook from leadership, and it triggered a sector-wide sell-off, pulling down shares of other major luxury firms like Kering, Moncler, and Hermès.
Bernard Arnault, the billionaire art collector and LVMH chairman, harshly criticized a proposed French tax on the ultra-wealthy, calling it "offensive" and "deadly for our economy." The plan, devised by economist Gabriel Zucman, would impose a 2% tax on the wealth of the richest individuals, projected to raise 20 billion euros ($27 billion). Arnault, worth $156 billion according to Forbes, insulted Zucman as a "far-left activist" with "pseudo-academic competence," prompting a rebuttal from Zucman and support from economist Thomas Piketty.
The French government has partnered with Microsoft and French start-up Iconem to create a highly detailed digital twin of Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris. Using thousands of photographs captured by cameras, drones, and lasers, artificial intelligence will stitch the images into a perfect virtual replica of the 862-year-old Gothic masterpiece, which reopened in 2024 after a $900 million restoration following the devastating 2019 fire.
Archaeologists from the French National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research (Inrap) have uncovered a massive 43,000-square-foot Roman villa at Sainte-Nitasse in Auxerre, France, during excavations ahead of a road construction project. The villa, dating from the 1st to 3rd centuries C.E., features a central garden with a basin and fountain, thermal baths with an underfloor heating system, and rooms including a reception room, kitchen, and working area. Previously known from 19th-century records and a 1960s dig that revealed a smaller 7,500-square-foot building, the new findings reveal what Inrap calls “one of the great villas of Roman Gaul,” with thick walls, marble, mosaics, and frescoes indicating aristocratic owners.
Sotheby's will auction approximately 100 lots from the private collection of French antiques collector Pierre-Jean Chalençon on June 25 in Paris, including Napoleon Bonaparte's iconic bicorne hat (estimated at €800,000), a herald sword and stick from his 1804 coronation, his personal gold and ebony seal, worn stockings, and a portable camp bed. The sale, described as one of the most significant offerings of Napoleonic material ever to come to market, spans imperial furniture, Old Master paintings, and personal relics. Chalençon, who has amassed the collection over four decades, is reportedly selling the items to repay a €10 million loan from Swiss Life Banque Privée, though he has denied being deeply in debt.
The New York Times has traced the whereabouts of a distinctive blue-and-white vase featured in the 1958 film 'Bonjour Tristesse,' directed by Otto Preminger. The vase, which played a prominent role in the film's set design, was discovered to be a piece by French ceramicist Georges Jouve and had been quietly residing in a private Los Angeles collection for decades.
Il giardino di Julie Hamisky, l’artista che fissa l’effimero nel tempo è in mostra in una casa d’aste di Milano
French artist and designer Julie Hamisky presents 'Giardino Alchemico' (Alchemical Garden) at Pandolfini Auction House in Milan during Fuorisalone 2025. The exhibition, organized in collaboration with Galerie Mitterrand of Paris, features around twenty works including monumental sculptures like 'La Géante' (a giant poppy), jewelry, and a chandelier titled 'Aqua'. Hamisky uses electroplating—a 19th-century technique she learned from her father-in-law—to preserve fresh flowers and botanical forms by coating them in metal, freezing them at the peak of their beauty before decay begins.
After 36 years and over 400 exhibitions, the radical Parisian gallery Air de Paris is closing due to bankruptcy. Co-founders Florence Bonnefous and Edouard Merino decided to shutter the gallery after its financial situation became fragile, compounded by Bonnefous's health issues (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease) and their refusal to adapt to the increasingly profit-driven, corporatist art market. The gallery's final show, titled “Oh What a Time,” in Romainville featured works by artists including Joseph Grigely, Amy Vogel, Allen Ruppersberg, Pierre Joseph, Mona Varichon, Pati Hill, Lily van der Stokker, and Trisha Donnelly.
Over 250 supporters gathered at downtown creative hub WSA on Sunday for the first annual gala of the nonprofit Artists & Mothers, a sold-out fundraiser for the organization’s hallmark $25,000 childcare grants supporting artists with children under three. The event featured interactive installations by Ei Arakawa-Nash, Lisa Alvarado, and Maia Ruth Lee, performances by DJ Cardamami, Sophie Becker, Zeena Parkins, and others, and was attended by co-founders Julia Trotta and Maria De Victoria, incoming First Lady of New York Rama Duwaji, numerous artists, curators, patrons, and gallerists.
A roundup of summer shopping, dining, and cultural offerings in the Hamptons highlights new collaborations and pop-ups. Artist Joel Mesler partners with French swimwear brand Vilebrequin on a capsule collection featuring his signature beach balls and balloons, ahead of his "Miles of Smiles" exhibition at Guild Hall in August. Chanel opens a salon at the Hedges Inn, while Mary Lou's brings its refined coastal dining from Palm Beach to Montauk. Other notable openings include Shooster Arts & Literature, a living gallery in Sag Harbor with works by Picasso, Ginsberg, Holzer, and Albers; Giorgio Armani Mare's pop-up on Shelter Island supporting the One Ocean Foundation; Sézane's Amour Tour at the Maidstone; Zimmermann's restored bank boutique in Southampton; Swifty's restaurant pop-up at the Hedges Inn; and The Hills, a luxury lifestyle development by Mike Meldman's Discovery Land Company.
Alexandria Contemporary Art Days launches from October 9th to 16th, 2025, transforming the Egyptian city into an open-air gallery. The festival features site-specific works by local and international artists across venues including the French Institute, Behna Warehouse, El Garage Cultural Space, and the Bibliotheca Alexandrina. Highlights include a performance connecting breath and sound by dancer Salma Salem and trombonist Simon Petermann, a drawing-based installation by Mohamed Adel Dessouki, and Tiana Kader's evolving participatory installation 'The House of the Fat Lady'. The programme also includes exhibitions, live performances, workshops, talks, and guided walks such as 'Art on Foot'.
Fourteen Korean collectors have formed a collective called Arche II to jointly acquire and display works by world-renowned artists in Daejeon, a city 140 km from Seoul. Their exhibition "Tracing the Unfinished" at the multidisciplinary complex Heredium features 30 works, including 14 jointly owned pieces, by artists such as Le Corbusier, Robert Longo, Olafur Eliasson, David Hockney, Yang Hae-gue, Anicka Yi, and Choi Byung-so. The group, founded in 2017 by business leaders including a radiologist and a former prosecutor, contributes a fixed annual budget to purchase three to five works at major art fairs, focusing on emerging artists rather than established names.
Architettura come microcosmo. Intervista agli architetti Barclay & Crousse che arrivano in mostra a Milano
Architects Sandra Barclay and Jean Pierre Crousse, founders of Barclay & Crousse Architecture, are the subject of a feature interview and exhibition in Milan. The studio, established in Paris in 1994 and now based in Peru, is known for projects that deeply engage with the Peruvian landscape, particularly the coastal desert between the Pacific Ocean and the Andes. Their notable works include the Lugar de la Memoria (Lima, 2015), the Museo de Paracas (2016), and the Franco-Peruvian School in Lima (2025), which recently won the Grand International Prize at the X Bienal Internacional de Arquitectura de Santa Cruz (Bolivia) in 2026. The article traces their education across Peru, France, and Italy, and their return to Peru in 2006, where they continue to run a French branch called Atelier Nord Sud.
Yvon Lambert, the legendary French art dealer and collector, reflects on his lifelong relationship with art and literature in an interview for TLmag41: The Art of Collecting. He recounts buying his first painting at age 14, opening his Paris gallery in the 1960s, and later donating a major portion of his collection to the French State, now housed at the Collection Lambert in Avignon. After closing his gallery in 2014, he shifted focus to an artist's bookshop, now run by his daughter Eve Lambert. The conversation, led by Sibylle Grandchamp, explores Lambert's early influences, his father's passion for literature, and the family's shared love for art books.
Saatchi Yates is partnering with creative director and makeup artist Isamaya Ffrench to launch Studio Iron, a new design gallery whose inaugural exhibition opens April 30 and runs through June 7, 2026. The show presents a dense, post-industrial landscape dominated by steel and iron, featuring works by artists including Jannis Kounellis, Paul McCarthy, Jordan Wolfson, Anne Imhof, Marina Abramovic, Nico Vascellari, and others. Furniture, sculpture, installation, and painting collide in a space that resists categorization, hovering between function and non-function, utility and image.
Brafa, Belgium's premier art and antiques fair, has expanded for its 71st edition, now featuring 147 exhibitors across three halls in the Brussels Expo convention centre. Highlights include a newly rediscovered Peter Paul Rubens painting, *Portrait of an Old Man* (around 1609), priced at over €1 million, and a 50,000-year-old woolly mammoth head from Siberia that sold for €45,000. The fair runs from 25 February to 1 March, with a strong focus on painting from Old Masters to Modern art, and a notable presence of Belgian and early 20th-century French artists.
Design Miami celebrates its 20th anniversary with the theme "Make. Believe.," curated by Glenn Adamson, emphasizing the evolving possibilities of collectible design. The fair features the 10th anniversary of the Curatorial Lab Annual Design Commission, including a mirrored carousel by ceramicist Katie Stout, alongside works by artists such as Bea Pernia, Pia-Maria Raeder, Joyce Billet, Teemu Salonen, Jennifer Trask, Roham Shamekh, and Clotilde Ancarani. Pieces range from a chrome-and-stone chair inspired by marine life to benches that double as planters, reflecting a pervasive focus on flora and fauna.
Deux expositions dans les galeries parisiennes
Two notable drawing exhibitions are currently on view in Paris galleries. The first, organized by dealer Nicolas Schwed on Rue Saint-Honoré, features a strong selection of old and modern master drawings, with a surprising emphasis on 18th-century French works alongside Italian pieces. Highlights include a preparatory study by Federico Zuccaro for a Roman fresco and a rare drawing of the Trinity by Cornelis Schut, which is linked to a lost altarpiece from Cologne.
The French government has selected STUDIOS Architecture to lead a major renovation of the Louvre Museum in Paris, including new galleries and a second entrance. The project, called the 'New Louvre Renaissance,' was announced by President Emmanuel Macron in early 2025 but stalled after a jewel heist and staff strikes led to the resignation of former Louvre president Laurence des Cars, who was succeeded by Christophe Leribault. The $778 million plan aims to ease overcrowding at the museum, which hosts 9 million visitors annually, and includes a dedicated 33,000-square-foot gallery for the Mona Lisa.
A French parliamentary report published on 13 May, following the October 19 heist of the crown jewels at the Louvre, issues a damning assessment of the country's museum security and management. The commission heard around 100 testimonies and examined some 2,000 museums, dedicating a special chapter to the Louvre. It blames former director Laurence des Cars's leadership for a "dysfunctional drift" that prioritized contemporary art interventions and fashion shows over basic infrastructure and collection protection, allowing the heist to occur. The report lists rising threats including riots, burglaries, cyberattacks (which forced the National Museum of Natural History in Paris to cancel an exhibition after a ransomware attack in July 2025), and terrorist plots. It proposes 40 recommendations, including raising budgets by an estimated €20–25 billion over a decade, enhancing staff training, and overhauling museum leadership.
French authorities arrested a 27-year-old Tunisian man, identified as Dhafer M., on May 7 for allegedly planning a terrorist attack at the Louvre in Paris. The arrest, confirmed by the National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office (PNAT) and first reported by Le Monde, followed an investigation that began in late April after a traffic stop. Investigators found jihadist propaganda videos, photos of weapons, and searches for bomb-making instructions on his phone, as well as messages discussing access points to the Louvre and plans to make poison. The man has denied the allegations and was brought before an anti-terrorism judge to be formally charged.
A missing page from the Archimedes Palimpsest, the oldest surviving copy of the Greek mathematician’s writings, has been rediscovered at the Museum of Fine Arts in Blois, France. The 10th-century parchment, which had been missing for 120 years, contains portions of the treatise 'On the Sphere and the Cylinder' hidden beneath 20th-century illumination. The page was identified by a researcher from the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) after being unaccounted for since 1906.
The Louvre Museum in Paris reopened to the public on Monday after a three-hour delay, though several galleries remained closed as staff resumed strike action over pay, working conditions, and staffing levels. The renewed strike follows a pause on December 19 for the Christmas holiday and is part of ongoing disputes between unions and museum management. The museum has also faced recent challenges, including a $102 million jewel theft in October and infrastructure problems such as a water leak that damaged ancient books.
British art authenticator Curtis Dowling claims he received two phone calls on Sunday, October 19, 2025, from individuals asking him to authenticate "some important French jewelry," just hours after a $102 million jewel heist at the Louvre. The stolen pieces once belonged to Emperor Napoleon III and Empress Eugénie and were taken by three masked men using chainsaws to breach a museum window. Dowling, who hosts the TV series "Treasure Detectives" on CNBC Prime Time, said the callers offered him cash far above his usual fee, which he declined, suspecting the jewels were stolen and that organized crime was involved.
Thieves have stolen nearly 2,000 gold and silver coins from the House of Enlightenment, Denis Diderot, in Landres, France, in a nighttime break-in. The heist occurred just hours after a daylight robbery at the Louvre, where eight Napoleon-era jewels worth approximately $102 million were taken from the Galerie d’Apollon. Authorities are investigating possible connections to a series of recent museum burglaries in France, including incidents at the Jacques Chirac Museum in Sarran, the National Adrien Dubouché Museum in Limoges, and the Natural History Museum in Paris.