Martin Schongauer en toute majesté

The Louvre Museum in Paris has opened a major retrospective dedicated to Martin Schongauer (c. 1445–1491), the German engraver and painter from Colmar, bringing together a large portion of his known works. The exhibition features around one hundred pieces, including fifty engravings, five of his rare drawings, and nearly all of his attributed paintings—such as the "Virgin and Child at the Window" (c. 1480) from the Getty Museum and the "Orlier Altarpiece" (c. 1470–1475) from the Musée Unterlinden. The centerpiece is Schongauer's "Virgin of the Rose Bush" (1473), displayed at low height to reveal its botanical precision. Co-curated by Pantxika Béguerie De Paepe and Hélène Grollemund, the show also highlights Schongauer's influence on contemporaries and later artists through comparative works by Rogier van der Weyden and others.

Centenary of Elizabeth II: Two colossal statues of the queen to be erected in London's St James's Park

Centenaire d’Elizabeth II : deux statues colossales de la reine seront érigées à Londres, dans St James’s Park

London has unveiled the final design and models for a colossal memorial to Queen Elizabeth II in St James's Park, to be completed by 2028. The centerpiece is a seven-meter bronze statue of the queen at age 28, inspired by a Pietro Annigoni portrait and created by sculptor Martin Jennings. It will be accompanied by a statue of Prince Philip by Jennings and a second, more intimate statue of the queen in old age by Karen Newman. The project marks the centenary of Elizabeth II's birth (1926–2022) and is designed by Foster + Partners. Models are on display at the British Museum until June 21.

4 Details to Understand Martin Schongauer’s 'Madonna of the Rose Bower' Currently at the Louvre

4 détails pour comprendre « La Vierge au buisson de roses » de Martin Schongauer actuellement au Louvre

The Musée du Louvre is hosting a major exhibition dedicated to the Rhenish master Martin Schongauer, featuring his 1473 masterpiece, 'Madonna of the Rose Bower.' On loan from the Dominican Church in Colmar, the painting is a rare survivor of Schongauer’s small extant painted corpus and is making a significant journey to Paris despite its extreme fragility. The work is celebrated for its intricate detail and grace, qualities that earned the artist the nickname 'Handsome Martin' and influenced successors like Albrecht Dürer.

Seen a ghost? The eeriest images from Fotografia Europea – in pictures

Fotografia Europea, the international photography festival in Reggio Emilia, Italy, has opened with 20 exhibitions and related events under the theme 'ghosts of the moment'. The festival features works by artists including Tania Franco Klein, Giulia Vanelli, Felipe Romero Beltrán, and Salvatore Vitale, exploring themes of memory, migration, identity, and the unseen forces shaping contemporary life. The festival runs until 14 June 2026.

Pittsburgh Shows Off New Public Art Projects in Advance of NFL Draft

Pittsburgh has unveiled over 35 new public art installations across its downtown area in preparation for the influx of visitors for the NFL Draft. The projects, funded by the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership, include light installations, murals, and window displays by local artists, designed to revitalize empty storefronts and underused blocks.

Obama Presidential Center Announces Final Cohort of Commissions Ahead of June Opening, Including María Magdalena Campos-Pons, Jeffrey Gibson, Lorna Simpson

The Obama Presidential Center in Chicago has unveiled its final cohort of artist commissions ahead of its scheduled opening in June. This group includes high-profile contemporary artists such as Njideka Akunyili Crosby, Jeffrey Gibson, and Lorna Simpson, who will contribute site-specific works ranging from a multi-layered portrait of the Obamas to a 34-foot stainless steel sculpture by Martin Puryear honoring the late John Lewis. These eight artists join a previously announced roster, bringing the total number of new commissions for the 19.3-acre South Side campus to 30.

Yves Saint Laurent’s Lalanne Mirrors Set for $15 Million Sale

Sotheby’s has announced the sale of a monumental set of 15 gilt-bronze mirrors by Claude Lalanne, originally commissioned by fashion icon Yves Saint Laurent for his Paris apartment. The mirrors are the centerpiece of a 123-lot auction from the collection of Jean and Terry de Gunzburg, scheduled for April 22 at the Sotheby’s Breuer building. Estimated to fetch between $10 million and $15 million, the mirrors represent a significant appreciation in value since the de Gunzburgs acquired them for approximately $2.4 million at the historic 2009 Saint Laurent estate sale.

gwyneth paltrow juliens auctions sale

Gwyneth Paltrow is partnering with Julien’s Auctions for a two-day sale on March 24–25 featuring personal items from her homes and wardrobe. The auction includes high-profile red carpet gowns by designers like Atelier Versace and Dior, design sketches for her iconic 1999 Oscars dress, and luxury furniture including pieces by Lindsey Adelman and Julian Mayor. A portion of the proceeds will benefit World Central Kitchen, a non-profit providing meals in response to humanitarian crises.

washington post art critic sebastian smee laid off

The Washington Post laid off approximately 30% of its newsroom staff, including Pulitzer Prize-winning art critic Sebastian Smee, as part of broader cuts to sports, local news, and international coverage. Smee, who joined the Post in 2018 after working at the Boston Globe and The Australian, confirmed his departure in a statement to ARTnews, expressing gratitude to former editor Marty Baron and solidarity with affected colleagues. Another Pulitzer-winning critic, Philip Kennicott, reportedly remains on staff. The layoffs come shortly after the release of a documentary produced by Amazon MGM Studios, owned by Post owner Jeff Bezos.

roman basilica fano vitruvius

Archaeologists in Fano, Italy, have unearthed the remains of a 2,000-year-old Roman basilica during redevelopment work on Piazza Andrea Costa. The rectangular structure, bordered by eight columns on the long side and four on the shorter sides, matches the precise measurements and layout described by the ancient Roman architect Vitruvius in Book V of his treatise *De Architectura*. This is the first time a physical building has been attributed to Vitruvius, whose writings have long been studied but whose structures had never before been found.

vienna museum exhibition religious controversy

Conservative religious groups in Austria have launched a campaign against the exhibition “You Shall Make For Yourself An Image” at Vienna’s Künstlerhaus contemporary art museum, which explores Christian iconography from critical, feminist, and queer perspectives. The backlash, including an online petition and a “prayer of atonement” protest outside the museum, has been linked to a prior attack on another religious-themed exhibition at a Jesuit Church in Vienna. The show features over 30 artists, including Martin Kippenberger, Andres Serrano, and Marina Abramović, and has drawn particular ire for works like Kippenberger’s crucified frog and Anouk Lamm Anouk’s depiction of the Virgin Mary as a transgender woman.

phillips records 10 rise in global sales for 2025 taking 927 m as private sales surge by 66

Phillips reported global sales of $927 million for 2025, a 10% increase over the previous year. Auction sales accounted for $725 million, while private sales surged 66% to $202 million. The auction house attributed growth to the launch of Priority Bidding, a platform offering reduced buyer's premiums for early bids, which led to a 275% increase in early selling bids. Phillips achieved an 88% sell-through rate by lot, with seven white-glove auctions and over 110 world auction records. Notable sales included a Patek Philippe watch for $17.6 million and Francis Bacon's *Study for Head of Isabel Rawsthorne and George Dyer* (1967) for $16 million. The luxury watch division generated $290 million, its highest annual total, and the Dropshop platform attracted many first-time and younger buyers.

sothebys surrealism modern auction november 2025 new york

On Thursday night, Sotheby’s concluded a week of evening sales with a three-part modern art auction that achieved $304.6 million, far exceeding its pre-sale estimate of $211.3–$289.3 million. The evening featured 13 works from the collection of Cindy and Jay Pritzker, which sold for $109.5 million, followed by the 'Exquisite Corpus' Surrealist sale from Selma Ertegun’s collection totaling $98 million, and a multiple-owner modern art auction that brought in $97 million. The standout was Frida Kahlo’s self-portrait *El sueño (La cama)* (1940), which sold for $55 million, setting records for Kahlo, a Latin American artist, and a female artist at auction. Vincent van Gogh’s *Piles de romans parisiens et roses dans une verre (Romans parisiens)* (1887) achieved $62.7 million after a seven-minute bidding war.

school of art institute of chicagos video data bank

The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) laid off three of five staff members of its Video Data Bank (VDB), including director Tom Colley, as part of 20 total layoffs across the institution. The cuts, announced on November 12, eliminated leadership and key distribution and digital management roles, sparking outcry from the new-media art community. VDB, founded in 1976, is a leading archive of video art with over 6,000 works by artists including Nam June Paik, Bruce Nauman, and Pipilotti Rist, distributed worldwide via subscription streaming.

gustav klimt blumenwiese blooming meadow lauder sale

Gustav Klimt's 1908 landscape painting *Blumenwiese* (Blooming Meadow) sold for $86 million at Sotheby's, slightly above its $80 million-plus estimate. The work was part of the Leonard A. Lauder Collection, a major consignment also featuring pieces by Matisse, Munch, and Martin. Lauder had acquired the painting in 1985, drawn to Viennese modernism and Klimt's Attersee period. The sale marks the second-highest price ever for a Klimt landscape, trailing the $104.5 million record set by *Birch Forest* in 2022.

tina turner statue tennessee bad public art

A 10-foot-tall statue of Tina Turner was unveiled in her hometown of Brownsville, Tennessee, on Saturday, September 29, 2025. Created by sculptor Fred Ajanogha, the work has sparked widespread online outrage for its distorted depiction of the late pop star, with critics comparing it to a caricature and noting its bizarre proportions, unnatural hair, and toothy grin. The statue has been condemned by both right-wing commentators and comedians like Kevin Fredericks, who likened it to other infamous public art failures.

french artist invader lawsuit julien auctions street art

French artist Invader, whose real name is Franck Slama, sued the parent company of Julien Auctions for copyright infringement, theft, and violations of the Visual Artists Rights Act. The lawsuit claims 15 of his original mosaic artworks were stolen from their installation sites worldwide—including Tokyo, Paris, and other French locations—damaged or distorted, and then offered in the auction house's "Street Art: Paint & Pavement" sale on September 25. Invader demanded the works be removed, and a U.S. District Court in California granted a restraining order halting the auction of those pieces. The auction house's co-founder Martin Nolan defended the sale, arguing that street art created in public spaces transfers ownership to those who lawfully acquire it.

priority bidding phillips

Phillips auction house announced a new fee structure for fall 2025 called "priority bidding," which offers lower buyer's premium rates to bidders who place written bids at least 48 hours before a live sale. The move aims to encourage early engagement and generate more spirited bidding, while also providing certainty for sellers. The house is simultaneously raising its standard buyer's premium to as high as 29 percent on works up to $1 million, making it the highest among major auction houses. CEO Martin Wilson, who took over in January, hopes the program will mitigate risk and shore up sales of mid-priced works.

anish kapoor lists 56 leonard street apartment new york

Artist Anish Kapoor is selling his New York apartment at 56 Leonard Street in Tribeca for $17.75 million. The 3,576-square-foot unit on the 47th floor features four bedrooms, four-and-a-half bathrooms, private outdoor spaces, and a travertine marble bath. The building, designed by Herzog & de Meuron, houses a smaller version of Kapoor's famous sculpture Cloud Gate at its base. Kapoor purchased the apartment for roughly $14 million in 2016 and previously listed it for about $18 million last year. The listing is held by Serhant's Krista Nickols and Martin Garcia.

manhattans beloved elizabeth street garden is saved

New York City has abandoned plans to demolish Soho's Elizabeth Street Garden for affordable housing, instead rezoning three nearby sites to build 620 units while preserving the garden. The deal, brokered with council member Christopher Marte—a former garden volunteer—ends a years-long campaign backed by celebrities like Martin Scorsese, Robert De Niro, and Patti Smith, as well as artists JR and Dustin Yellin and curator Klaus Biesenbach. The garden, filled with antique architectural remnants, was created by the late Allan Reiver and his son Joseph Reiver, who continued the fight after Allan's death in 2021.

graham gund architect art collector dead

Graham Gund, an architect and prominent art collector, died on June 6 at age 84. With his wife Ann, he built a significant contemporary art collection featuring works by Pablo Picasso, Kenneth Noland, Kiki Smith, Christo and Jeanne-Claude, and Richard Serra. Gund designed and funded the Gund Gallery at Kenyon College, his alma mater, and was a longtime patron of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, where a gallery and the directorship endowment bear his name. He appeared multiple times on the ARTnews Top 200 Collectors list.

louisville art historian resigns statue louis xvi damaged

Chris Reitz, an art historian and chair of Louisville’s Commission on Public Art, has resigned in protest over the city’s plan to restore a statue of King Louis XVI that was damaged by protesters in May 2020 following the police killing of Breonna Taylor. In an op-ed, Reitz argued that the $200,000 restoration cost is unjustified for a statue he deems beyond repair, and accused city officials of trying to erase evidence of the protests. The statue, created by Achille Valois, was originally erected in France in 1829 and gifted to Louisville in 1966; it was vandalized on the same day the city released 911 calls from Taylor’s killing.

smithsonians african american history museum removed objects

Two lenders to the National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) reported that their objects were removed from the museum’s galleries earlier than expected, raising concerns about the influence of President Trump’s recent executive order targeting “anti-American content” in Smithsonian museums. Amos C. Brown, a civil rights activist and pastor, lent a 1880 book on Black history and his father’s Bible, which Martin Luther King Jr. carried during protests; the museum cited the loan’s May expiration as the reason for removal. Liz Brazelton, who lent the diary of her great-great-grandfather—a lawyer who worked on behalf of Solomon Northup—said the diary was returned in March, six months before a 10-year loan agreement was set to end in September, with the museum citing an “internal gallery rotation schedule.” At least 32 objects have reportedly been removed, though the museum denied planned removals.

frank lloyd wright lamp sothebys auction

A rare Frank Lloyd Wright lamp, the Double-Pedestal lamp, sold at Sotheby’s Modern Evening Auction on May 13 for $7.5 million, far exceeding its $3–5 million estimate after an 11-minute bidding war. Designed in 1902 for the Susan Lawrence Dana House in Springfield, Illinois, the lamp is one of only two surviving examples; the other remains in the house’s collection. The sale set a new auction record for a Wright work, surpassing the previous high of $2.9 million for a 1902 ceiling light sold in 2023.

national garden of american heroes analysis

President Trump is moving forward with the National Garden of American Heroes, a monument featuring 250 life-size statues of American historical figures, to be built for the U.S. semiquincentennial in 2026. The project, first announced in a 2020 executive order, has released grant guidelines offering $200,000 per sculpture, with $34 million diverted from the NEA and NEH. The list of 244 subjects includes figures like Hannah Arendt, Neil Armstrong, and John Singer Sargent, with six remaining to be chosen by a presidential aide. The statues must be realistic, using materials like marble or bronze, and the location is still undecided, though South Dakota is a strong contender.

Rediscovered portrait by the Renaissance’s leading woman artist goes on display at the Winter Show

A rediscovered portrait by Sofonisba Anguissola, a pioneering female artist of the Italian Renaissance, has gone on public display for the first time in over a century at the Winter Show in New York. The painting, *Portrait of a Canon Regular* (1552), is Anguissola's earliest signed and dated work and was long considered lost until it was found in a private collection in North Carolina after being referenced in a 2019 monograph. It is being presented by Robert Simon Fine Art.

Tyler’s reimagined Pyramid Club gallery enters final exhibition month

Tyler School of Art and Architecture at Temple University opened an archive exhibition at the Tyler Contemporary Art Gallery on September 5, reimagining the historic Pyramid Club, a cultural hub for Black professionals in North Philadelphia from 1937 to 1963. Curated by Matthew Jordan-Miller Kenyatta, the show features 34 paintings and 35 photographs by John Mosely, alongside works by contemporary artists like Shawn Theodore, and draws from archives by William Dodd, Leslie Willis-Lowry, and the Charles L. Blockson Afro-American Collection. The exhibition runs through its final month, with events drawing over 200 attendees.

Where to see art in Houston now: 9 fun new exhibits opening in July

Nine new art exhibitions are opening in Houston in July, spanning traditional paintings, sculptures, high-tech immersive shows, and textile works. Highlights include Nick Vaughan and Jake Margolin's "Town Meeting 1978-2028" at Art League Houston, which uses wind-drawing techniques to explore pre-Stonewall queer histories; Jeffly Gabriela Molina's "Fragmentos de un sueño que yo también soñé," focusing on immigrant experiences of home and memory; and Lin Qiqing's "Every Fiber of Their Bodies," weaving narratives of gender, immigration, and human relationships. The Menil Collection also re-installs René Magritte paintings after their return from a major retrospective in Sydney.

2025 Late Summer Exhibit - Art Galleries

Truckee Meadows Community College (TMCC) is hosting its 2nd annual summer group exhibition from July 1–31, 2025, featuring forty-two Northern Nevada artists. The show, titled "Myself/My Space: Collage Interpretations of Self-portraits & Environment," is presented by WEDGE OUTSIDE THE BOX in connection with Artown 2025. An opening reception will be held July 9 at TMCC’s Main Art Gallery in the V. James Eardley Student Center, Reno, NV. The exhibition explores identity and place through two- and three-dimensional mixed-media collage works.

Attribution

The Art Newspaper is promoting its digital newsletter, which delivers a daily digest of essential news, views, and analysis from the international art world directly to subscribers' inboxes. The article includes standard footer information such as copyright and social media follow links.