A Dutch advisory panel has recommended the creation of a new independent Jewish foundation to manage a vast collection of artworks looted by the Nazis that remain unclaimed. The collection, known as the NK collection, consists of over 3,000 objects currently held by the Dutch state, but whose original owners or heirs have not been identified.
The Sainsbury Centre in Norwich, England, has received a £91.2 million donation from politician and philanthropist Lord David Sainsbury, one of the largest gifts ever made to a UK museum. The funds will support a major refurbishment of the Grade II* listed building, originally designed by Norman Foster, including the conversion of the south cafe terrace into a sustainable space and the installation of photovoltaic panels. The museum was founded in 1973 through a donation from Lord Sainsbury’s parents, Sir Robert and Lady Lisa Sainsbury, who also commissioned Foster to design the gallery.
A unique set of fifteen mirrors custom-made for fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent and his partner Pierre Bergé sold at Sotheby’s for $33.5 million, setting a new auction record for the artist Claude Lalanne. The gilt bronze, copper, and mirrored glass mirrors, created between 1974 and 1985, were originally displayed in the couple’s Paris apartment and were purchased from the collection of Jean and Terry de Gunzburg.
The Western Pennsylvania Conservancy has completed a comprehensive three-year, $7 million restoration of Frank Lloyd Wright’s architectural masterpiece, Fallingwater. The project focused on critical structural vulnerabilities, including moisture degradation of interior finishes, leaking windows and doors, and the installation of a new waterproof roof. Experts addressed specific design flaws inherent to Wright’s original 1935 construction, such as the lack of through-wall flashing and the use of river pebbles in concrete aggregate, which had exacerbated the building's battle against the elements.
Telfair Museums will present "Impressionism and Modernity: French and American Painting" at the Jepson Center for the Arts from May 15 through August 16, 2026. Organized for the museum's 140th anniversary, the exhibition brings together Telfair's collection of American Impressionist works with key French Impressionist paintings from the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., featuring artists such as Edgar Degas, Alfred Sisley, and Vincent van Gogh. The show explores Impressionism's origins in France, its transatlantic influence, and its impact on American art and identity, with works addressing themes of modern life, leisure, the city, and nostalgia for nature.
필라델피아미술관 '라이징업: 록키와 기념비 제작(Rising Up: Rocky and the Making of Monuments, 4/25-8/2)' - Lounge
The Philadelphia Museum of Art has announced a major exhibition titled "Rising Up: Rocky and the Making of Monuments," scheduled to open in April 2026. Curated by Paul Farber of Monument Lab, the show will feature over 150 works by more than 50 artists, including Keith Haring, Kara Walker, and Andy Warhol. The exhibition uses the iconic Rocky statue—a fictional character that has become one of the city's most visited landmarks—as a focal point to explore the history, mythology, and evolving role of public monuments from antiquity to the present day.
The Art Gallery of South Australia is set to launch a new exhibition titled 'MONET TO MATISSE: DEFYING TRADITION,' which will feature works by iconic modern artists such as Claude Monet and Henri Matisse. The show aims to highlight how these artists broke away from conventional artistic norms to pioneer new movements in art history.
An extremely rare original 1993 exhibition poster for a posthumous Jean-Michel Basquiat solo show at FAE Musée d'Art Contemporain in Pully-Lausanne, Switzerland is being offered for sale by Graves International Art. The offset-lithograph poster, featuring Basquiat's untitled 1982 painting, was designed by Pierre Neumann and comes from a private collection in Hamburg, Germany. The listing notes that no other example of this poster has appeared on the secondary market or at auction before, and it is issued unsigned and posthumous.
The National Trust has unveiled a new exhibition titled "Churchill the Artist" at Chartwell, the former home of Winston Churchill. The show features personal artifacts including his paint-spattered Savile Row overalls and spectacles, alongside the painting "Quiet Waters" (c. 1920s), which is being exhibited in the U.K. for the first time. The work, an impressionistic river scene, was originally a gift from Churchill to the press baron Lord Beaverbrook.
The Allen Memorial Art Museum at Oberlin College is hosting a major retrospective of the late American artist June Leaf, featuring over 100 works spanning 75 years. The exhibition, which originated at the Addison Gallery of American Art, showcases Leaf’s unique figurative style and her roots in Chicago’s "Monster Roster" group. The show aims to provide art historical justice to an artist who often worked in the shadow of her husband, the legendary photographer Robert Frank.
The Bass Museum of Art is expanding its footprint in Miami Beach with the opening of The Rotunda at The Bass, a new satellite gallery located in Collins Park. Set to debut on March 28, the renovated 1962 circular building—originally designed by Herbert A. Mathes—will offer free admission year-round. The $5.79-million restoration project, funded by the City of Miami Beach, transforms a historic architectural landmark into a modern exhibition space that bridges the museum's main building with its outdoor public art program.
Gotham, the world's first cannabis concept store, has unveiled 'The Smoking Section,' its first commissioned art exhibition at Gotham Gallery in Chelsea, New York. Running from November 6, 2025, to January 5, 2026, the show features over 45 artists and designers—including Ridykeulous (Nicole Eisenman and A.L. Steiner), Daniel Gordon, Mika Tajima, Deborah Czeresko, and Peter Shire—who each created original ashtrays that range from functional to conceptual. Curated by Rachel Berks, Gotham's VP of Product Development & Partnerships, the exhibition explores the ashtray as both a ritual object and cultural symbol, linking cannabis culture to contemporary art.
The Intuit Art Museum (IAM) in Chicago reopens on May 23 after a $10 million renovation that began in September 2023, partially funded by a $5 million grant from the City of Chicago. The expansion triples the museum's exhibition and education space, adds ADA-compliant features, and includes new galleries, a Center for Learning and Engagement Opportunities (CLEO) named after co-founder Cleo Wilson, and a reinstalled room dedicated to outsider artist Henry Darger. The museum, originally founded in 1991 as the Society for Outsider, Intuitive and Visionary Art by figures including artist Roger Brown and gallerists Carl Hammer and Ann Nathan, has long championed self-taught and visionary artists.
The Brooklyn Museum is presenting "Red Grooms, Mimi Gross, and The Ruckus Construction Co.: Excerpts from 'Ruckus Manhattan'," a focused exhibition drawn from the original 1976 installation "Ruckus Manhattan." The show, on view from June 13, 2025 to June 5, 2026, marks the first time in over 30 years that elements of this sprawling, 6,400-square-foot "sculptural comic book" are being publicly displayed. Created by artists Red Grooms and Mimi Gross with their collaborative team, the original work satirized 1970s New York City through a vibrant mix of painting, sculpture, performance, and puppetry. Key pieces on view include "Dame of the Narrows" (returning for the first time since 1994) and "42nd Street Porno Bookstore," both offering a playful yet critical look at urban life.
Casa Batlló in Barcelona will open its second floor as a contemporary art gallery starting January 2026. The space, previously used as apartments, offices, and a maintenance workshop, has been redesigned by Barcelona-based studio Mesura with a curved metal ceiling echoing Gaudí’s forms, while preserving original woodwork and stained glass. The gallery extends the Casa Batlló Contemporary program, which commissions artists for two exhibitions per year, accessible with general admission or a standalone ticket.
The Musée d'Orsay in Paris has opened a permanent gallery dedicated to artworks believed to have been looted by the Nazis from Jewish owners during World War II, but whose rightful owners have not been identified. The exhibition, titled "Who owns these works?", features a rotating selection of 225 such pieces held by the museum, with twelve paintings and one sculpture currently on display. Works by Renoir, Degas, Rodin, and Alfred Stevens are included, alongside provenance research detailing their murky histories—such as a Degas ballroom scene acquired by a Jewish collector later murdered at Auschwitz.
Tony Albert, a Girramay/Yidinji/Kuku-Yalanji artist, has spent his life collecting Aboriginalia—kitsch household items from the mid-20th century that feature naive or racist depictions of Indigenous culture. These objects, including ashtrays, velvet paintings, and figurines, form the basis of his upcoming exhibition *Tony Albert: Not A Souvenir* at the Museum of Contemporary Art, curated by Bruce Johnson McClean. Albert's practice transforms these mass-produced artifacts into a powerful critique of colonization, displacement, and erasure.
The Smithsonian's National Museum of Asian Art will open a new exhibition titled "A Museum in the Making" on June 27, 2026, running through August 8, 2027. The show explores the origin story of the Freer Gallery of Art, America's first national art museum, by examining how collector Charles Lang Freer used his Detroit home as a living laboratory for museum design. It highlights collaborations with artists and architects, including James McNeill Whistler, Stanford White, and Mary Chase Perry Stratton, and features a video walkthrough of the Freer House. The exhibition is part of the nation's 250th anniversary celebrations and the Smithsonian's broader "Our Shared Future" initiative.
The 12th annual New Art Dealers Alliance (NADA) fair opened at the Starrett-Lehigh Building in Manhattan, featuring a wide array of contemporary works. Critic Rhea Nayyar notes that while many booths felt interchangeable due to prevalent trends like zany sculptures, shiny materials, and kitschy vibrancy, several standout pieces offered genuine engagement. Highlights include Elena Roznovan's maternal ephemera embedded in concrete with bondage tape, Kelly Tapia-Chuning's deconstructed serapes addressing colonial violence, and Niniko Morbedadze's folkloric illustrations.
WhatsApp co-founder Jan Koum has filed a lawsuit against interior designer Remi Tessier, alleging that Tessier inflated prices and misrepresented the quality and origin of luxury goods purchased on his behalf, including several artworks. Koum hired Tessier for nine projects, including residences in the US and Europe and two superyachts. The suit claims Tessier received kickbacks on art purchases, including a $7.8 million Picasso painting, and a judge has granted discovery orders against three galleries—Acquavella Galleries, Nahmad Contemporary, and Perrotin New York—to produce records and testimony. Koum intends to use the evidence to file a criminal complaint against Tessier in France.
Three downtown galleries in New York are currently exhibiting works centered on kittens, puppies, and puppetry, offering an escape from geopolitical conflict and domestic strife. At Chapter NY in Tribeca, Joseph Jones presents a solo show of photorealist pet portraits, including 'White cat with gemstones, 2026,' which dares viewers to engage with the often-dismissed genre of pet portraiture. Further east, Tibor de Nagy gallery hosts 'The Nagy Marionette Company: A 75th Anniversary Exhibition,' celebrating the gallery's origins in puppetry with archival documents and contemporary puppet-inspired art by nearly 20 artists, including Sarah McEneaney and Tabboo!.
Design duo Stephen Alesch and Robin Standefer, co-founders of the architecture and design studio Roman and Williams, reflect on how their Montauk home, Sea Ranch, has become the creative heart of their practice. Purchased in 2006 as a rustic mid-Atlantic Colonial cottage, the property has evolved from a weekend retreat into a laboratory for furniture prototypes, ceramic experiments, and design ideas that later appear in high-profile projects worldwide—from the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s British Galleries to London’s Maison Estelle. The couple, who met on a film set in 1994, also run the SoHo shop Roman and Williams Guild and a furnishings collection, balancing the intensity of New York with the shaping and forming they do by the ocean.
Cultured magazine interviewed five artist-mothers—including Lita Albuquerque, Sheree Hovsepian, and Catherine Opie—ahead of Mother’s Day to explore how motherhood and artistic practice intersect. The artists describe how raising children has made them more efficient, intuitive, and present in their studios, while their art has deepened their capacity for love and patience as parents. Specific examples include Hovsepian turning to photograms during limited childcare hours and Opie creating intimate portraits of her son.
Slavs and Tatars, the research-based art collective, opened their first solo exhibition in Hong Kong titled “胡 ( هو / who) are you?” at Rossi & Rossi, running until May 9, 2026. The show gathers iconic projects and new commissions across various media, playfully probing the philosophical question of identity and belonging. Co-founder Payam Sharifi discusses works such as the handblown glass melon sculptures in "Dark Yelblow" (2025), which explore cultural stereotypes and the figure of the Other, and the "Love Me, Love Me Not" series, which recovers original place names and scripts to reveal the layered complexity of empires.
The Getty Foundation has awarded an additional $1.8 million to its Black Visual Arts Archives initiative, bringing total funding to $4.5 million across 20 awards. The program supports institutions in processing, digitizing, preserving, and activating archival collections related to Black artists and arts organizations in the US. Grantees include Afro Charities, the Auburn Avenue Research Library, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, Charles H. Wright Museum, Morgan State University, the South Side Community Art Center, the University of Chicago’s South Side Home Movie Project, and the David C. Driskell Center. Notable discoveries include footage of the original Wall of Respect mural from the South Side Home Movie Project.
On June 23, the first of 16 larger-than-life copper statues was reinstalled atop Notre-Dame Cathedral's spire, following a blessing from Archbishop of Paris Laurent Ulrich. The statues, comprising the 12 apostles and four evangelist symbols, were originally installed in 1861 and had been safely removed days before the 2019 fire. After restoration by French company SOCRA, the statues are being returned in stages, with completion expected by July.
Olivier Gabet, director of decorative arts at the Louvre Museum, has publicly opposed suggestions to replace the French crown jewels with copies or move them to less accessible storage after a theft on October 19. Thieves broke into the Apollo Gallery, stealing nine objects including Empress Eugénie’s crown, which was dropped and damaged during the escape. Two suspects were arrested on October 24. Gabet told Le Monde that the crown was deformed and flattened as thieves extracted it through slits cut in the glass case, but it has been recovered and is deemed restorable by experts, with only a few small diamonds and one gold eagle missing.
Hollywood star Johnny Depp is releasing limited-edition prints of two personal watercolors originally painted in the early 2000s at his French estate, Le Hameau. The collection, titled "Let the Light in," includes a self-portrait called *Add the Light* and a rose painting *A Rose Is a Rose Is a Rose*, a tribute to his daughter Lily-Rose. Each work is offered in 195 signed editions through London's Castle Fine Art on July 18, priced individually at £2,950 framed or £2,500 unframed. The paintings reflect Depp's life with former partner Vanessa Paradis and their children in the south of France.
Lotus L. Kang's latest exhibition, "Already," is on view at 52 Walker in New York through June 7, 2025. The Brooklyn-based Canadian artist transforms the gallery into a diasporic memoryscape using steel greenhouses, mixed-media paintings, sculpture, and found objects like oversized kelp knots and soju bottles. The show takes its title from a poem in Kim Hyesoon's "Autobiography of Death" (2016), and Kang's installation explores themes of presence and absence, memory, and the transmutative qualities of photography and film. In an interview, Kang discusses how Korean poetry helps her understand her own origins as a Korean-Canadian gyopo, and how translation—both linguistic and material—shapes her work.
The Martha Invitational returns for its second edition on May 29–30, 2026, at RULE Gallery in Marfa, Texas. Originally conceived in 2023 by Marfa-based artists Martha Hughes, Diana Simard, and Leslie Wilkes as a small, self-organized, low-budget exhibition in Hughes' studio, the event expands this year to include a fourth artist, Bettina Landgrebe. The show features works by all four artists, with Hughes presenting selections from her Garden series, Landgrebe showing her Strange Bloom assemblages, Simard offering landscape-inspired paintings and prints, and Wilkes exhibiting geometric paintings. The opening reception takes place Friday evening from 5–7 PM, with artists present both days.