A family is seeking restitution of a painting they believe is a lost Rubens work, looted by Nazis during World War II. However, an expert has cast doubt on the claim, arguing the painting is a copy because it lacks a distinctive detail found in the original: a urinating cow. The dispute has shifted focus to this missing element, complicating the family's efforts to recover the artwork.
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.
Herald St in London is presenting "Daisy Chain," an exhibition of new work by Argentine-born, London-based artist Amalia Pica, running from March 19 to May 16, 2026. The show includes a press release, checklist, and 14 exhibition images documented by photographer Jack Elliot Edwards.
Gerda Scheepers presents "Mallarmé’s Pillow" at blank projects in Cape Town, running from March 26 to May 9, 2026. The exhibition includes 27 images documenting the show, with a press release and checklist available.
The Broad museum in Los Angeles has opened "Yoko Ono: Music of the Mind," the first solo museum exhibition in Southern California dedicated to the artist, musician, and activist. Spanning seven decades, the retrospective focuses on Ono's conceptual and participatory works—such as instruction pieces from her 1964 book "Grapefruit" and interactive installations like "Wish Tree" (1996)—rather than traditional art objects. Curators organized the show around themes of human responsibility, and deliberately delay the introduction of John Lennon until the exhibition's midpoint to emphasize Ono's independent career before her marriage.
Zineb Sedira has been selected for the Tate Britain commission, creating her largest UK installation to date, titled *When Words Fall Silent, Cinema Speaks…*, on view until January 2027. The site-specific work in the museum's Duveen Galleries pays tribute to radical African cinema of the 1960s and 1970s, highlighting Algeria's role as a revolutionary hub. Sedira recreates the Parisian cafes of her childhood, featuring Scopitone machines that play short music films, and draws on the legacy of the Cinémathèque Algérienne and the 1969 Pan-African Festival.
The Armenian Museum of America has extended its landmark exhibition "Arshile Gorky: Redrawing Community and Connections" through September 27, 2026, due to overwhelming interest and positive reviews. This is the first exhibition of Arshile Gorky's work in an Armenian museum, featuring paintings and drawings on loan from the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Housatonic Museum of Art, Yale University Art Gallery, private collectors, and other lenders. Curated by Kim S. Theriault and sponsored by the JHM Charitable Foundation, the show opened to coincide with the 100 Years of Arshile Gorky programming in Watertown, Massachusetts.
Marina Abramović has unveiled "Transforming Energy," a landmark exhibition at the Gallerie dell’Accademia in Venice, on view through October 19, 2026. The show marks the museum’s first major solo presentation dedicated to a living woman artist, arriving during the Venice Biennale. It places Abramović’s most significant performance works, including "Pietà (with Ulay)" (1983), in direct dialogue with Renaissance masterpieces such as Titian’s "Pietà," exploring themes of spirituality, grief, endurance, and transcendence. The exhibition is curated by Shai Baitel and features iconic works like "Balkan Baroque" (1997), for which Abramović won the Golden Lion.
The Olana Partnership opens "Frederic Church: Global Artist" on May 17 at Olana State Historic Site in Hudson, New York, commemorating the 200th anniversary of Frederic Church's birth (1826–1900). The exhibition brings together monumental oil paintings, drawings, oil sketches, and photographs from Church's global travels, with loans from major institutions including the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, The New York Historical, and the Terra Foundation for American Art. It is organized by Elizabeth Kornhauser, Tim Barringer, and Jennifer Raab, and is part of the broader Frederic Church 200 initiative.
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) commissioned Tokyo-based textile designer Reiko Sudō to create custom curtains for its new David Geffen Galleries, which feature floor-to-ceiling glass windows. Sudō developed sputter-plated chrome textiles—in matte and gloss finishes—that are both transparent and light-protective, solving the challenge of shielding light-sensitive artworks while preserving panoramic views of the surrounding city. The textiles, produced by Sudō’s company NUNO, are now installed as curtains and will also appear in her retrospective "Textile Alchemy: The Art of Reiko Sudō and NUNO" at LACMA opening September 20, 2026.
Dataland, the world's first museum dedicated to generative AI art, will open in Los Angeles on June 20. Founded by media artist Refik Anadol and his wife Efsun Erkılıç, the museum is located in the Grand LA cultural complex alongside The Broad, MOCA, and Walt Disney Concert Hall. Spanning 3,250 square meters, it debuts with the exhibition "Machine Dreams: Rainforest," featuring a machine-generated rainforest created by Anadol's proprietary Large Nature Model, trained on data from the Smithsonian Institution, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, and the Natural History Museum in London.
The Portland Art Museum is launching a program to bring on a team of Native American co-curators to revitalize its Native American art collection, led by curator Kathleen Ash-Milby. The museum has partnered with multi-disciplinary artist and scholar Phil Cash Cash, a member of the Nez Perce and Cayuse tribes, who will contribute Indigenous perspectives to the collection's evolution. Cash Cash, who holds a PhD in Anthropology and Linguistics and co-founded the Crow's Shadow Institute of the Arts, gave a talk to the museum's Native American Art Council in early 2026, marking a new collaborative phase.
Yoko Ono's first solo museum exhibition in Southern California, titled "Yoko Ono: Music of the Mind," opens at The Broad in Los Angeles from May 23 to October 11, 2026. The show traces the evolution of her practice from early Fluxus experiments in the 1950s to her participatory installations of the 2000s, highlighting how her instruction-based works transformed spectators into collaborators.
The Philadelphia Museum of Art is opening a new exhibition titled "Rising Up: Rocky and the Making of Monuments," which explores the cultural and artistic significance of the Rocky Balboa statue that sits at the museum's steps. Guest curator Paul Farber organized the show, which spans over 2,000 years of boxing imagery and includes works by Keith Haring, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and Andy Warhol. The exhibition marks a shift in the museum's long-standing ambivalent relationship with the statue, which was originally placed on the steps during filming of the "Rocky" movies and later relocated before returning in 2006. After the exhibition closes in August, the statue will be permanently installed at the top of the museum's steps for the first time.
Unionized staff at Ohio State University's Wexner Center for the Arts, organized as Wex Workers United, have officially called for the renaming of the arts center and other campus buildings named after billionaire benefactor Les Wexner. The union argues that Wexner's name, due to his decades-long association with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein—who had power of attorney over Wexner's fortune—harms artists and community members. The call follows similar demands from the Ohio Nurses Association regarding the Wexner Medical Center and ongoing student protests, including an April 10 action where students covered Wexner's name on the art center's façade with a black tarp. OSU spokesperson Chris Booker noted that over 500 renaming requests have been filed under the university's official review procedure, while OSU President Ted Carter has emphasized that name changes require fact-finding and cannot be based on supposition.
Alan Cotton MBE, a Westcountry artist known for his palette knife technique and royal connections, is returning to Devon with a new exhibition of landscapes from the Otter Valley and North Devon. The show, held at Kennaway House in Sidmouth from April 28 to May 4, marks his first public gallery showing in the region since 2015. Cotton, who once served as tour artist for King Charles when he was Prince of Wales, has works in the King's collection and exhibited at Buckingham Palace in 2025. His early life included homemade paint brushes made from his mother's hair, and he later became a BBC presenter and honorary professor at the University of Bath.
Alserkal Avenue in Dubai has launched "Deja Vu," a multi-gallery exhibition bringing together 20 UAE-based galleries at the Concrete venue, running until May 8. Curated by Zaina Zaarour with co-curators Kevin Jones and Nada Raza, the show features works including German artist Michael Sailstorfer's installation of a car fuel tank, reflecting anxieties around fuel prices and geopolitical uncertainty. The exhibition emerged from urgent community meetings after the Iran war disrupted the spring art season, which typically includes Art Dubai and collector visits. Participating galleries include 16 from Alserkal Avenue, plus Nika Project Space, Total Arts at The Courtyard, Tabari Artspace, and Iris Projects, with many works priced under $10,000 to facilitate sales.
Comment l’État soutient la recherche de provenance
The French Ministry of Culture has created two specialized missions to assist museums in researching the provenance of their collections, addressing looted artworks, human remains, colonial acquisitions, and illicit trafficking. The Mission for Research and Restitution of Looted Cultural Property (M2RS), established in 2019, focuses on Nazi-era spoliations (1933-1945) with a budget of €220,000 annually, while the newer Mission "Provenance," launched in 2024 under curator Catherine Chevillot, covers human remains, colonial-era objects, and illicit goods with a €450,000 budget. These missions provide expertise, funding, and coordination with institutions like the Commission for the Restitution of Property and Compensation of Victims of Anti-Semitic Spoliation (CIVS), though most museums still only initiate provenance checks during acquisitions or donations.
The Yale School of Art is partnering with Sotheby’s to host an auction benefiting scholarships for its Master of Fine Arts program. The 13 lots, including works by Howardena Pindell, Josef Albers, Richard Prince, Mickalene Thomas, Do Ho Suh, and Barkley L. Hendricks, will be sold as part of Sotheby’s Contemporary Day Auction in New York on May 15. Estimates range from $5,000 to $700,000. Dean Kymberly Pinder, who has raised $13 million toward debt-free graduation since 2021, stated the auction supports a larger initiative to ensure MFA students graduate without debt.
Patti Smith erhält Asturien-Preis für Künste
Patti Smith, the 79-year-old American musician and author, has been awarded the Princess of Asturias Award in the Arts category. The Princess of Asturias Foundation in Oviedo, Spain, praised her as the "godmother of punk" who has transcended music to work across poetry, photography, performance art, and video installation, becoming a multidisciplinary and unconventional communicator. Smith first gained fame with her 1975 album "Horses" and remains popular with younger audiences due to her radical sincerity and continued political activism, including criticism of US President Donald Trump. She is the first winner announced this year; the prize includes €50,000 and a replica of a Joan Miró statue, to be presented by King Felipe VI and Crown Princess Leonor in late October.
Les frigos en danger
The article reports on the deteriorating condition of Les Frigos, a historic artist studio complex in Paris that has been left neglected and abandoned. Once a vibrant hub for contemporary artists, the site now faces an uncertain future due to lack of maintenance and institutional support.
Frieze New York opened with a flurry of activity, drawing collectors, curators, and art enthusiasts to the fair's latest edition. The event featured a wide range of contemporary galleries and presentations, with notable early sales and strong attendance signaling a vibrant start to the fair season in New York.
Ray Burgoyne, a self-taught painter, carpenter, and musician, has died at the age of 80. After a career as a carpenter and set builder, he began exhibiting his paintings in the late 1980s and spent the next three decades organizing numerous exhibitions along the Essex and Suffolk coastline. His work, characterized by thick oil paint, abstract forms, and deep colors, drew on carnivalesque characters and forgotten landscapes. He also played drums in the 1960s mod band the Flowerpots, which opened for the Animals and the Who.
JOSÉ WOLFF: DÍAS HONDOS
José Wolff, a Guatemalan artist who grew up in the 1980s watching television with his family, has developed a unique visual language that oscillates between digital and traditional media. After studying at SCAD in Georgia and working in Miami and Los Angeles for channels like MTV Latino, NBC, and Locomotion, he created 3D animations, music videos, and TV interstitials. Now based back in Guatemala, Wolff continues to paint in oil while also producing digital installations, such as his 2026 multi-channel piece "Sin Novedad." His practice reflects a lifelong dialogue between the tangible and the intangible, influenced by artists like Laurie Anderson and Nam June Paik.
The Green Gallery in Milwaukee is presenting a two-person exhibition featuring works by artists Sahar Khoury and RJ Messineo, running from April 10 to May 16, 2026. The show includes 31 images documenting the exhibition, with no videos or text descriptions provided in the press release.
Pinta Lima, the 13th edition of the art fair, opened with a vibrant VIP preview and strong attendance of 16,000 visitors. The fair features around 50 booths and special presentations, with a curation-driven approach that includes sections like NEXT (curated by Juan Canela) and RADAR (curated by Ilaria Conti), as well as FORO panel discussions. The fair emphasizes Latin American art, particularly Peruvian contemporary art, and is part of the broader Pinta network that stages fairs and Art Weeks across Latin America and the U.S. Textile, fiber, and ceramic works are notably prominent, recontextualizing indigenous craft traditions.
The Stark Museum of Art in Orange, Texas, will present a new exhibition titled "America 250: Three Presidents - Lincoln, Grant, and Garfield" to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the United States. The show features three watercolor paintings by Taos artist Oscar E. Berninghaus, each depicting a formative moment from the early lives of Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, and James Garfield, highlighting their humble beginnings and aspirations. The exhibition runs from May 16 to December 23, 2025, as part of the broader America 250 and SETX 250 celebrations across Southeast Texas.
The Ellen Noël Art Museum of the Permian Basin in Odessa, Texas, reopened in December 2025 after a decade-long, $20 million renovation. The project added 8,000 square feet, a new silver oval exterior, a two-story lobby, renovated galleries, and a state-of-the-art lighting system. The museum is currently in transition, with interim director Steve Patton overseeing operations while a search for a permanent executive director is underway. Recent exhibitions include "Home, Love, and Loss" and "Shifting Subjects: The Heroes of the West."
The first large-scale exhibition in America dedicated to manga as an art form, 'Art of Manga,' will debut on the East Coast at the Brooklyn Museum on October 3. Featuring over 600 original drawings from legendary creators such as Junji Itō, Eiichiro Oda (One Piece), Hirohiko Araki (JoJo's Bizarre Adventure), Rumiko Takahashi (InuYasha), and Tite Kubo (Bleach), the show traces manga's evolution from foundational artists like Chiba Tetsuya and Akatsuka Fujio to contemporary voices. The exhibition also highlights themes including coming of age, LGBTQ+ rights, and environmentalism, and originally opened at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.
A free outdoor exhibition titled 'Pop Goes Brum!' will honor Birmingham-born Pop artist Peter Phillips at Snow Hill Square from June 9 to June 30, 2026. Curated by art historian Ruth Millington and organized by Birmingham Colmore, the showcase features Phillips' striking artworks and photographs, alongside contemporary works by current Birmingham School of Art students. Phillips, who studied and later taught at the Birmingham School of Art, was a key figure in the international Pop art movement alongside David Hockney, Pauline Boty, Peter Blake, Andy Warhol, and Roy Lichtenstein. He passed away in June 2025 at age 86.