Un dessin de Toulouse-Lautrec pour Albi
The Musée Toulouse-Lautrec in Albi has acquired a rare drawing by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, depicting the intimate daily lives of women in a Parisian brothel. The work, created during the artist's frequent visits to the establishment on Rue des Moulins, captures a candid, non-judgmental moment of modern life, reflecting the artist's commitment to Baudelairian realism.
Isaac Julien has created a new site-responsive film installation titled 'All That Changes You. Metamorphosis' at The Cosmic House in London. The work, which features protagonists Lilith and Naomi, explores themes of transformation, cosmology, and interdependence through a non-linear narrative that moves from Californian redwoods to Renaissance interiors, using the postmodern architecture as an active participant in the dialogue.
Italian jewelry maison Vhernier has collaborated with artist Pae White to create a 10-design limited-edition ring collection inspired by White's childhood memories of Sea Ranch, a remote artists' retreat in Sonoma County, California. The collection translates the architecture of crustaceans and abalone into precious materials, using sapphires, diamonds, and rock crystal set in white or rose gold, with only two versions of each design produced.
The Art Production Fund held its 15th annual gala at the Seagram Building in New York, transforming the venue into a ski chalet fantasy. The event featured performances by Amanda Ross-Ho, including ice skating choreography, and raised over $1 million for public art. Attendees included artists Derrick Adams, Mickalene Thomas, Sanford Biggers, and Marilyn Minter, along with patrons, designers, and cultural figures.
Artadia hosted its fourth annual tennis tournament fundraiser at the Los Angeles Tennis Club on a Monday afternoon during Frieze Week. The event featured matches between artists, collectors, and co-chairs, raising $85,000 to fully fund all Artadia Award grants. Co-chairs included Zach Stafford, Aurele Danoff Pelaia, and Honor Titus, with participants such as artists Charles Gaines, Ariana Papademetropoulos, and Eamon Ore-Giron, along with dealers and patrons. Guests enjoyed a taco lunch, spritzes, and left with gift bags featuring a tote by Guillaume Berg.
Amélie du Chalard, a bi-continental art collector and gallery owner, discusses her lifelong journey with art in an interview with CULTURED. Starting her collection at age 16 through family tradition, she founded her eponymous gallery in Paris in 2015 and later expanded to New York. Her collection and gallery blend design objects with fine art, embracing what she calls 'haptic minimalism'—a tactile, gentle aesthetic. She shares her sourcing process, including using the Drouot auction app and Artsy, and recounts tracking down a piece first seen in a 14th-century palace.
Jonathan Anderson made his debut as the new men's artistic director of Dior with the Men's Spring/Summer 2026 collection, presented in June. The collection riffs on French history while incorporating Anderson's signature gestures: painstaking handiwork, reverence for craft, and touches of the absurd. Highlights include a collaboration with textile artist Sheila Hicks on the Lady Dior bag, literary tributes on the Book Tote (featuring works by Bram Stoker, James Joyce, and Charles Baudelaire), and intricate embroidery requiring up to 3,271 hours per coat. The collection also features Brandebourg detailing, sculptural silhouettes, and reimagined heritage pieces like a 1960s-inspired cape.
CULTURED magazine hosted an intimate dinner at Le Meurice's Salon Pompadour in Paris, cohosted by Editor-in-Chief Sarah Harrelson, arts leader Jen Roberts, and collector Jamie Goguen. The event brought together art and design-world figures including gallerists, designers, Sotheby's CEO Charles F. Stewart, and Independent Art Fair founder Elizabeth Dee, with a feast by Alain Ducasse and pastry chef Cedric Grolet. Guests received a copy of the inaugural CULTURED at Home issue and a bottle of Roos & Roos fragrance.
The State Library of NSW is celebrating its 200th anniversary with a new exhibition featuring 200 objects from its collection of 6 million items. Lead curator Elise Edmonds and her team selected highlights including a lock of Mary Shelley's hair, the smallest book in the library's collection (measuring 6mm by 6mm), bread wrappers from the 1960s, a colonial sketchbook from 1817, a Dharawal Indigenous language wordlist, Australia's oldest surviving political cartoon from 1808, and a contemporary artwork by Wiradjuri artist Karla Dickens. The objects span literature, colonial history, Indigenous culture, sport, and everyday life.
Tuan Andrew Nguyen's sandstone and brass sculpture "The Light That Shines Through the Universe" (2026) has been installed on the High Line in Manhattan as the park's fifth site-specific commission. The 27-foot-tall work, selected from nearly 60 proposals, resurrects the destroyed Bamiyan Buddhas of Afghanistan, which were demolished by the Taliban in 2001. Nguyen sourced artillery brass from Afghanistan to cast the sculpture's mudra hand gestures, symbolizing fearlessness and compassion, and had the sandstone carved in Vietnam. The piece is on view through Spring 2027.
Photographer Vanessa Vettorello explores the physical and psychological impact of strabismus, or eye misalignment, through her visual project "Wandering Star." Drawing from her personal childhood experience with diplopia (double vision), Vettorello combines intimate portraits of others living with the condition, medical reportage, and reconstructed memories to illustrate the struggle of navigating a world where depth and distance are distorted.
Major auction houses including Christie's, Sotheby's, and Phillips are experiencing a significant shift as luxury goods—such as cars, watches, handbags, and jewelry—see explosive growth while fine art sales decline. In 2025, fine art sales at the 'Big Three' fell by 35% to $7.04 billion, whereas luxury auction sales rose 18% to $1.84 billion. This trend is most visible at Sotheby’s, where luxury now accounts for a third of total revenue, driven by massive private sales and strategic expansions into sectors like collector cars.
Designer Alexander Wang and his mother Ying Wang have acquired the historic 58 Bowery building in New York's Chinatown for $9.5 million, marking its first Chinese American ownership. They are transforming the former bank into a cultural venue named Wang Contemporary, which will host exhibitions, performances, and festivals focused on Asian and Asian American creatives, with its inaugural exhibition curated by the art collective MSCHF.
The U.K. government has imposed a temporary export bar on a mid-19th century marble sculpture by Henri-Joseph-François de Triqueti, depicting sisters Florence and Alice Campbell. The work, valued at £280,000 ($367,000), sold for £117,700 at Lyon and Turnbull auction house in January 2025. The Department for Culture, Media, and Sport (DCMS) intervened on the advice of the Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art (RCEWA), citing the sculpture's rarity, outstanding aesthetic importance, and potential for scholarly study. The export license is deferred for three months, with a possible six-month extension, to allow a U.K. institution to acquire it.
The Borso d'Este Bible, often called the 'Mona Lisa of Illuminated Manuscripts,' has gone on rare public display at the Italian Senate in Rome as part of the Vatican's Holy Year celebrations. The two-volume manuscript, commissioned by Duke Borso d'Este in the mid-15th century and created by calligrapher Pietro Paolo Marone and illuminators Taddeo Crivelli and Franco dei Russi, is usually kept in a safe at a library in Modena. It was transported with elaborate security and is now showcased behind humidity-controlled glass with a digital touch-screen experience for visitors.
A 137-carat diamond known as the Florentine Diamond, once owned by the Medici and Habsburg families and long believed lost, has been revealed to have been hidden in a bank vault in Canada for decades. The Habsburg family secreted the gem during World War II and kept its location secret for 100 years, as requested by Empress Zita after her husband Charles I's death in 1922. Three Habsburg descendants recently invited The New York Times to view the diamond and expressed interest in exhibiting it in a Canadian museum, though they have no plans to sell it.
Phillips auction house will launch a new "priority bidding" fee structure this September, offering a lower buyer's premium rate to bidders who place a binding written bid at least 48 hours before a live auction, provided the bid meets or exceeds the lot's low estimate. The standard buyer's premium will remain at 29/22/15 percent for New York sales, while priority bidding rates drop to 25/20/14 percent. The policy applies to live auctions across New York, London, Hong Kong, Geneva, and Paris, but excludes watch auctions and timed online-only sales.
A 35-year-old man wearing a kilt was arrested at Perth Museum in Scotland on July 12, 2025, after allegedly breaking the glass protecting the Stone of Destiny, a 336-pound historical artifact central to British coronations. The museum was evacuated as a precaution, and no artifacts were damaged. The man is set to appear at Perth Sheriff Court, and the Stone of Destiny display remains closed.
Leigh Magar, a celebrated milliner who crafted bespoke hats for celebrities including Beyoncé and members of the royal family, has died at age 57. After building a high-profile career in Charleston, South Carolina, she relocated to a remote island off the coast, where she shifted her artistic focus to cultivating indigo and creating natural dyes, becoming a dedicated practitioner of the ancient craft.
Tout William Klein en poche
The French art magazine *L'ŒIL* reports on the reissue of a *Photo Poche* monograph dedicated to William Klein (1926-2022), timed to coincide with the photographer and filmmaker's retrospective planned for the 2026 Rencontres de la photographie d'Arles. The new edition, written by Jacques Damez and published by Actes Sud, features 86 photographs across 144 pages, covering Klein's full artistic journey from his early abstract compositions to his painted contacts. The text combines Klein's career trajectory, technical aspects of his work, and a fully revised biography.
La Rocabella, a Belle Époque villa near Toulon, France, has been transformed into an interdisciplinary artist residency by Jean-Baptiste Rudelle, co-founder of Criteo. Built in 1898 by architect Hans-Georg Tersling, the estate now hosts ceramic sculptors, comic artists, documentary filmmakers, and musicians in two-month sessions, with themes like 'Les Gardiennes de la mer' linking their work. The residency, funded entirely by Rudelle, aims to foster cross-disciplinary collaboration in a serene Mediterranean setting.
The Racine Art Museum has announced the winners of its annual PEEPS art exhibition, a community-focused event where artists create works using the iconic marshmallow candy. The exhibition, which features these whimsical, edible-art entries, is now open to the public and will run through April 18.
A journalist from Colossal spent a week on an uninhabited island in the Balearic Islands with nearly 80 artists for a residency program called Quarantine, conceived by artist Carles Gomila. Participants follow a rigorous, opaque schedule of talks, workshops, and mentorship sessions, with phones and internet banned, and must stay on the island from early morning until late evening. The April 2026 edition, themed "Tears in Rain" after a Blade Runner monologue, began with a theatrical tour by an actor playing Captain Horacio Hollynwood, who introduced the historic Lazaretto of Mahón, an 18th-century fortress and infirmary.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute has opened a new exhibition titled "Costume Art," featuring a design by Robert Wun displayed in the "Vital Body" section. The show opened on Saturday, May 2, 2026, in New York, as captured in a photograph by Charles Sykes for Invision.
Cal Poly Pomona's W. Keith and Janet Kellogg University Art Gallery is presenting "Color & Quirk," an exhibition running from August 25 to November 18, 2025, curated by Michele Cairella Fillmore. The show features unconventional, colorful artists who avoid white, black, and gray, including Megan Geckler, known for immersive flagging tape installations like "You can never quarantine the past," Colin Roberts, who creates plexiglass sculptures inspired by glass architecture, and Seda Saar, whose work explores perception, light, and color through interior architecture and themed entertainment design.
Charles Nkomo's painting "Siblings" (2025) is being offered for sale through Guruve gallery in London. The oil-on-canvas work depicts two sisters embracing, reflecting the importance of family ties in Zimbabwe. Nkomo, born in 1974 in Bulawayo, trained at Mzilikazi Art and Craft Centre and was a resident artist at the National Gallery in Bulawayo. He has exhibited internationally, including solo shows at Mary Martin Gallery and Amazwi Gallery, and has worked as an Artist in Residence in the USA. The painting is priced at £1,380 and ships worldwide.
Ten miniature paintings by young artists aged 14 to 19 from Kent Talents Art Studio in Broadstairs have been accepted into the Royal Society of Miniature Painters, Sculptors & Gravers Annual Exhibition. Additionally, eight miniature artworks and two large paintings by the studio's tutor, award-winning artist Lana Arkhi, were also selected. The 100% acceptance rate for the students' entries, alongside the tutor's multiple successes, marks a historic achievement for the studio.
The Mandeville Art Gallery at the University of California San Diego is hosting "Faith Ringgold: Full Circle—The Teachings and Her Legacy," a comprehensive exhibition honoring the late artist and former faculty member. Curated by Mashonda Tifrere, the show features works spanning from 1976 to 2023, including Ringgold’s iconic story quilts, soft sculptures, masks, and political posters. The collection highlights her multidisciplinary approach and her commitment to centering Black American life and feminist narratives through her unique fusion of fine art and traditional craft.
Danny McBride’s production company, Rough House Pictures, has announced a partnership with Charleston-based art space Hed Hi Studio to launch a series of unconventional, short-lived art exhibitions throughout 2026. The collaboration kicks off in April with a showcase of hand-painted Ghanaian movie posters from Deadly Prey Gallery, followed by exhibitions featuring Brooklyn artist Jake Plissken and animator Jay Howell. These events are designed as "ephemeral" experiences, often lasting only four hours to emphasize the beauty of impermanence.
Temple Contemporary, the exhibition space at Tyler School of Art and Architecture on Temple University's campus, has opened "Pyramid Club: 1937-2035," its first show under new curator and director Matthew Jordan-Miller Kenyatta. The exhibition explores the history of the Pyramid Club, a social club for Philadelphia's Black elite founded in 1937, highlighting its prestigious art shows organized by Humbert Howard from 1941 to 1957. It features works from the collection of Dr. William Dodd, photographs by John W. Mosley curated by Leslie Willis Lowry and artist Shawn Theodore, and contemporary multimedia installations by Theodore.