The Art Institute of Chicago has acquired a preparatory oil study for Norman Rockwell's 1948 painting *The Dugout*, donated by former Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner and his wife Diana Rauner. This marks the first work by the iconic American illustrator to enter the museum's collection, where it now hangs alongside Grant Wood's *American Gothic*.
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A report from the independent monitoring body Lay Observers revealed that government contractor Serco ordered the removal of artworks from court custody suites in England and Wales. The artworks, created by inmates at Doncaster prison, were commissioned by the Prisoner Escort and Custody Services to brighten the often bleak, underground holding areas where detainees await court appearances.
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The Tselinny Center of Contemporary Culture has opened in Almaty, Kazakhstan, launching its program with a powerful performance titled 'Barsakelmes.' The event, created by a collective of Kazakh artists, musicians, and poets, used traditional and contemporary elements to summon the ecological and cultural trauma of the Aral Sea's destruction under Soviet rule, framing decolonization as a process of remembrance, rethinking, and advancement.
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Hauser & Wirth's Somerset gallery, established in 2014 in the rural town of Bruton, has transformed the local area into a significant contemporary art destination. The gallery complex, featuring exhibition spaces, a restaurant, meadow, and educational programs, has catalyzed gentrification and attracted other galleries, trendy hotels, and high-end amenities to a formerly unremarkable settlement.
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) will open its new David Geffen Galleries building on April 19. Designed by architect Peter Zumthor, the 900-foot-long structure spans Wilshire Boulevard and will house the museum's permanent collection, featuring a non-hierarchical, single-level display of approximately 2,500-3,000 objects. The opening will be marked by a ribbon-cutting ceremony and two weeks of priority access for members.
A series of gallery openings are taking place across London this week, featuring solo exhibitions by a diverse group of artists. Cristine Brache's "Centerfolds" at Bernheim explores persona and omission through the lens of Dorothy Stratten's poetry. Ella Wright presents new paintings at Cedric Bardawil, Dylan Doe's "Muscle Memory" opens at Mandy Zhang Art, Isaac Julien's film installation premieres at Victoria Miro, and Paul Winstanley's "Bringing It All Back Home" debuts at Anthony Wilkinson.
The University of Wisconsin-River Falls is hosting its annual Juried Student Art Exhibition from February 23 to March 27 at the Kleinpell Fine Arts Gallery. The free exhibition features works by UWRF students, with a reception and award ceremony scheduled for February 24. The juror for the exhibition is artist Mackenzie Serwa.
The Reina Sofía Museum in Madrid has closed its garden for maintenance and temporarily closed its two satellite buildings, the Glass Palace and Velázquez Palace in El Retiro Park, for renovation. The main museum remains open, showcasing its renowned collection of modern and contemporary art, including Picasso's Guernica and works by Dalí, Miró, and Bourgeois.
Theater director Łukasz Twarkowski's new multimedia production, "ROHTKO," is set to open at London's Barbican Centre on October 2. The four-hour performance, which premiered in Riga in 2022, uses onstage action, video screens, and a techno soundtrack to explore the nature of authenticity in art, taking the Knoedler & Co. forgery scandal—which involved fake Rothko, Pollock, and Motherwell paintings—as a central narrative thread.
The opening ceremony of the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Olympics featured significant art-historical references, including a flame cauldron inspired by Leonardo da Vinci's knot drawings and performances that brought to life the marble sculptures of Antonio Canova. Dancers animated recreations of works like 'Psyche Revived by Cupid's Kiss,' and the ceremony included symbolic representations of Italian architectural landmarks like the Colosseum and Florence's Duomo.
A major investigation into China's Nanjing Museum has uncovered decades of systemic corruption and mismanagement that led to the secret sale of national treasures into the private art market. The scandal erupted after five paintings from a 1959 donation by the Pang family were found missing, with one, a Ming dynasty painting by Qiu Ying titled 'Spring in Jiangnan,' appearing at auction in 2025 valued at $12.7 million. The probe found that former vice-director Xu Huping authorized illegal transfers of donated works to a state-run cultural relics store for sale, where they were drastically undervalued and sold to private collectors.
The British Museum successfully raised £3.5 million ($4.8 million) to acquire the 'Tudor Heart,' a unique 16th-century gold pendant linked to Henry VIII and Katherine of Aragon. The funds came from over 45,000 public donations and major contributions from the Julia Rausing Trust, the Art Fund, the American Friends of the British Museum, and the National Heritage Memorial Fund, ensuring the artifact remains on public display.
The National Portrait Gallery in London has opened a major exhibition dedicated to Lucian Freud's works on paper, featuring 170 drawings, etchings, and paintings. The show, drawing heavily from the Lucian Freud Archive acquired by the gallery after the artist's death, includes 48 sketchbooks, unfinished works, and childhood drawings, alongside 12 new acquisitions from the estate.
Pablo Picasso, the Spanish artist who died over 50 years ago, remains one of the most influential and commercially successful figures in modern art. His works, spanning painting, sculpture, and ceramics, continue to break auction records, with his 1955 painting 'Les Femmes d'Alger (Version 'O')' selling for $179.4 million in 2015.
The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA) has denied targeting Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) staff after laying off 33 employees, including its only Muslim, Native American, and Black curators. The layoffs, effective January 30, 2026, prompted a petition with nearly 2,000 signatures and a demand from 130 staff at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design for the curators' reinstatement. MFA Director Pierre Terjanian attributed the cuts to financial deficits from the COVID-19 pandemic, stating the proportion of staff of color remained unchanged.
A double-sided panel painting by Renaissance master Antonello da Messina, titled 'Ecce Homo and Saint Jerome in the Desert,' was withdrawn from Sotheby's Old Masters auction just days before its scheduled sale. The Italian Ministry of Culture purchased the work directly for $14.9 million, preventing it from going to public auction where it was estimated to fetch $10–15 million.
The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA) has laid off 33 employees, approximately 6.3% of its staff, to address a projected $13 million structural deficit. Among those let go were the museum's only Black, Muslim, and Indigenous curators, leading to accusations that the cuts disproportionately targeted staff of color and undermined diversity initiatives.
The face of an angel in a fresco at Rome's Basilica of St. Lawrence in Lucina, which bore a resemblance to Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, has been erased. Artist Bruno Valentinetti, who restored his own 2000 fresco, removed the image last week following an inquiry by Italy's culture ministry and the diocese of Rome, stating he acted at the Vatican's request.
The Philadelphia Museum of Art has appointed Katherine Anne Paul as the Stella Kramrisch Curator of Indian and Himalayan Art, a role named after the pioneering scholar and curator. Paul previously served as Assistant and Associate Curator of Indian and Himalayan Art at the PMA from 2002 to 2008, and most recently held the Virginia and William M. Spencer III Curator of Asian Art position at the Birmingham Museum of Art, where she also served as Lead Curator. She holds a PhD from the University of Wisconsin–Madison and has curated notable exhibitions including "Silver & Ceremony from Southern Asia 1830–1930" and "Expanding Darshan: Manjari Sharma, To See and Be Seen."
Olympic officials blocked Haiti's plan to feature a painting of revolutionary leader Toussaint Louverture on its team uniforms for the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan, citing a rule against political propaganda. Designer Stella Jean, with a team of artisans in Rome, hand-painted a redesigned version that removed Louverture and the snake but kept the horse and landscape, delivering the uniforms just two days before the opening ceremony.
In mid-December, Abby Jones, acting chief of protocol at the State Department, suggested during a tour of the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery that the museum create a dedicated gallery featuring multiple images of President Donald Trump, in addition to his official portrait. The White House later noted it regularly receives artworks depicting Trump from supporters and proposed displaying some at the museum, though no formal request has been made. The discussion follows the gallery’s recent replacement of Trump’s official photograph with a more flattering image and the removal of wall text referencing his two impeachments, which the museum described as part of a broader exhibition update.
Open Doors Youth Service in Brisbane is celebrating its 25th anniversary with a trans youth art exhibition titled "Shimmer," created in collaboration with artist Gerwyn Davies, Museum of Brisbane, MELT Festival, and Brisbane Powerhouse. Twelve trans and gender diverse young people worked with Davies to produce artworks now on display at the Museum of Brisbane until April. The organization is also hosting a fundraising gala dinner inside the exhibition space to support its ongoing services for LGBTQIA+ youth in Queensland.
French figurative painter Claire Tabouret has been awarded the commission to create new stained glass windows for Notre-Dame Cathedral, replacing 19th-century works by Eugène Viollet-le-Duc and Jean-Baptiste Lassus that survived the 2019 fire. Her designs, featuring multiethnic, multigenerational worshipers during Pentecost, were unveiled in the exhibition "Claire Tabouret: In a Single Breath" at the Grand Palais. The project, chosen by President Emmanuel Macron and Archbishop Laurent Ulrich from 110 candidates, has drawn criticism as an act of vanity and a possible violation of heritage guidelines, though Tabouret and Macron remain undeterred.
The Denver Art Museum is hosting the opening gala for "DIVA," a touring exhibition originally created by the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) in London. The event is supported by premier sponsors Joy and Chris Dinsdale, with additional funding from several prominent donors and organizations including U.S. Bank and the Scientific and Cultural Facilities District (SCFD).
Willem de Kooning's 1966 work "Kneeling Woman" has ended its bidding process, with the listing appearing on a platform that aggregates auction results and available works. The piece, an oil on paper on board measuring 23.5 by 11.5 inches, is signed and has a known provenance including Harold Diamond, a private collection in Baltimore, Solomon & Co. Fine Art, Robert Peyser, and a Sotheby's sale in 2019. It was previously exhibited at the Nassau County Museum of Art in 1981 as part of "The Abstract Expressionists and Their Precursors" show.
Rembrandt van Rijn's drawing *Young Lion Resting* (ca. 1638–42) sold for a record $17.9 million at Sotheby's New York on Wednesday, the highest price ever paid for a drawing by the Dutch master. The work, which toured Paris, Abu Dhabi, Tokyo, and New York before the sale, was offered from the Leiden Collection, the renowned private trove of 17th-century Dutch Golden Age art assembled by Thomas Kaplan and his wife Daphne. All proceeds from the sale will benefit Panthera, the wild cat conservation charity co-founded by Kaplan and Jon Ayers.
The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston laid off 33 staff members, including several curators of color, prompting accusations that the cuts disproportionately targeted minority employees. Director Pierre Terjanian issued a statement denying the claim, asserting that the percentage of staff identifying as people of color remained unchanged at one-third. Among those let go were Marina Tyquiengco, associate curator of Native American art; Nadirah Mansour, assistant curator of Islamic art; and theo tyson, a curator in fashion arts who was reportedly the only Black curator at the museum. A union representative said workers were notified only five minutes before the public announcement, and no leadership took pay cuts despite the elimination of the COO position.
Restorer Bruno Valentinetti admitted to painting Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's face onto an angel fresco at the Basilica of San Lorenzo in Rome, sparking backlash from lawmakers who called it "covert propaganda." The Vatican ordered the image removed, and Valentinetti complied, erasing his homage. Experts are now studying photographs of the original angel to guide a new restoration. Separately, President Trump announced plans to install a repaired statue of Christopher Columbus on the White House grounds, and an open letter with 500 signatories demanded curatorial independence at the Art Gallery of Ontario after it declined to acquire a Nan Goldin work.
Pace University Art Gallery presents *Summer Remembers Winter*, a solo exhibition by painter Siobhan McBride, opening February 14, 2026. The show features new works exploring disjointed spaces, memory, and identity shaped by dislocation, reflecting McBride's experience as a Korean-born, U.S.-raised adoptee. The exhibition includes a free public reception on February 19 and an artist talk on March 5, running through March 21, 2026.
Banco Santander announced on 21 January that it will manage 160 works from the Gelman Collection of 20th-century Mexican art, following a long-term agreement with the Zambrano family, which acquired the collection in 2023. The newly branded Gelman Santander Collection will debut this summer at Faro Santander, the bank's new venue in Cantabria, Spain. The collection, started by Russian-born film producer Jacques Gelman and his wife Natasha, includes major works by Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, Rufino Tamayo, and others, but has been largely out of public view since 2008 amid inheritance disputes. The agreement is complicated by Mexican law, which designates many works as National Artistic Monuments, restricting their permanent export and requiring oversight by the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes y Literatura (INBAL).