Myles Connor, an experienced career criminal, stole Rembrandt's "Portrait of Elsbeth van Rijn" from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston on April 14, 1975, using the painting as leverage in another crime. In his new book "The Rembrandt Heist," Anthony Amore—director of security at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum—analyzes Connor's motivations and methods, presenting five key takeaways from the heist.
The Cleveland Museum of Art has opened a major fall exhibition titled "Renaissance to Runway: The Enduring Italian Houses," featuring roughly 80 garments and accessories from top Italian fashion houses such as Gucci, Pucci, Armani, Versace, Valentino, Ferragamo, Max Mara, and Missoni. The show juxtaposes these modern and contemporary designs with over 40 Renaissance, Mannerist, and Baroque artworks from the museum's collection, exploring how Italian couture has drawn inspiration from art history. A digital video installation by filmmaker Francesco Carrozzini and photographer Henry Hargreaves, using AI technology, humorously depicts models "invading" the museum, underscoring fashion's disruptive cultural power. Despite some pacing and spatial choreography issues, the exhibition makes a compelling case for fashion as high art.
Frieze Los Angeles will return to Santa Monica Airport from February 26 to March 1, 2026, for its seventh edition, featuring more than 95 galleries from 22 countries. The fair includes returning blue-chip participants like Gagosian, Hauser & Wirth, and David Zwirner, alongside a strong local Los Angeles gallery presence and more than a half-dozen first-time exhibitors. Special sectors include Sector for emerging artists, supported by Stone Island and curated by Essence Harden, and outdoor commissions organized with Art Production Fund. The Deutsche Bank Frieze Los Angeles Film Award and the Frieze Impact Prize, presented with Titus Kaphar’s Nxthvn incubator, will also return.
The Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw (MSN Warsaw) will launch two concurrent exhibitions, "The Woman Question 1550–2025" and "The City of Women," running from November 21, 2025, to May 3, 2026. Featuring nearly 200 women artists from around the world—spanning from Artemisia Gentileschi and Frida Kahlo to Yoko Ono and Tala Madani—the shows aim to present five centuries of art by women, curated by Alison M. Gingeras and a team of researchers including Julia Bryan-Wilson, Michalina Sablik, Vera Zalutskaya, Karolina Gembara, and Wiktoria Szczupacka. The exhibitions include works borrowed from major international institutions such as the Uffizi Gallery, Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, and the Nasjonalmuseet.
The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in Los Angeles has announced its opening date of September 22, 2026, more than a decade after the project was first conceived by filmmaker George Lucas and his wife Mellody Hobson. The museum, which moved from San Francisco to Chicago before settling in Los Angeles's Exposition Park, has grown from a $700 million budget to a reported $1 billion and will house over 40,000 works across 100,000 square feet of exhibition space. The collection spans ancient artifacts, canonical artists like Frida Kahlo and John Singer Sargent, comic book legends such as Jack Kirby and Alison Bechdel, photography by Gordon Parks and Dorothea Lange, and the Lucas Archives of film memorabilia.
The Museum of Fine Arts (MFA) in Boston has agreed to return two 1857 works by the enslaved potter David Drake to his descendants. One vessel will remain on loan to the museum for at least two years, while the other, known as the "Poem Jar," has been purchased back by the museum for an undisclosed sum, now carrying a certificate of ethical ownership. The episode also covers the opening of the exhibition "Wifredo Lam: When I Don’t Sleep, I Dream" at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, featuring the modernist painter of African and Chinese descent, and discusses Domenico Ghirlandaio's "Adoration of the Magi" (1488) in the context of a new book on Renaissance foundlings.
Ghanaian artist Amoako Boafo has opened Backyard Community Club, a tennis training facility in Osu, Accra, featuring the country's first regulation clay court. Designed by Accra-based architecture firm DeRoche Projects, the court is enclosed by precast rammed-earth panels—also a first in Ghana—and includes shaded seating, changing rooms, and edible plants. The project offers free tennis lessons to local children, drawing on Boafo's own background as a ball boy and tennis player before his rise as a global art star.
The Ali Forney Center (AFC), an LGBTQ+ youth organization facing a funding drop of over $400,000 from lost corporate sponsors, is holding a benefit exhibition titled "Toward the Light: Artists for the Ali Forney Center" at David Zwirner’s West 19th Street gallery in Chelsea from October 28 to November 1. Organized by art adviser Stephen Truax for the second year, the show features 38 works by artists including Doron Langberg, Jenna Gribbon, Jake Grewal, Ilana Savdie, Anthony Cudahy, Wolfgang Tillmans, Julie Mehretu, and Katherine Bradford, with proceeds supporting AFC’s housing and care for over 2,000 queer youth. Previous editions with Sotheby’s raised over $350,000 and $370,000 respectively.
The Joslyn Art Museum in Omaha, Nebraska, has broken visitor records and earned national acclaim in its first full year after reopening with a 42,000-square-foot addition. The new Rhonda & Howard Hawks Pavilion, designed by Snøhetta and Alley Poyner Macchietto Architecture, opened in September 2024 and added 16,700 square feet of gallery space, 15,400 square feet of public gathering space, and new gardens. Through September 2025, the museum welcomed 159,420 visitors, on track to surpass 200,000—a milestone only reached a few times before, typically due to blockbuster traveling exhibitions like the Tutankhamun Treasures or Dead Sea Scrolls shows.
Italian artist and Arte Povera pioneer Michelangelo Pistoletto, aged 92, has opened a new exhibition at Helly Nahmad Gallery in London, pairing his latest Mirror Paintings with Cubist works by Pablo Picasso, including Picasso's 1924 painting *Partition, Guitare, Compotier*. In an interview with The Art Newspaper, Pistoletto discusses how his mirror works—first presented in 1963—break down the traditional perspective of art, reflecting society and reality in a 360-degree space-time continuum, and how Picasso's shattering of the image paved the way for his own innovations. He also touches on his Cittadellarte foundation in Biella, his Nobel Peace Prize nomination, and his "Third Paradise" philosophy.
The Detroit Institute of Arts opens its new African American art galleries, titled “Reimagine African American Art,” to the public on Saturday. The installation features 50 works displayed across four galleries in a central location adjacent to Rivera Court, organized by the museum’s Center for African American Art. The galleries present a chronological narrative of African American history from 1840 to 1986, covering key periods and themes such as the Harlem Renaissance, Social Realism, the Civil Rights era, and the Black Arts Movement.
A new documentary titled *The Painted Life of E.J. Hughes*, directed by Vancouver filmmaker Jenn Strom, premieres at the Vancouver International Film Festival. The film explores the personal and professional life of the reclusive Canadian landscape painter E.J. Hughes (1913-2007), known for his dreamlike depictions of British Columbia's coastal life. It features interviews with art historians, curators, and locals, and includes footage of major works, such as *Entrance to Howe Sound* (1949), which is set for auction at Heffel with an estimate of C$1.25m–C$1.75m. The documentary was inspired by books by artist-author Robert Amos and took several years to complete due to the pandemic.
October arts in Pittsburgh focus on play and legacy, with several gallery openings and retrospectives. GalleriE CHIZ hosts "Celebrating the Art and Life of Ellen Chisdes Neuberg" on Oct. 3, showcasing the late artist and gallery owner's bold Abstract Expressionist works. The Pittsburgh Glass Center presents "Idea Furnace Retrospective" (Oct. 3, 2025–Jan. 19, 2026), featuring alumni like Renee Cox and Alisha Wormsley. James Wodarek's "Industria Nova" at Atithi Studios reimagines industrial forms, while the Cooley Gallery pairs "Felt-Occurrence" with "Continuing a Legacy of Classical Painting," linking three generations of American landscape artists from Frank DuMond to James Sulkowski.
Hong Kong's major auction houses—Christie's, Phillips, and Sotheby's—held their seasonal modern and contemporary art evening sales over the past weekend, with total turnover lingering at an eight-year low. Despite the overall downturn, a handful of records and last-minute withdrawals improved the success ratio, and several lots drew vigorous bidding, such as Salvo's "Mattino di primavera (Spring Morning)" which sold for HK$4 million (five times its low estimate) and Firenze Lai's "Basic Knot" which fetched HK$477,300 (nearly four times its low estimate).
The Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) has opened "Contemporary Anishinaabe Art: A Continuation," a major exhibition featuring over 60 Anishinaabe artists from Michigan and the Great Lakes region. The show, running from September 28, 2025, to April 8, 2026, includes nearly 100 contemporary artworks and was sparked by a request from artist Kelly Church, whose black ash top hat was donated to the DIA in 2020. Church collaborated with DIA Assistant Curator Denene De Quintal and a Native advisory board—the "Council of the Three Fires"—to select artists, blending established figures like Frank Big Bear and George Morrison with lesser-known artists receiving their first major institutional exposure.
Christie's Hong Kong held its 20th/21st Century Evening Sale on 26 September 2025 at The Henderson, achieving a total of HK$565,649,000 (US$73,038,183). The top lot was Pablo Picasso's *Buste de femme*, which sold for HK$196,750,000 (US$25,404,911) after over 15 minutes of bidding, setting a new auction record for the artist in Asia. Zao Wou-Ki's *17.3.63* also performed strongly, achieving HK$85,200,000. The sale saw 92% of lots sold, with the overall hammer price 116% above the low estimate, and works by Chinese, Southeast Asian, Korean, and Japanese artists all sold out.
Austrian dealer Thaddaeus Ropac opened a new gallery in Milan on September 20, capitalizing on Italy's newly reduced 5% VAT on art imports—the lowest in the EU—and an influx of wealthy expats from London following the UK's abolition of non-dom tax status. The gallery occupies the first floor of the historic Palazzo Belgioioso, with Elena Bonanno di Linguaglossa appointed as director. Ropac's move follows his earlier successful expansions into Seoul and Pantin, which proved prescient.
The Art Institute of Chicago has opened a major solo exhibition titled "Elizabeth Catlett: A Black Revolutionary Artist and All That It Implies," surveying 75 years of the artist's work. Catlett, who died in 2012, was a Black American artist who spent six decades in Mexico, creating prints and sculptures that depicted Black women and addressed social injustice. The show includes iconic works like "Target Practice" and "Sharecropper," and runs through January 4, 2026.
The article presents a curated list of ten essential artworks at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York, coinciding with the departure of longtime director Glenn Lowry after 30 years and the appointment of Christophe Cherix as his successor. It highlights iconic pieces such as Picasso's "Les Demoiselles d'Avignon" (1907) and Matisse's "The Red Studio" (1911), while reflecting on MoMA's history, its founding vision by Alfred Barr, and its evolution through expansions including the incorporation of PS1 and the $450 million renovation of its 53rd Street building.
The Denver Art Museum (DAM) is celebrating National Hispanic Heritage Month (September 15–October 15) by showcasing several exhibitions featuring works by artists from Latin America, Spain, and the Caribbean. Key exhibitions include "A Century of Art in Latin America," which presents a comprehensive survey of Latin American art over the past 100 years, featuring masters like Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo, and José Clemente Orozco; "Confluence of Nature: Nancy Hemenway Barton," displaying textile sculptures and works on paper by the late multidisciplinary artist; "Ink & Thread: Codices and the Art of Storytelling," highlighting contemporary codices by Enrique Chagoya and the Tillett Tapestry; and "Painting in the Andes, 1680–1780," exploring colonial-era art from Andean centers. All exhibitions are included with general admission, which is free for visitors 18 and under.
The Art Newspaper's podcast 'The Week in Art' returns with three major stories. Ben Luke hosts a discussion with Ben Sutton, the publication's editor-in-chief in the Americas, about the Trump administration's announced comprehensive internal review of eight Smithsonian museums and artist Amy Sherald's cancellation of a long-scheduled exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, citing censorship and institutional fear. The episode also covers Frieze Seoul 2024, the season's first major art fair, with correspondent Lisa Movius reporting from the South Korean capital amid political turmoil. The Work of the Week segment features Dara Birnbaum's landmark video artwork 'Technology/Transformation: Wonder Woman (1978-79)', part of a new exhibition 'The Quantum Effect' at the San Marco Art Centre in Venice, curated by Daniel Birnbaum and Jacqui Davies with physicist Ulf Danielsson.
New Orleans museums are launching several major exhibitions in September 2025. The Ogden Museum of Southern Art presents "Flags of Our Mothers" (September 13–March 8, 2026) featuring Raven Halfmoon's largest ceramic sculptures, and "The Unending Stream: Chapter II" (September 27–March 15, 2026) showcasing six local photographers. The New Orleans Museum of Art opens "Dawoud Bey: Elegy" (September 26–January 4, 2026), a photography and film installation exploring African American historical memory.
Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie G. Bunch III sent letters to the White House and staff asserting the institution's independence after President Donald Trump ordered a comprehensive review of eight Smithsonian museums. The review, initiated by an August 12 White House letter, targets exhibitions, collections, and programming for alleged bias and divisive content. Bunch stated the Smithsonian is conducting its own internal review to ensure nonpartisan, factual programming, emphasizing that the institution retains authority over its content. The letters follow Trump's social media attack on the Smithsonian and an earlier executive order directing Vice President J.D. Vance to remove what the administration calls 'race-centred ideology.'
Artist Amy Sherald has canceled her scheduled exhibition at the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., due to censorship concerns over her painting "Trans Forming Liberty," which depicts the Statue of Liberty as a Black trans woman. The exhibition, titled "Amy Sherald: American Sublime," will instead travel to the Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA), where it will run from November 2, 2025, to April 5, 2026. Sherald will also receive one of the museum's "Artist Who Inspires" awards at its 2025 BMA Ball on November 22. The show is a mid-career survey of Sherald's work, previously shown at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art.
Several museums and art centers across East Texas, South Texas, and the Rio Grande Valley have announced their fall 2025 exhibition schedules. Highlights include the Tyler Museum of Art’s "Alas…" by Alicia Eggert, a floral sculpture that wilts over three weeks, and "Assembled: A Look at Contemporary Collage" featuring Texas artists. The Art Museum of South Texas in Corpus Christi will present three shows: Jason DeMarte’s surrealist photography in "Arcadian Enclosures," the Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi faculty biennial "Quarter Turn," and "Breadth of Latino/a Voices" from its permanent collection. The Rockport Center for the Arts opens Jessica Ninci’s "A Field Guide" and Moira Garcia’s "Nepantla: In-Between." The Beeville Art Museum hosts Caprice Pierucci’s "Threads Through Time," and the Five Points Museum of Contemporary Art in Victoria will survey work by Fort Bend County artists.
Elizabeth Catlett (1915–2012) was a sculptor, printmaker, feminist, and social activist whose art was inseparable from her life and politics. Born in Washington, DC, to parents who worked in education, she faced racial discrimination early on—denied a scholarship to the Carnegie Institute of Technology and paid less than white colleagues as a teacher. She became the first Black woman to earn an MFA from the University of Iowa, studying under Grant Wood, and later taught at the George Washington Carver School in Harlem, where she connected with Harlem Renaissance figures. Catlett moved to Mexico, married artist Francisco Mora, and created woodblock and linocut prints for 20 years. She was investigated by the House Un-American Activities Committee, declared an "undesirable alien," and became a Mexican citizen in 1962. Her work centered on Black and Mexican women, and she famously stated, "We have to create an art for liberation and for life."
This article highlights several outdoor sculpture parks and trails in Luxembourg where visitors can experience art integrated with nature. It features the Domaine Mondorf park in Mondorf-les-Bains, which houses 21 sculptures by local and international artists, including works by Wil Lofy, Lucien Wercollier, and Catherine Lhoir. The sculpture trail in Lultzhausen, established in 1999, showcases site-specific stone works by artists like Georg Ahrens, Ton Kalle, and Bertrand Ney, designed to harmonize with the landscape around the Upper Sûre reservoir.
On August 21, the Trump administration published an unsigned article on the White House website attacking several Smithsonian museums and their exhibitions for promoting what it described as "woke" content. The article specifically called out the National Museum of African American History and Culture, the National Museum of American History, the National Portrait Gallery, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and two planned institutions—the National Museum of the American Latino and the American Women’s History Museum. It cited exhibitions and artworks addressing race, transgender identity, and immigration, including Amy Sherald’s painting *Trans Forming Liberty* (2024), which led the artist to cancel her solo show at the National Portrait Gallery after the museum sought to remove the work to avoid provoking Trump.
Mickalene Thomas’s former fiancée, curator and model Racquel Chevremont, has filed a summons against the artist, accusing her of sexual harassment and claiming she owes at least $10 million in damages. The summons, signed in Manhattan on 8 August, cites breach of contract, unjust enrichment, conversion, and retaliation, alleging that Thomas created a hostile working environment and improperly diverted funds from their jointly-owned entity. Chevremont, who collaborated with Thomas for a decade and appeared in several of her works, claims she was underpaid despite a written agreement and that Thomas terminated her employment after she refused to resume their romantic relationship.
The article reports on a museum exhibition that leverages the intersection of art and sports to draw in visitors. By showcasing works that explore athletic themes, movement, and sports culture, the exhibition aims to broaden the museum's audience beyond traditional art enthusiasts.