Sotheby’s Has Set a Debut Date for Its Landmark Breuer Building Headquarters

Sotheby's has announced that its new headquarters in the iconic Breuer Building at 945 Madison Avenue will open on November 8. Originally designed by Marcel Breuer for the Whitney Museum of American Art in 1966, the building later housed the Met Breuer and the Frick Collection during its renovation. Sotheby's purchased the Brutalist landmark from the Whitney two years ago and has renovated it with Pritzker Prize-winning architects Herzog & de Meuron and PBDW Architects, adding auction rooms and state-of-the-art gallery spaces while preserving original features like bluestone floors and concrete walls. The opening will coincide with a major modern and contemporary art exhibition, followed by fall marquee sales the week of November 17.

Column: New Richard Hunt exhibit takes the measure of the artist and the man

A new exhibition titled "Freedom in Form: Richard Hunt" is on view at the Loyola University Museum of Art (LUMA) in Chicago through November 15. The show features over 160 works, including intimate sculptures and maquettes, offering a personal look at the late sculptor Richard Hunt, who died in December 2023. It originated at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library in Springfield, inspired by Illinois first lady MK Pritzker. The exhibition highlights Hunt's early life, his self-taught welding skills, and his pivotal experience attending Emmett Till's funeral in 1955, which shaped his commitment to civil rights and social justice through art.

Sicily's new anti-mafia museum honours ‘strength of the vulnerable over fear’

Sicily has inaugurated the Museum of the Present (Museo del Presente) inside Palermo's historic Palazzo Jung on 23 May, marking 33 years since the assassination of anti-Mafia judge Giovanni Falcone. The museum commemorates Mafia victims and confronts the ongoing threat of Cosa Nostra through personal artifacts, multimedia installations, and historical documentation, including items from Falcone and his colleague Paolo Borsellino. The opening was attended by Italy's interior, justice, and culture ministers, and entry remains free until 19 July.

New Exhibition on Richard Hunt, Chicago Sculptor Who Made Monuments for the Nation, Provides an Intimate Look

The Loyola University Museum of Art (LUMA) has opened "Freedom in Form: Richard Hunt," an exhibition showcasing the work of the late Chicago sculptor who created over 160 public monuments across the U.S. The show, which runs through Nov. 15, 2025, features sculptures, maquettes, tools, and selections from Hunt's personal library, offering an intimate view of his career. It premiered in 2024 at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library in Springfield, where it was organized after First Lady of Illinois M.K. Pritzker recommended Hunt. The exhibition includes early works like "Hero's Head" (1956), inspired by Emmett Till, and later pieces such as "Hero Ascending," planned for installation at the Emmett Till/Mamie Till-Mobley historic landmark home.

Richard Hunt’s life is on exhibit in Chicago — and it’s a walk through Civil Rights history

A new exhibition titled “Freedom in Form: Richard Hunt” opens at the Loyola University Museum of Art in Chicago, exploring the 70-year career of the late sculptor Richard Hunt, who died in 2023 at age 88. The show includes his tools, workbench, personal books and photos, alongside key works such as “Hero’s Head” (1956), a welded bust created in response to the murder of Emmett Till, who was Hunt’s neighbor. The exhibition originated at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library Museum in Springfield and was conceived in 2019, with curator Ross Stanton Jordan and director Lance Tawzer aiming to present Hunt as a young artist deeply engaged with Civil Rights history.

Photos reveal Peter Zumthor's LACMA museum ahead of opening

Photographer Iwan Baan has released images of the completed David Geffen Galleries, the long-awaited Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) expansion designed by Swiss architect Peter Zumthor. The undulating, glass-and-concrete building stretches along Wilshire Boulevard, elevated 30 feet above street level, and is set to open fully in April 2026. Major construction finished at the end of 2024, with some lower-level spaces already open. The single-level design eliminates traditional hierarchies, placing all artworks on the same plane, and the building aims for LEED Gold certification with low-carbon concrete and natural ventilation.

Are you not entertained? Three ancient helmets headline UK exhibition exploring the ‘real’ gladiators

Three exceptionally well-preserved ancient bronze gladiator helmets, discovered in Pompeii, are the centerpiece of a new exhibition titled *Gladiators: Heroes of the Colosseum* at the Royal Armouries Museum in Leeds. The show, organized in collaboration with the Colosseum in Rome, marks the first UK iteration of a touring exhibition that has attracted over a million visitors worldwide. It features arms, armour, and everyday objects from the National Archaeological Museum in Naples, along with immersive installations exploring gladiatorial life.

Renowned Chicago Sculptor’s Work Comes Home to Chicago this Summer

Loyola University Museum of Art (LUMA) in Chicago will host "Freedom in Form: Richard Hunt" from July 11 to November 15, 2025, a major exhibition celebrating the late sculptor Richard Hunt (1935–2023). The show features sculptures, maquettes, tools, books, photographs, prints, and video interviews, tracing Hunt’s 70-year career from his early days at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago to international renown. For the first time, it pairs two pivotal works: "Hero’s Head" (1956), created after the funeral of Emmett Till, and "Hero Ascending," a monument designed for Till’s childhood home. The exhibition includes a catalogue with contributions from Christina Shutt, Rev. Michael J. Garanzini, curator Ross Stanton Jordan, biographer Jon Ott, and historian Timothy J. Gilfoyle.

Rediscovered Artemisia Gentileschi painting offered for sale in London for £1m to £2m

Sotheby's will offer a rediscovered Artemisia Gentileschi painting, *David with the Head of Goliath* (1620s-30s), at its Old Master evening auction on 2 July, with an estimate of £1m to £2m. The work had been misattributed for decades—first to Giovanni Francesco Guerrieri in 1975, then as 'School of Caravaggio' in 2018—before definitive attribution to Artemisia was confirmed in 2020 when Simon Gillespie Studio discovered her signature running down the sword blade. The painting has been on the market only twice before, most recently selling for €104,000 in 2018.

Boston artist John Wilson's work now the subject of Museum of Fine Arts exhibit celebrating humanity

The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, has opened a new exhibition titled "Witnessing Humanity: The Art of John Wilson," featuring 110 works by the late Boston artist. Born in 1922 to immigrants from British Guyana, Wilson spent over six decades creating paintings, prints, drawings, sculptures, and illustrated books that center on portraits of himself, his family, and his friends. The exhibition, co-curated by Edward Saywell, highlights Wilson's lifelong commitment to reclaiming the dignity and humanity of Black Americans in art, a response to the caricatured and dehumanized representations he saw as a student.

See Inside The Met's New $70M Wing Ahead Of Grand Opening

The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Michael C. Rockefeller Wing will reopen to the public on May 31 after a $70 million renovation. The wing houses the museum's collections of art from Africa, the Ancient Americas, and Oceania, and features a new sloped glass wall, a dedicated gallery for light-sensitive Andean textiles, and over 1,800 works spanning five continents. The reopening day celebration includes live music, art-making activities, and a conversation between Met director Max Hollein and architect Kulapat Yantrasast.

Fire-damaged room at Castle Howard brought back to life by meticulous restoration

The Tapestry Drawing Room at Castle Howard, a historic stately home in Yorkshire, England, has been meticulously restored after being gutted by a fire in 1940. The room, originally adorned with early 18th-century tapestries woven by John Vanderbank and based on scenes by David Teniers, was reduced to a scorched shell. Nick Howard, whose family has lived in the house for three centuries, oversaw the restoration, which involved reinstalling the original tapestries—found rolled up in the attic—after conservation by Alison Stanton. The centerpiece, a painting by Marco Ricci titled *Judgment of Paris*, and a newly built fireplace based on archival photographs complete the revival.

The Big Review | Caravaggio 2025 at Palazzo Barberini, Rome ★★★

The article reviews the "Caravaggio 2025" exhibition at Palazzo Barberini in Rome, which brings together 24 paintings by the Baroque master Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio. Curated by Francesca Cappelletti, Maria Cristina Terzaghi, and Thomas Clement Salomon, the show is accompanied by a heavy marketing campaign tied to the Catholic Church's Jubilee year. The review notes that while any gathering of Caravaggio's works guarantees a beautiful experience, the exhibition's title and scope remain unclear, and the curatorial approach—divided into four thematic sections—feels disjointed. Highlights include the reunion of three paintings from Cardinal Francesco Maria del Monte's collection and the public display of the recently identified portrait of Maffeo Barberini.

Cincinnati Art Museum curator of fashion showcases women designers

This episode of WYSO's Studio Visit series takes listeners to the Cincinnati Art Museum to meet Cynthia Amnéus, the museum's Chief Curator and Curator of Fashion and Textile Arts. Amnéus discusses her focus on women fashion designers, highlighting iconic figures such as Rei Kawakubo (Comme des Garçons), Bonnie Cashin (Coach), Ann Lowe (who designed Jackie Kennedy's wedding dress), and the lesser-known 1930s designer Elizabeth Hawes, whose progressive views on comfort and gender-neutral clothing were ahead of her time. Amnéus also reflects on past exhibitions, including a 2017 show on Iris Van Herpen's 3D-printed sculptural fashion, and her current interest in sustainable designers like Collina Strada and Chopova Lowena.

Immediately after the Second World War, how did six exhibitions attempt to make sense of the atrocities?

Berlin's Deutsches Historisches Museum has opened an exhibition titled "On Displaying Violence: First Exhibitions on the Nazi Occupation in Europe, 1945-48," which revisits six post-World War II exhibitions that attempted to process the atrocities of the war. These shows took place in venues ranging from the Grand Palais in Paris to a Czech villa formerly occupied by a Nazi official, and included displays such as the UK's Daily Express "The Horror Camps" (1945), the French traveling show "Hitlerian Crimes" (1945), "Warsaw Accuses" (1945) at the National Museum in Warsaw, and "Our Path to Freedom" (1947) at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. The Berlin exhibition uses original objects, film footage, photographs, and recordings to recreate the experience of these early post-war shows.

Turkish artists face pressure amid government crackdown on opposition

A government crackdown on Turkey’s opposition following the arrest of Istanbul mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu has ensnared members of the culture community, including Mahir Polat, head of the municipality’s cultural heritage department, and photographer Murat Germen. Mass protests have erupted across the country, with hundreds of thousands marching against what they see as rising authoritarianism under President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Artists and cultural figures face censorship, detention, and prosecution for expressing political views, while independent institutions bear the risk of critical discourse.

Meryl Streep Makes Seven-Figure Donation to National Women’s History Museum

Acclaimed actor Meryl Streep has donated a seven-figure sum to the National Women’s History Museum. The funds will support digital storytelling projects and programming, and the museum has created the Meryl Streep Educator Award in her honor, to be presented annually starting this November.

Jemima Wyman

Jemima Wyman's retrospective "Deep Surface" surveys three decades of her work exploring DIY aesthetics of concealment, protest iconography, and political solidarity. Born in Sydney and based in Los Angeles since 2004, Wyman is known for collages of masked protesters, activist signage, and street rally residues, as seen in works like *Aggregate Icon (RBW)* (2016) and *Mass Monument (Y & B)* (2018). The exhibition highlights her early inspiration from Fluxus, Minimalism, and Yayoi Kusama, as well as the influence of Brisbane's late-1990s art scenes and postcolonial Indigenous Australian art debates. Wyman, who has Indigenous (Palawa) heritage, uses camouflage and disguise to blur boundaries between visibility and concealment, figure and ground.

Impressively harmonious artistic manifesto propels Storywork: The Prints of Marie Watt from the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family Foundation exhibition at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts

The Utah Museum of Fine Arts (UMFA) is hosting "Storywork: The Prints of Marie Watt from the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family Foundation," an exhibition running through June 21. It features over 60 works by Marie Watt, an enrolled member of the Seneca Nation's Turtle Clan, including prints, monumental blanket stacks, hanging textiles, and small-scale sculptures. The show is drawn from the collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer, a top 200 collector recognized by ARTNews, whose foundation has supported more than 180 exhibitions and loaned works to over 130 museums at no cost.

Monet auction drives Sotheby’s Paris sale to 35 million euros

Sotheby's Paris sale on April 16, 2026, achieved a total of 35 million euros, an 84% increase over the previous year's equivalent auction. The event was dominated by two rediscovered Claude Monet paintings, with 'Vétheuil, effet du matin' setting a new auction record for the artist in France at 10.2 million euros. Strong results were also posted for works by Marc Chagall, Lucio Fontana, and Gerhard Richter, with 62.5% of lots selling above their high estimates.

Contemporary Art : Art under 500€

LLB Auction in Luxembourg is hosting a sale titled 'Contemporary Art: Art under 500€' on April 26, 2026. The auction features a curated collection of prints, posters, and editions from major contemporary artists, including works by Damien Hirst, David Hockney, Yayoi Kusama, and Takashi Murakami, all with estimates starting as low as 300 euros.

Sotheby’s Evelyn Lin On Asia’s Maturing Market, Young Collectors and the New Rules of the Hong Kong Sale

Sotheby’s recently concluded its spring marquee auctions in Hong Kong, generating a combined total of HK$711.8 million ($91.2 million). The sales were anchored by the success of Joan Mitchell’s 'La Grande Vallée VII,' which sold for $17.6 million, and achieved a nearly 100 percent sell-through rate by value. The performance was bolstered by the auction house's new 'Maison' headquarters, a dual-level retail and exhibition space that attracted over 44,500 visitors in the lead-up to the sales.

Nara's Painting Challenges Korean Auction Record

Nara's Painting Challenges Korean Auction Record

Japanese pop art sensation Yoshitomo Nara is poised to shatter the record for the most expensive artwork ever sold at a South Korean auction. His 2016 painting 'Nothing about it,' featuring his signature wide-eyed girl, carries a pre-sale estimate of 14.7 billion to 22 billion Korean won ($11M–$16.5M USD). The work will headline Seoul Auction’s 'Contemporary Art Sale' on March 31, alongside major pieces by Yayoi Kusama and Roy Lichtenstein.

More than 160 artists selling their work to raise funds for medical, humanitarian aid in Gaza

More than 160 artists have donated works to an online charity auction called "100 Artists for Gaza," with all proceeds going to Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) for humanitarian aid in Gaza. Organized by artists Mai-Thu Perret, Vidya Gastaldon, Sarah Benslimane, and art specialist Anne Lamunière, the sale features works by notable figures including Kara Walker, Wolfgang Tillmans, Peter Doig, and Olafur Eliasson. The pieces, each roughly 8 by 12 inches, have been exhibited at the organization's Geneva headquarters since November 11, with a live auction concluding on December 2.

Max Giermann is not looking for recognition with his painting

Max Giermann sucht mit seiner Malerei nicht nach Anerkennung

German comedian and actor Max Giermann has launched his first Berlin art exhibition, titled "Figuring Out," at the Janinebeangallery. The showcase features large-scale acrylic paintings on canvas depicting figures, heads, and body fragments, including a final tribute to Klaus Kinski, whom Giermann famously parodied throughout his comedy career. Although he grew up in a household of art educators and began drawing as a child, this exhibition marks a significant return to painting after a 20-year hiatus.

Museum Night 2026: Events in Belarus and Beyond

On May 16, 2026, Museum Night celebrations will take place across Belarus and beyond, with cultural institutions offering extended hours and special programs. Highlights include the National Centre for Contemporary Arts in Minsk hosting lectures, artist talks, and exhibitions such as “Forms and Shadows: Feminine” and “Difficulties of Translation,” while the National Art Museum explores the color blue through its program “Blue of Blue.” Literary museums dedicated to Maksim Bahdanovich, Yakub Kolas, and Yanka Kupala will feature space-themed activities, reenactments, and fashion shows, and the “Sula” History Park will offer an interactive journey called “Hunting the Dragon.”

art fair conductor powerhouse arts new york

Conductor Art Fair made its debut at Powerhouse Arts in Gowanus, Brooklyn, with a VIP preview night on April 29, ahead of its public run from April 30 to May 3. Led by Powerhouse Arts President Eric Shiner and Fair Director Adriana Farietta, the event drew over 800 guests, featuring installations by Juan Jose Barboza-Gubo, House of Silence by Vuslat, and Sana Frini, along with 28 gallery exhibitors and 20 special projects. A performance by Grammy-nominated artist Lido Pimienta highlighted the evening, and the fair showcased works by numerous artists and gallerists.

After Going Through the Darkness Part 1: Kōta Takeuchi Exhibition "Nononononomatsuri" @ Ichihara Lakeside Museum

暗闇をくぐってみたら Part1 竹内公太展「のののののまつり」@ 市原湖畔美術館

The Ichihara Lakeside Museum, currently under renovation since late 2025, will partially reopen on May 1, 2026, with a theater-style series of solo exhibitions titled "Kōta Takeuchi: Nononononomatsuri" as its first installment. Artist Kōta Takeuchi, born in 1982 in Hyogo Prefecture and based in Fukushima, presents new video installations created during a four-month residency in Ichihara, where he visited over 70 stone monuments across the city—including horse-headed Kannon statues, Koyasu statues, and war memorials—to explore themes of parallel bodies and possession. The exhibition features works such as "Disassembly of the Sansha-za" (2013–2023), "Cement Thief" (2024), and "Sigh of the Ground" (2022), with a map showing the locations of the documented stone monuments.

Casabianca is the name of the new art space to visit in Como

Si chiama Casabianca il nuovo spazio per l’arte da visitare a Como

A new art space called Casabianca has opened in Como, Italy, housed in a 1930s building designed by Piero Ponci. The project is spearheaded by hoteliers Paolo and Antonella De Santis, who have transformed the former luxury villa and bank into a domestic-style exhibition venue for their contemporary art collection. The space features works by artists such as Giulio Paolini, Stefano Arienti, Alighiero Boetti, Mario Merz, Marina Abramovic, and Joseph Kosuth, with no labels or didactics to preserve the feel of a private home.

A Venezia sta aprendo un nuovo Palazzo delle Arti e delle Culture grazie alla Fondazione Giancarlo Ligabue. L’intervista

A new Palazzo delle Arti e delle Culture – Collecto is opening in Venice at Palazzo Erizzo Ligabue, a 15th-century palace on the Grand Canal. The initiative, spearheaded by Inti Ligabue (45), son of the late paleontologist and entrepreneur Giancarlo Ligabue, will open to the public from May 7 to May 24, 2026, offering guided tours of a collection of over 400 pieces spanning from 4.5-billion-year-old fossils to contemporary works by artists such as Arcangelo Sassolino, Nico Vascellari, and Giorgio Andreotta Calò. The project builds on the Fondazione Giancarlo Ligabue, established in 2016 from the original Centro Studi founded in 1973, and will feature a residency by artist Marta Spagnoli.