Art News. Vasari Codex

article news schedule Jan 9, 2026 visibility 16 link 4 artists

can you insure a national treasure bayeux tapestry loan sparks 1 1 billion debate 2735912

France's historic loan of the Bayeux Tapestry to the British Museum has sparked controversy over the proposed £800 million ($1.1 billion) insurance cover, which critics argue is unsuitable for such a fragile, 950-year-old textile. Art historians and conservators have raised concerns that the U.K.'s Government Indemnity Scheme does not cover damage from preexisting conditions or inherent vice, and that no sum can adequately insure an irreplaceable heritage object. A French petition calling on President Emmanuel Macron to cancel the loan has garnered over 75,000 signatures, but the U.K. government has proceeded with plans, including a practice "dry run" using a facsimile and a custom crate designed to minimize vibrations.

newspaper Artnet News open_in_new Read original

museum exhibitions schedule Jan 8, 2026 visibility 12 link 3 artists

girl with a pearl earring travel to japan 2735694

Johannes Vermeer's iconic painting *Girl with a Pearl Earring* will travel to Japan for the first time in over a decade, on view at the Nakanoshima Museum of Art in Osaka from August to September. The loan is necessitated by the closure of its permanent home, the Mauritshuis in The Hague, for renovations. The Mauritshuis had previously pledged not to lend the painting again after its 2012–2014 tour of Japan, Italy, and the U.S., making an exception only for the Rijksmuseum's 2023 Vermeer exhibition. Director Martine Gosselink called the trip a unique opportunity to share the work with the Japanese public, possibly for the last time.

newspaper Artnet News open_in_new Read original

article news schedule Jan 8, 2026 visibility 25 link 2 artists

franco regime censored robert motherwell painting moma show 1234768998

Newly uncovered documents from the Museum of Modern Art’s archives confirm that the Franco regime in Spain attempted to censor Robert Motherwell’s painting *Elegy to the Spanish Republic No. 35* (1954–58) before its scheduled 1958 exhibition in Madrid. The painting was part of MoMA’s traveling show “The New American Painting,” which introduced Abstract Expressionism to Europe. Spanish authorities demanded Motherwell remove the phrase “Spanish Republic” from the title, but the artist refused, leading to the work’s exclusion from the exhibition. The documents, reviewed by *El País*, also reveal that Catalan artist Antoni Tàpies boycotted state-sanctioned shows, calling the regime’s cultural propaganda “scandalous.”

newspaper ARTnews open_in_new Read original

museum exhibitions schedule Jan 7, 2026 visibility 22 link 18 artists

5 essential old masters shows for 2026 2735391

Artnet News has published a preview of five essential Old Masters exhibitions scheduled for 2026, spanning museums from Amsterdam to New York. The shows include a blockbuster presentation of Ovid's *Metamorphoses* at the Rijksmuseum and Galleria Borghese, a monographic survey of Swedish sculptor Johan Tobias Sergel at the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm and the Morgan Library & Museum in New York, and other exhibitions that connect classical art with contemporary appeal. The article highlights how these exhibitions spotlight both household names like Raphael and lesser-known figures, while also exploring themes from Ovid's myths to tarot imagery.

newspaper Artnet News open_in_new Read original

article culture schedule Jan 7, 2026 visibility 18 link 4 artists

monas eyes book cover vermeer painting controversy 1234769003

Thomas Schlesser's novel *Mona's Eyes* has been named Barnes & Noble's book of the year for 2025, but its cover has sparked controversy online. The cover features Johannes Vermeer's *The Girl with the Pearl Earring*, even though the story is about a girl named Mona who visits Paris museums with her grandfather, and the painting is not held in Paris—it resides at the Mauritshuis in The Hague. A viral Reddit thread on an art history subreddit accused the publisher of "ragebait," noting the mismatch between the cover image and the book's content. Schlesser, an art historian who teaches at the École Polytechnique and runs the Hartung Bergman Foundation, defended the choice, saying he wanted an iconic work symbolizing light and darkness rather than highlighting any of the 52 artworks featured in the story.

newspaper ARTnews open_in_new Read original

article culture schedule Jan 6, 2026 visibility 21 link 16 artists

parlez vous le francais french old masters glossary and museum list 32155

Artnet News published a French-language glossary of Old Masters terminology and a list of French museums dedicated to Old Masters. The article defines an Old Master as a European painter who worked before 1800, then provides an A–Z bilingual glossary covering terms from Baroque to Venetian Renaissance. It also profiles two museums: the Musée du Louvre in Paris, highlighting its history, collection size, and a wartime anecdote about Théodore Géricault's "Le Radeau de la Méduse," and the Musée du Louvre-Lens, a branch museum opened in 2012 on a former mining site.

newspaper Artnet News open_in_new Read original

article news schedule Jan 6, 2026 visibility 17 link 6 artists

louvre strike 2 2734814

Louvre staff went on strike again on Monday over understaffing, working conditions, and the museum's $820 million renovation plan, echoing calls for director Laurence des Cars to step down. The walkout forced the museum to close to the public, reopening only a few major attractions like the Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo, and Winged Victory of Samothrace. The strike, originally launched in December, was suspended briefly but resumed after all 350 staff voted unanimously in favor. Unions demand a re-evaluation of the renovation project, dubbed "Nouvelle Renaissance," arguing the high cost is unrealistic and that priorities should shift to urgent technical maintenance.

newspaper Artnet News open_in_new Read original

article news schedule Jan 6, 2026 visibility 15 link 2 artists

louvre walkout targets new mona lisa gallery 1234768892

Staff at the Louvre in Paris staged another walkout, closing the museum on Monday morning before a partial reopening at noon. The strike, backed by three unions with 350 staff members voting unanimously, protests the Louvre–Nouvelle Renaissance redevelopment plan launched by President Emmanuel Macron. The plan includes a dedicated gallery for the Mona Lisa, a new entrance, and a $778 million budget, which unions call unrealistic. The museum reopened with limited access to iconic works like the Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo, and Winged Victory of Samothrace, while other galleries remained closed.

newspaper ARTnews open_in_new Read original

article culture schedule Jan 6, 2026 visibility 17 link 10 artists

public domain day 2026 2734728

On Public Domain Day 2026, works from 1930 entered the U.S. public domain, including art by Piet Mondrian, Paul Klee, José Clemente Orozco, and Sophie Taeuber-Arp. Notable artworks now free to use include Mondrian's *Composition With Red, Blue, and Yellow*, Klee's *Tierfreundschaft*, Orozco's *Prometheus*, and Taeuber-Arp's *Composition of Circles and Overlapping Angles*, as well as pieces by Philip Guston, Marc Chagall, and Edward Hopper from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Literary works like Sigmund Freud's *Civilization and Its Discontents* and William Faulkner's *As I Lay Dying*, films such as *All Quiet on the Western Front*, and musical compositions including "Dream a Little Dream of Me" and "Georgia on My Mind" also entered the public domain, along with the original Betty Boop character and early *Blondie* comics.

newspaper Artnet News open_in_new Read original

museum exhibitions schedule Jan 5, 2026 visibility 25 link 15 artists

museum exhibitions shows europe 2026 2722038

Artnet News has published a preview of major European museum exhibitions opening in early 2026. Highlights include a monographic show on Paul Cézanne at Fondation Beyeler (January 25–May 25), featuring 80 works from his late career; “Yellow. Beyond Van Gogh’s Favourite Colour” at the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (February 13–May 17), exploring the color yellow across art, fashion, and literature; a solo exhibition by conceptual artist Danh Vo at the Stedelijk Museum (February 14–August 2); and “The First Homosexuals” at Kunstmuseum Basel (March 7–August 2), examining the intersection of emerging homosexual identity and the arts in the late 19th century.

newspaper Artnet News open_in_new Read original

museum exhibitions schedule Jan 3, 2026 visibility 20 link 10 artists

an indigenous takeover of the met asks who should be writing art history 1234757699

An unsanctioned augmented reality exhibition titled “Encoded” has taken over the American Wing of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, featuring works by 17 North American Indigenous artists. The exhibition, organized by the nonprofit media lab Amplifier and co-curated by Tracy Rector, overlays digital artworks onto iconic paintings and sculptures, including a piece by Josué Riva that replaces Thomas Sully’s portrait of Queen Victoria with a moving image of Acosia Red Elk (Umatilla, Cayuse & Nez Perce) delivering the message “Be a Good Ancestor.” The intervention launched on Indigenous Peoples’ Day and Columbus Day, October 13, 2025, and runs through December 13, without the Met’s permission.

newspaper ARTnews open_in_new Read original

candle obituary schedule Jan 2, 2026 visibility 29 link 27 artists

kathleen goncharov curator dead 1234768679

Kathleen Goncharov, a curator known for her work at Just Above Midtown gallery and the Boca Raton Museum of Art, died at her home in Boca Raton, Florida, on December 31 at age 73. Over her career, she served as senior curator at the Boca Raton Museum of Art from 2012 to 2025, curated exhibitions internationally from Rio de Janeiro to Rome, and was commissioner of the US Pavilion for the Venice Biennale in 2003, presenting Fred Wilson's exhibition "Speak of Me as I Am." She also held positions at Creative Time, the New School, MIT, the Nasher Museum of Art, and the Brodsky Center for Innovative Editions, and was a working artist for 40 years.

newspaper ARTnews open_in_new Read original

article news schedule Jan 2, 2026 visibility 23 link 17 artists

amid ongoing layoffs brown university terminates both bell gallery curators rankling faculty 1234768426

Brown University terminated both curators at the David Winton Bell Gallery—Kate Kraczon, director of exhibitions and chief curator, and Thea Quiray Tagle, associate curator—on December 4, as part of broader layoffs and austerity measures amid a financial crunch. The university eliminated 55 vacant positions and laid off 48 staff across campus, but has not publicly commented on the curators' terminations, which were confirmed via an internal message shared with ARTnews. Faculty members expressed surprise and frustration, saying they received no clear explanation beyond budget cuts, and it remains unclear who will handle future programming at the gallery.

newspaper ARTnews open_in_new Read original

article policy schedule Dec 29, 2025 visibility 13 link 2 artists

british taxpayers to underwrite 1 billion loan to cover bayeux tapestry while its shown in the uk 1234768203

France’s Bayeux Tapestry will be loaned to the British Museum in 2026, with the UK Treasury providing an indemnity guarantee of approximately £800 million ($1 billion) to cover potential damage or loss during transport and display. The guarantee, part of the UK government’s indemnity scheme, is a contingent liability—no upfront payment is required unless something goes wrong. The tapestry will travel by truck via the Channel Tunnel in a specially designed crate, displayed behind protective screening, and remain in London until July 2027. The loan is part of a broader cultural agreement between Britain and France, announced by President Emmanuel Macron during his July state visit to London.

newspaper ARTnews open_in_new Read original

article culture schedule Dec 29, 2025 visibility 14 link 15 artists, 1 gallery

artists business art 2725483

Artnet News asked several working artists—Manuel Mathieu, Hanna Salomonsson, Aki Sasamoto, Nigel Hall, Sharmistha Ray, and Miljohn Ruperto—to share the practical and philosophical lessons that sustain their creative practices. Topics include building trust with collaborators, navigating financial uncertainty, setting up shared studio spaces, using recycled materials, maintaining optimism at age 82, reframing rejection, and adapting to the expectation that artists must act as entrepreneurs before their first gallery show.

newspaper Artnet News open_in_new Read original

museum exhibitions schedule Dec 23, 2025 visibility 24 link 9 artists

jack whitten 2025 artnews awards historical artist 1234762878

Jack Whitten is the recipient of the 2025 ARTnews Award for his retrospective "Jack Whitten: The Messenger" at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, running from March 23 to August 2, 2025. Curated by Michelle Kuo with Helena Klevorn, Dana Liljegren, and David Sledge, the exhibition features 175 works spanning Whitten's six-decade career, highlighting his innovative use of acrylic paint, his custom squeegee-like tool called the Developer, and his mosaic-like paintings made from dried acrylic chips. The show includes early works from the civil rights era, mid-career homages to Black thinkers like W.E.B. Du Bois and Ralph Ellison, and a monumental abstraction memorializing 9/11.

newspaper ARTnews open_in_new Read original

article culture schedule Dec 23, 2025 visibility 9 link 2 artists

todd von ammon grids galleries fairs column 2730883

Todd von Ammon, a young gallerist, critiques the contemporary art market's over-reliance on art fairs and the homogenization of gallery spaces into a sterile, grid-like system. He contrasts this with the lost charm of discovering hidden, architecturally unique galleries in labyrinthine neighborhoods, which he argues fosters a sense of urban belonging and agency for collectors and art workers. The article traces the shift from the rabbit warrens of SoHo to the dense Chelsea gallery district and the rise of the modern art fair, epitomized by Art Basel's expansion to Miami Beach in 2002, which he likens to a pyramid scheme that burdens young galleries with high costs for minimal returns.

newspaper Artnet News open_in_new Read original

museum exhibitions schedule Dec 22, 2025 visibility 17 link 5 artists

high line plinth tuan andrew nguyen buddha 2732776

Vietnamese American artist Tuan Andrew Nguyen has been selected for the next High Line Plinth commission in New York City. His 27-foot-tall sculpture, titled *The Light That Shines Through the Universe* (2026), will be installed for 18 months starting next spring. The work reimagines one of the Bamiyan Buddhas destroyed by the Taliban in Afghanistan in 2001, incorporating melted brass artillery shells and scrap metal from Afghanistan for the hands, which perform mudra poses of fearlessness and compassion. The sculpture will be fabricated in Vietnam from four sandstone parts and installed at night on the High Line.

newspaper Artnet News open_in_new Read original

article local schedule Dec 22, 2025 visibility 16 link 10 artists

detroit institute of arts dia 1976 ad spot remake 2732440

The Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) has released a 50th-anniversary remake of its iconic 1976 television commercial, "You Gotta Have Art." The original spot, created by advertising agency W.B. Doner & Co., featured museum staff, volunteers, and local performers singing and dancing among masterpieces. The new version, directed by DIA's Director of Visual Media Adam Kosberg, recreates the original shot-for-shot, incorporating updated choreography, a Motown-influenced arrangement by Detroit musicians Marion Hayden and Alvin Waddles, and appearances by local artists including Carole Harris and Allie McGhee, who reprised their roles from the 1976 film. Over 200 museum employees and performers from Wayne State University participated in the production.

newspaper Artnet News open_in_new Read original

trending_up market schedule Dec 22, 2025 visibility 17 link 6 artists

auctioneers jewelry evening sales 1234763909

Sotheby's held its inaugural evening sale at the Breuer building, featuring the Contemporary and the Now sale. Auctioneer Oliver Barker achieved $527.5 million in sales, surpassing the pre-sale low estimate of $379 million. The highlight was Gustav Klimt's portrait of Elisabeth Lederer, which sold for $236.4 million, setting an auction record for Klimt and becoming the second most expensive work ever sold at auction. During the sale, auctioneer Phyllis Kao wore a David Webb necklace from the mid-1980s, featuring carved emeralds, rubies, and cabochon sapphires, which was on view and available for private sale at Sotheby's retail salon in the Breuer lobby.

newspaper ARTnews open_in_new Read original

article policy schedule Dec 18, 2025 visibility 22 link 3 artists

txst black history 101 mobile museum visit aclu challenge 1234767478

Texas State University (TXST) canceled a scheduled appearance of the Black History 101 Mobile Museum at its San Marcos campus for Black History Month 2026, prompting a First Amendment challenge from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Texas. The museum's founder, Khalid El-Hakim, had been invited by a campus activities director on October 13, 2025, but the invitation was rescinded on October 28 after consultation with supervisors and leadership. The ACLU's letter to TXST president Kelly Damphousse cited a 2023 Texas Senate bill banning DEI programs at public universities and the state's political climate as reasons for the cancellation, though the university denied the DEI ban was the cause.

newspaper ARTnews open_in_new Read original

article news schedule Dec 18, 2025 visibility 19 link 9 artists

nnena kalu turner prize win 2727648

Nnena Kalu, a 59-year-old Scottish artist with a learning disability, has won the 2025 Turner Prize, one of the world's most prestigious art awards. Her winning works include vast, swirling abstract drawings and sculptures made from wound VHS tape and found fabric, described as direct, honest, and compelling. The article argues that Kalu won not because of or despite her disability, but on the merit of her art, which stands out for its aesthetic simplicity and emotional power.

newspaper Artnet News open_in_new Read original

article news schedule Dec 18, 2025 visibility 19 link 12 artists

top ukrainian art historian believes italian museum holds 14 fake russian and ukrainian modernist works 1234767043

Konstantin Akinsha, a prominent curator and art historian of Russian and Ukrainian art, has identified 14 artworks in the collection of the Palazzo de Nordis museum in Cividale del Friuli, Italy, as likely forgeries. In a Substack post and interview with ARTnews, Akinsha scrutinized the De Martiis Collection, donated in 2015 by the late collector Giancarlo De Martiis, which includes works attributed to Russian and Ukrainian modernist painters. He points to suspicious provenances involving Jean Chauvelin, a disgraced French art dealer, and Boris Gribanov, a convicted forger. A specific still life attributed to Olga Rozanova (1915-17) is nearly identical to a 1999 painting by contemporary Russian artist Andrei Saratov, who confirmed he did not paint the museum's version. Elisabetta Gottardo, the municipal head of culture, acknowledged Akinsha's authority and pledged further investigation.

newspaper ARTnews open_in_new Read original

trending_up market schedule Dec 17, 2025 visibility 23 link 4 artists

christies 2025 sales results uptick 2730928

Christie's and Sotheby's have released their projected 2025 sales results, signaling a potential recovery after three years of market contraction. Sotheby's reported total sales of $7 billion, a 17% increase over 2024, with fine art up 15% to $4.3 billion. Christie's posted $6.2 billion, a 6% rise from $5.8 billion in 2024, bolstered by $234 million from its Gooding acquisition. Notable sales include Canaletto's Venice, the Return of the Bucintoro on Ascension Day for £31.9 million at Christie's and a Gustav Klimt painting that sold for $236 million at Sotheby's.

newspaper Artnet News open_in_new Read original

museum exhibitions schedule Dec 17, 2025 visibility 15 link 2 artists, 2 galleries

david lynch art pace berlin 2730623

Pace Gallery will present a second solo exhibition of David Lynch's artwork at its Berlin space, opening January 29, 2026. The show features never-before-seen mixed media paintings, watercolors, and three lamps, alongside early short films, spanning works from 1999 to 2022. This follows Lynch's death in January 2025 and a successful estate sale, as well as his first posthumous exhibition, "David Lynch: Up In Flames," currently on view at Prague's DOX Centre for Contemporary Art. Pace plans a larger survey of Lynch's oeuvre at its Los Angeles outpost in autumn 2026.

newspaper Artnet News open_in_new Read original

museum exhibitions schedule Dec 17, 2025 visibility 19 link 6 artists

2025 sigg prize winners 2729598

Wong Ping and Heidi Lau have been named joint winners of the third edition of the Sigg Prize, a biennial award stewarded by Hong Kong's M+ museum since 2018. This marks the first time the prize has recognized two artists simultaneously. Wong, based in Hong Kong, won for his animated narrative *Debts in the Wind* (2025), a lo-fi, darkly humorous commentary on a local land dispute over a golf course. Lau, born in Macau and now based in New York, won for *Pavilion Procession* (2025), an altar-like ceramic installation with a robotic spider inspired by the ancient Chinese text *Shanhaijing*. Both artists were selected from a shortlist of six, all born after the 1980s and '90s.

newspaper Artnet News open_in_new Read original

trending_up market schedule Dec 16, 2025 visibility 18 link 4 artists

art institute chicagos acquisitions 2025 1234766979

The Art Institute of Chicago announced its top acquisitions from over 1,000 works added to its collections in 2025. Highlights include Kay WalkingStick’s two-panel painting *The Silence of Glacier* (2013), which overlays Northern Cheyenne beadwork onto a Glacier National Park landscape; Christian Schad’s *Portrait of Composer Josef Matthias Hauer* (1927); Frans Francken II’s *Esther Before Ahasuerus* (1622); a rare 17th-century Indian textile titled *A Nayaka Nobleman with Courtiers and Courtesans*; an untitled photograph from Francesca Woodman’s “Caryatid” series (1980); and the *Ovejo Armchair* (1972) by Jaime Gutiérrez Lega.

newspaper ARTnews open_in_new Read original

museum exhibitions schedule Dec 15, 2025 visibility 17 link 5 artists, 1 gallery

walton ford gagosian tutto cheetah marchesa luisa casati 1234738380

Walton Ford's new series of paintings, on view at Gagosian in New York through April 19, centers on the Marchesa Luisa Casati and her two cheetahs. The works depict the Milanese heiress and Futurist muse in early 20th-century Venice, but the animals—not the glamorous woman—command the focal point. Ford, known for subverting natural history illustration, uses watercolor to balance trompe-l'oeil realism with painterly abandon, developing the characters across multiple canvases with Italian titles referencing literature by Casati's lover, poet Gabriele D'Annunzio.

newspaper ARTnews open_in_new Read original

trending_up market schedule Dec 15, 2025 visibility 28 link 19 artists

malba acquires 1200 works 2728866

Eduardo F. Costantini, founder of the Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires (Malba), announced the acquisition of the Daros Latinamerica Collection in Zurich, adding 1,233 works by 117 artists to the museum's holdings. This roughly doubles Malba's collection to 3,000 works, with a major expansion project planned to accommodate the new pieces, set to begin next fall to mark the museum's 25th anniversary. Highlights include works by Doris Salcedo, Ana Mendieta, Julio Le Parc, Alfredo Jaar, Lygia Clark, and Jesús Rafael Soto, with 75 artists new to Malba.

newspaper Artnet News open_in_new Read original

person people schedule Dec 12, 2025 visibility 21 link 5 artists

maria balshaw departs tate 1234766460

Maria Balshaw, director of London’s Tate, has announced she will step down in spring 2026 after nearly a decade leading the museum network. She joined in 2017, succeeding Nicholas Serota, and previously directed the Manchester Art Gallery and the Whitworth Art Gallery. During her tenure, she oversaw major exhibitions including “The EY Exhibition: Van Gogh and Britain” (2019), a Yoko Ono retrospective, and “Sargent and Fashion.” Her final project will be co-curating the largest-ever survey of Tracey Emin at Tate Modern, running from February 27 to August 31, 2026.

newspaper ARTnews open_in_new Read original