Zurich’s controversial Bührle Collection is rehung, including five paintings by Van Gogh—plus one forgery

The Kunsthaus Zurich has unveiled a comprehensive new display of the Emil Bührle Collection, featuring 205 works including five significant paintings by Vincent van Gogh and one acknowledged forgery. This reinstallation marks a shift from previous thematic displays focused on provenance research to a denser presentation of the collection's breadth. Notable works on view include a 1887 self-portrait and the masterpiece 'The Sower at Sunset,' though one Van Gogh remains in conservation and another has been withdrawn due to Nazi-era ownership complications.

Stealing the show: Mona Lisa heist inspires Andrew Lloyd Webber musical

Renowned composer Andrew Lloyd Webber has announced he is developing a new musical based on the 1911 theft of Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa. The production will dramatize the true story of Vincenzo Peruggia, a Louvre employee who stole the masterpiece and kept it hidden for over two years before attempting to sell it to an antiques dealer in Florence. Lloyd Webber, the creative force behind global hits like Cats and Phantom of the Opera, is currently in the writing phase of the project.

Philadelphia art museums celebrate America's 250th anniversary with blockbuster two-venue show

The Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMA) and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) have announced a massive collaborative exhibition titled "A Nation of Artists" to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Featuring over 1,000 works, the show spans from colonial-era masterpieces like Charles Willson Peale’s portrait of George Washington to contemporary Indigenous art and modern portraiture by Barkley L. Hendricks. The exhibition will also debut 120 works from the Middleton Family Collection, including significant Hudson River School and American Impressionist pieces.

The art of technology jostles for position in venues both new and historic

Canyon, a new 40,000-square-foot institution dedicated to moving image, sound, and performance art, is set to open this autumn on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Founded by entrepreneur Robert Rosenkranz and led by former Mass MoCA director Joe Thompson, the space aims to bypass the slow curatorial cycles of traditional museums by hosting international media-rich exhibitions with a faster 18-to-24-month turnaround. Unlike traditional collecting institutions, Canyon will focus on public accessibility and domestic-style hospitality rather than building its own permanent archive.

Museum acquisitions round-up: Andy Warhol in an apron, a solid-silver relief and Christo's luggage rack

Major international institutions have secured significant new acquisitions, ranging from intimate photographic archives to monumental silver reliefs. The Smithsonian’s Archives of American Art received over 400 stereoscopic slides by Ronnie Cutrone documenting Andy Warhol’s Factory, while the Germanisches Nationalmuseum acquired Luigi Valadier’s final silver masterpiece, 'Lamentation of Christ'. Additionally, the Christo and Jeanne-Claude Foundation donated 14 works to the City of Paris, including the early sculpture 'Package on a Luggage Rack' for the Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris.

Matisse’s explosive finale and a new chapter for Hong Kong? Plus, Schiaparelli and Dalí—podcast

This week's episode of The Art Newspaper podcast covers three major art world events. A landmark Henri Matisse exhibition at the Grand Palais in Paris focuses on his final, explosive 13 years of work, including his famous cut-outs. In Hong Kong, Art Basel opens amid economic uncertainty, with analysis on whether the market is turning a corner. Meanwhile, London's Victoria and Albert Museum unveils a show on Elsa Schiaparelli, featuring a Salvador Dalí painting that directly inspired her iconic fashion designs.

Understanding Nifty Gateway’s demise is paramount for NFTs’ fans and critics alike

Nifty Gateway, a once-prominent curated NFT marketplace, has announced its closure after failing to achieve its ambitious goal of converting one billion people into NFT owners. The platform, which initially succeeded by focusing on digital art sales, leveraged social media metrics like Instagram popularity to select artists such as Kenny Scharf, Filip Hodas, and FVCKRENDER, favoring a pop-centric, visually digestible aesthetic.

Martha Graham Took Classic Ballet and Turned It Into Modern Dance. It’s Still Moving Us 100 Years Later

The Martha Graham Dance Company, the oldest professional dance troupe in the United States, is celebrating its 100th anniversary with a worldwide centennial tour. The company is marking the milestone by performing Graham's classic works, like the 1946 ballet *Cave of the Heart*, alongside newer commissions that continue her innovative legacy.

In a Historic Kyoto Neighborhood, a New Hotel Channels the Past

A new hotel, the Ace Hotel Kyoto, has opened in the historic Umekoji neighborhood, housed within a renovated 1920s brick building that was once the Kyoto Central Telephone Office. The project, a collaboration between Ace Hotel Group and Japanese developer NTT Urban Development, blends the original structure's industrial character with contemporary design by Kengo Kuma and Commune Design, featuring guest rooms, restaurants, and a gallery space.

Getty Center to Close in Los Angeles as Major Renovation Looms

The Getty Center in Los Angeles will close for a full year starting March 15, 2027, to undergo its first major renovation since opening in 1997. The "modernization initiatives" include updates to the galleries, a redesign of the Welcome Hall with a new café, and the replacement of the iconic tram system to increase passenger capacity. During the closure, the Getty Villa in Malibu will remain open and display highlights from the Center’s permanent collection, while additional programming will be held at a temporary space on Sepulveda Boulevard.

In an Unlikely Pairing, Giacometti Sculptures Head to The Met's Temple of Dendur

The Metropolitan Museum of Art has announced a major summer exhibition titled "Giacometti in the Temple of Dendur," featuring 17 sculptures by the 20th-century Swiss master Alberto Giacometti. The show, organized in collaboration with the Fondation Giacometti, will place the artist's iconic slender bronze figures within and around the first-century BCE Roman Period Egyptian temple. The installation includes significant loans such as "Femme qui marche I" and "Femme de Venise I," marking a rare dialogue between modern existentialist sculpture and ancient architectural history.

Art Movements: Dozens Laid Off at Artnet and Artsy

Digital art giants Artnet and Artsy have implemented significant layoffs following their recent merger under the investment firm Beowolff Capital. The cuts, which occurred on April 16, impacted dozens of employees across both organizations, including senior editorial staff such as Sarah Cascone and Eileen Kinsella. The restructuring follows a reported 12% revenue decline for Artnet in early 2025 and involves the shutdown of Artnet's German entity as the two companies consolidate into a single team led by CEO Jeffrey Yin.

Guggenheim Museum Gets a New Director

The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum has appointed Melissa Chiu as its next director, succeeding Richard Armstrong. Chiu joins the New York flagship institution after a twelve-year tenure at the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C., and is expected to assume her new role this coming September.

One Last Chance to See Dürer's Monumental Print in NYC

Albrecht Dürer’s monumental "Triumphal Arch," a 13-foot-tall woodcut commissioned by Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I in 1512, is entering long-term storage at the New York Public Library this fall. The work has been a centerpiece of the library’s Polonsky Treasures exhibition since 2021, but its extreme fragility and age necessitate its removal from public view on October 18.

Rare Wifredo Lam Portrait Lands in New York

The Hispanic Society Museum and Library has acquired Wifredo Lam’s 1927 painting "Portrait of a Boy," marking the first time a work by a Cuban artist has entered the institution's permanent collection. Purchased at a Sotheby’s auction after decades in a private collection, the portrait dates from Lam’s formative years in Cuenca, Spain. The work represents a rare, representational style from the artist's early career, predating the Afro-Cuban Surrealism for which he became globally renowned.

Kamrooz Aram Breaks Down the Grid

Kamrooz Aram is the subject of multiple major exhibitions in early 2026, including a solo show at Alexander Gray Associates in New York, a presentation at Nature Morte in Mumbai for Mumbai Art Week, and a significant inclusion in the 2026 Whitney Biennial. The artist, known for his work with the grid, uses painting to explore the connections between Western modernist abstraction and non-Western decorative traditions, particularly from Western Asia.

Despite Uncertainty, Gulf Art World Projects Normalcy

Galleries and museums in Gulf states like the UAE, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia are reopening and projecting normalcy despite the ongoing US-Israel war on Iran, which has entered its fourth week. Major events like Art Dubai have been postponed, and institutions like the Sharjah Art Foundation have delayed gatherings, but many cultural venues are operating with adjusted formats or by appointment.

Why I Wanted to Meet Thaddeus Mosley

The author recounts their personal journey to meet the self-taught sculptor Thaddeus Mosley, driven by a profound impression left by his 2004 New York debut exhibition. After a late-night phone call revealed Mosley's vibrant spirit, the author reflects on the artist's decades-long practice of carving salvaged wood into towering, abstract sculptures in Pittsburgh, inspired by jazz, African visual culture, and modernist art, yet operating largely outside the mainstream art world.

Curators Announced for 16th Baltic Triennial

The Contemporary Art Center (CAC) Vilnius has appointed artist Nikita Kadan and curator Natalia Sielewicz as curators of the 16th Baltic Triennial, scheduled for 2027. Kadan is a Kyiv-based artist, while Sielewicz is chief curator at Warsaw's Museum of Modern Art. The duo has proposed "grief and resurrection" as the triennial's theme, framing despair and mourning as spaces for careful listening and potential renewal.

The Must-See Exhibitions in Milan During Art Week 2026

Le mostre da non perdere a Milano durante i giorni dell’Art Week 2026

Milan Art Week 2026 features a series of major solo exhibitions across the city's premier contemporary art institutions. Fondazione Prada is hosting site-specific installations by Mona Hatoum exploring global instability alongside Cao Fei’s multimedia investigation into the technological revolution of agriculture. Meanwhile, Pirelli HangarBicocca presents Benni Bosetto’s architectural exploration of the female body and Rirkrit Tiravanija’s interactive examination of authorship and communal space.

Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore: Surrealist Lovers Who Defied the German Occupation

Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore: Surrealist Lovers Who Defied the German Occupation

Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore, two Surrealist artists and life partners, are the focus of a new exhibition at the Contemporary Art Museum of St. Louis. The show, titled "And I Saw New Heavens and a New Earth," presents their collaborative work, including intimate portraits and photomontages, and highlights their daring resistance activities, such as creating anti-Nazi propaganda during the German occupation of Jersey.

SP-Arte underscores Latin America’s resilient rise amid global market recalibration

The 22nd edition of SP-Arte has opened at São Paulo’s Oscar Niemeyer-designed pavilion, featuring over 180 galleries and design studios. While global art markets face a period of recalibration, the Latin American sector—and Brazil in particular—is reporting significant growth, including a 21% year-on-year increase in sales for Brazilian dealers according to the latest Art Basel and UBS report.

A book exploring the evolution of J.M.W. Turner’s positions on slavery

Art historian Sam Smiles has released a comprehensive new book examining J.M.W. Turner’s complex relationship with the slave trade, expanding on his 2007 discovery of the artist's personal investment in a Jamaican cattle farm that utilized enslaved labor. The research traces Turner’s financial ties from his early patronage by wealthy plantation owners to his own speculative ventures, challenging the long-held perception of the artist as a straightforward abolitionist.

Photographer Zanele Muholi is named the 2026 Hasselblad Award laureate.

South African visual activist Zanele Muholi has won the prestigious 2026 Hasselblad Award, one of the highest honors in photography. The award, which includes a cash prize and a major exhibition at the Hasselblad Foundation in Gothenburg, Sweden, recognizes Muholi's decades-long dedication to documenting and celebrating Black LGBTQIA+ communities in South Africa and beyond. Their powerful portraits and self-portraits challenge historical erasure and create a profound visual archive of resistance and existence.

Everything you need to know about Henri Matisse, star of the Grand Palais this spring

Tout ce qu’il faut savoir sur Henri Matisse, star du Grand Palais ce printemps

The Grand Palais in Paris is hosting a major retrospective focusing on the final masterpieces of Henri Matisse, the pioneer of Fauvism. The exhibition highlights the artist's late-career reinvention between 1941 and 1954, featuring his innovative gouache cut-outs, illustrated books, and stained glass designs created while he was bedridden in Nice.

Spheres of influence: the Bauhaus’s radical female photographers – in pictures

An exhibition titled 'New Woman, New Vision: Women Photographers of the Bauhaus' opens at the Museum of Photography in Berlin. It focuses on the pioneering work of female Bauhaus photographers like Marianne Brandt, Lucia Moholy, and Gertrud Arndt, who used the camera to capture unconventional perspectives and explore artistic freedom during the Weimar Republic.

The National Gallery expands with Kengo Kuma

La National Gallery s'agrandit avec Kengo Kuma

The National Gallery in London has commissioned renowned Japanese architect Kengo Kuma to lead a significant expansion and redesign project. The initiative aims to modernize the museum's infrastructure and create more fluid, accessible spaces for its world-class collection of European paintings.

Gisela Colón on Puerto Rico, Bad Bunny, and the Power Beneath the Island

Artist Gisela Colón is the subject of two concurrent solo exhibitions: "Radiant Earth" at the Bruce Museum in Connecticut and "The Mountain, The Monolith" at the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Puerto Rico. This dual presentation marks a significant career milestone and a homecoming for the Puerto Rican-born artist, who has built an international profile over the past decade with installations from Desert X AlUla to sites near the Pyramids of Giza.

Gladstone Gallery Now Represents the Estate of Pope.L, Boundary-Crossing Performance Artist

Gladstone Gallery has announced its representation of the estate of the late performance and conceptual artist Pope.L. The gallery will present its first solo exhibition of his work in New York in 2027, joining existing representatives Modern Art in London and Vielmetter Los Angeles in stewarding his legacy.

Never-Before-Seen Stanley Kubrick Photos Debut in New York

A collection of 18 previously unseen photographs by legendary filmmaker Stanley Kubrick will make its public debut at the Photography Show in New York. Discovered by the Duncan Miller Gallery within a larger archive purchase, these images date back to 1945 when a teenage Kubrick worked as a staff photographer for Look magazine. The series captures candid, late-night scenes within the New York City subway system, utilizing a concealed shutter release to document commuters in their most natural states.