The Portland Museum of Art (PMA) has finalized a $14 million acquisition of a downtown building and two adjacent parking lots from MaineHealth. Located on Free Street next to the museum's current campus, the facility will house administrative offices, allowing the museum to convert existing office space into new public galleries.
A new report by Museum Hue reveals that over a third of surveyed museums and cultural centers founded and led by people of color in the Northeastern United States operate without any full-time staff. The study, which examined 38 institutions, found that 67% of smaller-budget organizations (with budgets under $500,000) lack full-time employees, with some operating on less than $100,000 annually and relying heavily on volunteers.
British street artist Endless has installed a new public artwork on the corner wall of Bloomsbury Central Baptist Church in London. The piece depicts a rough sleeper in a sleeping bag with the text "210,000 Homeless today," creating a stark visual juxtaposition against the affluent backdrop of the nearby Oxford Street shopping district.
Photographer and filmmaker Misan Harriman has opened a permanent installation titled 'The Purpose of Light' at London's Hope 93 gallery. The exhibition features over 100 black-and-white photographs taken over seven years at protests in the UK, US, and South Africa, including demonstrations related to Black Lives Matter, Gaza, and other social justice movements. The project debuted as a solo show last summer and, due to significant public response, has now been established as a long-term fixture with support from private collectors.
The Hong Kong International Cultural Summit returns on March 22-23, gathering cultural leaders from 14 countries in the West Kowloon Cultural District to discuss how institutions can reimagine their relationship with communities. Key figures like M+ Museum Director Suhanya Raffel, Hong Kong Palace Museum Director Louis Ng, and WestK CEO Betty Fung highlight the district's cross-disciplinary, audience-focused approach.
Two rare original watercolor illustrations for Rudyard Kipling’s 1903 edition of The Jungle Book were rediscovered in a London family home and sold at Roseberys auction house for a combined £130,480 ($174,940). Created by twin brothers Edward Julius and Charles Maurice Detmold, the works—titled Mowgli and Bagheera and The Cold Lairs—had been hanging unassumingly for decades. The sale price significantly exceeded expectations, with the Mowgli illustration alone fetching more than four times its high estimate.
Officials from the National Museum of Sudan have revealed that over 60% of the institution's holdings were looted during the country's ongoing civil war. The Rapid Support Forces (RSF) occupied the Khartoum-based museum for nearly a year, during which time ancient gold, jewelry, and approximately 8,000 pieces from exhibition halls were stolen. Satellite imagery confirmed trucks transporting artifacts away from the site, and several other regional museums, including the Sultan Ali Dinar Museum, have been reported as completely destroyed.
Nigel Peverett, a former staffer in the British Museum’s prints and drawings department, stole over 350 artworks during his tenure in the 1970s and 80s. The thefts, detailed in Barnaby Phillips’s upcoming book 'The African Kingdom of Gold', involved Peverett smuggling prints out of the museum, altering them with razors to remove catalog numbers, and selling them at London’s Portobello Road market. Although he was caught in 1992 with 35 prints in his possession, nearly 100 items remain unrecovered.
French President Emmanuel Macron has appointed Christophe Leribault as the new president of the Louvre Museum, following the sudden resignation of Laurence des Cars. Leribault, an 18th-century art expert who was currently serving as the director of the Palace of Versailles, takes over the institution during a period of significant internal crisis. In a concurrent move, Annick Lemoine was named the new director of the Musée d’Orsay and the Musée de l’Orangerie, filling the vacancy left by the late Sylvain Amic.
The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, has laid off 33 employees and eliminated 23 vacant positions, a 10% overall staff reduction, to address a projected $13 million budget deficit. The cuts affect a range of roles, including three endowed curatorial positions, and have sparked renewed tensions with the museum's unionized workforce, which is seeking to bargain over the decision.
Thieves broke into the Louvre in Paris on October 19, 2024, stealing an estimated $102 million in jewels but dropping and severely damaging the crown of Empress Eugénie during their escape. The diamond- and emerald-encrusted crown, commissioned by Emperor Napoleon III in 1855, was deformed, had one hoop broken off, lost four palmettes and one gold eagle, and is missing 10 of its 1,354 diamonds. Judicial police seized it as evidence before transferring it to the Louvre’s decorative arts department, where directors Olivier Gabet and Anne Dion documented the damage. The museum has opened a public bidding process for an accredited conservator, with an advisory committee chaired by Louvre director Laurence des Cars overseeing the restoration.
UK Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy announced a £1.5 billion arts funding package on Wednesday, urging London-based national institutions like the British Museum and the National Portrait Gallery to extend their reach across the country. The package includes £600 million for national institutions, £425 million for a Creative Foundations Fund supporting capital projects at arts venues nationwide, £160 million for local and regional museums, £230 million for the heritage sector, £27.5 million for public libraries, and an additional £80 million for national portfolio organizations. Nandy praised the Royal Shakespeare Company’s outreach as a model and framed the investment as the largest reset in the arts for a generation, comparable to post-World War Two cultural rebuilding.
French broadcaster France Télévisions aired previously unseen footage of the October 2025 robbery at the Louvre Museum, in which thieves stole crown jewels worth approximately €88 million ($102 million). The four-minute video, shown on the investigative program Complément d'enquête, captures the thieves smashing display cases with their fists and an angle grinder while security guards remain largely motionless nearby. One guard briefly confronts the thieves with a rope stanchion before backing down, and another makes a phone call. The footage corroborates findings from a security audit that deemed the museum's system "outdated and inadequate," with a severe lack of functioning cameras. Louvre director Laurence des Cars had previously stated that the sole camera covering the gallery was facing the wrong direction, and it took guards eight minutes to access the correct feed during the break-in.
Nearly 1,000 salaried and hourly workers at the Metropolitan Museum of Art voted on Friday to join Local 2110 of the United Auto Workers (UAW), creating one of the largest museum unions in the United States. The vote passed 542-172, covering staff across 50 departments including curators, conservators, librarians, and archivists. Roughly 100 ballots remain sealed due to a management challenge, to be resolved through arbitration after certification by the National Labor Relations Board. The union drive had been brewing for over four years, driven by concerns over job security, pay equity, and transparency.
Paris investigators have traced the last known location of $102 million in jewels stolen from the Louvre in October 2025 to an underground parking lot in Aubervilliers, a suburb of Paris. The Anti-Gang Brigade (BRB) used CCTV footage to follow two scooters used in the escape to the garage, where suspects Abdoulaye N., Slimane K., and Rachid H. are believed to have hidden the loot and getaway vehicles. Despite eight arrests, the jewels remain missing, and the vehicles have not been recovered.
Police have identified a parking garage in Aubervilliers, a Paris suburb, as the last known location of the jewels stolen from the Louvre in a $102 million heist on October 19. Surveillance footage shows two suspects handling some of the stolen pieces less than an hour after the robbery. Four men have been arrested—including a former YouTube stunt rider known as “Doudou Cross Bitume”—and a fifth suspect, a woman, remains at large. The jewels themselves have not been recovered.
The House Oversight Committee has released a crude drawing that President Donald Trump reportedly gave to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein for his 50th birthday in 2003. The sketch, first reported by the Wall Street Journal, features a marker outline of a naked woman with Trump's apparent signature placed where her pubic hair would be. Trump has denied creating the drawing, claiming he has never drawn, and has filed a $10 billion libel lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal and its owner Rupert Murdoch. The New York Times compared Trump's signature on the drawing with his correspondence from 1987 to 2001 and found they "closely matched."
Sotheby's will launch its first luxury marquee auction series in Abu Dhabi this December, called Abu Dhabi Collectors' Week. Running from December 3 to 5 at the St. Regis Saadiyat Island Resort, the sales will feature cars, watches, jewelry, and real estate, alongside a museum-quality art exhibition spanning Old Masters to contemporary works. The auctions are organized in partnership with the Abu Dhabi Investment Office (ADIO) and coincide with major regional events like the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix and Abu Dhabi Finance Week. Headline lots include The Desert Rose diamond (estimated $5–7 million), a rare Rolex Daytona watch ($500,000–$1 million), and a 2017 Pagani Zonda 760 Riviera ($9.5–10.5 million).
Sotheby's will hold its first luxury marquee sales in Abu Dhabi from December 3 to 5 as part of Abu Dhabi Collectors' Week, featuring Formula 1 cars, an Aston Martin, diamonds, and rare Rolexes. The sales coincide with the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix and other major events, backed by a $1 billion investment from majority shareholder Patrick Drahi and Abu Dhabi's sovereign wealth fund ADQ, along with support from the Abu Dhabi Investment Office. The auction house is focusing on luxury goods rather than fine art, with only a non-selling exhibition of Old Masters to contemporary works.
The Imperial War Museum (IWM) in London has permanently closed its long-running Victoria Cross gallery, which housed over 200 medals loaned by Lord Ashcroft since 2010. The closure, which occurred in June 2025, coincided with the launch of a new virtual tour titled "Refracted Histories: Exploring LGBTQ+ Stories in Times of Conflict." Lord Ashcroft, a Conservative peer and donor who contributed £5 million to establish the original gallery, criticized the museum for sidelining military gallantry in favor of contemporary themes, claiming he was not informed in advance of the decision.
Egyptian archaeologist Zahi Hawass has renewed his demand for the return of the ancient bust of Nefertiti from Berlin's State Museums, citing the recent full opening of the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) near Giza as proof that Egypt can properly safeguard its artifacts. The bust, dating to ca. 1351–1334 BCE and discovered in 1912 by German Egyptologist Ludwig Borchardt, has been on display at the Neues Museum since 2009. Hawass, who has shifted his position over time—calling the bust not looted in 2010 but “brazenly stolen” in 2024—argues that Western museums can no longer claim Egyptian institutions lack adequate climate control and display standards.
The Louvre installed bars on the window through which thieves broke into the Galerie d’Apollon in October, stealing bejeweled objects that remain largely unrecovered. The window was secured on December 23, two days before Christmas, fulfilling a promise made by Louvre director Laurence des Cars, who had sought to resign after the heist but was denied. The museum also plans to add 100 security cameras and discuss securing other windows.
New York City Mayoral-Elect Zohran Mamdani has signed an open letter supporting roughly 1,000 workers at the Metropolitan Museum of Art who filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board to form a bargaining unit. The vote is scheduled for January 13 and 15, 2026, and if approved, the Met would become the largest unionized museum in the country. The letter, released December 18 by the United Auto Workers (UAW), was also signed by Comptroller Elect Mark Levine and Manhattan Borough President Elect Brad Hoylman-Sigal, among other officials. The proposed union would cover curators, conservators, educators, and retail staff, citing long-term pay inequities, lack of job protection, and increasing workloads.
Unionized staff at the Louvre Museum in Paris voted unanimously to continue a strike that began on Monday, with hundreds of workers walking out to protest deteriorating working conditions, insufficient staffing, and a proposed dual pricing system for non-EU visitors. The strike has forced partial closures, with the museum offering only a limited 'masterpiece route' featuring works like the Mona Lisa and Venus de Milo. Unions rejected a Culture Ministry offer to cancel a planned €5.7 million budget cut, recruit more staff, and raise pay, deeming the proposals insufficient. Workers also oppose a plan to raise ticket prices for non-EU visitors from €22 to €32 to fund renovations, and criticize the use of funds from a brand licensing deal with Abu Dhabi.
The Louvre Museum in Paris was forced to close on Monday after approximately 400 employees went on strike to protest deteriorating working conditions. The strike, organized by unions CGT, CFDT, and Sud, blocked the museum's iconic pyramid entrance. Workers cited a brazen $102 million theft of French crown jewels in October 2025 as evidence of deep operational dysfunction, and they accused management of failing to address longstanding security and staffing issues. The closure follows a turbulent year that included a leaked memo from director Laurence des Cars warning of water leaks and overcrowding, a wildcat strike in June, and the closure of the Sully wing due to structural weaknesses.
Workers at two major museums, the Tate in the U.K. and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, are taking labor action to demand higher wages and job security. Over 150 Tate staff from the PCS Tate United union went on strike across four locations, with picketing at Tate Britain, Tate Modern, and Tate Liverpool, disrupting the opening of the exhibition "Turner and Constable: Rivals and Originals." Meanwhile, nearly 1,000 employees at the Met have petitioned the National Labor Relations Board for a union election, which would be one of the largest museum unions in the U.S.
Louvre staff voted unanimously to strike starting December 15, following a meeting of 200 employees from three unions. The unions filed a strike notice with France’s Ministry of Culture, citing a museum in “crisis” with “increasingly deteriorated working conditions” and describing the visitor experience as a “real obstacle course.” The strike could force closures during the busy holiday period. This action follows a year of turmoil at the museum, including a January leaked memo from director Laurence des Cars warning of water leaks and overcrowding, a June wildcat strike over working conditions, and an October theft of $102 million in French royal jewels that exposed outdated security systems. Structural issues recently forced closure of the Sully wing, and a water leak damaged 400 books in the Egyptian antiquities library.
Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM) director Franklin Sirmans reflected on his decade-long tenure in an interview with the New York Times during Art Basel Miami Beach. He highlighted the museum's growth, including doubling its endowment (with 10% from the Fund for Black Art), expanding the collection to over 3,500 works, and launching digital initiatives like PAMM TV. Sirmans also criticized Florida Governor Ron DeSantis's 2024 veto of $32 million in arts funding, which left the state with zero arts funding for a period, though some funding was later restored.
Researchers in the Netherlands, led by neuroscientist Blanca Spee and neurologist Bas Bloem at Radboudumc Medical Center, have been studying the link between creativity and improved health outcomes for Parkinson's disease patients. A study of 800 patients found that 41% reported changes in creativity, with those on dopamine agonists especially likely to experience increases. A subsequent 10-week creative 'playground' involving painting, music, and writing led to reduced anxiety, increased well-being, and slight cognitive improvements. On November 17, the Michael J. Fox Foundation awarded Bloem its Pritzker Prize, including a $200,000 grant, to fund a new 18-month study in partnership with Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum. That study will compare three groups: one exploring the museum's art collection, one making art, and a control group with no art exposure.
On Monday, Local 2110 of the United Auto Workers (UAW) filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board to unionize roughly 1,000 salaried and hourly workers at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The union cites long-term pay inequities, lack of job protection, and increasing workloads as motivations. The Met currently has two smaller unions for security guards and projectionists, and a museum spokesperson expressed respect for the right to seek representation. Employees reportedly first reached out to Local 2110 in 2022, and the drive has gained momentum in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.