national museum of asian art announces first us exhibition of masterpieces from the collection of former samsung chairman lee kun hee 1234749421

The Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art (NMAA) has announced it will host the first US exhibition of masterpieces from the collection of former Samsung Chairman Lee Kun-Hee this fall. Titled 'Korean Treasures', the show will feature over 200 items spanning 1,500 years, including a dozen National Treasures designated by the Korean government, many exhibited in the US for the first time. Co-organized with the Art Institute of Chicago, the National Museum of Korea, and the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Korea, the exhibition includes ancient Buddhist sculptures, ceramics, paintings, furnishings, and modern works. Highlights include Jeong Seon’s 'Clearing after Rain on Mount Inwang' (1751) and a 1459 woodblock-print book compiled by King Sejo. Nine items from the Leeum Museum of Art will be shown exclusively at the NMAA before the exhibition travels to Chicago and the British Museum.

bayeux tapestry france british museum 1234749372

The Bayeux Tapestry, a 900-year-old embroidery depicting the Norman Conquest of 1066, will be loaned from France to the British Museum for a blockbuster exhibition running from September 2026 to July 2027. French officials reportedly lobbied for discounted or free entry for French citizens, a request British negotiators dismissed as a "try-on" that was "never going to happen." The loan, first proposed in 2018 by then-Prime Minister Theresa May, was delayed over fragility concerns and finally confirmed during President Emmanuel Macron's state visit. In exchange, Britain will send the Sutton Hoo treasures and the Lewis Chessmen to France. French negotiators also floated borrowing the Rosetta Stone, but that proposal failed as the artifact is considered immovable.

manhattan das office returns over 30 antiquities to spain italy and hungary 1234749145

The Manhattan District Attorney's Office, led by Alvin Bragg and the Antiquities Trafficking Unit under Matthew Bogdanos, has repatriated over 30 antiquities to Spain, Italy, and Hungary. The returned objects include a 1st-century CE marble head of Alexander the Great as Helios, a 1675 Jesuit manuscript stolen during World War II, and several 6th-century Visigoth pendants trafficked by Robin Symes and sold to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1990. The items were seized from traffickers including Giacomo Medici, Giovanni Franco Becchina, Robin Symes, Robert Hecht, Eugene Alexander, and Edoardo Almagià, who is awaiting extradition from Italy.

king tutankhamen egyptian artifact auction grasshopper 1234748248

An intricately carved ivory and wood grasshopper from the Age of Tutankhamun, known as the 'Guennol Grasshopper,' is set to be auctioned by Apollo Art Auctions in July with an estimate of £300,000–£500,000. Egyptian art historians, including German Egyptologist Christian Loeben, have raised concerns that the cosmetic vessel may have been stolen by British archaeologist Howard Carter, who discovered King Tutankhamen’s tomb and allegedly kept some items for his own collection. The auction house states there is no documented evidence linking the object to the tomb, and it has been cleared against the Art Loss Register, but experts like former Met director Thomas Hoving have long connected it to the pharaoh’s burial.

antonio solario stolen painting returned 2669319

A British woman, Barbara de Dozsa, has voluntarily returned a stolen Renaissance painting by Antonio Solario to the Civic Museum of Belluno in Italy, more than 50 years after it was stolen in a 1973 heist. The work, a Madonna and Child, was purchased by her late ex-husband, Baron de Dozsa, shortly after the theft and later inherited by her. Although UK law allowed her to keep it legally, she was persuaded by art recovery specialist Christopher Marinello to return it on moral grounds, citing the painting's status on the Interpol database and the museum's role as a guardian of cultural heritage.

citizen kane rosebud sled auction 2657602

Heritage Auctions sold one of the last surviving Rosebud sleds from the 1941 film *Citizen Kane* for $14.75 million on July 16. The prop, made of pine hardwood with a red seat stenciled with “ROSEBUD,” came from the collection of director Joe Dante, who received it in 1984 from a crew member clearing out an old RKO Pictures lot. The sled was radiocarbon-dated to verify its authenticity. The sale makes it the most expensive Rosebud sled ever sold at auction and the second most valuable piece of movie memorabilia, after the ruby slippers from *The Wizard of Oz*.

hector guimard paris metro museum 2664951

A dedicated museum for French Art Nouveau architect Hector Guimard (1867–1942) will open in Paris at the Hôtel Mezzara, a building he designed in 1910. The project is led by the nonprofit Le Cercle Guimard, which secured a 50-year lease on the state-owned property after two decades of advocacy. The museum will be funded by Hector Guimard Diffusion, a company founded by collector Fabien Choné, and will house the Cercle archives and around 100 works from Choné's collection, including ceramics, Métro entrances, and cast iron pieces. A virtual reality experience recreating Guimard's 1901 Humbert de Romans concert hall is also planned.

senegal ivory coast france repatriation 1405822

Senegal and Ivory Coast have formally requested the repatriation of thousands of artifacts from French museum collections, following a groundbreaking French government report published on November 23 that recommends returning colonial-era objects taken before 1960. Senegalese culture minister Abdou Latif Coulibaly announced plans to file a formal request for up to 10,000 Senegalese objects, while Ivorian authorities have submitted a list of about 100 masterpieces, with director Silvie Memel Kassi noting up to 4,000 Ivorian objects remain in Paris's Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac Museum and New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art.

nigeria hopes the return of two looted artfacts will inspire the british museum to give the benin bronzes back 269920

Two Benin Bronzes looted by British troops in 1897 have been returned to Nigeria by a British pensioner, Mark Walker, whose grandfather participated in the raid. The artifacts—a long-beaked bird and a monarch's bell—were handed over during a ceremony in Benin City in June 2014. Following the return, Nigerian officials, including Prince Edun Akenzua, renewed calls for the British Museum to repatriate its collection of some 800 Benin Bronzes, which remain on display in London.

cambridge university looted benin bronze 445184

Cambridge University has removed a Benin bronze statue of a cockerel, known as an “okukor,” from display at Jesus College after students campaigned for its removal. The bronze was looted by British colonizers from what is now Nigeria in the 19th century, and students voted for the artwork to be returned to Nigeria. The college is now considering repatriation and has permanently removed the statue from its dining hall, with students proposing that a new commissioned piece replace it.

museums in tehran and tel aviv move to safeguard their collections 1234745234

Iran and Israel have taken urgent steps to protect their cultural heritage amid escalating military hostilities, including air strikes on Tehran and Tel Aviv. Iran's Cultural Heritage Organization transferred museum artifacts to secure storage and closed all museums and heritage sites, with deputy minister Ali Darabi directing custodians to follow crisis protocols. Israeli institutions, including the Israel Museum in Jerusalem and the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, removed artworks from display to underground facilities and closed indefinitely, following Iran's retaliatory strikes on Tel Aviv.

uovo seeking to build second large scale brooklyn facility 1234745334

UOVO, a collector-founded art storage company, is seeking approval to build a second large-scale facility in Brooklyn's Bushwick neighborhood. The proposed seven-story, 240,000-square-foot building at 74 Bogart Street would expand the company's footprint near its existing 150,000-square-foot Bushwick facility opened in 2020. Founded in 2013 by real estate developer Steven Guttman, UOVO operates 30 locations across the U.S. and stores collections for museums, galleries, and high-net-worth individuals, including artworks, wine collections, and fashion archives. Architecture firm S9 will oversee the design if the plan is approved by the city.

ai art restoration conservation mit 2656171

MIT mechanical engineering student Alex Kachkine has developed a new AI technique that could dramatically speed up the restoration of aged or damaged paintings. The method uses a high-resolution scan of the artwork, an AI algorithm to identify cracks and missing patches, and a digitally printed polymer film—called a "digital mask"—that is overlaid onto the painting and sealed with varnish. The mask can be removed without trace using conservators' solvents. Kachkine tested the process on a 15th-century oil-on-panel painting by the Master of the Prado Adoration of the Magi, where the AI identified 5,612 damaged sections and the restoration took just 3.5 hours—66 times faster than conventional hand inpainting.

south korea president orders major arts investment 2150304

South Korea President Yoon Suk-yeol has announced a $3.7 billion fund to support film, TV, art, and cultural projects, along with plans to transform the historic presidential residence Cheong Wa Dae (Blue House) into a cultural complex modeled after France's Palace of Versailles. The initiative aims to boost the country's cultural sector ahead of major art events including Frieze Seoul, Kiaf fairs, and the Busan Biennale. President Yoon also directed that state-owned art collections, including 23,000 works from the late Samsung Group chair Lee Kun-hee, be made accessible through nationwide tours, and that government art purchases prioritize works by disabled and emerging artists.

louvre to return 258 works from rothschild cabinet of curiosities 1234743810

The Louvre Museum in Paris will return 258 works from the bequest of collector Adèle de Rothschild to the Fondation des Artistes after a 2019 cross-inventory revealed the objects were improperly inventoried in the Louvre's collection. Rothschild, who died in 1922, bequeathed her private mansion and its contents to the French government with the stipulation that her cabinet of curiosities remain intact, but the Louvre held works from the cabinet—including objets d'art and Islamic art—in violation of her wishes. The foundation's director, Laurence Maynier, described the surrender as a "just return," noting that the objects were all in storage and invisible to the public. Some 30 other objects will remain at the Louvre for five years to allow curators to find replacements, and the museum will receive 104 pieces from the foundation's inventory as compensation. The cabinet is set to reopen in September.

this qing dynasty painting could sell for nearly 19 million at auction 2638397

Sotheby's Hong Kong offered the Qing dynasty imperial painting *The Blue Goats* as a single-lot sale during its Asian Art Week. Commissioned by Emperor Qianlong in the late 1750s, the seven-by-six-foot hanging scroll was created by Italian Jesuit painter Giuseppe Castiglione (Lang Shining) and Chinese court artist Jin Tingbiao, blending Western and Eastern techniques. Despite a presale estimate of HK$60–150 million ($7.7–19.3 million), the work sold for HK$58.9 million ($7.6 million) after fees, below the low estimate. The painting depicts a pair of gorals in a rocky landscape and is inscribed with a poem by the emperor symbolizing his military conquests.

great baddow iron age coin hoard chelmsford museum 2646858

The Great Baddow Hoard, the largest recorded collection of ancient gold coins in the U.K., has been acquired by the Museum of Chelmsford five years after its discovery. Unearthed by metal detectorist Shane Wood on private land in Great Baddow, Essex, the hoard comprises 933 gold coins and fragments dating to 60–20 B.C.E. The museum secured the £300,050 ($400,590) trove with major funding from the National Lottery Heritage Fund and smaller contributions from other organizations. Wood was convicted in 2021 for failing to declare the treasure under the Treasure Act 1996, and the reward was paid to the landowner instead.

buddha gems sothebys controversy 2639684

Sotheby's has postponed the auction of the Piprahwa Gems of the Historical Buddha, a collection of over 300 ancient gemstones and metal sheets linked to the Buddha, after criticism from academics, Buddhist leaders, and India's Ministry of Culture. The gems, discovered in 1898 by colonial engineer William Claxton Peppé in Uttar Pradesh, India, were set to be sold by his descendants in Hong Kong on May 7, with bidding starting at HK$10 million ($1.3 million). The auction house stated it is now in discussions with the Indian government to find a resolution.

cryptopunks bored ape yacht club yuga labs digital art nonprofit 1234742059

The Infinite Node Foundation, a new nonprofit focused on digital art conservation founded by venture capitalist Meyer 'Micky' Malka and Becky Kleiner, has acquired the full intellectual property rights to CryptoPunks from Yuga Labs. The purchase price is reported to be around $20 million. CryptoPunks, created in 2017 by Matt Hall and John Watkinson, is one of the earliest and most famous NFT collections, credited with sparking the 2021 NFT craze. Yuga Labs, the parent company of Bored Ape Yacht Club, had bought the rights in 2022 for an undisclosed sum. The foundation's advisory board includes Web3 figures such as Yuga Labs co-founder Wylie Aronow and Art Blocks founder Erick Calderon.

grand egyptian museum king tut treasures 2643649

The Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) in Giza has received another 163 artifacts from the tomb of King Tutankhamun, transferred from the Egyptian Museum in Cairo's Tahrir Square. This delivery includes the pharaoh's ceremonial chair, gilded footstool, canopic shrine, and jewelry, bringing the museum closer to staging the first-ever complete display of the boy king's treasures. The artifacts were transported with care and underwent condition reports at GEM's conservation labs. The final piece to arrive will be Tutankhamun's funerary mask, ahead of the museum's long-awaited grand opening on July 3.

jacques schuhmacher art institute of chicago provenance research 1234739950

Jacques Schuhmacher has been appointed as the head of the provenance research team at the Art Institute of Chicago, a dedicated in-house team established in 2020. Previously the senior provenance research curator at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, Schuhmacher now leads one of the largest provenance research teams in the United States, which includes four full-time researchers and is supported by a senior leadership task force and a dedicated research budget.

ronen zien tel aviv museum of art 1234739623

Ronen Zien, an artist born in the Arab city of Shefa Amr in northern Israel, presents a solo exhibition titled "Walking Into" at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art. The show features works that explore memory, time, and borders, including a life-size video piece where Zien walks into a faded family photograph from the 1990s. Using chroma key technology, he inserts himself into images from his childhood and historic photographs, such as a 19th-century print by Félix Bonfils. The exhibition draws on Zien's family history within the Druze community, which is divided by the Israel–Syria border, and includes works created in the six months before its February 2025 opening, amid ongoing war tensions.

‘It’s about processing’: the artist who spent three months recreating the most poignant moments with her ex

Photographer Diana Markosian has created a new project titled "Replaced," in which she spent three months recreating intimate moments from her past relationship with an ex-partner. To document the experience of falling in and out of love, she hired an actor to play her ex and traveled with him to locations they once visited together, including Miami, Paris, Naples, Capri, and Nice. The series blurs documentary and fiction, using staged reenactments to process grief, heartbreak, and healing.

Mark Gerson obituary

Mark Gerson, a British photographer renowned for his intimate portraits of literary figures, has died at age 104. Over a career spanning half a century, Gerson captured iconic images of authors including Evelyn Waugh, Doris Lessing, William Golding, Tom Stoppard, and Martin Amis, often photographing them in their own homes to put them at ease. His most famous picture is of a grumpy Waugh on his 60th birthday, taken after Gerson was plied with wine. Gerson's work was championed by National Portrait Gallery director Roy Strong, and in 1996 the gallery held a major exhibition of his portraits titled "Literati."

Hamnet-era mourning jewel from celebrated painting rediscovered after 400 years

A rare 17th-century mourning jewel, depicted in the celebrated 1635 painting 'Sir Thomas Aston at the Deathbed of His Wife' by John Souch, has been rediscovered after 400 years. The heart-shaped pendant, which contains a tassel of hair from Aston’s deceased son Robert, was identified by its current owners during a chance visit to an exhibition featuring the portrait. Valued at £650,000, the gold and enamel memento mori features intricate Latin inscriptions that were previously illegible in the painting.

How I Shop with Michelle Ogundehin: ‘We grownups have enough stuff already’

Michelle Ogundehin, the former editor-in-chief of Elle Decoration and current head judge on BBC’s Interior Design Masters, shares her personal shopping philosophy and favorite sources for design and art supplies. The interview highlights her preference for tactile, high-quality essentials over mass consumerism, citing her love for artist-grade watercolor paper from L. Cornelissen & Son, vintage tapestries from Larusi, and curated items from Japan House London.

GEORGE FEBRES: TRANSLATION, IRONY, AND LIBERATION. AN ECUADORIAN ARTIST IN THE DIASPORA

The article examines the life and work of George Febres (1943–1996), an Ecuadorian artist who spent most of his career in the United States, primarily in New Orleans. Febres’s practice blends Pop Art, Neo-Surrealism, and Southern US culture with his experiences as a migrant and queer subject, using bilingualism and ironic tropical imagery to create a hybrid, irreverent body of work. Despite his significance, no works by Febres exist in Ecuadorian public collections, and no major retrospective has been held in his home country, reflecting a broader erasure of queer narratives from national art history.

GEORGE FEBRES: TRADUCCIÓN, IRONÍA Y LIBERACIÓN. UN ARTISTA ECUATORIANO EN LA DIÁSPORA

George Febres (Guayaquil, 1943 – New Orleans, 1996) was an Ecuadorian artist whose work blended pop art, neo-surrealism, and Southern U.S. culture, shaped by his experience as a migrant and queer individual. The article traces his life from a privileged but unstable childhood in Ecuador to his migration to the United States, where he was drafted during the Vietnam War and eventually settled in New Orleans. Febres used bilingualism and ironic appropriation of tropical imagery to create a hybrid, irreverent body of work that challenges the official historiography of Ecuadorian art.

CARTIER FOUNDATION. A THIN LINE BETWEEN EXTRACTIVISM AND CULTURAL RECLAMATION

FUNDACIÓN CARTIER. UNA DELGADA LÍNEA ENTRE EXTRACTIVISMO Y REIVINDICACIÓN CULTURAL

The Cartier Foundation inaugurated its new Paris headquarters on October 25 with the exhibition "Exposition Générale." The curatorial approach and, most notably, the labyrinthine architectural design by Jean Nouvel have drawn criticism from the specialized press, described as disappointing and patchwork. The new space, a dense black cube in central Paris, represents a radical departure from the foundation's previous luminous, glass-walled hall, forcing a complete rethinking of how to present its 40-year collection.

Marian Goodman’s personal collection of Gerhard Richters

Christie's will auction seven paintings by Gerhard Richter from the personal collection of legendary gallerist Marian Goodman in May 2026, headlining a series of sales titled "Breaking Ground: The Private Collection of Marian Goodman." The group includes the iconic 1982 work *Kerze (Candle)*, estimated at $35–50 million, and spans Richter's career from 1982 to 2009. Goodman, who died in 2024, began representing Richter in 1985 after writing him a letter, and her collection reflects their decades-long professional and personal relationship.