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A replica of a Christopher Columbus statue was installed on the White House grounds under the direction of the Trump administration. The sculpture is a reproduction of a monument that was toppled and thrown into Baltimore’s Inner Harbor by protesters during the 2020 racial justice movements. Created by artist Will Hemsley using scans of the original fragments, the project was previously funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities and has now been placed near the West Wing as part of preparations for the 250th anniversary of American independence.

Czech Culture Minister Dismisses Director of Prague’s National Gallery, Generating Scrutiny

Czech Culture Minister Oto Klempíř has dismissed Alicja Knast from her position as director of Prague's National Gallery. The move has generated significant scrutiny, with critics questioning the lack of a formal explanation and the abrupt manner of her removal, which was announced without a joint press conference.

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.

Masterpieces From London’s National Gallery, Now on Display at Home With LG Gallery+

The National Gallery in London has partnered with LG Electronics to make over 4,000 images from its collection available on the LG Gallery+ digital platform. Users can now display high-quality digital reproductions of masterpieces by artists like Monet, Gauguin, and Seurat on their LG OLED screens at home, using a curated, playlist-like interface called LG Gallery+ Shelves.

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The 2014 Whitney Biennial has debuted with a controversial three-curator structure, tasking Michelle Grabner, Stuart Comer, and Anthony Elms with organizing separate floors of the museum. This meta-review aggregates the initial critical reception from major publications, noting that the fragmented format has forced critics to evaluate the exhibition as three distinct shows rather than a unified vision.

Picasso Exhibition at Burgos Cathedral Explores Artist's Biblical Roots

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The Catedral de Santa María in Burgos is hosting "Picasso: Biblical Roots," an exhibition exploring the enduring influence of Christian iconography on Pablo Picasso. Featuring 44 works loaned from major institutions like the Reina Sofía and the Thyssen-Bornemisza, the show traces the artist's journey from his early academic religious paintings in Spain to the subtle theological motifs found in his later Cubist and post-war works.

Art Oscar Picks, Whitney Biennial Star Pat Oleszko, Wet Paint

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This installment of the Wet Paint gossip column reports on several high-profile developments within the New York and Los Angeles art scenes. Key highlights include internal museum deliberations at the Whitney Museum regarding Precious Okoyomon’s provocative installation for the upcoming Biennial, which features dolls hanging from nooses, and sightings of former Artforum editor David Velasco meeting with Whitney director Scott Rothkopf. Additionally, the column tracks celebrity sightings at Frieze Los Angeles and confirms Lotus L. Kang as the artist for Bvlgari’s pavilion at the Venice Biennale.

Nifty Gateway has shut down, but NFTs are not dead—they are evolving

Nifty Gateway, a major NFT marketplace launched in 2020, permanently shut down in February 2026. Its closure coincided with a severe cryptocurrency market sell-off, adding to a list of defunct NFT exchanges and contributing to the perception of a market collapse.

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Digital artist Beeple is bringing his viral robotic installation, "Regular Animals (2025)," to the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin this April. The work features a pack of AI-powered robotic dogs with heads modeled after tech moguls like Elon Musk and art icons like Pablo Picasso, which roam a pen, capture images of the audience, and "eject" AI-filtered prints from their rears. The presentation will coincide with Gallery Weekend Berlin and include a dialogue with Nam June Paik’s "Andy Warhol Robot (1994)."

Beeple's Robot Dogs to Roam Berlin's Neue Nationalgalerie

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Digital artist Beeple is set to make his German institutional debut at Berlin’s Neue Nationalgalerie with "Regular Animals" (2025), an installation featuring ten robotic dogs with heads modeled after tech moguls like Elon Musk and iconic artists like Pablo Picasso. The sculptures, which gained viral fame at Art Basel Miami Beach, use AI to process their surroundings and "defecate" stylized prints for visitors. The 11-day pop-up presentation will place Beeple’s work in dialogue with Nam June Paik’s "Andy Warhol Robot" (1994), exploring the intersection of art, media, and mechanical reproduction.

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LG OLED has partnered with the Whanki Foundation to present "We Meet Again In New York" at Frieze New York, featuring digital reinterpretations of works by the late Korean abstractionist Kim Whanki. The presentation utilizes high-definition screens to showcase five of Kim’s iconic "all-over dot" paintings, animated by contemporary Korean multimedia artists including Je Baak and Mano Ahn. This digital showcase coincides with a physical exhibition of Kim’s work at the Korean Cultural Center New York, marking the artist's first major posthumous return to the city where he spent his final decade.

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The Museum of Fine Arts (MSK) in Ghent has launched "Unforgettable," a landmark exhibition recovering the histories of over 40 women artists who were active in Belgium and the Netherlands between 1600 and 1750. The show highlights the professional success of figures like Princess Louise Hollandine and Maria Schalcken, while also acknowledging the anonymous working-class women who fueled the luxury economy through lacemaking. It challenges the long-held myth that female artists were rare exceptions during the Flemish Golden Age.

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Zanele Muholi has been named the winner of the 2026 Hasselblad Award, widely considered the world’s most prestigious photography prize. The South African photographer and "visual activist" will receive approximately $218,000, a solo exhibition at the Hasselblad Center in Gothenburg opening in October 2026, and a dedicated publication. Muholi’s work is celebrated for its monumental grayscale portraiture that documents and honors the Black LGBTQIA+ community, challenging historical omissions and systemic oppression.

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Refik Anadol’s controversial AI installation 'Unsupervised' at the Museum of Modern Art has sparked a heated debate on the nature of art and technology, recently highlighted in a '60 Minutes' segment. While Anadol defends his work as a poetic use of 'data as pigment' that captures viewer attention for an average of 38 minutes, critics and fellow artists raise concerns about the substance and ethics of the medium. The piece, which uses MoMA’s metadata to create morphing abstractions, became a viral sensation that challenged traditional museum engagement.

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A new video game titled 'Relooted' has been released, casting players as vigilantes in an Afrofuturistic future who must reclaim looted African artifacts from Western museums before they are hidden away. Developed by South African studio Nyamakop, the game tasks players with repatriating up to 70 specific, real-world contested treasures, including the Bangwa Queen and the Maqdala Crown, through heist-style gameplay.

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Gustav Klimt's final portrait, 'Dame mit Fächer (Lady With a Fan),' sold for £85.3 million ($108.4 million) at Sotheby's London, setting a new record for the most expensive work of art ever auctioned in Europe. The painting, which was still on Klimt's easel when he died in 1918, surpassed its pre-sale estimate of over £65 million after a ten-minute bidding war.

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The Flemish government in Belgium has reversed its controversial plan to dismantle Antwerp's Museum of Contemporary Art (M HKA). The original proposal would have stripped the museum of its status and transferred its permanent collection to another institution in Ghent, but following significant opposition, authorities have agreed to preserve M HKA as a museum with its collection intact.

M HKA Remains Museum, SMAK Plan Scrapped

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The government of Belgium's Flanders region has reversed its controversial plan to close the M HKA contemporary art museum in Antwerp and transfer its collection to the SMAK museum in Ghent. Under a new plan called "M HKA 2.0," the museum will retain its collection, its museum status, and continue its programming, while SMAK will be operated by the regional government.

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The Christo and Jeanne-Claude Foundation has donated 14 artworks to two Parisian museums, the Musée Carnavalet and the Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris. The donation includes preparatory collages, silkscreens, lithographs, and a scale model related to both realized and unrealized projects by the artist duo, such as the wrapped Arc de Triomphe and Pont-Neuf, as well as early sculptures.

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Mexico City is renowned for its immense concentration of museums, with estimates ranging from 150 to 200 institutions. The city's art scene has been further amplified by the rise of Zona Maco, which has established a major international Art Week each February, drawing collectors and galleries. The article highlights five must-see museums, beginning with the Museo Anahuacalli, a unique museum built by Diego Rivera and architect Juan O'Gorman to house Rivera's vast collection of pre-Hispanic artifacts.

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The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam has secured a major loan of the ancient marble sculpture *Sleeping Hermaphroditus* from the Louvre in Paris. The work will be a centerpiece of the museum's upcoming exhibition "Metamorphoses," which opens on February 6, 2026, and explores themes of transformation drawn from Ovid's epic poem.

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A 450-year-old watermill in Wrexham, Wales, that was the subject of a J.M.W. Turner watercolor has been listed for sale at £1.5 million ($2.05 million). The Rossett Mill, built in 1588, has been converted into a four-bedroom home with modern amenities while retaining its historic features, including a restored corn mill. The property is listed with Currans Unique and was previously owned by Celia and Branden Wilson, who restored it after it was rescued from demolition in 1973.

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A trustee at the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO), Judy Schulich, advised the museum's acquisitions committee not to acquire a Nan Goldin video installation, *Stendhal Syndrome* (2024), due to Goldin's pro-Palestine statements and criticism of Israel's war in Gaza. The AGO had planned to purchase the work jointly with the Vancouver Art Gallery and the Walker Art Center, but the AGO withdrew after internal concerns were raised. The controversy led to the resignation of two committee members and one curator, and the museum promised a review of its acquisition process.

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Berlin's Hamburger Bahnhof museum, facing budget cuts of up to 12% and shifting government spending priorities in Germany, is planning its first-ever gala to mark its 30th anniversary. Co-directors Sam Bardouil and Till Fellrath are spearheading the event, set for March, which will feature cultural figures including Cate Blanchett, Matt Dillon, Elmgreen & Dragset, and the Berlin Philharmonic. The museum has also launched the Chanel Commission and the International Companions philanthropy circle to diversify funding sources.

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The Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) chose not to acquire Nan Goldin's 2024 video "Stendhal Syndrome" due to the artist's comments on Israel's war in Gaza, according to a report by the Globe and Mail. The work, which shows blurred images of semi-nude figures and sculptures, was instead purchased by the Vancouver Art Gallery and the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. An AGO acquisitions committee voted against the acquisition, with internal memos citing Goldin's past statements—including her description of the war as a "genocide" and her criticism of weaponized antisemitism—as the reason. The decision led to the resignation of curator John Zeppetelli and two unnamed committee members, and prompted director Stephan Jost to call for a review of the committee's processes.

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Nan Goldin used the opening of her retrospective “This Will Not End Well” at Berlin’s Neue Nationalgalerie to deliver a forceful 14-minute speech condemning the Israel-Gaza war and criticizing Germany’s censorship of pro-Palestinian voices. She called for a phone-free moment of silence for the dead in Palestine, Israel, and Lebanon, and framed her exhibition as a test case for artistic freedom. The event drew a large crowd, police presence, and was widely shared on social media by figures like Ai Weiwei and Wolfgang Tillmans.

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A time capsule designed by British architect Norman Foster has been buried in Washington D.C. to mark the 250th anniversary of American independence. The titanium box features 13 facets and stars representing the original colonies, and contains letters from King Charles III and President Donald Trump, along with soil from George Washington's ancestral home. It was presented by Virginia governor Glenn Youngkin and U.K. officials to the U.S. Department of Interior, and is not to be opened until July 4, 2276.

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Artnet News columnist reflects on the fragile state of the art market as 2025 ends, noting that global instability and troubling news have dampened buyer psychology. Despite this, major auction houses reported strong annual sales—Sotheby's at $7 billion (up 17%) and Christie's at $6.2 billion (up 6%)—and a series of high-profile sales, including the Pauline Karpidas collection auction and Leonard Lauder's Gustav Klimt portrait fetching $236.4 million, have sparked renewed momentum. The article quotes advisors and dealers who sense a market bottom has passed, with buyers returning to auctions and fairs like Art Basel Miami Beach.

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Belgian art dealer Klaas Muller purchased a painting at an online auction three years ago, identified only as a study by an unknown artist of the Flemish school. After research, he discovered the work is likely a rediscovered study by Peter Paul Rubens (circa 1609), featuring a hidden second image of a woman's face visible when the painting is turned upside down. The work will debut at the BRAFA art fair in Brussels, where Muller serves as chairman.

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Belgian art dealer Klaas Muller has identified a previously unattributed oil-on-paper study as a work by Flemish master Peter Paul Rubens, titled "Bearded old man, looking down to his left" (ca. 1609). Muller purchased the piece for under €100,000 at a lesser-known northern European auction house three years ago, where it was listed as an unknown artist from the "Flemish school." After recognizing the bearded figure as Saint Thomas from Rubens's "Apostolado Lerma" series at the Prado, Muller commissioned research from art historian Ben van Beneden, former director of Rubenshuis, who confirmed the work's exceptional quality and likely attribution to Rubens. The study also features a ghostly woman's face visible when turned upside down, reflecting Rubens's playful reuse of materials.