Art News. Vasari Codex

museum exhibitions schedule Nov 18, 2025 visibility 22 link 5 artists, 5 galleries

nada miami curated spotlight

NADA Miami has announced its 23rd edition, taking place December 2–6, 2025, at Ice Palace Studios. The fair will feature 140 exhibitors from 30 countries and 65 cities, including 47 first-time participants such as Foundry Seoul, Post Times, and Brigitte Mulholland. The Curated Spotlight program, now in its sixth year and supported by TD Bank, will be organized by Vancouver-based curator Kate Wong, who selected seven galleries and artists—including Devin N. Morris, Ana Alenso, Alessandro Balteo-Yazbeck, Faith Icecold, Huey Lightbody, Mahari Chabwera, and Marissa Delano—to present works exploring power structures, identity, and collective histories. The fair will also host the ECOLOGIES public programming series.

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article news schedule Oct 29, 2025 visibility 9 link 2 artists

bust of egyptian goddess satala turkey

Archaeologists excavating the ancient Roman military stronghold of Satala in northeastern Turkey have unearthed a bronze bust of the Egyptian goddess Isis. The eight-inch-tall sculpture, found in a necropolis, dates to the 2nd or 3rd century CE and depicts Isis atop a circular base with calyx-shaped leaves. The discovery was led by Elif Yavuz Çakmur of Karadeniz Technical University and marks the first sculpture found at the site since the Satala Aphrodite was unearthed in 1872.

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trending_up market schedule Oct 27, 2025 visibility 11 link 2 artists

okada museum sells art founder legal bill sothebys

Japan’s Okada Museum of Art is selling 125 works from its collection at Sotheby’s Hong Kong on November 22 to help its founder, Kazuo Okada, pay a $50 million legal bill. The bill stems from a long-running feud with casino magnate Steve Wynn, which began when the two co-founded Wynn Resorts in 2002 and later accused each other of improper payments. The collection includes Katsushika Hokusai’s iconic *The Great Wave Off the Coast of Kanagawa* (1830–32), a rare Qianlong “Eight Treasures” vase, and 16th-century screens by Kano Motonobu. Okada, an 83-year-old billionaire, lost a binding arbitration over the legal fees and must now sell the art.

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gavel restitution schedule Oct 24, 2025 visibility 13 link 1 artist, 1 gallery

almeida and dale raided missing alfredo volpi works

Brazilian police raided the São Paulo branch of Almeida & Dale, a prominent gallery, on Wednesday in connection with three missing paintings by modernist Alfredo Volpi. The São Paulo State Department of Criminal Investigations (Deic) executed a search warrant regarding the works, valued at R$6.4 million (about $1.2 million), which have been the subject of a civil dispute. The artist's estate accuses gallery cofounder Carlos Dale of brokering an unauthorized sale in 2006 of the paintings, which were reported stolen in 2008. No artworks were seized, but a laptop was taken, and the gallery has denied wrongdoing, stating it acted as an intermediary in legitimate transactions before any theft report.

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museum exhibitions schedule Oct 14, 2025 visibility 20 link 4 artists, 2 galleries

harlesden high street mayfair

Jonny Tanna, founder of the London gallery Harlesden High Street, has launched a pop-up project in Mayfair during Frieze Week, in collaboration with Düsseldorf- and Berlin-based gallery Setareh. The inaugural exhibition, “Forces of Nature,” features London-based artists Abbas Zahedi and Jamiu Agboke, presenting conceptual installation and atmospheric painting. Tanna emphasizes that this is not a permanent relocation but an itinerant extension of his gallery, which exclusively shows artists of color and is known for its community-focused, unvarnished approach.

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article news schedule Sep 23, 2025 visibility 8 link 1 artist

unknown roman matron identified chersonesos taurica crimea

Researchers have identified a marble statue head unearthed in 2003 in Chersonesos Taurica, an ancient Roman colony in Crimea, as depicting a Roman matron named Laodice. The discovery, published in the journal Nature, was made by scientists at Poland's Adam Mickiewicz University, who matched the head to an inscribed pedestal found in the archives of the Archaeological Museum in Odessa, Ukraine. Laodice was the wife of city councilman Titus Flavius Parthenokles and was honored with the statue around 140 CE, when the city was granted eleutheria (self-governing status). The statue, carved from Parian marble and originally over six feet tall, is one of only five marble sculpture fragments found at the site in 200 years.

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article news schedule Sep 10, 2025 visibility 13 link 1 artist

new york foundation for the arts workers move to unionize

Workers at the New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) are moving to unionize through Local 2110 of the United Auto Workers (UAW), a first in the organization's history. Staff cited a lack of transparency, unfair wages, and unsustainable working conditions as reasons for the push, with support from unions representing workers at major New York cultural institutions like the Museum of Modern Art and the Brooklyn Museum.

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gavel restitution schedule Aug 21, 2025 visibility 19 link 3 artists

petition to block loan of bayeux tapestry to londons british museum garners 50000 signatures

Nearly 50,000 people have signed a petition to block the loan of the Bayeux Tapestry from France to the British Museum in London. The petition, launched in July by French art historian Didier Rykner, cites warnings from textile restorers that transporting the 1,000-year-old embroidered linen could cause irreparable damage. The tapestry is scheduled to be displayed at the British Museum from September 2026 to July 2027 while its home, the Bayeux Tapestry Museum in Normandy, undergoes renovation. The loan was announced by UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron. Prominent French cultural figures, including former Bayeux Tapestry Museum director Isabelle Attard, and British conservation watchdog ArtWatch UK director Michael Daley have voiced concerns. Rykner hopes to unite French and British opposition to stop the exchange, which also includes Anglo-Saxon and Medieval objects from the British Museum moving to France.

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person people schedule Aug 18, 2025 visibility 19 link 3 artists

documenta 16 artistic team naomi beckwith

Naomi Beckwith, deputy director and chief curator of the Guggenheim Museum, has announced her four-person artistic team for Documenta 16, set to open in Kassel, Germany, in June 2027. The team includes Carla Acevedo-Yates, Romi Crawford, Mayra A. Rodríguez Castro, and Xiaoyu Weng, who will collaborate on the exhibition, publication, and programming for the quinquennial.

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museum exhibitions schedule Aug 15, 2025 visibility 16 link 2 artists

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

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.

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article news schedule Jul 31, 2025 visibility 12 link 2 artists

whitney museum person jumps staff email

An unidentified 34-year-old man died after jumping from the Whitney Museum in New York on Wednesday evening, shortly before the museum closed. Whitney director Scott Rothkopf informed staff via email, stating that authorities confirmed the individual jumped from Whitney property onto the plaza below. The New York Police Department responded to a 911 call at 5:26 p.m. and found the man unconscious and unresponsive with injuries indicative of a fall; he was pronounced dead at the scene. The museum delayed its opening to noon on Thursday to allow staff time to process the incident, and the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner is investigating.

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article news schedule Jul 31, 2025 visibility 15 link 4 artists, 1 gallery

uhaul gallery and art fair new york

James Sundquist and Jack Chase founded U-Haul Gallery in May 2024, a commercial art space operating out of rented U-Haul trucks to bypass New York's high real estate costs. The gallery mounts pop-up exhibitions in unconventional locations, such as public parks and sporting events, and recently staged a performance titled "Show of Stolen Goods" by artist Victoria Gill. This September, the duo will launch the U-Haul Art Fair, running concurrently with the Armory Show in West Chelsea, featuring 10 exhibitors each stationed in their own U-Haul truck.

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museum exhibitions schedule Jul 8, 2025 visibility 9 link 6 artists

hector guimard paris metro museum

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.

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article news schedule Jul 2, 2025 visibility 7 link 2 artists

antique condom rijksmuseum christian protest

A 19th-century condom printed with a bawdy scene depicting a nun and three clergymen is on display at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam as part of the exhibition “Safe Sex?” The Catholic foundation Civitas Christiana staged a two-day protest outside the museum and launched a petition with over 1,000 signatures demanding the object's removal, calling it a grotesque insult to God, the Catholic Church, and the Dutch nation. Right-wing publications like De Dagelijkse Standaard have supported the protest, drawing comparisons to restrictions on depictions of Mohammed.

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article news schedule Jul 2, 2025 visibility 10 link 1 artist

ancient ceramics found preserved in shipwreck turkey

Hundreds of ancient ceramics from the Late Hellenistic-Early Roman Period have been discovered perfectly preserved in a shipwreck off the coast of Adrasan, Turkey. The cargo ship, dating back approximately two thousand years, contained plates, trays, and bowls stacked inside one another with raw clay, which protected their original colors and patterns. Turkish Minister of Culture and Tourism Mehmet Nuri Ersoy visited the site and announced the finds as part of the ministry's 'Heritage of the Future' project, which aims to accelerate archaeological excavations.

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gavel restitution schedule Jul 2, 2025 visibility 13 link 3 artists

benin dialogue group ocotober 2018

Major European museums have agreed to loan important artifacts, including the Benin bronzes looted during the 1897 Benin Expedition, back to Nigeria for a new museum planned to open in 2021. The agreement was reached at a meeting of the Benin Dialogue Group in the Netherlands, involving representatives from Austria, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Britain, who committed to facilitating a rotating display at the planned Royal Museum in Benin City within three years, though specific objects and loan periods remain unconfirmed.

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article news schedule Jun 26, 2025 visibility 10 link 2 artists

hatshepsut statues destroyed research

New research challenges the long-held belief that Pharaoh Thutmose III destroyed statues of his predecessor Hatshepsut out of vengeful rage after her death in 1458 B.C.E. Jun Yi Wong, a research fellow at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, examined hundreds of statue fragments from Hatshepsut's mortuary temple at Deir el-Bahri in Luxor. His study, published in Antiquity on June 24, reveals that the statues were broken according to a ritual practice called deactivation—snapped at the neck, waist, and knees—while faces were left intact. Wong found that the fragments were not immediately buried but later reused by everyday Egyptians as building materials, suggesting pragmatic reuse rather than targeted erasure.

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article news schedule Jun 24, 2025 visibility 10 link 4 artists

king tuts iconic death mask was intended for someone else researchers say

Researchers from the University of York have proposed that King Tutankhamun's iconic death mask, discovered in 1925 by Egyptologist Howard Carter, was not originally made for the young pharaoh. The theory, based on the mask's pierced ears—a feature typically found on female rulers and children—suggests it was intended for a regal female burial, possibly Queen Nefertiti. Analysis of the gold used on the face versus the rest of the mask indicates the face was added later, effectively grafted onto a pre-existing mask. This idea, first raised by British Egyptologist Nicholas Reeves in 2015, is supported by evidence that Tutankhamun's death at around age 19 was sudden, leading to a hurried burial with repurposed funerary objects.

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article local schedule Jun 17, 2025 visibility 11 link 1 artist

uovo seeking to build second large scale brooklyn facility

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.

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article policy schedule Jun 13, 2025 visibility 13 link 1 artist

neh staff layoffs trump administration

The Trump administration laid off approximately 100 employees from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) on June 10, part of a broader reduction in force that has left fewer than 60 staff remaining at the agency. The cuts follow earlier funding freezes and a $65 million budget reduction by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), with funds redirected to President Trump’s National Garden of American Heroes. The NEH’s union, the American Federation of Government Employees Local 3403, has condemned the restructuring as an existential threat to institutions that rely on NEH grants for research, preservation, and education.

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article news schedule Jun 10, 2025 visibility 11 link 2 artists

assyrian king ashurbanipal relief nineveh

A team of archaeologists from Heidelberg University has uncovered a monumental stone relief in Nineveh, Iraq, depicting King Ashurbanipal flanked by two major Assyrian gods, Ashur and Ishtar, along with demigods. The 2,600-year-old relief, measuring nearly 20 feet across and 10 feet high, was found buried in a pit at the northern palace, a site first excavated in the 19th century by Austen Henry Layard. The discovery is part of the Heidelberg Nineveh Project, launched in 2018 after the liberation of Mosul from the Islamic State.

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article culture schedule Jun 6, 2025 visibility 13 link 14 artists

secret mall apartment documentary michael townsend

A new documentary titled *Secret Mall Apartment*, directed by Jeremy Workman and produced by Jesse Eisenberg, tells the true story of eight artists who secretly built and lived in a hidden apartment inside the Providence Place mall in Providence, Rhode Island, for four years in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Led by Michael Townsend, the group—including Adriana Valdez Young, Andrew Oesch, Jay Zehngebot, Colin Bliss, James Mercer, Greta Scheing, and Emily Ustach—transformed a forgotten dead zone of the corporate complex into a living space and art collective headquarters, calling the project "Malllife." The film features never-before-identified participants and footage of their discovery by mall authorities.

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article news schedule Jun 4, 2025 visibility 11 link 1 artist, 1 gallery

marc glimcher palm beach home sells ambassador

Former US ambassador to France and Monaco Jamie McCourt has purchased a historic Palm Beach house known as the "Fore and Aft House" or "The Boat House" for $19.2 million. The sellers were Pace Gallery CEO Marc Glimcher and his wife, designer Fairfax Dorn, who bought the property in 2021 for $14.3 million and made further updates. The 1937 lakefront home features a ship-like design with porthole windows and curved lines, sitting on a third of an acre with waterfront access.

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article news schedule Jun 2, 2025 visibility 7 link 1 artist

etruscan sarcophagus spouses restoration rome

The National Etruscan Museum in Rome is undertaking a public restoration of the Sarcophagus of the Spouses, a 6th-century B.C.E. Etruscan terracotta tomb that was discovered in Cerveteri in 1881 and reassembled from 400 fragments by the museum's founder, Felice Barnabei. The open restoration will begin with the couple's legs, using digital technologies, and aims to highlight the work of art professionals while creating a long-term conservation plan for the masterpiece.

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gavel restitution schedule May 29, 2025 visibility 12 link 1 artist

louvre to return 258 works from rothschild cabinet of curiosities

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.

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person people schedule May 28, 2025 visibility 14 link 1 artist

tony karman expo chicago director steps down

Tony Karman, the longtime director of Expo Chicago, will step down from his role at the end of June, remaining as president in an advisory capacity while the fair searches for a new director. Karman founded Expo Chicago in 2011, succeeding Art Chicago, and has led the fair through 14 editions, including its most recent one last month with 170 exhibitors and over 35,000 visitors. The transition follows Frieze's acquisition of Expo Chicago and the Armory Show in July 2023, and comes amid broader ownership changes at Frieze itself, which was recently sold to a company founded by Ari Emanuel and is now fully owned by private equity firm Silver Lake.

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article news schedule May 23, 2025 visibility 9 link 2 artists

sutton hoo bromeswell bucket not bucket

Archaeologists have discovered the base of the Bromeswell Bucket, a Byzantine-era vessel from Sutton Hoo in Suffolk, U.K., revealing that it was used as a cremation urn. The bucket, first found in fragments in 1986, 2012, and 2023, features a hunting scene and a Greek inscription. Excavations by the TV program Time Team, the National Trust, FAS Heritage, and volunteers uncovered the base, which contained cremated human and animal remains, including a skull and talus, as well as bones from an animal larger than a pig. The remains were likely stored in a bag, confirming the bucket's funerary purpose.

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article news schedule May 20, 2025 visibility 9 link 1 artist

ilucas museum layoffs 14 percent full time staff

The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in Los Angeles has laid off 15 full-time employees (14% of its full-time staff) and seven part-time workers, primarily affecting its Learning & Engagement and Museum Services teams. The cuts also include Regan Pro, deputy director of public programs and social impact, and Bernardo Rondeau, curator of film programs. The museum, founded by George Lucas and Mellody Hobson, has faced multiple delays due to supply-chain issues, pushing its opening from 2023 to 2026, and recently underwent a leadership transition with director Sandra Jackson-Dumont stepping down.

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gavel restitution schedule May 14, 2025 visibility 11 link 2 artists

buddha gems sothebys controversy

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.

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trending_up market schedule May 13, 2025 visibility 13 link 3 artists

cryptopunks bored ape yacht club yuga labs digital art nonprofit

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.

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