Swiss businessman and former diplomat Uli Sigg has spent over three decades assembling one of the largest private collections of contemporary Chinese art, comprising thousands of works. Artist Ai Weiwei has referred to Sigg as “my maker,” highlighting the collector’s pivotal role in promoting Chinese contemporary art on the global stage.
A Parisian software salesman, Christophe Dothen, won a 1921 oil painting by Pablo Picasso titled 'Nature Morte' in a charity raffle. The raffle, which sold tickets for 100 euros each, raised over $5 million for the international charity Abridge, which provides clean water to villages in Africa.
An extremely rare original 1993 exhibition poster for a posthumous Jean-Michel Basquiat solo show at FAE Musée d'Art Contemporain in Pully-Lausanne, Switzerland is being offered for sale by Graves International Art. The offset-lithograph poster, featuring Basquiat's untitled 1982 painting, was designed by Pierre Neumann and comes from a private collection in Hamburg, Germany. The listing notes that no other example of this poster has appeared on the secondary market or at auction before, and it is issued unsigned and posthumous.
Cowley Abbott Fine Art, a Toronto-based auction house, has opened its first permanent western Canada gallery in Calgary's East Village. The new space launches with a three-day public preview of museum-quality artworks heading to its Spring Live Auction on May 27 at the Globe and Mail Centre in Toronto. Highlights include rare works by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Vincent van Gogh, Emily Carr, and members of the Group of Seven such as Lawren Harris and A.Y. Jackson. Among the standout pieces is Emily Carr's 1936 canvas "Wind," estimated at $500,000 to $700,000, and a Lawren Harris painting valued similarly. The gallery aims to attract both collectors and casual visitors, with Peter Ohler, Western Canada Representative and Director of Private Sales, emphasizing that the space is open to anyone interested in art.
Gallery One in Ocean View is organizing a curated bus excursion to the Philadelphia Museum of Art for the landmark exhibition "A Nation of Artists." Scheduled for April 27, the trip offers participants a guided opportunity to view a massive survey of American creativity spanning three centuries, featuring masterworks by iconic figures such as Mary Cassatt, Edward Hopper, and Mark Rothko.
The Memorial Art Gallery (MAG) in Rochester has launched a series of new installations, headlined by the exhibition "Picasso and the Progressive Proof: Linocuts from a Private Collection." This show provides an intimate look at Pablo Picasso’s late-career printmaking innovations, specifically focusing on the evolution of three major linocuts through their various proofs. Additionally, the museum has debuted Rashid Johnson’s 2019 film "The Hikers" and several new contemporary acquisitions, including works by Donald Moffett and Hugo McCloud, while its major Impressionism survey enters its final days.
Tate Modern in London has opened 'Nigerian Modernism,' a major exhibition tracing the modern art movement in Nigeria from the 1940s through the post-independence era. Spanning 50 years, the show features over 250 works by more than 50 artists, including Jimo Akolo, El Anatsui, Nike Davies-Okundaye, Uzo Egonu, Ibrahim El-Salahi, Ben Enwonwu, Ladi Kwali, Aina Onabolu, Bruce Onobrakpeya, Uche Okeke, and Obiora Udechukwu. Curated by Osei Bonsu and Bilal Akkouche, the exhibition draws from Tate’s holdings and public and private collections across Africa, the United States, and Europe, and runs from October 8, 2025 to May 10, 2026.
An exhibition titled "Frederic Church in Vermont" brings together over forty graphite drawings, oil sketches, and finished paintings by the American landscape painter Frederic Church, created during his visits to Vermont over thirty years. The works, drawn from public and private collections including Olana State Historic Site, the Yale University Art Gallery, and the Newark Museum of Art, trace Church's development from an aspiring student to a mature artist following the death of his mentor Thomas Cole in 1848.
Christie's will offer three early paintings by Lucian Freud from a single private collection at its London evening sale on 15 October, with a combined estimate of £13m to £20m. The works span three decades of Freud's career: *Woman with a Tulip* (1944, est. £3m-£5m), *Self-portrait Fragment* (around 1956, est. £8m-£12m), and *Sleeping Head* (1961–71, est. £2m-£3m). All three have been in the same collection for many years and have been exhibited widely, including in major retrospectives at the National Gallery, London, and the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.
En images : les grands moments de la Biennale de Venise 2026
The 2026 Venice Biennale, titled "In Minor Keys" and curated by Koyo Kouoh, opened on May 9, 2026, at the Arsenale and Giardini venues. Kouoh, who died suddenly in May 2025 at age 57, conceived the event as a counterpoint to global noise and fury, inviting visitors to slow down and tune into minor tonalities. The exhibition features works addressing colonial memory, slavery, and Gaza, with a team of four curators executing her vision. Highlights include Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons's tribute to Kouoh and Toni Morrison, Hala Schoukair's installation, and Gabrielle Goliath's "Elegy," alongside collateral shows like the Dries van Noten Foundation at Palazzo Pisani Moretta and the Victor Pinchuk Foundation's "Still Joy – from Ukraine into the World."
Festival du dessin d’Arles : ce qu’il ne faut surtout pas rater pour cette quatrième édition
The fourth edition of the Arles Drawing Festival has opened, featuring over forty exhibitions across the city. The highlights include two major private drawing collections being publicly presented: Marin Karmitz's collection, displayed at the Sainte-Anne church under the title "Et la vie continue…", and the Collezione Ramo from Milan, showcased at the Museon Arlaten chapel as part of a focus on Italian art.
SFMOMA is hosting a free community day on Sunday, May 24, 2026, offering free admission to all visitors. The event includes access to the museum's permanent collections and a newly opened temporary exhibition titled "Matisse’s Femme au chapeau: A Modern Scandal," centered on Henri Matisse's iconic painting. The museum also features the recently reimagined Fisher Collection, with nearly 250 works on view, and a year-round free gallery space spanning 45,000 square feet.
The Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Massachusetts, announced an upcoming exhibition titled “An Exquisite Eye: Introducing the Aso O. Tavitian Collection,” on view from June 13, 2025, through February 21, 2027. The show features approximately 150 works from the Tavitian Collection, a major private collection of European art assembled by the late collector and philanthropist Aso O. Tavitian. Spanning c. 1450–1850, the exhibition includes paintings, sculpture, drawings, and decorative arts by artists such as Jan van Eyck, Jean-Antoine Houdon, and Elizabeth Louise Vigée-Lebrun. The collection, comprising 331 objects, was donated to the Clark and will eventually be housed in a new wing designed by Selldorf Architects, set to open in 2028.
The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH) is hosting "Picasso-Klee-Matisse: Masterpieces from the Museum Berggruen" from May 20 to September 13, 2026. The exhibition features dozens of works by Pablo Picasso, Paul Klee, and Henri Matisse from the private collection of dealer and collector Heinz Berggruen, on loan from the Museum Berggruen – Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin. The show is organized thematically—portraits, landscapes, still life, and the human figure—and includes paintings, drawings, collages, sculptures, and archival materials, alongside pieces from MFAH's own collection. It has already attracted over 1 million visitors on its international tour.
The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (VMFA) announced a major gift of 1,986 photographs from Joy of Giving Something, Inc. (JGS), a nonprofit founded by financier Howard Stein. The donation includes works by over 450 artists, spanning the 19th century to the present, with highlights such as rare daguerreotypes by Joseph-Philibert Girault de Prangey, prints by Gustave Le Gray and Eugène Atget, and significant holdings in American documentary photography from figures like Dorothea Lange and Walker Evans. The gift follows an earlier 2023 donation of portfolios and series, and positions VMFA to open five new photography galleries in 2027 as part of its expansion.
Christie’s New York kicked off its 20th and 21st Century Art sales week on 18 May 2026 with a record-shattering evening, generating over $1.12 billion across two sales: Masterpieces: The Private Collection of S.I. Newhouse and the 20th Century Evening Sale. The top lot was Jackson Pollock’s *Number 7A, 1948*, which sold for $181.2 million, setting a new auction record for the artist. Other artist records were set for Constantin Brancusi, Joan Miró, Alice Neel, and Mark Rothko. The S.I. Newhouse collection alone achieved $631 million, selling 100% of lots, and its cumulative total across four Christie’s sales reached $1.05 billion, making it the second-highest collection ever sold at auction after Paul Allen’s.
The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH) is hosting the U.S. debut of a major collection of masterworks by Pablo Picasso, Paul Klee, and Henri Matisse, assembled by the Berggruen family. The exhibition brings together iconic paintings, drawings, and sculptures from one of the most renowned private collections of modern art, offering American audiences a first look at works that have rarely been seen outside Europe.
The Floyd Memorial Library in Greenport, New York, has opened a new exhibition titled "Stow Wengenroth + The Flacks: The Greenport Group," featuring works by lithographer Stow Wengenroth, his wife Edith Flack Ackley, and her sister Marjorie Flack. The show includes Wengenroth's lithographs, watercolors, and drawings, alongside Ackley's handmade dolls and books, and Flack's children's books, many on loan from the private collection of Joanna Lane. The exhibition opened on April 24 and highlights the artistic legacy of these former Greenport residents.
The National Gallery in London will stage its first exhibition of modern German paintings, 'German Expressionism: Modern Painting 1900–1918', in spring 2027, before traveling to the National Gallery of Ireland in Dublin in autumn 2027. This is the first UK and Ireland exhibition since the 1960s to cover both key Expressionist groups, Die Brücke and Der Blaue Reiter, featuring over fifty international loans from institutions such as Berlin's Neue Nationalgalerie, Brücke Museum, and the Art Institute of Chicago, alongside works from private collections.
The United States is marking its 250th anniversary in 2026 with a major collaborative exhibition titled *A Nation of Artists*, presented simultaneously at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) and the Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMA). The show features over 1,000 works—paintings, photographs, sculptures, and decorative arts—spanning from the late 18th century to the present, including more than 120 rarely seen pieces from the Middleton Family Collection, one of the country's most significant private holdings of American art. PAFA organizes the works thematically around westward expansion, industrialization, and globalization, while PMA, celebrating its 150th anniversary, presents a chronological survey from 1700 to 1960, highlighting international exchange, technological innovation, and shifting cultural economics.
The iconic Rocky Balboa statue, long stationed outside the Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMA), is being moved indoors for a new exhibition titled "Rising Up: Rocky and the Making of Monuments." Opening this weekend, the show examines how the fictional boxer and his statue became a symbol of Philadelphia's identity, tracing over two millennia of artists' engagement with boxing and celebrity. The exhibition includes works by Jean-Michel Basquiat and Andy Warhol alongside the bronze statue, which attracts roughly 4 million visitors annually. After the exhibit ends in August, the city's statue will be permanently relocated to the top of the museum steps, replacing a temporary loan from Sylvester Stallone's private collection. A new statue honoring legendary Philadelphia boxer "Smokin'" Joe Frazier is being built at the statue's original location.
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The Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego is hosting "Giants: Art from the Dean Collection of Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys," an exhibition featuring over 130 works by 37 Black American and diasporic artists. The show, which began at the Brooklyn Museum in 2024, includes pieces by Jean-Michel Basquiat, Gordon Parks, Mickalene Thomas, and Derrick Adams, and was celebrated with a preview party attended by the collectors and their creative community.
The Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris has launched "Calder: rêver en équilibre," a massive retrospective featuring over 300 works by the American modernist Alexander Calder. The exhibition spans the artist's entire career, from his early engineering-influenced "Circus" performances and hand-wrought jewelry to his iconic suspended mobiles and monumental outdoor sculptures. Notably, the show marks the first time the Frank Gehry-designed institution has installed artworks on its exterior lawns, creating a dialogue between Calder’s geometric forms and the building's avant-garde architecture.
The Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego (MCASD) is debuting "Giants," a major exhibition featuring over 130 works from the private collection of Kasseem "Swizz Beatz" Dean and Alicia Keys. The West Coast premiere showcases monumental paintings, sculptures, and installations by nearly 40 Black artists, including Kehinde Wiley, Mickalene Thomas, and Nick Cave. The show is organized around themes of scale and cultural impact, beginning with personal artifacts from the Deans' early careers before transitioning into significant contemporary masterpieces.
Penny Cooper and Rena Rosenwasser, a Berkeley-based couple, are debuting their private collection of women artists at the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA). Titled "Rhapsody: Works from the Cooper Rosenwasser Collection," the exhibition features highlights from a half-century of collecting, including works by Marlene Dumas, Nicole Eisenman, and Jacqueline Humphries. The show coincides with the couple's significant donation of nearly 150 artworks to the museum, marking the first time these pieces have been displayed outside their home.
John Middleton, the billionaire owner of the Philadelphia Phillies, is channeling his competitive drive into the acquisition of 19th-century American masterpieces. His private collection, which features prominent works by Andrew Wyeth, Winslow Homer, and Thomas Eakins, has quietly become one of the most significant of its kind in the United States. Middleton’s approach to collecting mirrors his sports management style, focusing on "blue-chip" historical significance and technical mastery.
The Artistic Museum of Contemporary Art (AMOCA) is launching its second pop-up exhibition, "Dialogues Wales: New Voices from the Museum Collection," at Cardiff’s Temple of Peace. Running from April 15 to 18, the show highlights women and nonbinary artists from the private collection of co-founder Anders Hedlund, featuring over forty international and local figures including Shani Rhys James, Ewa Juszkiewicz, and Lynda Benglis.
The Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMA) and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) have launched "A Nation of Artists," a massive collaborative exhibition marking the United States' 250th anniversary. Spanning 20,000 square feet across both institutions, the show features over 1,000 works ranging from 18th-century portraiture and Hudson River School landscapes to contemporary pieces by local artists. The exhibition was catalyzed by significant loans from the private collection of Philadelphia Phillies owner John Middleton and his wife, Leigh, which filled critical gaps in the museums' permanent holdings.
The Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts (PAFA) have launched a massive joint exhibition titled "A Nation of Artists," featuring over 1,000 works spanning from 1700 to 2026. The collaboration utilizes a chronological approach at the Philadelphia Museum of Art and a thematic framework at PAFA, showcasing a diverse array of objects including colonial teapots, a New Mexican "death cart," and works by masters like Georgia O'Keeffe and Horace Pippin. The project also incorporates significant loans from the private collection of Philadelphia Phillies owner John Middleton.
Alicia Keys and Swizz Beatz have opened a major exhibition of their personal art collection at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego (MCASD). Titled "Giants: Art from the Dean Collection of Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys," the show features over 100 works by prominent Black artists, including Kehinde Wiley, Amy Sherald, Barkley L. Hendricks, and Jean-Michel Basquiat.