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.
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.
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.
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.
A team of German archaeologists from Heidelberg University has uncovered a monumental stone relief in the throne room of the North Palace of King Ashurbanipal at Nineveh, near Mosul, Iraq. The slab, measuring 5.5 meters long and 3 meters high and weighing 12 tons, depicts the last great Assyrian ruler alongside the deities Ashur and Ishtar, as well as a mythological fish genius. The discovery was announced by Professor Aaron Schmitt, who noted that no other known Assyrian palace reliefs feature major deities, making this find exceptional. The excavation is part of the Heidelberg Nineveh project, ongoing since 2018.
The Chelsea gallery Kasmin will close this autumn after 35 years of operation, transitioning into a new venture called Olney Gleason. The new gallery will be led by Kasmin president Nick Olney and senior director Eric Gleason, both longtime employees who say the move aligns with the wishes of the late founder Paul Kasmin. Olney Gleason will continue working with an unspecified number of artists and estates from Kasmin's roster, including François-Xavier and Claude Lalanne, Lee Krasner, and Jackson Pollock's estate, and will open a flagship space in Chelsea with an inaugural show this autumn.
Germany is the second-most represented country at Art Basel in Switzerland this year, with over 40 galleries participating, trailing only the United States. The fair is led by German-born director Maike Cruse, and features prominent German artists including Katharina Grosse, Martin Kippenberger, Tim Eitel, and Jana Schröder. Despite lacking mega-galleries, Germany boasts respected spaces like Galerie Max Hetzler and renowned collectors such as Reinhard Ernst, Julia Stoschek, and the Plattner family. Dealer Gerd Harry Lybke notes Germany's art market is 'very stable' compared to other locations.
Preis erinnert an Henrike Naumann – MMK übernimmt Nachlass
A new prize named after the late artist Henrike Naumann has been established by the Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen (ifa) and the Zeit Stiftung Bucerius, coinciding with her posthumous presentation at the German Pavilion of the Venice Biennale. The €15,000 Henrike-Naumann-Preis für Bildende Kunst, plus €5,000 in production funds, will be awarded regularly starting this year to early- to mid-career artists whose work engages with social transformation, political fault lines, or transnational contexts. Meanwhile, the Museum für Moderne Kunst Frankfurt (MMK) has acquired Naumann's estate, which will be catalogued and made publicly accessible to ensure her work receives long-term scholarly and curatorial attention.
Venedig im Krisenmodus
The 61st Venice Biennale has opened under extraordinary circumstances, marked by political protests, a jury resignation, and canceled awards. The Biennale's jury resigned en masse after announcing they would exclude Israeli and Russian contributions from their decisions, leading to the cancellation of the Golden Lion awards and a crisis over the international competition's legitimacy. A newly introduced audience prize also faced boycotts from artists in solidarity. Protests, closed pavilions, and pro-Palestinian actions dominated the preview days, with artists pasting protest posters directly onto their works, reflecting heightened tensions.
DHM-Hauptbau wohl bis 2031 dicht
The German Historical Museum (DHM) in Berlin will remain without its main building, the Zeughaus on Unter den Linden, until at least 2031 due to further delays in its renovation. Museum director Raphael Gross announced that a binding timeline from the property owner and the federal construction authority is not expected until 2027, and a reopening before 2031 is unrealistic. In the meantime, the museum is using its modern Pei-Bau wing to host a new exhibition titled "Objekte. Geschichte. Geschichten," featuring around 200 highlights from its collection of one million objects, including a samurai armor once gifted to Adolf Hitler and objects from a refugee shelter.
The German Pavilion at the Venice Art Biennale has been transformed into a prefabricated concrete slab building (Plattenbau) for this year's edition, designed by artists Sung Tieu and the late Henrike Naumann, who died suddenly in February at age 41 from cancer. Curator Kathleen Reinhardt described the pavilion as part of a highly political Biennale, with Tieu covering the 1938 fascist-era building with a mosaic of over three million tiles depicting a Berlin apartment block that once housed Vietnamese contract workers. Naumann's interior installation features mint-green references to Soviet barracks in East Germany, a cartography of war, and works including a relief of chairs, a curtain of chainmail, and the performance "Trümmerfrau."
Wohin im Mai?
The article, published by Monopol magazine, previews a selection of art exhibitions and biennials opening in May. Highlights include the 61st Venice Biennale, a solo show by Lina Lapelytė at Hamburger Bahnhof in Berlin (part of the CHANEL COMMISSION series), a group exhibition titled "Lebt und arbeitet in Wien. Contemporary Art from Vienna" at Kunsthalle Wien, and a presentation of Christoph Schlingensief's work "The African Twin Towers" (2005) at MAK Wien. Also featured is Maximiliane Baumgärtner's exhibition at Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen in Düsseldorf.
"Ein alter Mann, dessen Ich-Sucht keine Grenzen kennt"
More than 30 current and former jury members of the Stiftung Kunstfonds have issued a formal protest against German Culture Minister Wolfram Weimer, accusing his office of political interference and intimidation. The controversy stems from reports that the ministry requested lists of all jury members across various art institutions and bypassed jury decisions to exclude specific recipients from awards based on intelligence service reports.
Auswärtiges Amt rügt Goethe-Institut für Ausstellung
The German Foreign Office has formally reprimanded the Goethe-Institut for its involvement in an exhibition in Vilnius, Lithuania, featuring Palestinian-American artist Basma al-Sharif. The ministry stated that events organized by German cultural intermediaries must leave no doubt about the government's firm rejection of antisemitism and hatred of Israel, and demanded greater care in planning and conceptualizing such events with partners. The exhibition, "Bells and Cannons - Contemporary Art in Times of Militarization," was a collaboration between the Goethe-Institut Vilnius, the Contemporary Art Centre Vilnius, and the Berlin Academy of Arts.
Diana Campbell, Chomwan Weeraworawit, and Paris-based art advisors Samy Ghiyati and Nicolas Nahab of NG Partners organized a pizza party called Pizzalo Mundo during the Venice Biennale. Each artist contributed an ingredient from home: Rirkrit Tiravanija brought a Penang coconut base, Precious Okoyomon added flowers, Daria Kim wild honey, Tarek Atoui za'atar on hummus, Miet Warlop artichoke hearts, Tori Wrånes self-grown potatoes, and Alexa Kumiko Hatanaka fig leaf oil with yuzu salt. The event drew a crowd of curators, directors, and collectors from institutions including Tate, Musée d'Orsay, Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, MoMA, and Centre Pompidou.
Naomi Beckwith, deputy director and chief curator of the Guggenheim Museum and Foundation, has relocated to Kassel, Germany, as artistic director of Documenta 16, which opens in June 2027. The article follows her early impressions of Kassel, a city shaped by immigration and still grappling with its post-reunification identity, and touches on the political and cultural debates surrounding Documenta after controversy over antisemitic imagery in its previous edition. Beckwith is also organizing a concurrent exhibition at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, titled "Echo Delay Reverb: American Art, Francophone Thought."
Friedrich Kunath, a contemporary artist known for blending German romanticism with pop culture, has a new solo exhibition titled "Aimless Love" at Pace Gallery in Chelsea, New York, on view through December 20. The show marks his first with the mega-gallery since Pace announced representation in May, and his first New York show since 2019. Kunath, who also co-wrote Liam Gallagher's song "Everything's Electric" in 2022, gave an interview from his Los Angeles studio, discussing his creative process, studio habits, and inspirations. The article includes a studio visit format with questions about his routines, influences, and the eclectic environment he works in, featuring vintage cars, a private bar, and multiple rooms each with its own music, film, and scent.
The Louvre Museum in Paris has opened a major retrospective dedicated to Martin Schongauer (c. 1445–1491), the German engraver and painter from Colmar, bringing together a large portion of his known works. The exhibition features around one hundred pieces, including fifty engravings, five of his rare drawings, and nearly all of his attributed paintings—such as the "Virgin and Child at the Window" (c. 1480) from the Getty Museum and the "Orlier Altarpiece" (c. 1470–1475) from the Musée Unterlinden. The centerpiece is Schongauer's "Virgin of the Rose Bush" (1473), displayed at low height to reveal its botanical precision. Co-curated by Pantxika Béguerie De Paepe and Hélène Grollemund, the show also highlights Schongauer's influence on contemporaries and later artists through comparative works by Rogier van der Weyden and others.
The 2026 Venice Biennale is defined by themes of ruin and decay, with standout national pavilions exploring bodily, infrastructural, and archaeological collapse. The Slovenian Pavilion features the Nonument Group repurposing materials from past Biennales into a ruin of a mosque for Bosnian Muslim soldiers from World War I. Syria presents its first national pavilion since the Civil War, with Sara Shamma invoking Palmyra, destroyed by ISIS. Germany's pavilion, titled "Ruin," features works by Henrike Naumann (who died in February) and Sung Tieu, questioning the pavilion's fascist architecture and nationalist residue. The Austrian Pavilion, curated by Florentina Holzinger, offers a visceral performance titled "Sea World." The Biennale is also marked by the abrupt resignation of its five-member jury, who refused to consider nations charged with crimes against humanity, leading to awards being chosen by public vote. Additionally, the main exhibition "In Minor Keys" was affected by the death of its curator, Koyo Kouoh.
The German Pavilion at the 61st Venice Biennale features a dual presentation exploring the country's layered political history. Artist Sung Tieu has cloaked the pavilion's fascist-era facade with a mosaic reconstruction of a GDR housing estate for Vietnamese contract workers, where she lived as a child. Inside, the late Henrike Naumann's immersive installation 'The Home Front' uses furniture and design to stage a confrontation between East and West German domestic and political ideologies. Naumann died in February 2025 at age 41, but her fully realized concept was completed collaboratively by her partner and curator Kathleen Reinhardt.
Henrike Naumann's posthumous installation at the German Pavilion, which retains its 1938 Nazi-era fascist architecture, refuses to make the space 'cozy' by adorning windows with violently ripped domestic fabrics. The 2026 Venice Biennale is the first under president Pietrangelo Buttafuoco, associated with neo-fascist politics, and is overshadowed by controversy over his 'neutrality' policy allowing all countries to participate despite human rights concerns. The exhibition jury initially announced it would not consider pavilions from countries whose leaders are charged with crimes against humanity, then abruptly quit, leaving the situation unresolved. The US Pavilion features unimpressive blobs by Alma Allen, while the Russian Pavilion offers cut flowers and free vodka, and Andreas Angelidakis responds to fascist aesthetics at the Greek Pavilion.
Jurors from the Kunstfonds Foundation, a major German contemporary art funding body, have accused Minister of State for Culture Wolfram Weimer of attempted intimidation and political interference. The conflict erupted after Weimer requested the names of the independent jury members, a move the foundation views as a threat to artistic freedom. This follows a separate controversy where Weimer reportedly consulted domestic intelligence to exclude bookstores with left-wing leanings from a national award.
The Museum für Fotografie in Berlin is hosting a major exhibition titled "New Woman, New Vision," featuring approximately 300 photographs by 29 women associated with the Bauhaus. The show aims to dismantle the persistent myth that female students at the influential German school were restricted to the weaving workshop. By showcasing works from figures like Lucia Moholy, Ise Gropius, and Marianne Brandt, the exhibition highlights how women were integral to the school’s photographic documentation and its development as a standalone artistic medium.
A collection of over 100 photographs by German photographer Albert Scopin, taken while he lived at New York's legendary Chelsea Hotel from 1969 to 1971, has been rediscovered and published in a new book. The images, long thought lost after being sent to a German magazine in the 1970s, were unexpectedly recovered by a gallerist in 2016 and capture the hotel's eclectic residents and vibrant countercultural scene.
Egidio Marzona, the influential German-Italian collector, publisher, and patron, has died at the age of 81 in Berlin. Renowned for his intellectual approach to collecting, Marzona focused on the 20th-century avant-garde, including movements such as Bauhaus, Dada, Fluxus, and Arte Povera. Unlike traditional collectors, he prioritized the preservation of archives, letters, and ephemera alongside physical artworks, viewing the "paper trail of ideas" as essential to understanding artistic history.
German artist Heinz Mack, co-founder of the influential ZERO movement, is being celebrated with a solo exhibition at Beck and Eggeling gallery in Düsseldorf to mark his 95th birthday. The show features recent and rarely exhibited works, including ceramics, collages, and pastel drawings, demonstrating his continued exploration of light, color, and materiality.
Egidio Marzona, the influential German-Italian collector, publisher, and patron, has died at age 81 in Berlin. His vast collection focused on 20th-century avant-garde movements, from Dada and Bauhaus to Fluxus and Arte Povera, and was distinguished by its deep archival holdings of letters, diagrams, and ephemera that documented the intellectual processes behind the art.
Egypt’s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities unveiled the newly restored Colossi of Memnon, two monumental quartzite statues of Pharaoh Amenhotep III, at the entrance of his 86-acre Luxor tomb site. The restoration, led by German-Armenian archaeologist Hourig Sourouzian and involving Waseda University, the German Archaeological Institute in Cairo, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, and the World Monuments Fund, began in 2006 after decades of damage from earthquakes, floods, and looting. The team cleaned, 3D-scanned, and reassembled the statues using original fragments and new additions, also uncovering nearly 300 other sculptures and fragments. The Colossi now stand 45 feet tall, with the pharaoh depicted in royal regalia alongside smaller figures of his wives.
A pair of rare bronze buttons designed by Alberto Giacometti in 1938 for fashion designer Elsa Schiaparelli will be auctioned at Bonhams on December 16, each estimated at £5,000–£8,000. Titled "Femme aux Bras Levés," the buttons were used on garments including a coat worn by Marlene Dietrich, now in the German Cinema Museum in Berlin. Only two other examples exist, held by the Musée des Arts Décoratifs and Le Comité Giacometti. The sale also features a rare Émile Gallé vase, works by Lucie Rie, and a Tiffany Studios chandelier.
An exhibition of work by late Arte Povera artist Marisa Merz, planned for the Fridericianum museum in Kassel, Germany, has been canceled by her daughter Beatrice Merz. Beatrice, president of the Fondazione Merz, called off the show in protest of Documenta's newly adopted Code of Conduct, which uses the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism. The exhibition was originally scheduled to open in August 2025 and was replaced with a Robert Grosvenor survey. The cancellation was confirmed by Andreas Hoffmann, managing director of Documenta and the Fridericianum.