Art News. Vasari Codex

museum exhibitions schedule Dec 16, 2025 visibility 18 link 5 artists

hong kong venice biennale kingsley ng angel hui

Hong Kong will send two artists, Angel Hui and Kingsley Ng, to represent the special administrative region at the 2026 Venice Biennale, marking the first time a duo has been selected. The Hong Kong Museum of Art (HKMoA) and the Hong Kong Arts Development Council (HKADC) are collaborating for the first time on the presentation, which will take place at the Campo della Tana as a collateral event. Hui, a gongbi ink painter born in 1991, and Ng, a media artist and associate professor born in 1980, will explore "the poetic rhythms of daily life" in dialogue with the Biennale's main exhibition theme, "In Minor Keys." The selection follows HKADC's decision in April to oust M+ museum as the exhibition's organizer, a role it had held since 2013, without citing a reason.

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article news schedule Dec 12, 2025 visibility 12 link 5 artists

blenheim palace restoration graffiti

Conservators at Blenheim Palace in the U.K. have discovered a mysterious dossier of names and phrases scratched into the ceilings of the Great Hall and Saloon by past workers, dating back to the 19th century. The graffiti was found during a £12 million ($15.9 million) restoration project led by OPUS Conservation, funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund and the Blenheim Foundation, which is also repairing paintings by Baroque artists James Thornhill and Louis Laguerre. The palace is now asking the public for help identifying the individuals behind the markings, which include names like "W Smith 1888" and "T Harwood Plasterer 1843."

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gavel restitution schedule Dec 12, 2025 visibility 14 link 2 artists

us turkey sculptures repatriated aaron mendelsohn

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office has successfully repatriated eight life-sized Roman sculptures that were illegally removed from Bubon, Turkey, 60 years ago. The sculptures, part of a shrine honoring Roman emperors, were sold to Americans by Turkish villagers in the 1960s without required permits. After a two-year legal battle involving two lawsuits and an arrest warrant, the final sculpture—a headless bronze piece—was surrendered by collector Aaron Mendelsohn, who had acquired it for $1.33 million. The sculpture was returned to Turkish officials at a ceremony hosted by Bragg's office, alongside dozens of other looted Turkish antiquities, including a marble head of Demosthenes seized from the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

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gavel restitution schedule Dec 11, 2025 visibility 13 link 3 artists

virginia museum fine arts repatriate turkey

The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (VMFA) in Richmond has repatriated 41 terracotta relief fragments valued at approximately $400,000 to Turkey. The works, acquired by the museum in the 1970s from Summa Galleries and antiquities dealer Harlan J. Berk, were determined to have been illegally excavated from a 6th-century B.C.E. Phrygian temple. The repatriation followed an investigation by the Antiquities Trafficking Unit of the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, which presented evidence of illicit excavation and illegal export to the museum.

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article policy schedule Dec 9, 2025 visibility 22 link 3 artists

moma ps1 free admission sonya yu gift

MoMA PS1 in New York will eliminate admission fees for all visitors starting in 2026, funded by a gift from collector and creative strategist Sonya Yu. The three-year initiative coincides with the museum's 50th anniversary and expands its existing free admission for New Yorkers to everyone. Director Connie Butler said the goal is to remove barriers and welcome broader audiences, including families with strollers, while Yu cited her own experience as a Chinese immigrant to explain her motivation.

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museum exhibitions schedule Dec 9, 2025 visibility 16 link 1 artist

saya woolfalk empathic universe

New York-based artist Saya Woolfalk is the subject of her first retrospective, "Saya Woolfalk: Empathic Universe," at the Museum of Arts and Design (MAD) in New York. The exhibition, curated by Alexandra Schwarz, runs from April 12 to September 7, 2025, and surveys two decades of Woolfalk's multidisciplinary practice, which blends science fiction, fantasy, and critical examinations of race, science, anthropology, and identity. The show is organized into chapters highlighting major projects, including her fictional "Empathics"—a race of women who can fuse with plants—and features sculptures, video, painting, works on paper, a commissioned audio drama, and live dance performances.

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trending_up market schedule Dec 9, 2025 visibility 15 link 4 artists, 1 gallery

work of the week pieter brueghel the younger

Pieter Brueghel the Younger's painting *The Census at Bethlehem* sold for £5.2 million ($6.9 million) at Sotheby’s Old Master and 19th Century Paintings evening auction in London on December 3, exceeding its £3 million low estimate. The unsigned, undated oil-on-panel work, kept in the same collection for nearly 40 years, was the third-highest seller of the night. The auction overall achieved £30.7 million ($40.5 million), led by Rembrandt's *Saint John on Patmos* at £6.8 million, and Sotheby’s reported a nearly 50% increase in its Old Masters division sales this year.

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article news schedule Dec 9, 2025 visibility 18 link 5 artists

professor terminated art history paintings muhammad

An adjunct professor at Hamline University in St. Paul, Minnesota, Erika López Prater, lost her job after showing her art history class two Medieval paintings depicting the Prophet Muhammad during an online lecture on October 6, 2022. She issued a content warning before displaying the images, which came from a 14th-century manuscript by Rashīd al-Dīn and a 16th-century work by Mustafa ibn Vali. A student, Aram Wedatalla, complained, and the university's administration, including associate vice president David Everett, decided not to renew her contract, calling the incident Islamophobic. The decision has sparked widespread debate, with a Change.org petition signed by over 2,500 scholars and a condemnation from PEN America.

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museum exhibitions schedule Dec 8, 2025 visibility 15 link 5 artists, 1 gallery

jack butcher self checkout abmb

Artist Jack Butcher (b. 1988) debuted his first-ever booth at Art Basel Miami Beach, titled *Self Checkout*, where he sells art—literally receipts—on a pay-what-you-wish model. Each receipt includes a seed phrase creating a custodial Ethereum wallet holding a digital copy, but the NFT cannot be sold; it merely proves ownership of the physical receipt. The project features a real-time tracker showing his progress toward recouping the $74,211 total cost of the booth, with purchases made at self-checkout kiosks or online in Ethereum. By the fair's second day, the amount needed had dropped to $33,103.56, and Butcher was optimistic about breaking even. If the countdown hits zero, he will auction the flip board and receipt case as a one-of-one sculpture.

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trending_up market schedule Dec 8, 2025 visibility 24 link 9 artists, 1 gallery

art market minute dec 8

The article reports strong sales across Miami art fairs, particularly at Art Basel Miami Beach, where Beeple's "Regular Animals"—robotic dogs with hyper-realistic heads of billionaires—were a major attraction in the new digital art section Zero10. It also notes that three art-world heavyweights are launching a new gallery focused on secondary market sales, and that the Art Dealers Association of America is launching a new art fair after canceling its long-running Art Show.

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article policy schedule Dec 4, 2025 visibility 20 link 4 artists

perez art museum miami gift 7 million caribbean cultural institute

The Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM) has announced two major gifts totaling $7 million for its Caribbean Cultural Institute (CCI). The Mellon Foundation contributed an additional $2 million, while the Green Family Foundation (GFF) donated $5 million, leading to the institute's renaming as the Green Family Foundation Caribbean Cultural Institute. The funds will support operating expenses and the endowment of the CCI, which was originally established in 2019 with a $1 million Mellon grant. The Green Family Foundation, founded by Steven J. Green and Dorothea Green, has deep philanthropic roots in Miami, including ties to Florida International University and local art initiatives. Current CCI fellows include artist M. Florine Démosthène, writer Rianna Jade Parker, and anthropologist Celia Irina González.

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museum exhibitions schedule Dec 3, 2025 visibility 18 link 7 artists

bjork echolalia iceland gallery

Björk, the Icelandic pop icon and multidisciplinary artist, is opening an exhibition of immersive works titled "Echolalia" at the National Gallery of Iceland, coinciding with the 2026 Reykjavik Arts Festival. The show features installations tied to her forthcoming album and her 2022 album Fossora, including "Ancestress" and "Sorrowful Soil," the latter a tribute to her late mother. Simultaneously, the museum will host "Metamorphlings," the first museum retrospective for James Merry, the embroiderer behind many of Björk's masks, presenting over 80 works from the past decade.

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trending_up market schedule Dec 3, 2025 visibility 16 link 4 artists, 1 gallery

adaa art fair

The Art Dealers Association of America (ADAA) has announced a new art fair, the ADAA Fair, set to take place at the Park Avenue Armory from November 12–16, 2026. This follows the cancellation of the 2025 edition of its long-running Art Show, prompted by the end of a partnership with the charity Henry Street Settlement, which had hosted the fair's VIP opening as a fundraiser. The ADAA plans to refocus on supporting visual arts and museums, with the ADAA Foundation continuing to provide grants to U.S. institutions.

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article culture schedule Dec 1, 2025 visibility 14 link 3 artists

art bites michelangelo military fortifications

Michelangelo, best known for masterpieces like the Sistine Chapel ceiling and the Pietà, also served as the governor and procurator general of fortifications for Florence in 1529, tasked with designing military defenses against the Medici family. After the Medici were expelled in 1527, Michelangelo joined the "Nine of the Militia" committee, but his overly complex drawings were so impractical that almost none were built. The Medici, backed by Pope Clement VII, successfully besieged Florence in 1529–30, forcing Michelangelo into hiding in a secret chamber beneath the Medici Chapel, where he drew figurative works rediscovered in 1975. He was eventually pardoned and went on to create major commissions like the tomb of Pope Julius II and The Last Judgement, but left Florence for Rome in 1534.

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article news schedule Nov 27, 2025 visibility 14 link 2 artists

tate strike

More than 100 staff members at the Tate galleries in England began an indefinite strike on August 18, 2020, protesting the institution's plan to cut over 300 jobs from its commercial arm, Tate Enterprises. The PCS union voted overwhelmingly in favor of striking after Tate confirmed 313 redundancies, citing anticipated revenue loss from a long-term drop in visitor numbers due to the pandemic. Workers are demanding that 10% of government bailout funds be invested in Tate commerce, that no redundancies occur while senior staff earn six-figure salaries, and that Tate push for more government aid. The strike has closed several Tate gift shops, with picketing scheduled through August 22 and an indefinite strike from August 24.

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article news schedule Nov 26, 2025 visibility 17 link 2 artists

david adjaye speaks against sexual misconduct allegations

David Adjaye has publicly spoken out against the sexual misconduct allegations made against him in 2023, calling a Financial Times article that detailed the claims “deeply unfair” and claiming he was caught in a “#MeToo slam.” In an interview with architecture critic Tim Abrahams for the podcast Superhumanism, reported by Dezeen, Adjaye said the FT story destabilized confidence in him and that there was no interest in hearing his side. He did not explain why he believed the reporting was unfair, despite having declined to comment to multiple outlets at the time. The allegations, which included sexual harassment and assault claims from three women, led several institutions to cut ties with Adjaye, most notably the Studio Museum in Harlem, which had just opened a new building designed by his firm.

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person people schedule Nov 26, 2025 visibility 14 link 5 artists

pulitzer critic christopher knight retires los angeles times

Christopher Knight, the Pulitzer Prize-winning art critic for the Los Angeles Times, is retiring after a 45-year career in criticism, including 36 years at the newspaper. His final day is Friday. Knight, one of the few remaining full-time art critics in American journalism, was praised by colleagues for his encyclopedic knowledge and razor-sharp assessments. He won the Pulitzer Prize for criticism in 2020, notably for a series of articles that harshly critiqued the Los Angeles County Museum of Art's (LACMA) proposed redesign by architect Peter Zumthor. He also received a lifetime achievement award from the Dorothea and Leo Rabkin Foundation in 2020, and the College Art Association's Frank Jewett Mather Award in 1997. Before his journalism career, Knight worked as a curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego and consulted for the Lannan Foundation and the Smithsonian Institution's Archives of American Art.

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article culture schedule Nov 26, 2025 visibility 15 link 7 artists

david adjaye me too studio museum princeton west african

The article reflects on the #MeToo movement's failure to achieve lasting change, using the case of architect David Adjaye as a central example. Adjaye was accused in 2023 by three women of sexual exploitation, harassment, and creating a hostile work environment at his firm, Adjaye Associates, allegations he denied. Despite initial backlash—including termination from projects like Westminster's Holocaust Memorial—many clients quietly resumed working with him, illustrating a broader pattern of institutional cowardice.

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trending_up market schedule Nov 25, 2025 visibility 17 link 1 artist

michelangelo drawing sistine chapel christies new york

A five-inch-tall red chalk drawing of a foot, attributed to Michelangelo (1475–1564), is set to be auctioned at Christie’s New York in February with an estimate of $1.5–2 million. The work was discovered when Giada Damen, a specialist in Old Master drawings at Christie’s, flagged it from a public online submission; after extensive provenance research, technical analysis, and comparison with known sketches, Christie’s has declared it a preparatory study for the Sistine Chapel ceiling (1508–1512). If authenticated, it would be one of only two such Michelangelo drawings remaining in private hands.

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trending_up market schedule Nov 24, 2025 visibility 19 link 2 artists

sothebys hong kong sells 125 works from japans okada museum for 88 m so founder can settle 50 m legal bill

Sotheby's Hong Kong sold 125 works from Japan's Okada Museum of Art in a white-glove auction on Saturday, netting $88 million (plus fees). The sale set auction records for Japanese artists Kitagawa Utamaro and Hokusai, with Utamaro's *Fukagawa in Snow* fetching $7.1 million and Hokusai's *The Great Wave Off the Coast of Kanagawa* selling for $2.8 million. The collection was sold by museum founder Kazuo Okada, an 83-year-old billionaire, to settle a $50 million legal bill stemming from a long-running feud with casino magnate Steve Wynn. Okada's law firm, Bartlit Beck, successfully pursued the fee in binding arbitration after Okada contested the amount.

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trending_up market schedule Nov 24, 2025 visibility 27 link 13 artists

art auction new york record breaking

Gustav Klimt's *Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer* (1914-16) sold for $236.4 million at Sotheby's on November 18, becoming the second-most expensive painting ever sold at auction and the most expensive work ever sold by the house. The sale was part of New York's marquee November auctions, which generated over $2 billion in a single week—more than 50 percent above last year's total—driven by high-profile estates including that of cosmetics heir Leonard A. Lauder. Other notable sales included Mark Rothko's *No. 31 (Yellow Stripe)* for $62.2 million at Christie's, Marc Chagall's *Le songe du Roi David* for $26.5 million, and Frida Kahlo's *El sueño (La cama)* for $55 million, setting a new record for the artist and the highest sum for a work by a female artist at auction. Phillips also sold a juvenile Triceratops skeleton named CERA for $5.4 million.

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gavel restitution schedule Nov 14, 2025 visibility 12 link 2 artists

met repatriates painting korea buddhist temple korean war

The Metropolitan Museum of Art has returned an 18th-century Korean painting, *The Tenth King of Hell* (1798), to Sinheungsa Temple in Sokcho, South Korea. The work, part of a ten-panel series called *Siwangdo* depicting kings of the afterlife, was illicitly taken from the temple in 1954 during the U.S. military presence after the Korean War. The Met purchased the painting in 2007 from a collector via an LLC linked to Bonhams’s Chinese art head. The repatriation was coordinated with the Sokcho Committee for the Return of Cultural Heritage and the Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism. Six other panels were previously returned by LACMA in 2020; three remain abroad.

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museum exhibitions schedule Nov 12, 2025 visibility 16 link 7 artists

moma ps1 2026 greater new york 50th annivesary

MoMA PS1 has announced details for the 2026 edition of Greater New York, its quinquennial survey of art made in and around New York City, coinciding with the institution's 50th anniversary. Unlike previous editions that brought in outside curators, this iteration will be organized entirely by PS1's in-house curatorial team, led by director Connie Butler, chief curator Ruba Katrib, and associate curators Jody Graf and Elena Ketelsen González, with support from assistant curator Kari Rittenbach, curatorial assistant Sheldon Gooch, and curatorial coordinator Andrea Sánchez. The exhibition, featuring more than 50 artists, opens on April 16, 2026, though a specific theme has yet to be announced.

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museum exhibitions schedule Nov 6, 2025 visibility 16 link 4 artists, 2 galleries

art basel zero 10 digital art platform miami beach 2025

Art Basel will launch Zero 10, a new curated platform dedicated to digital art, at its Miami Beach edition in December 2025. Supported by OpenSea and curated by digital art strategist Eli Scheinman, the inaugural presentation will feature 12 international exhibitors including Art Blocks, bitforms gallery, Beeple Studios, Pace Gallery, AOTM, and Visualize Value, along with a loan of Lu Yang's DOKU – Heaven (2022) from the UBS Art Collection. The initiative takes its name from Kazimir Malevich's historic 1915 exhibition 0,10 and will run from December 5–7, 2025, with VIP previews on December 3–4, before expanding to other Art Basel fairs in 2026.

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article culture schedule Nov 5, 2025 visibility 24 link 21 artists

art film tina kukielski art21 documentary

Art21, the nonprofit documentary platform behind the PBS series *Art in the Twenty-First Century*, is celebrating its 25th anniversary and the 12th season of its Peabody Award-winning series. In an interview with *CULTURED*, Executive Director and Chief Curator Tina Kukielski discusses how the organization has evolved from its early days in 2001 to embrace digital platforms like YouTube and TikTok, producing over 575 films featuring more than 300 artists. The organization also offers educational programming through Art21 Educators and makes its archive freely available to a global audience of five million.

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museum exhibitions schedule Oct 31, 2025 visibility 13 link 7 artists

vaginal davis moma ps1

The article profiles artist Vaginal Davis and her exhibition "Magnificent Product" at MoMA PS1, which opened shortly after the author visited. Davis, born in 1961, is described as a transformative figure who repurposes fragments of popular culture—from classic Hollywood to gay porn—to create immersive, queer alternate realities. The show includes works like *The Wicked Pavillion* (with *Fantasia Library* and *Tween Bedroom*, both 2021) and a collaboration with Jonathan Berger titled *Naked on my Ozgoad: Fausthaus—Anal Deep Throat* (2024–ongoing). Davis's practice is characterized by a playful, femme-centered critique of mainstream culture, centering Black women and inverting traditional gazes.

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article news schedule Oct 28, 2025 visibility 19 link 6 artists

curators museum directors offer support in letter to louvre

Fifty-seven curators and museum directors, including Christophe Cherix of MoMA and Michael Govan of LACMA, signed an open letter published by Le Monde expressing solidarity with Louvre director Laurence des Cars following the theft of the museum's crown jewels. The letter emphasizes that museums are not immune to global violence and that such thefts represent a profound fear for museum professionals, while reaffirming that museums must remain open and accessible despite security risks.

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article news schedule Oct 23, 2025 visibility 13 link 2 artists

french culture ministry admits stolen louvre jewels valued at 102 m are not insured

Masked thieves stole jewels once belonging to Emperor Napoleon III and Empress Eugénie from the Louvre in a daylight smash-and-grab, using a furniture lift to access the first floor and cutting into display cases. The stolen items, including a diamond-encrusted brooch, diadems, necklaces, and the empress's crown (which was dropped during the escape), are valued at $102 million. French officials have admitted the loot is not privately insured, meaning the state will not be reimbursed if the items are not recovered. Louvre director Laurence des Cars blamed a "terrible failure" in security, offered her resignation (which was refused), and acknowledged staff did not detect the thieves soon enough.

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museum exhibitions schedule Oct 22, 2025 visibility 17 link 2 artists

es devlin library faena art basel miami beach

British artist and designer Es Devlin, known for stage designs for U2 and Kendrick Lamar, has created a 50-foot-tall revolving library titled 'The Library of Us' for the 10th anniversary of the Faena hotel and cultural complex in Miami Beach. The installation, presented during Art Basel Miami Beach, contains 2,500 books that have influenced Devlin, with visitors able to sit on revolving stools and read. Phrases from 250 books will appear on an LED screen accompanied by Devlin's voice. After the installation closes on December 9, all books will be donated to Miami organizations including public libraries and schools.

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article news schedule Oct 15, 2025 visibility 19 link 4 artists

taylor swift fans friedrich heyser ophelia wiesbaden state museum germany

Taylor Swift fans have flocked to the Wiesbaden State Museum in Germany to see Friedrich Heyser's painting 'Ophelia' (ca. 1900), which the singer referenced in the opening scene of her music video for the song 'The Fate of Ophelia' from her album 'The Life of a Showgirl'. The museum saw hundreds of additional visitors last weekend, with director Andreas Henning expressing surprise and delight at the attention.

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