Art News. Vasari Codex

article news schedule Jul 31, 2025 visibility 11 link 2 artists

thomas kinkade foundation responds dhs morning pledge post 1234748544

The Thomas Kinkade Family Foundation has publicly condemned the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for using Kinkade's painting *Morning Pledge* in a July 1 social media post on X that included the phrase “Protect the Homeland.” The foundation stated it did not authorize the use of the artwork and that the post promotes division and xenophobia, which is antithetical to its mission. It has requested the post's removal and is consulting legal counsel. This follows similar complaints from artist Morgan Weistling, whose painting *New Life in A New Land* was used by DHS without permission, and criticism over DHS's use of John Gast's *American Progress* (1872), owned by the Autry Museum of the American West.

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gavel restitution schedule Nov 18, 2025 visibility 10 link 7 artists

felzmann holocaust auction canceled 2714396

Felzmann auction house in Neuss, Germany, canceled its planned 'System of Terror Vol II' auction of Holocaust artifacts following international pressure from groups including the International Auschwitz Committee and the European Jewish Association. The sale, which included documents, letters, and Stars of David from Nazi victims between 1933 and 1945, was condemned as exploitative by critics such as executive vice president Christoph Heubner, who called it 'a cynical and shameless undertaking.' Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski and Culture Minister Marta Cienkowska also called for restitution of the items to Poland.

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article news schedule Dec 31, 2025 visibility 11 link 1 artist

norman rockwell antifa department of homeland security 1234768466

Daisy Rockwell, granddaughter of Norman Rockwell, stated in an interview with the Bulwark that her grandfather was "antifa," pushing back against recent uses of his paintings by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Over the summer, DHS posted cropped and edited versions of Rockwell's works, including "Salute the Flag" (1971) and "Working on the Statue of Liberty" (1946), with captions urging readers to "protect your homeland" and "defend your culture." The Rockwell family had already publicly rebutted these posts in a USA Today op-ed, arguing that Rockwell would have been "devastated" to see his art used to promote persecution of immigrant communities and people of color.

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article news schedule Nov 14, 2025 visibility 13 link 5 artists

border patrol anish kapoor bean photo 1234760966

British artist Anish Kapoor's iconic sculpture *Cloud Gate* (2006), known as "the Bean," in Chicago's Millennium Park became the site of a controversial photo op on Monday, when dozens of U.S. Border Patrol agents, led by chief Gregory Bovino, gathered in front of the 110-ton piece just after dawn. The agents, armed and in fatigues, reportedly shouted "Little Village"—a predominantly Mexican American neighborhood where Border Patrol had deployed tear gas in a raid over the weekend—instead of "cheese" for the photo. Local officials, including Chicago governor J.B. Pritzker and alderman Mike Rodriguez, condemned the action, and Kapoor himself expressed horror, likening the agents to "SS Nazi troops" and calling the incident a "fascist battle cry of intimidation." Chicago artist Michael Rakowitz also denounced the shoot as a "horrible invasion and occupation."

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article news schedule Nov 4, 2025 visibility 9 link 2 artists

norman rockwell family speaks out about department of homeland security misuse of artwork 1234760017

The descendants of Norman Rockwell have publicly condemned the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for using reproductions of Rockwell's paintings on social media to promote anti-immigrant rhetoric. Since August, DHS posts on X, Instagram, and Facebook have featured Rockwell's works such as "Salute the Flag" (1971), "Working on the Statue of Liberty" (1946), and "And Daniel Boone Comes to Life on the Underwood Portable" (1923), overlaid with captions like "Protect our American way of life" and "Protect your homeland and defend your culture." The Rockwell family responded with an op-ed in USA Today, arguing that the artist would have been "devastated" by this misuse, and provided context about his later civil rights-themed works.

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article culture schedule Nov 25, 2025 visibility 11 link 3 artists

norman rockwell thanksgiving freedom from want three facts 1926485

Norman Rockwell's iconic painting "Freedom From Want" (1943), known as the quintessential Thanksgiving image, is examined through three lesser-known facts. The painting was part of a series responding to FDR's "Four Freedoms" speech, initially rejected by the military's Office of War Information before being embraced for a war bond campaign that raised over $132 million. Rockwell used friends and family as models, including his wife and the family cook, who actually prepared the turkey depicted. The work has recently returned to the spotlight: a four-panel Rockwell suite sold for $7.2 million at Heritage Auctions to the White House Historical Association, while Rockwell's family criticized the Department of Homeland Security for using his art in divisive social media posts.

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article policy schedule Mar 24, 2026 visibility 13 link 3 artists

DHS Appropriates Japanese Artist’s Work in Racist X Post

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) used a painting by Japanese artist Hiroshi Nagai in a social media post without his permission. The agency cropped his 2017 untitled beach scene and overlaid it with the text "America After 100 Million Deportations," accompanied by a caption about national peace. Nagai, 78, expressed being "at a loss" and disappointed that a government agency would use his work to promote a political message he does not endorse.

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article news schedule Jul 18, 2025 visibility 7 link 3 artists

painter morgan weistling dhs stole work social media homelands heritage 1234747748

The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) posted an image of Morgan Weistling's oil painting "New Life in A New Land" on its X account with the caption "Remember Your Homeland’s Heritage," without obtaining the artist's permission. Weistling publicly stated that the use was a violation of his copyright, expressing surprise and seeking next steps. The painting depicts a pioneer family in a covered wagon, and DHS had also recently used a Thomas Kinkade work without apparent authorization.

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article culture schedule Jul 4, 2025 visibility 8 link 4 artists

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The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) posted a painting by the late artist Thomas Kinkade titled *Morning Pledge* on social media platforms Facebook, Instagram, and X, with the caption “Protect the Homeland.” The painting depicts an idealized American small town with midcentury cars, a schoolhouse, and an American flag. Kinkade, known for mass-producing sentimental, conservative scenes and dubbed the “painter of light,” was widely dismissed by the mainstream art world as kitschy. The DHS post coincided with the opening of a new ICE detention center in the Florida Everglades, nicknamed “Alligator Alcatraz,” built to imprison immigrant detainees, and with the passage of a controversial bill expanding ICE funding while cutting healthcare and food benefits.

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article news schedule Jan 22, 2026 visibility 8

walker art center closure ice protest 1234770547

The Walker Art Center in Minneapolis will close on Friday, January 23, to participate in the Day of Truth and Freedom protest, a statewide general strike organized by local labor unions and community groups in response to increased ICE presence in Minnesota. The museum is the largest institution to join over 300 small businesses, cultural organizations, and nonprofits in shuttering for the day, citing its institutional values of community care and staff support. The closure follows ICE's Operation Metro Surge, which intensified enforcement in the Twin Cities, and the January 7 killing of U.S. citizen Renée Good by ICE agent Jonathan Ross, which sparked nationwide protests and lawsuits against the Department of Homeland Security.

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article news schedule Jul 14, 2025 visibility 8

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Officials from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) arrived at the National Museum of Puerto Rican Arts and Culture (NMPRAC) in Chicago’s Humboldt Park neighborhood on Tuesday, with between 15 and 20 DHS vehicles appearing without notice or a warrant. Museum staff reported that officers claimed to be assessing entry and exit points for undocumented immigrants at upcoming events. DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin denied the account, stating the visit was a briefing for a narcotics investigation, but security camera footage shows officers inside the museum, contradicting her statement. Local aldermen and museum leadership condemned the action as intimidation, with the museum vowing to resist and continue its community programming.

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article news schedule May 5, 2026 visibility 12 link 2 artists

1,000-year-old archaeological site bulldozed during construction of Mexico-US border wall

On 24 April, a Department of Homeland Security contractor bulldozed a 1,000-year-old intaglio—a 280ft by 50ft etching in the desert sand—during construction of the US-Mexico border wall in Arizona's Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge. The site, sacred to local Indigenous communities including the Hia-Ced O’odham, was part of a UNESCO biosphere and contained over 3,000 petroglyphs. Despite warnings from tribal members and refuge staff, the contractor destroyed a 70ft stretch of the fish-shaped intaglio, which elders and archaeologists describe as an irreplaceable cultural and archaeological treasure.

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gavel restitution schedule Dec 10, 2025 visibility 11 link 2 artists

san francisco asian art museum returns sculptures thailand 1234766049

Four ancient bronze sculptures illegally removed from Thailand in the 1960s have been repatriated from San Francisco’s Asian Art Museum to their original home in Thailand, following an investigation led by the US Department of Homeland Security. The works, which were featured in the museum’s 2024 exhibition “Moving Objects: Learning from Local and Global Communities,” were linked to convicted antiquities trafficker Douglas Latchford and had been acquired by the museum’s founding collector Avery Brundage. The Asian Art Commission unanimously approved the return after a two-stage voting process that began in September 2024 and concluded in April 2025.

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gavel restitution schedule Apr 30, 2026 visibility 15 link 3 artists

U.S. Returns Hundreds of Looted Antiquities to Italy

U.S. officials formally returned 337 looted antiquities, archival materials, and artworks to Italy during a ceremony at Rome’s La Marmora barracks. The objects, spanning from the Villanovan era (900–700 B.C.E.) through the Hellenistic period (323–31 B.C.E.), include Etruscan, Greek, Italic, and Egyptian artifacts. The repatriation was coordinated by Italy’s Carabinieri Command for the Protection of Cultural Heritage, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Department of Homeland Security, and the office of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg Jr. Key items include a marble head of Alexander the Great, a bronze sculpture from Herculaneum, and Egyptian basalt sculptures. Some 221 objects were recovered via the Manhattan DA, while the remaining 116 were secured with help from Christie’s.

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museum exhibitions schedule Jun 20, 2025 visibility 7 link 4 artists

Art x Climate Gallery triumphs at the Smithsonian

The article reports that the Art x Climate Gallery has achieved a notable success at the Smithsonian Institution, though the specific details of the triumph are obscured by a security verification page that blocks access to the full content. The gallery, which likely focuses on the intersection of art and climate change, appears to have been recognized or celebrated within the Smithsonian's prestigious museum network.

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article news schedule Jul 11, 2025 visibility 8

national museum of puerto rican arts and culture homeland security 1234747283

Agents from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) arrived at the National Museum of Puerto Rican Arts & Culture in Chicago on Tuesday, with at least 15 DHS vehicles occupying the museum's parking lot for nearly two hours. Museum staff reported that an agent entered the building under the pretense of using the bathroom but instead looked around and refused to leave when asked. Museum president Billy Ocasio described the incident as intimidating, comparing it to "Gestapo-style" tactics, and staff expressed fear. DHS later denied targeting the museum, stating the vehicles were staging for a narcotics investigation, but museum officials and local Representative Delia Ramirez criticized the lack of identification and the intimidating show of force.

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article policy schedule Jun 2, 2025 visibility 8

us art schools international students 1234743928

The Trump administration threatened to block Harvard University from enrolling international students and revoked its SEVIS certification, a move frozen within 24 hours by a judge. The administration also announced plans to aggressively revoke visas of Chinese students, raising concerns for US art schools, which are heavily dependent on international enrollees—many with higher percentages of international students than Harvard, such as the School of Visual Arts (50%), Parsons School of Design (35%), and CalArts (30%).

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article news schedule Dec 5, 2025 visibility 8 link 1 artist

‘People didn’t believe it was real’: Indigenous artists push to shut the Everglades migrant-detention facility Alligator Alcatraz

Miccosukee and Seminole artists, culture-bearers, and youth organizers are protesting the opening of a migrant-detention facility nicknamed Alligator Alcatraz at the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport in Big Cypress National Preserve, Florida. In July, a communal action coordinated with the collective Unidos Immokalee included ceremony, dance, sign-making, and distribution of supplies, with participants like Kendal Osceola and Maeanna Osceola speaking out against the facility, which they see as colonial violence on ancestral lands. The facility, run by Florida’s Division of Emergency Management in partnership with the US Department of Homeland Security, opened on 3 July and has faced legal challenges, including a temporary halt to construction by a federal judge in August, though a September appeals panel stayed the shutdown order.

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article culture schedule Mar 16, 2026 visibility 12

The Tender Work of Preserving Renee Good’s Memorial

A traveling photojournalist, Ryan Vizzions, has halted his cross-country project to become the archivist and caretaker of a sprawling memorial for Renee Good, a poet and mother killed by federal immigration agents in Minneapolis. Vizzions is photographing, digitizing, and preserving hundreds of objects left at the site, storing fragile items in a secret location, and protecting the memorial from vandalism and the elements.

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museum exhibitions schedule Dec 6, 2025 visibility 7 link 3 artists

Artists protest Alligator Alcatraz at Scope Art Show

At the Scope Art Show in Miami, Amnesty International has presented an installation titled "Cruelty Is Their Point—But Another World is Possible" featuring works by artists Agua Dulce Gloriosa and Clarence James. The project protests the notorious migrant-detention facility in the Everglades nicknamed Alligator Alcatraz, which opened in July 2025 and is operated by Florida’s Division of Emergency Management in partnership with the US Department of Homeland Security. The installation includes an altar-like piece by Dulce Gloriosa and a collage by James, and invites fairgoers to sign a petition demanding the facility's closure.

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