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London’s Courtauld Gallery will open two new contemporary art galleries at its Somerset House campus, funded by a £10 million ($13.8 million) gift from the Blavatnik Family Foundation. The top-floor spaces, originally built as a display area for the Royal Society in the 18th century, are expected to debut in 2029. The donation brings the foundation’s total support for the Courtauld to £20 million ($27.5 million), following earlier backing for the museum’s 2021 renovation. The new galleries will be programmed in part by students in the Courtauld’s curating master’s program and will host exhibitions connecting historical and contemporary art.

10 Exhibitions to See in Upstate New York This May

Hyperallergic's guide highlights 10 exhibitions opening in Upstate New York this May, including the Hessel Museum of Art's annual showcase of thesis exhibitions by graduates of the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College, featuring works by Alice Aycock, Arthur Jafa, Mike Kelley, and Ana Mendieta. Other notable shows include Daniele Frazier's camera-less photography at September Gallery, Onnis Luque's investigation into resource exploitation at Art Omi, and Japanese woodblock prints at the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center. The guide also covers Lukaza Branfman-Verissimo's mixed-media works and Maria Auxiliadora da Silva's paintings.

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A rare self-portrait by 17th-century British painter William Dobson has been jointly acquired by London's Tate and the National Portrait Gallery for £2.37 million ($3.2 million), setting a new record for the artist. The painting, considered the first known self-portrait by a British-born painter, was created in the late 1630s and last sold at Bonhams London in 2016 for just over £1.1 million. It will go on view in London before embarking on a national tour in 2026.

Sinners, Maurizio Cattelan Is Taking Confession

Maurizio Cattelan has launched a participatory artwork and sales campaign titled 'The Confessional,' where people can call a hotline to submit their sins for his consideration. Selected participants will be invited to a livestreamed event on April 23 where Cattelan, acting as a priest, will absolve them. The project is tied to the re-release of his controversial 1999 sculpture 'La Nona Ora,' a miniature wax figure of Pope John Paul II struck by a meteorite.

Paris art enthusiast wins €1m Picasso painting in €100 charity raffle

Ari Hodara, a Parisian sales engineer and art enthusiast, won a 1941 Pablo Picasso portrait valued at over €1 million through a €100 charity raffle ticket. The draw, held at Christie’s in Paris, featured the painting 'Head of a Woman,' a portrait of the artist’s muse Dora Maar. The lottery successfully sold all 120,000 available tickets, raising a total of €12 million.

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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."

art dasha zhukova ray real estate

Dasha Zhukova, the former fashion designer, magazine publisher, and museum founder, has launched a new real estate development company called Ray. Its first project, Ray Harlem, is a 21-story residential building on Fifth Avenue in Harlem, built in collaboration with the National Black Theatre (NBT). The development replaces NBT's original building and integrates a 27,000-square-foot theater as its centerpiece, with 222 apartments above, a quarter of which were offered through an affordable housing lottery. The building features site-specific commissioned artworks by emerging Black artists such as Jurell Cayetano, Freddy Carrasco, Nikko Washington, and Ellon Gibbs, and was designed by Frida Escobedo Studio with Handel Architects.

You can visit England's oldest public art gallery for free this month

Dulwich Picture Gallery, recognized as England’s oldest public art gallery, is offering free admission to its permanent collection from March 10 to March 15. The initiative is part of National Lottery Open Week, a nationwide event that grants public access to historic sites funded by the National Lottery. Visitors can view the gallery's extensive collection of over 600 European masterpieces, including works by Rembrandt, Gainsborough, and Van Dyck, by presenting a National Lottery ticket or scratchcard.

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Old Masters are making a comeback in London, driven by a new collector base and a price recalibration that could democratize the market. Recent evening auctions at Christie’s and Sotheby’s in the UK capital brought in a combined £58 million ($78 million), a significant increase from last year, outperforming many other art categories. Dealer Alessandra di Castro notes that buyers now demand security, provenance, and professionalism, with fewer speculators due to the art market's recent troubles.

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The Great Baddow Hoard, the largest recorded collection of ancient gold coins in the U.K., has been acquired by the Museum of Chelmsford five years after its discovery. Unearthed by metal detectorist Shane Wood on private land in Great Baddow, Essex, the hoard comprises 933 gold coins and fragments dating to 60–20 B.C.E. The museum secured the £300,050 ($400,590) trove with major funding from the National Lottery Heritage Fund and smaller contributions from other organizations. Wood was convicted in 2021 for failing to declare the treasure under the Treasure Act 1996, and the reward was paid to the landowner instead.

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The Hepworth Wakefield and Art Fund have successfully raised £3.8 million to acquire Barbara Hepworth’s sculpture *Sculpture with Colour (Oval Form) Pale Blue and Red* (1943). The wood and string artwork, previously in private hands and rarely seen publicly, was sold at Christie’s in London last March for £3.5 million. A temporary export bar imposed by the UK government gave the museum time to raise funds, with the deadline set for August 27. The funding came from over 2,800 donations and major grants, including £1.89 million from the National Lottery Heritage Fund and £750,000 from the Art Fund, along with private support.

$120 Raffle Ticket Nets $1.2 Million Picasso

Ari Hodara, a 58-year-old software engineer from Paris, has won Pablo Picasso’s 1941 painting 'Head of a Woman' through a charity raffle. Hodara purchased a single €100 ticket for the '1 Picasso for €100' lottery after seeing an advertisement in a restaurant, eventually beating out 120,000 other participants to claim the work valued at approximately $1.2 million.

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Martine Gutierrez's exhibition "Lottery" at Ryan Lee Gallery in Manhattan documents a performance she staged at Paris Photo in 2025, where attendees directed her actions. The show features 17 photographs from 755 taken during the performance, alongside a video installation recreating the waiting line. Gutierrez also created a meta-text in which she interviews herself, drawing on a conversation with the article's author.

Museum Moves 1 – 7 May 2026

Tate has appointed Daisy Desrosiers as its Britton Family Curator at Large, North America, based in the US, focusing on developing North American art in Tate’s collection through research and acquisitions. Meanwhile, Lycia Lobo, chief operating officer at the Design Museum, has been confirmed as chair of the board of trustees of Chiswick House & Gardens Trust. Several new exhibitions are opening across UK museums, including 'Colour' at the Royal Albert Memorial Museum & Art Gallery in Exeter, 'Aleksandra Kasuba: Shelters for the Senses' at Tate St Ives, 'Wildlife Photographer of the Year' at Brighton Museum & Art Gallery, and 'Helios' by Luke Jerram at National Museum Cardiff. Additionally, the Museum of Archaeology at Palace Green Library has received a £217,844 grant from The National Lottery Heritage Fund for gallery redevelopment.

Art Fund launches UK-wide touring programme

Art Fund has launched a UK-wide touring programme called Going Places, backed by £5.36 million from the National Lottery Heritage Fund and the Julia Rausing Trust. The first exhibition, *Making Her Mark: A Celebration of Women in Art*, opened at Penlee House Gallery & Museum in Penzance, featuring over 60 works from three museum collections alongside community responses. It will travel to Worcester City Art Gallery & Museum and Kirkcaldy Gallery through 2027. The programme plans 12 major touring shows over five years, with six already scheduled, including exhibitions on green spaces, journeys, radical living, art and nature, and community making.

‘The Hay Wain’ to go on show in Constable's home county for the first time

John Constable's iconic painting *The Hay Wain* (1821) will be exhibited in Suffolk, the artist's home county, for the first time in 2026 as part of the 250th anniversary of his birth. The work, on loan from the National Gallery in London, will be shown at Christchurch Mansion in Ipswich from 11 July to 4 October 2026, within the exhibition *Constable: Walking the Landscape*. It will be reunited with preparatory sketches from the Ipswich collection and accompanied by loans from the Tate, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Royal Academy of Arts, and the National Galleries of Scotland. Two additional exhibitions at Christchurch Mansion—*Constable: A Cast of Characters* and *Constable to Contemporary*—also form part of the broader Constable 250 project, which is funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund and supported by the Weston Loan Programme.

Bill Viola’s complete moving-image works and a William Dobson self-portrait: the latest museum acquisitions

Tate and the National Portrait Gallery in London have jointly acquired William Dobson's rare self-portrait (circa 1635-40) for £2.4 million, supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund. The painting will debut at Tate Britain in November before touring the UK. Separately, the George Eastman Museum in Rochester, New York, will digitize the complete moving-image works of Bill Viola, following a donation of over 200 works by the Viola-Perov Trust. Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art has acquired a monumental Tiffany Studios stained-glass window by Agnes F. Northrop, originally installed in a San Antonio chapel, for its campus expansion opening in 2026.

UK mental health hospitals are about to get more art

More than 50 artists, including Lakwena Maciver, Veronica Ryan, Peter Liversidge, and Alberta Whittle, will create site-specific works for mental health hospitals across the UK as part of a new three-year initiative by the charity Hospital Rooms. The project, delivered in collaboration with NHS Trusts in Birmingham, Bristol, North East London, and South West Yorkshire, is backed by a £600,000 Arts Council England National Lottery grant and additional support from the Garfield Weston Foundation and the Hiscox Foundation. Hospital Rooms will also develop a National Framework for Equal Access to Arts in Mental Health Services, aiming to integrate trauma-informed, autism-friendly, and culturally competent arts programmes into mental healthcare settings.

Charity Art UK digitises nearly 7,000 murals across country

Charity Art UK has completed a major digitisation project, recording nearly 7,000 murals and street artworks across the UK. The Murals Digitisation and Engagement Programme, funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, created an online database of over 21,000 public artworks, capturing everything from medieval church paintings to contemporary 2025 murals, with the help of a network of 90 volunteers.

Dream Win With a Catch

Traumgewinn mit Haken

A 58-year-old sales engineer from Paris has won a 1941 Pablo Picasso portrait titled "Tête de femme" through a charity raffle. The winner acquired the masterpiece, valued at approximately €1.45 million, by purchasing a single €100 ticket. Organized to benefit Alzheimer’s research, the international lottery sold 120,000 tickets across 152 countries, raising a total of €12 million.

A Frenchman wins a Picasso in a lottery

Un Français gagne un Picasso à la loterie

A Parisian resident has won a painting by Pablo Picasso valued at €1 million through a charity raffle. The winner acquired the masterpiece after purchasing a single lottery ticket for just €100.

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Norwich Castle in Norfolk, England, has reopened after a five-year, $37 million restoration led by architectural firm Feilden + Mawson. For the first time, visitors can explore all five floors of the 900-year-old fortress, including reconstructed Medieval chambers and over 900 artifacts. The restoration reestablished the original Medieval layout with era-appropriate furnishings in the kitchen, chapel, king's chamber, and Great Hall. A new exhibition, "Gallery of Medieval Life," co-organized with the British Museum, features objects from daily life and nobility spanning the Norman Conquest through the reign of Henry VIII. The project was funded by a £13 million grant from the National Lottery Players and £12 million from Norfolk County Council.

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The National Gallery in London is launching a citizens' panel called NG Citizens, composed of 20 randomly selected members of the public from across the UK. Starting with 15,000 household invitations, a civil lottery will narrow the group to 50, then to 20 individuals who will serve for five years, advising the museum on its purpose, priorities, and public value, though not directly on artwork selection or exhibitions. The initiative is overseen by the public participation charity Involve and follows similar models at institutions like the Federal Art Gallery in Bonn and the Dresden State Art Collections.

Masterworks from Jacob Rothschild collection go to London's National Gallery and V&A under acceptance in lieu scheme

Two masterworks from the collection of the late Jacob Rothschild—Guercino's *King David* (1651) and John Deare's *Edward and Eleanor* (1790)—have been allocated to London's National Gallery and the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) respectively under the UK's acceptance in lieu (AIL) scheme. The Guercino painting settles £5.6 million in inheritance tax, and will be reunited with two related Guercino works already at the National Gallery. The marble relief by Deare enters the V&A's collection.

How UK museums are embracing citizens’ assemblies to help frame their futures

UK museums are increasingly turning to citizens' assemblies to involve the public in shaping institutional policy and direction. The National Gallery in London launched its NG Citizens panel in 2024, following Birmingham Museums Trust's 2024 citizens' jury of 26 local residents. The Imperial War Museum and London's Migration Museum have also announced plans for similar assemblies. The National Gallery's panel, formed through a civic lottery of 15,000 invited households, will meet from November 2025 to March 2026 to develop recommendations on the gallery's purpose, priorities, and public value—though it will not directly select exhibitions or acquisitions.

Victoria & Albert Museum to expand Gilbert Galleries to explore looting and provenance

The Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) in London will revamp its Gilbert Galleries, dedicated to the Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Collection, expanding from four to seven galleries. Set to open in March, the redesigned space by Citizens Design Bureau will include a new room focused on Nazi and Soviet looting and provenance research. Highlights include 200 gold boxes, micro-mosaics, and two silver-gilt gates looted from Kyiv’s Pechersk Lavra monastery after the Russian Revolution, acquired by William Randolph Hearst in 1935. The expansion is part of the V&A’s Future Plan development programme, funded by the Gilbert Trust for the Arts and The National Lottery Heritage Fund.

Win pre-launch tickets to Paradigm Shift at 180 Studios

180 Studios in London will debut 'Paradigm Shift: New Dimensions in Moving Image' on October 14, 2025, during Frieze Week. Curated by Jefferson Hack and Mark Wadhwa, the exhibition features over a dozen artists including Andy Warhol, Nan Goldin, Arthur Jafa, Pipilotti Rist, and Telfar TV, tracing the evolution of moving image culture from Super 8 film to AI-powered glasses. The show is hosted in partnership with Ray-Ban Meta, and a private view on October 13 offers exclusive early access via a ticket lottery run by Dazed and AnOther.

Nasce a Londra il Quentin Blake Centre: spazio creativo dedicato al disegno e all’illustrazione

The Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration will open in May 2026 in London's Clerkenwell district, housed in the historic New River Head waterworks complex after a £12.5 million restoration led by Tim Ronalds Architects. The centre will preserve Sir Quentin Blake's archive of over 40,000 works and feature a library, public gardens, creative labs, and three inaugural exhibitions: "Quentin Blake: Performance," "Queer as Comics" celebrating LGBTQIA+ comics, and "MURUGIAH: Ever Feel Like…" by British-Sri Lankan illustrator Murugiah.

Closure of Side gallery quayside space in Newcastle sparks social media backlash

Side gallery, a historic venue in Newcastle that has showcased documentary photography and film since 1977, will not reopen at its Quayside location after closing in 2023 due to lost revenue funding from the Arts Council of England (ACE). Managing director Laura Laffler of Amber Film & Photography, which runs the gallery, announced the decision after exhausting all avenues for continued funding, including a failed £1.3 million National Lottery Heritage Fund bid and the collapse of ACE's Grantium platform. The closure has sparked backlash on social media, with some donors to the 2023 #SaveSide crowdfund—which raised £67,278—feeling misled about the funds' purpose.

Power to the people: London’s National Gallery seeks public panel to help shape its future

London's National Gallery is launching NG Citizens, a citizens' assembly that will advise the museum on its future policy and direction. Starting next month, 15,000 households across the UK will receive invitations, from which 50 participants will be selected via a civic lottery, eventually narrowing to 20 individuals who will serve on the panel for five years. The gallery states the initiative places audiences at the heart of decision-making, aiming to shape programs around the needs of diverse UK communities, though the assembly will not directly choose exhibitions or acquisitions but will produce recommendations on purpose, priorities, and public value.