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View of the Rieckhallen extension of Berlin’s Hamburger Bahnhof Museum of Contemporary Art taken. Photo John MacDougall/AFP via Getty Images Berlin’s government has pushed through a €130 million cut—12% of its culture budget—despite weeks of protests and warnings from the arts sector. The reduction, part of the city’s 2025 spending plan, has prompted widespread concerns …

Berlin Moves Forward With €130 M. Cuts to Arts and Culture Read More »

Rene Magritte’s L’empire des lumières (1954). Christie’s Images Limited, 2024 In 2024, the art auction market showed signs of recovery but fell well short of the highs reached in 2022, or even the lower totals from last year. The cumulative value of the top ten auction lots sold in 2024 was $512.6 million. That was …

The Most Valuable Artworks Sold At Auction in 2024 Is a Stark Drop From Recent Years Read More »

The Kawamura Memorial DIC Museum of Art. LightRocket via Getty Images Japanese chemical company DIC Corporation announced in a press release Saturday that its board of directors had decided to “downsize and relocate” the Kawamura Memorial DIC Museum of Art, an institution in the city of Sakura, 25 miles northeast of Tokyo, that it owns. …

DIC Corporation Decides to ‘Downsize and Relocate’ Japan’s DIC Museum, Which Has Works by Rothko, Picasso, and Rembrandt Read More »

“I’ve never seen one that’s so beautifully preserved,” professor Alice Roberts said, who presents a documentary featuring the sword. Prof Alice Roberts/BBC/Rare TV Archaeologists in rural Kent, UK, have unearthed a “really incredible” 6th-century sword from an Anglo-Saxon cemetery near Canterbury. Several other striking objects have also been found at the same site. It is …

Exceptionally Well-Preserved Anglo-Saxon Sword Found in UK Read More »

The museum’s atrium. Courtesy of the Grand Egyptian Museum After over a decade of development, the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) has opened its doors—partially. In late October, GEM opened 12 of its main galleries and began welcoming around 4,000 visitors daily. These galleries, in chronological and thematic order, feature a selection of the collection’s 15,000 …

Grand Egyptian Museum, With 12 Galleries Now Open, Recontextualizes Ancient Egyptian History Read More »

Frida Kahlo. Photo Hulton Archive/Getty Images Every year, January 1 marks a new crop of artists and artworks entering the public domain, a holiday affectionately known to some as Public Domain Day. This year, works by Henri Matisse, Robert Capa, and Frida Kahlo lose their copyright protections, as do novels like Ernest Hemingway’s A Farewell …

Works by Matisse, Frida Kahlo, and Robert Capa Are Entering the Public Domain, With Some Caveats Read More »

Artist Claire Taboure. © Claire Tabouret / Photo: © STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN / AFP French figurative painter Claire Tabouret has been chosen to create new stained glass windows for Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, which reopened on December 7 after a six-year-long renovation. Tabouret was selected by French president Emmanuel Macron and the Paris archbishop, …

French Painter Claire Tabouret Chosen to Create New Stained Glass Windows for Notre-Dame Cathedral Read More »

Roberto Chavez, El Tamalito del Hoyo, 1959. ©1959 Roberto Chavez/Smithsonian American Art Museum Roberto Chavez, a major figure within US Latinx art history whose work has influenced generations of artists that followed, died on December 17 of natural causes in Arivaca, Arizona. He was 92. The news was confirmed by the artist’s daughter, Sonna Chavez, …

Roberto Chavez, Iconic Artist Who Influenced Generations of Chicanx Artists, Dies at 92 Read More »

A sign installed in March by the Barbican in the show “Unravel”, explaining the withdrawal of two works by Loretta Pettway. Courtesy of Censorship at the Barbican Before 2024 even began, and arguably even before October 7, 2023, the art world was split on Israel and Palestine. But this year, the schism widened even further, …

The Year in Censorship: An Irreparable Art World Schism Over Israel’s War in Gaza Intensified Read More »

Andy Mister’s recent exhibition at Rebecca Camacho Presents, a San Francisco gallery that recently expanded. Courtesy Rebecca Camacho Presents Earlier this year, dealer Rebecca Camacho was standing in her new and expanded downtown San Francisco gallery in Jackson Square, when she paused and pointed to the arched windows facing the street. “There have been people …

San Francisco’s Art Scene Is Thriving, In Spite of ‘False Doom Narrative’ Read More »