Museums & Heritage

Climate activists spray-paint Paris's Louvre pyramid

A member of the Dernière Rénovation group scaled the famous glass monument over the weekend

Egyptian Museum in Turin to undergo €23m renovation with two-storey ‘agora’ at its heart

The mission of the project, designed by OMA architects, is to make the museum more accessible to the public

Dallas Museum of Art lays off 8% of its staff

In the midst of a $150m expansion project, the museum has also cut its public hours to reduce costs

How Princeton rediscovered a Rubens in its collection

Layers of earlier well-meaning but overzealous restoration work had obscured the Old Master’s hand—until now

Kunsthaus Zurich advisers quit in conflict over new Bührle exhibition

The experts were hired after a previous iteration of the show was deemed inadequate in addressing the dark legacy of Emil Georg Bührle, who made his fortune selling weapons to Nazi Germany

‘I've never unearthed anything this big in my life’: Assyrian sculpture with rich history dug up in northern Iraq

The 2,700-year-old lamassu—a protective deity—had been excavated previously, in 1992, but was reburied for its protection

Extreme drought in the Amazon reveals ancient rock carvings

The carvings, which resemble expressive human faces, may be up to 2,000 years old

SFMoMA acquires more than 100 works by artists with disabilities

The acquisitions mark a new partnership between the museum and Bay Area non-profit Creative Growth Art Center; the museum also acquired works from Creativity Explored and Nurturing Independence through Artistic Development

UK museum housed in Unesco heritage site suffers significant flood damage

The Museum of Making in Derby, founded in what is regarded as the world’s first modern factory, was breached by a surge of water caused by Storm Babet

Cleveland Museum of Art sues the Manhattan District Attorney to retain ownership of $20m bronze statue

The museum had revised its own prior research in an apparent attempt to keep a headless sculpture believed to depict Marcus Aurelius

Israeli museums publish urgent appeal for International Council of Museums (Icom) to condemn Hamas violence

Representatives of museums including the Israel Museum and the Tel Aviv Museum of Art also call for the organisation to recognise Hamas as a terrorist organisation comparable to the so-called Islamic State

‘One of the great museum directors of her generation’: Ann Philbin to retire after 25 years leading the Hammer Museum

Philbin transformed the University of California, Los Angeles's campus museum (originally built to house an oil magnate's Old Masters) into a world-class contemporary art institution

Andy Warhol Museum to build $45m events venue

The proposed expansion is part of the institution's $60m initiative to turn the North Shore of Pittsburgh into an arts district

Uzbekistan launches ambitious new cultural agenda

The former Soviet state, set to open the largest exhibition space in Central Asia, is also strengthening its international presence

Gazanews

Historic Greek Orthodox church in Gaza hit by deadly missile strikes

Saint Porphyrius, a sanctuary for both Christians and Muslims and believed to be the world's third oldest church, was bombed on Thursday with at least 18 Christian Palestinians reportedly killed

Manchester's £242m Aviva Studios officially opens with Matrix-inspired extravaganza

The performance, a collaboration between the director Danny Boyle, the artist Es Devlin and others, marked the culmination of a process during which costs have spiralled

A new museum dives deep into the history of faith in Britain

The Faith Museum in Bishop Auckland features both historical objects—such as the 13th-century Bodleian Bowl—and contemporary works of art

Prizesnews

Dia Art Foundation launches $75,000 art award named for late artist Sam Gilliam

The prize, made possible by a gift from Gilliam’s estate, will be given out annually for ten years starting in 2024

Labournews

Workers at New York’s Jewish Museum ratify their first union contract

The new contract, approved by an overwhelming majority of members, will see staff wages increase 17.5% over the next three years

Art marketfeature

Blurred lines: are galleries and museums getting too cosy?

As public institutions are working more with the private sector, there are calls for greater transparency

Looted antiquities worth $19m returned to Italian authorities in New York

Some of the 19 artefacts handed over by the Manhattan District Attorney’s office had ties to notorious traffickers

‘Very short-sighted’: Swiss museum’s decision to sell Cézanne paintings sparks outrage

Three works will be going up for auction at Christie's New York—but with an unusual caveat

Museumscomment

How museum guides are being enlisted in the US culture wars

Docents—voluntary educators who are frequently white, of retirement age and middle class—embody the tensions between the status quo and change in US museums

'Like an art world bike hire scheme': how a packaging rental service plans to slash industry emissions

The initiative was created by the UK-based company Roxbox, which has developed a range of reusable shipping crates to tackle waste

Sponsored byCrozier

Qatar Museums fly Palestinian flag in the aftermath of Hamas attack on Israel

Sheikha Al-Mayassa shared images on social media of the Palestinian flag projected on the façades of the Museum of Islamic Art and the National Museum of Qatar

Almost 2,000 items missing from collection of Wales’s national museums

Coins, crockery and tools are among the objects unaccounted for but museum says "some losses are inevitable"

What will German monasteries do with colonial-era objects in their collections?

Wide-ranging nationwide survey will catalogue artefacts held by monasteries and convents that were collected by missionaries in Africa, Asia and South America