Plus: Arts Council England publishes its new strategic framework, and the husband of slain gallerist Brent Sikkema has been convicted of murder-for-hire
Plus: plans for President Trump’s triumphal arch have been approved; Lord Sainsbury has donated £91.2m to the Sainsbury Centre in Norwich; and the founding director of EMST in Athens has died
Plus: French parliament slams state of museum security | Nazi-looted painting found in home of Dutch SS commander’s family | Wellcome Collection hands over Jain manuscripts to UK Jain community | Valie Export (1940–2026) | Bruno Bischofberger (1940–2026)
Plus: Kader Attia to curate Kochi-Muziris Biennial | Building of US border wall damages archaeological site | United States returns 650 looted artefacts to India | Collector Doris Fisher dies at 94 | winners of Max Mara and Archibald Prizes announced
Plus: the Venice Biennale jury resigns en masse; and Janne Sirén is stepping down as the director of the Buffalo AKG Art Museum
The Danish gem expert alerted the British Museum to thefts from its collection and played a role in recovering scores of items. He was Apollo’s Personality of the Year in 2024
Plus: Dutch government proposes handing ‘orphaned’ Nazi-looted art to Dutch Jewish community and the Turner Prize shortlist is announced
Plus: the European Commission has told the Venice Biennale to stop Russia taking part or risk losing €2m in funding
Plus: Greece has passed a law to combat crimes against cultural property, and the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation has sold the artist’s former home to a Florida resort
Plus: thieves steal paintings from Magnani-Rocca Foundation, and the artist Melvin Edwards has died at the age of 88
Plus: Russia has bombed a 17th-century monastery in Lviv, and Pat Steir has died at the age of 87
Plus: Congress passes a bill to make it easier for heirs to recover Nazi-looted art; and a painting by El Greco has been discovered in the Vatican
Plus: EU threatens to withdraw Venice Biennale funding if Russia participates, and Italy pays €30m for a Caravaggio
Plus: UNESCO World Heritage sites are under threat as the conflict in the Middle East widens; and the Rijksmuseum has a new Rembrandt
The announcement that the president of the Palace Versailles will run the world’s most-visited museum comes a day after Des Cars resignation was accepted
Plus: the South African pavilion at the 2026 Venice Biennale will be empty, and the Hungarian artist Dóra Maurer has died at 88
Plus: Plans for Centre Pompidou’s New Jersey outpost scrapped; and French police arrest nine people suspected of Louvre ticket-fraud scheme
Plus: Stephen Friedman Gallery goes into administration and Philadelphia Museum of Art reverts to old name
Plus: MFA Boston makes 33 staff members redundant; and Spanish galleries to close in VAT protest
Plus: Staff at the Louvre have staged the ninth strike in a month; and museums across Minnesota closed on 23 January to protest against ICE’s presence in the city
Plus: the 120-year-old California College of the Arts will close in 2027; and the Colombian painter and sculptor Beatriz González has died at the age of 93
Plus: United States withdraws from two UN cultural heritage bodies; and Louvre workers strike over working conditions and redevelopment plans
Plus: V&A director Tristram Hunt knighted for services to museums; and resignation of Istanbul Biennial curator cuts event short by two years
Plus: an independent report finds that Arts Council England should overhaul its funding model; and the National Museum of Libya has reopened after nearly 14 years
