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How to give back looted objects

UK museums are hamstrung by outdated laws around restitution. It’s time for politicians to end the impasse and give them greater autonomy over their collections

3 Mar 2025

Gold Icon The artists full of sympathy for the devil

Women have often been thought susceptible to demonic influence, and creativity can be seen as a form of possession – notions reclaimed by artists in ingenious ways

3 Mar 2025

Gold Icon Who will put the art into artificial intelligence?

If AI is treated as little more than a fashionable selling point, then its potential to create genuinely innovative art may be lost

3 Mar 2025

What Severance says about our fractured selves

The sinister corporation in the dystopian office drama really cares about art, but the paintings on the walls only highlight the workers’ sense of alienation rather than relieving it

27 Feb 2025

Can Britain’s fragile pottery industry survive?

Shattered by high energy prices and shifting consumer habits, the historic Potteries in Stoke-on-Trent are more vulnerable than ever

25 Feb 2025

What would Jane Austen say?

Nothing gets a certain type of viewer more hot under the cravat than anachronisms in period drama – but the best inaccuracies are artistically liberating

21 Feb 2025

Who will reimagine the British Museum?

The winner of the competition to redesign the most popular galleries will be announced next month, but are the finalists thinking hard enough what the museum should really be?

12 Feb 2025

Gold Icon In defence of the outsider artist

The art world tends to favour self-promoting extroverts, but it is often the eccentrics and wallflowers who make the most interesting work

10 Feb 2025

Gold Icon How artists respond to disaster

Art can never bring anything back to life, but it can help what has been lost live on in the imagination

3 Feb 2025

Gold Icon Do portraits have an image problem?

Figurative art is on the up and up but that doesn’t mean that every painting of a person is a literal depiction

27 Jan 2025

‘He wasn’t edgy. He was honest’ – on the genius of David Lynch

The film-maker was always an original but what makes his work unforgettable – and inspiring to other artists – is its radical sincerity

20 Jan 2025

London has its own Dracula’s castle – and a stake is about to be driven through its heart

The planned renovation of Minster Court in the City says much about the attitude of developers to our postmodern buildings

13 Jan 2025

Gold Icon Are the Old Masters going up in the art world?

The Met’s Siena show was the toast of New York and the National Gallery’s version is expected to wow London. After December’s strong Old Master sales, the past is looking golden

13 Jan 2025

‘Her rings were her first teachers’ – a tribute to Diana Scarisbrick (1928–2024)

A ring collector who became a leading expert in the field of jewellery studies, Scarisbrick always retained a direct, personal approach to the subject

12 Jan 2025

‘She had no time for elitism, but was passionate about excellence’ – a tribute to Rosalind Savill

During her time as director of the Wallace Collection and well beyond it, Savill was a champion of the decorative arts and her beloved Sèvres porcelain, and a dedicated public servant

7 Jan 2025

What happens when an artist wants to be anonymous?

An Austrian museum is hosting a show by an unnamed artist – but perhaps this act of secrecy will help us see the work more clearly

18 Dec 2024

Pilgrims’ progress? The Vatican Jubilee has frustrated Romans and tourists alike

Preparations for this 700-year-old tradition, which ushers in a special year of forgiveness for Catholics, are nearing completion. Will it all be worth it?

6 Dec 2024

Gold Icon What painters and anatomists have in common

A show of surgical paintings by Celia Hempton raises questions about how far the artist’s eye can penetrate beneath the surface of things

4 Dec 2024

Gold Icon Martha Stewart’s recipe for success

Edward Behrens explores the ingredients for achieving in the art world

25 Nov 2024

Seeing London through Frank Auerbach’s eyes

The late painter’s untamed depictions of the city are some of the most exciting works of art produced in Britain in the 20th century

22 Nov 2024

Gold Icon Are the art market’s problems being blown out of proportion?

Recent results for the London auctions may be a sign that things aren’t all doom and gloom

28 Oct 2024

How to paint with real freedom

Artists from Helen Frankenthaler to Marlene Dumas have poured and splattered paint on to their canvases with a sense of enviable abandon

28 Oct 2024

Is the Stirling Prize suffering from a case of tunnel vision?

The Elizabeth Line is a worthy winner, but the award’s annual attempt to shame policymakers into requiring more from the UK construction industry is doomed to fail

17 Oct 2024

‘One of the most attractive green spaces in central London’

Gray’s Inn Gardens forms part of a vista that has been threatened by developers more than once, but still provides a much-needed haven

16 Oct 2024