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A tribute to Linda Nochlin (1931–2017)

It is difficult to overstate the importance of Nochlin’s scholarship for subsequent generations of art historians

7 Nov 2017
The Forge of Vulcan (detail; 17th century), attributed to Ary de Vois. Abingdon Guildhall

Solving art’s mysteries online

Can Art Detective’s crowd-sourced connoisseurship shed light on the history of mysterious paintings?

3 Nov 2017

Contemporary art museums can’t avoid conflicts of interest – but we need to trust their directors

Commercial interests and public institutions are inextricably entangled

1 Nov 2017
Three soldiers (from the Flagellation of Christ; 1360), Master of Agrafen, or a follower.

It’s time to talk about the ivory trade

Conservationists and connoisseurs needn’t be on opposing sides when discussing ivory

30 Oct 2017
Miss Everything (Unsuppressed Deliverance) (detail; 2013), Amy Sherald. Frances and Burton Reifler. © Amy Sherald

How paintings of the Obamas will shake up American portraiture

Kehinde Wiley and Amy Sherald have won the commissions to paint the former U.S. president and first lady

25 Oct 2017
Salvator Mundi (c. 1500), Leonardo da Vinci. Christie's

What’s behind Leonardo’s unique allure?

The news that Leonardo da Vinci’s ‘Salvator Mundi’ is to be auctioned at Christie’s has caused quite a stir. Why is his work so important to people?

23 Oct 2017
The Neues Palais, Potsdam in Sanssouci Park, PATRICK PLEUL/AFP/Getty Images

Preserving Prussia’s royal palaces

Will a grant of €400 million euros bring the phenomenal Prussian royal collections to wider attention?

19 Oct 2017
Frescoes in the Criptoporticus Domus, restored as part of the Great Pompeii Project, December 2015, MARIO LAPORTA/AFP/Getty Images

What can contemporary artists do for the ruins of Pompeii?

The sensitive juxtaposition of old and new could revive some of the site’s more neglected artefacts

18 Oct 2017
The Colosseum Seen from the Southeast, (c. 1700), Gaspar van Wittel, Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Photo: Imaging department; Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum. Photo: Imaging department; © President and Fellows of Harvard College

Will the reform of Rome’s ruins be an improvement?

Will the new Colosseum archaeological park improve the upkeep of Rome’s most important ruins?

3 Oct 2017
Artwork on concrete blocks acting as bollards on 4 July, 2017 in Melbourne, Australia. Photo: Michael Dodge/Getty Images

The art of anti-terrorism

Artists and urban planners are finding creative ways to brighten up the concrete blocks and barriers that pepper today’s urban spaces

27 Sep 2017
Gillian Wearing with a model of suffragist leader Millicent Fawcett, Photo: Caroline Teo/GLA/PA

‘Millicent Fawcett and Gillian Wearing are a winning combination’

The design for Millicent Fawcett’s statue breaks the mould, but Parliament Square is a problematic site

26 Sep 2017
Letters from W.B. Yeats to Olivia Shakespear, part of the Yeats Family Collection be auctioned at Sotheby's London on 27 September

The Yeats Collection sale is only the latest sign of Ireland’s broken heritage export system

It’s time for leading cultural figures to work with the state to reform Irish heritage protection

25 Sep 2017
Illustration: The Lindström Effect

Is sound art getting a fair hearing in museums?

Sound art often seems like video art’s poor relation in museums, but is its struggle for status starting to pay off?

25 Sep 2017
View of Zeitz MOCAA in Silo Square. Photo: Iwan Baan

‘Internationalism is Zeitz MOCAA’s defining ethos’

Zeitz MOCAA, South Africa’s new museum, is deliberately outward-looking

25 Sep 2017

Bring back the Met’s art and antiquities squad

The closure of an entire unit, specialising in the policing of a complex but valuable part of our national economy, must be wrong

19 Sep 2017
Georgian watch winder with moulded figures on either side, discovered on the Thames foreshore. Photo: Florence Evans

‘The river’s debris is my pleasure and obsession’

When treasures wash up on the banks of the River Thames, London’s mudlarkers are ready to find them

18 Sep 2017

Bruegel goes digital

Could virtual tours of artworks change the way we experience art – and is this technological approach worth welcoming?

15 Sep 2017
The opening reception at the 15th Istanbul Biennial

The paradoxical position of the Istanbul Biennial

Turkey has had a turbulent couple of years, but members of the country’s artistic community remain optimistic

13 Sep 2017
Hartwig Fischer in 2015. Photo: Sean Gallup/Getty Images

How Hartwig Fischer plans to transform the British Museum

The museum has a glittering reputation, but ensuring its future success will require bold thinking and a significant overhaul

13 Sep 2017
The double entrance gateway to the Aleppo Citadel, largely the work of the late 12th century Ayyubid rulers of Aleppo (pictured here on 9 March, 2017) has largely survived the conflict with only minor damage. Photo: JOSEPH EID/AFP/Getty Images

Aleppo: what remains?

The historic city has suffered major damage, but the worst unkindness we could offer it now is to write it off as ‘destroyed’

5 Sep 2017
Image: Tom Lobo-Brennan

Why museums need their own ethics departments

Ethical questions about art arise on a seemingly weekly basis. It’s time for museums to invest in sustained, open-ended research

Old Greenwich Place, early 17th century; © National Trust Images

The traces of the Tudor palace at Greenwich are a truly remarkable find

Archaeological discoveries at Greenwich are rare – which makes finding the remains of the Tudor palace even more significant

30 Aug 2017
Paintings by De Chirico hang in the mirrored dining room of Francesco Federico Cerruti's villa. Photo: Gabriele Gaidano

The mysteries of collecting

They don’t make collectors like Francesco Federico Cerruti any more. Or do they?

29 Aug 2017
At the Cafe (detail) (c. 1875–77, Edgar Degas.

How do you deal with an artist like Degas?

An exhibition at the Fitzwilliam Museum encourages us to approach the restlessly experimental artist with an open mind

28 Aug 2017