Comment

Forget digital recreations. Palmyra’s own future must come first

Syrian government forces have recaptured Palmyra from IS militants. What happens next is crucial

31 Mar 2016

The legendary bookseller of Cairo

The death of Cairo’s self-styled ‘friend of researchers’ feels like another great loss at an already difficult time

29 Mar 2016

In Moscow, art speaks truth to power…sometimes

Artists and museums in the Russian capital testify to the uneasy relationship between art and the state

25 Mar 2016

Three cheers for Bob Rauschenberg!

The artist’s foundation is going to give away images of his work. We salute them

24 Mar 2016

Can the UK government’s Culture White Paper live up to its own rhetoric?

DCMS’s updated mission statement for ‘Our Culture’ sounds promising, but is short on new commitments

23 Mar 2016

Museums must engage in the Brexit debate – whether they like it or not

There is more than you might think at stake for arts and culture in this referendum

7 Mar 2016

Listen up, Chancellor: we must not allow the Gillows collection to be mothballed

The Judges’ Lodgings Museum in Lancaster is threatened with imminent closure. It should be a source of not only civic but national pride

3 Mar 2016

Does Renoir really suck at painting?

The Impressionist has had a hard time of things recently. Will a new film win round the haters?

2 Mar 2016

Delacroix begat Renoir, who begat Matisse, who begat…

Is the current trend for exhibitions exploring artistic influence just an excuse for a lack of focus?

1 Mar 2016

‘Many of those involved in the Easter Rising were art school kids’

The 1916 Easter Rising in Dublin was in part a rebellion of artists – and Dublin museums and galleries are making that clear this year

1 Mar 2016

Why Facebook’s art censorship has landed it in court

Censoring a 19th-century painting has come back to bite the social networking site

26 Feb 2016

Are the cracks in our museum culture beginning to show?

UK museums are struggling to deal with the long-term effects of funding cuts and falling visitor numbers

19 Feb 2016

Loss of Westport House signals wider problems for Ireland’s heritage

Historic property goes on sale after long battle for the Browne family

18 Feb 2016

Has the BBC made art boring?

If anything, the corporation should be taken to task for its desperate bid for accessibility

17 Feb 2016

Baltic Diary: The charms of verdigris

The grey-green of oxidised bronze is common on public buildings throughout northern Europe

16 Feb 2016

Is it still possible to stop the Garden Bridge?

Another week, another controversy. Can opponents of the Garden Bridge project still make their voices heard?

10 Feb 2016

Is street art an effective form of protest? Don’t Banksy on it

Commercial interest in the medium threatens to undermine it

9 Feb 2016

One museum’s tribute to the murdered Syrian archaeologist, Khaled al-Asaad

How the MFA Boston is paying tribute to a respected scholar and humanist

4 Feb 2016

Titles of artworks can obstruct how we interpret artistic meaning

But changing an artwork’s title is hardly the same as pulling down a statue

1 Feb 2016

Are there too many art fairs?

With several art fairs staged every week, are such events damaging to the more traditional art trade, or do they allow greater public engagement with art?

1 Feb 2016
The chorus of the harem (former ‘Virgil’s Hall’) at the Bardo National Museum, Tunis

‘If we stay away from Tunisia, we are cowards’

The Bardo Museum in Carthage still bears the scars of last year’s terrorist attack. The best way to support it is to visit

1 Feb 2016

Rewriting the past: must Rhodes fall?

A statue of Cecil Rhodes will stand at Oriel College, Oxford, in place despite calls for its removal, but debates about ‘erasing history’ rumble on

29 Jan 2016
CLOUD, by Caitlind r.c. Brown & Wayne Garrett at the crossing between Annankatu and Kalevankatu. Part of Lux Helsinki. Photo: Lauri Rotko

Baltic Diary: Freezing weather and frozen art funding

The Finnish arts organisation Checkpoint Helsinki has had its funding cut. Can it survive?

29 Jan 2016

Will listing post-war public art really help to save it?

Historic England’s last-ditch efforts to focus public attention on public art

27 Jan 2016