Artnews

The British Museum in London. Courtesy Wikimedia To receive Morning Links in your inbox every weekday, sign up for our Breakfast with ARTnews newsletter. THE HEADLINES NUMBER CRUNCHING. Arnet News looked at the auction spreadsheets to determine which house boasts the strongest standing so far this year. Christie’s generated nearly $1.5 billion in fine-art sales during the first half of 2025, down 1.9 percent compared to …

Strongest Auction House in 2025 Revealed, British Museum to Host Inaugural Ball, Guillermo del Toro Sells Collection, and More: Morning Links for October 1, 2025 Read More »

Visitors wear VR sets for exhibitions at the Wei and Jin Dynasties Ancient Tombs Site Museum in Kuqa City, northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, July 15, 2024. Xinhua News Agency via Getty Ima On Monday, UNESCO, the cultural arm of the United Nations, launched the world’s first virtual museum of stolen cultural objects, which …

UNESCO Launches First Virtual Museum of Looted Cultural Objects Read More »

Another work from Claude Monet’s Nympheas (water lilies) series at the Musée de l’Orangerie in Paris. Hans Lucas/AFP via Getty Images Financier George Allen Weiss is seeking to sell Claude Monet’s Nymphéas (1914–17) to help pay down debt, according to recent court filings. The painting, measuring 53 ⅛ by 57 ½ inches, is slated to …

Bankrupt Financier George Allen Weiss Is Trying to Sell a $36.5 M. Monet to Pay Down His $100 M. Debt Read More »

The de Young Museum. Photo George Rose/Getty Images Security guards at the de Young Museum in San Francisco have accused institution leadership, as well as their own union representation, of enabling a toxic workplace, reports the San Francisco Standard.   The article published earlier this month details a decade-long laundry of grievances against the Fine …

Security Guards Accuse San Francisco’s de Young Museum of Abusive Workplace Culture Read More »

The unveiling of the Tina Turner statue in Brownsville, Tennessee. Courtesy Brownsville Haywood County Chamber of Commerce Here is the bad public artwork du jour: a statue of Tina Turner in her hometown Brownsville, Tennessee, that measures 10 feet tall and garishly distorts the face of the late pop star it supposedly depicts. The statue …

This Tina Turner Statue in Tennessee Is the Latest Bad Public Artwork Read More »

Results from the PIXE analysis of the Paleolithic stone from Mühlheim-Dietesheim, Germany, showing traces of blue mineral pigment. Courtesy Antiquity The color blue has a long, elusive history often due to its rarity in nature and sometimes toxic qualities. Analyzing a stone from the Paleolithic site Mühlheim-Dietesheim in Germany, however, researchers identified the earliest known …

Researchers Identify the Oldest Blue Pigment Found in Europe Read More »

Musée Picasso, Paris Andia/Universal Images Group via Getty Images. The Musée Picasso-Paris announced plans for a €50 million (around $59 million) “transformation” including a new wing for temporary exhibitions and a reconfigured design to combine its garden with the nearby Square Léonor-Fini. The construction work is slated to take place from 2028 to 2030, during …

Picasso Museum in Paris Announces $59 M. Expansion with New Free Open-Air Sculpture Park Read More »

Michaelina Wautier, The Triumph of Bacchus, ca. 1655–59. Courtesy Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna The 17th-century painter Michaelina Wautier was nearly forgotten by art historians until 1993, when one of her paintings was discovered in the storage area of the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. The monumental painting in question, Triumph of Bacchus, caught Belgian art history professor …

Long-Awaited Exhibition for Rediscovered Old Master Michaelina Wautier Opens in Vienna Read More »

Rachel Whiteread won the Whitechapel Gallery Art Icon Award in January 2019. Dave Benett/Getty Images for Whitechapel Gallery, London English artist Rachel Whiteread—or rather, Dame Rachel Whiteread—is collaborating with Puiforcat, a French silversmith company, on a new silverware collection. Whiteread won the prestigious Turner Prize in 1993; she was the first female winner, and, at …

Rachel Whiteread’s Collaboration with French Silversmith Company Inspired by Corrugated Cardboard Read More »

Billy Name at the opening of the exhibition “The Warhol Look: Glamour, Style, Fashion,” 1997,” at the Whitney Museum of American Art. Photo Catherine McGann/Getty Images At a courthouse in Kingston, New York, a jury trial is underway to determine who will control the estate of Billy Name, an artist who lived with Andy Warhol …

Control of Warhol Photographer Billy Name’s Estate Is Under Dispute in New York Court Read More »