Artnews

Museums in Tehran and Tel Aviv Move to Safeguard Their Collections

Smoke billows in the distance from an oil refinery following an Israeli strike on the Iranian capital Tehran on June 17, 2025. AFP via Getty Images Israel and Iran have taken measures to safeguard their cultural property amid escalating hostilities between the neighboring countries, which has included air strikes on cosmopolitan centers. Iran’s Cultural Heritage …

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Two French Men Found Guilty of Forging and Selling Fake Royal Furniture

Bill Pallot was sentenced to four years in prison and a fine of €200,000. Photo Foc Kan/WireImage An antiques expert and a cabinet maker were recently found guilty for forging and selling nine imitations of historic 18th-century armchairs they claimed belonged to members of French royalty like Marie Antoinette. The judgment for the case applied …

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Trump Met with Mixed Reception at Kennedy Center’s Showing of ‘Les Misérables’

President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump arrive for a performance of Les Misérables at the Kennedy Center June 11, 2025, in Washington, D.C. Photo Win McNamee/Getty Images While attending a fundraiser at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts on Wednesday evening, President Donald Trump was booed, reported the Washington Post. …

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Museum Launches Public Appeal to Raise $5 M. to Keep Rare Barbara Hepworth Sculpture on British Soil

‘Rare and exceptional’: The Hepworth Wakefield does not own any finished works by Hepworth from the 1940s… yet. Betty Saunders A public campaign was launched on Thursday to raise £3.8 million ($5 million) to buy a rare Barbara Hepworth sculpture and keep it on British soil.   A private collector bought the wooden work, which …

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Collectors Igor and Mojca Lah to Open New Contemporary Art Museum in Foothills of Slovenian Mountains

Picturesque: The new museum will be a stone’s throw from Lake Bled. David Chipperfield A new contemporary art museum is slated to open next year in Slovenia in the foothills of the Julian Alps. Named after its founders, Slovenian philanthropists Igor and Mojca Lah, Muzej Lah will house the Fundacija Lah art collection. On its …

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Artists Accuse Dealer Reco Sturgis of Issuing Death Threats and Withholding Payments and Artworks

Reco Sturgis, the founder of Hugo Galerie. Courtesy of Beth Carter A number of artists have accused art dealer Reco Sturgis—the founder of Hugo Galerie in New York, which closed in 2023—of withholding artworks, failing to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in owed funds, and making violent threats via email and text message. In …

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Klaus Biesenbach Says American Art Scene Is Too Focused on ‘Political Correctness’: ‘It Became Unbearable’

Klaus Biesenbach. Photo Hannes P Albert/dpa/picture alliance via Getty Images In a lengthy interview published this week by the German publication Der Spiegel, curator Klaus Biesenbach addressed his decision to leave the American art scene for the one in Germany, where he now serves as director of the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin. He appeared to …

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Smithsonian Institution Subtly Announces It Will Challenge Trump’s ‘Firing’ of National Portrait Gallery Director

Lonnie G. Bunch III. Getty Images On Monday evening, the Smithsonian Institution released its first statement since President Donald Trump said he fired National Portrait Gallery director Kim Sajet. In its statement, the institution affirmed that it is an “independent entity.” While the statement did not name Sajet nor call out Trump directly, it stated, …

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Museum Removes Māori Artist’s Work Inviting Viewers to Walk on New Zealand Flag

Diane Prince’s exhibition at the Suter Art Gallery. Mark Tantrum/Courtesy Suter Art Gallery A art museum has removed an artwork composed of New Zealand’s national flag printed with a message that invited viewers to walk on it. The artwork, a new version of a 1995 piece titled Flagging the Future, was on view in a …

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