Articles

A one-time auctioneer has agreed to plead guilty to lying to FBI agents about the origins of paintings attributed to Jean-Michel Basquiat that were seized last year from the Orlando Museum of Art, admitting in court papers filed today that he and another man created the fake art and that he falsely attested to the paintings’ provenance.

Old Dongola (Tungul in Old Nubian) was the capital of Makuria, one of the most prominent medieval African states. Research in this city, initiated by Prof. Kazimierz Michałowski, has been providing groundbreaking results practically every year. Such was the case of the last excavation season of the Starting Grant project “UMMA – Urban Metamorphosis of the community of a Medieval African capital city” financed by the European Research Council and carried out by a team led by Dr. hab. Artur Obłuski from the Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology, University of Warsaw.

A stained-glass window installed in 1878 in the former St. Mark’s Church, Warren, Rhode Island, USA, shows Christ engaged in conversation with several biblical women. All have dark skin. The window invites dialogue and interpretation. While the current stewards seek a permanent home for the window, they invite collaborators to decipher and interpret it together. Authors : Hadley Arnold and Virginia Raguin

Clues to better understanding the religious rituals, political life and societal hierarchy of the Moche people are coming into view as a multi-year excavation continues at Pañamarca, led by a team of women archeologists and conservators, including a local Denver resident and Denver Museum of Nature & Science scientist.

Derek George Montague Gardner (British, 1914-2007) 'The Eddystone light a beam. The tea-clipper Lahloo coming up Channel. 9th October 1869'

Vincent van Gogh had a great love for the Brabant landscape, as can be seen in many of his paintings. Over a century after he left his native Dutch province, this landscape is now under pressure. The number of floods is increasing while farmers, cities, industry, and nature lovers are fighting over the available space. Given the complications of the Dutch nitrogen crisis, permit applications for projects in Natura 2000 protected areas have come to a standstill. How can Brabant find the balance between idyll and progress? At the initiative of Midpoint Brabant, MVRDV and the Van Gogh Homeland Foundation developed a meaningful experience that aims to make the public more aware of the region’s coming challenges. By combining knowledge of architecture, landscape design, and sustainability, along with expertise in the leisure industry, the initiators want to reignite the enthusiasm of both young and old people for the Brabant landscape. The ambition is to show, in an attractive and accessible way, how the landscape that inspired Vincent van Gogh 150 years ago can be made more sustainable and greener in the future.

Proclamation addressed "To all our loving Subjects of what degree or quality soever", making an appeal in the face of the "generall Distraction and Confusion which is spread over the Whole Kingdome", outlining the terms on which he would return to Britain and assume the throne, "at Our Court at Breda this 4/14 day of Aprill 1660, in the twelfth yeare of Our Reigne", 4 pages, folio (333 x 230mm, watermark of a crowned Medici coat of arms), with papered privy seal, later numbering in ink and pencil ("No 191", "201", and "5", the last cancelled), later neat repairs to nicks and short fold tears affecting one letter of one word, remains of guard, dust staining, creases

Until July 10, the Museo Picasso Málaga is showing The Painter and the Model (1963), an oil painting by Pablo Picasso from the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, in exchange for the loan of works from the Málaga museum to the Madrid institution for its exhibition Picasso 1906. The Great Transformation as part of the Celebration Picasso 1973–2023 programme.

The market of art, antiquities and other cultural objects has attracted criminals, organised crime groups and terrorists to launder proceeds of crime and fund their activities. Criminals seek to exploit the sector’s history of privacy and the use of third-party intermediaries while terrorist groups can use cultural objects from areas where they are active to finance their operations.

Kunsthal Rotterdam is proud to present a large-scale exhibition by one of today’s most prominent artists, the tireless activist, and critic of authoritarian power systems Ai Weiwei. In Search of Humanity will be his most comprehensive retrospective to date. Including cultural ready-mades, paintings, works made from LEGO bricks, sculptures, installations, photography, and video works, the exhibition will present an impressive overview of Ai Weiwei's over-four-decades-spanning career and feature key works from all his different creative periods.

The Inside Out Centre for the Arts is a not-for-profit foundation, established by artist-photographer Roger Ballen to serve a dual purpose. First, the Inside Out Centre acts as an art exhibition space, presenting shows that explore issues related to the African continent from a distinctively aesthetic and psychological perspective. Second, the Inside Out Centre facilitates a dynamic programme of educational talks, panel discussions, masterclasses and presentations that reflect on the current exhibition and on topics relevant to the arts. We will also have special programmes for high school groups based on the current exhibition. These include programmes for Visual and Dramatic Arts, Language Studies, Social Sciences and project-based learning.

People living on the ‘Swahili coast’ - the Indian Ocean coast of eastern Africa - have African and Asian ancestry according to new research on ancient DNA.

Innovative methods have revealed new information, including previously unrecorded markings and further evidence of the Stone’s provenance .Cutting-edge digital technologies and scientific analysis have revealed more of the story of the Stone of Destiny, the ancient symbol of Scotland’s monarchy which has long held fascination and intrigue due to the mystery of its earliest origins.

“Gerhard Richter. 100 Works for Berlin” shows for the first time the long-term loan of the Gerhard Richter Kunststiftung to the Nationalgalerie. The central work in the exhibition, held in the Grafisches Kabinett of the Neue Nationalgalerie, is the series “Birkenau” (2014), consisting of four large-format, abstract paintings. “Birkenau” is the result of Richter’s long and in-depth engagement with the Holocaust and the possibilities of representing it. Alongside the “Birkenau” series, other works from various phases of Richter’s career will be exhibited, among them “Squatters’ House” (1989), “4900 Colours” (2007), and “Strip” (2013/2016). There is also another large group of works from Richter’s striking series of overpainted photographs, in which he addresses the tension between photography and painting. The exhibition has been realised in close collaboration with the artist.

Today, the National Portrait Gallery announces its acquisition of John Barry, O Kelly, Sonny and Richard Moore (2022), a tapestry by leading artist, Michael Armitage, that depicts four refuse collectors at work during the UK’s first national lockdown in 2020. The tapestry was made after Armitage’s painting of the same name, created as part of a public commission in 2020 by the Southbank Centre to recognise the efforts of key workers during the Covid-19 pandemic. Acquired by the National Portrait Gallery, the work will be displayed in its tapestry form for the first time when its building reopens on 22 June 2023, hanging in the newly created The National Lottery Heritage Fund Gallery.

Since the late 1970s, Ann Veronica Janssens (Folkestone, UK, 1956; lives and works in Brussels) has developed her research around light and its relationship to what surrounds it, often creating site-specific works that challenge the immutable nature of sculpture and installation.

The Australian Government will secure the future of Australia’s most cherished cultural and historical institutions in this year’s Federal Budget – restoring them as a source of national pride and reversing a decade of decline under the Liberals and Nationals.

The planned Renovation of Boijmans van Beuningen Museum, Rotterdam, has been put temporarily on hold due to the exceeding Costs.

UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay carried out a two-day mission to Ukraine, with visits to Kyiv, Chernihiv and Odesa, to reaffirm the Organization's support to the population and to advance the reconstruction of the country’s cultural sector. President Zelensky welcomed the “concrete results” of the emergency measures taken by UNESCO since the beginning of the war.

The Independent Administrative Institution National Museum of Art (Headquarters: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, President: Osaka Eriko) will launch the National Center for Art Research (Director: Kataoka Mami) within the Institution as a new comprehensive hub, the nation’s first of its kind, to sustainably and internationally develop the promotion of art in Japan at a time when contemporary society is undergoing great change.