Articles

A large piece of wood discovered by chance, lying in peat in excellent condition during the construction of a workshop in Boxford, Berkshire, has been identified by Historic England as being more than 6,000 years old, making it the oldest decoratively carved wood in Britain. It was carved 2,000 years before Stonehenge was built and 4,500 years before the Romans came to Britain.

14 art objects were returned to Italy, which were illegally exported from Italy and partly originated from thefts or looting. Among the cultural goods are an ancient drinking vessel from the 6th century BC, a bronze helmet from the 3rd or 4th century BC, and a Venetian jewelry box from the 16th century.

The exhibition features works by 15 artists: Francesco Arena, Terry Atkinson, Massimo Bartolini, Eteri Chkadua, Maxim Dondyuk, Harun Farocki, Leon Golub, Alfredo Jaar, Mario Merz, Richard Mosse, Pedro Reyes, Martha Rosler, Sim Chi Yin, and Ran Slavin. War is over! Peace has not yet begun, through the selection of artists’ works, invites us to look at the apparently concluded conflicts of our time and of the past, and to reflect on the profound difference between the mere closing or deadlock of the armed phase of a conflict and the establishment of a true condition of peace, following a reflection on the power and meaning of images in the history of art and communication.

From painful waxes to irritating shaves, we can trace the modern obsession with hair removal back to the Romans, English Heritage has said today (24 May), as the charity displays a collection of tweezers used to remove armpit hair from Roman men and women in a new museum at Wroxeter Roman City, Shropshire – a Roman town once as large as Pompeii. Amongst over 400 artefacts, most of which have never been on display, other objects related to Roman cleanliness and beauty practices include a strigil (skin scraper), perfume bottles, jet and bone jewellery, make-up applicators and amulets for warding off evil. The new museum at Wroxeter opens to the public tomorrow.

The Smithsonian has chosen the architectural firm Perkins&Will to design the Bezos Learning Center, which will be located on the east side of the National Air and Space Museum at its flagship location on the National Mall.

A sketchbook by Max Liebermann is restituted by the Berlin Academy of Arts and returned to the heirs of Max and Martha Liebermann. According to a press release by the academy, it mainly contains drawings from garden bars at Wannsee.

A painting of the gardens at Hever Castle by former Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill has been unveiled along with changes to the layout of the historic attraction to better tell the history of its ownership.

The National Museum of Antiquities (RMO) in Leiden is no longer allowed to conduct excavations in Saqqara, the famous burial ground near the Egyptian capital, Cairo. The Egyptian authorities have imposed this ban in response to anger over an exhibition currently on display at the Leiden museum, first reported by NRC.

Wedding Cake - a 12-metre-high sculptural pavilion in the form of a three-tiered wedding cake, clad entirely in ceramic tiles - is a major new work by celebrated Portuguese artist Joana Vasconcelos (b 1971) opening at Waddesdon this summer.

The German conceptual artist, whose body of work encompassed banal and overlooked objects including shoes, seascapes and strawberries, died on May 30.

14 leading UK institutions including Tate, the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Royal Opera House – and now the British Museum – have ended their ties to fossil fuel funding since 2016.

The Roy Lichtenstein Foundation has donated 186 artworks to four American museums and one European institution to celebrate the late artist’s centennial anniversary of his birth this October.

A priceless 16th-century Italian painting, “Madonna with Child” by Alessandro Turchi, that was looted by Nazi Germany during World War II and discovered in Japan, has been returned to Poland.

Battistero di San Giovanni Battista dates back to 1167. Built in Romanesque style, it has an octagonal floor plan with a diameter of 20.5 metres and a height of 34 metres. It originally had three doors, two of which were closed in 1588; the third, which is still visible today, consists of a portico with two lions.

Les Enfants d’Ouranos is a new work by artist JR (b. 1983, Paris, France) presented as a large-scale, site-specific installation on the south façade of the Museum for an entire year. The 200-foot long banner, depicting children playfully running, will cover much of the exterior wall and be visible from Montauk Highway. JR’s presentation follows previous façade installations by Hank Willis Thomas, Martin Creed, and Clifford Ross.

On Friday 2 June, the Van Gogh Museum celebrated its 50th anniversary: a significant milestone for the renowned museum that is devoted to the work of Vincent van Gogh and his time. During the anniversary celebration on Museumplein, Princess Beatrix received a sunflower on behalf of Emilie Gordenker (Director of the Van Gogh Museum) and Janne Heling (Chairwoman of the Vincent van Gogh Foundation). The Princess’ mother, Queen Juliana, was also presented with a sunflower at the opening of the museum 50 years ago.

Picasso said, “You can have all the perspectives at once!” What a hero. But tell me, are any of those perspectives a woman’s? Well, then I’m not interested. —Hannah Gadsby

A remarkable unseen trove of Freddie Mercury’s handwritten working drafts for Queen’s immortal hits will be unveiled for the first time today at Sotheby's New York, before travelling to Los Angeles and Hong Kong. The manuscripts will then return to London as part of a month-long exhibition in August prior to their sale in “Freddie Mercury: A World of His Own” this September.

Sotheby’s today announces plans to acquire the iconic Breuer building from the Whitney Museum of American Art, relocating its flagship galleries and auction room to the heart of New York’s Upper East Side alongside the Museum Mile. Designed by Modernist master Marcel Breuer and completed in 1966, the new flagship located at 945 Madison Avenue will include state-of-the-art gallery and exhibition space to showcase Sotheby’s full suite of offerings—including a reimagined signature auction room, exhibitions spanning Sotheby’s 71 categories across fine art and luxury, all while maintaining this landmark architectural masterpiece. The Sotheby’s galleries will be free and open to the public.

This summer Neue Galerie New York is undertaking enhancements to this historic building to promote sustainability and improve the visitor experience on every level. To accommodate this necessary work, the Neue Galerie – including the galleries, shops and cafés – will be closed from June 1 through August 31.