Arts news

• London’s National Gallery Acquires Major Angelica Kauffman History Painting

  02-07-2026 23:58 via artnews.com
  
  The National Gallery in London announced that it has acquired a significant history painting by 18th-century artist Angelica Kauffman. The work is now on view at the museum. Achilles discovered among the Daughters of Lycomedes (1787–88) is the first work by Kauffman to enter a UK national collection in nearly two centuries. Another painting by the artist was bequeathed to the National Gallery in 1835 but was later transferred to Tate Britain, as the museum is now known, when it opened
  
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• Toxic Lead Levels in Paris’s Palais Garnier Opera Delay Renovation

  02-07-2026 22:40 via artnews.com
  
  The discovery of lead during renovation work at Paris’s historic Palais Garnier—opened in 1875 and summoned as inspiration for Gaston Leroux’s 1910 novel The Phantom of the Opera (and even more famously for Andrew Lloyd Weber’s musical adaptation)—has “throw[n] a tight schedule of venue closures and the projected budget into disarray,” according to a report in Le Figaro.Planned restoration work that was supposed to take two years is now projected for fiv
  
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• Slotexo Quick Spin Experience: Mastering Short, High‑Intensity Slots Play

  02-07-2026 22:01 via zouchmagazine.com
  
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• Artist Calls on Manifesta 16 to Remove Installation, Alleging Plagarism

  02-07-2026 21:32 via artnews.com
  
  An artist has demanded the organizers of Manifesta 16 remove an installation from the exhibition in Essen, Germany, alleging that a piece in the show plagiarizes one of her earlier works. The piece, titled Elevation and made by the Turkish sculptor Nasan Tur, consists of reclaimed church pews installed on their side inside St. Gertud Church and engraved with anonymous musings submitted by the public. Bochum-based artist Dorothee Bielfeld told the German outlet Waz that the Elevation’s
  
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• Spanish Man Inadvertently Swipes Valuable Painting Left on Sidewalk in Seville

  02-07-2026 20:24 via artnews.com
  
  A word to the wise: no matter how frazzled you are while preparing to leave town for a family vacation, make sure you don’t forget anything on the sidewalk when you drive away. Especially if you are the type of family that takes valuable, framed artwork on road trips.Andrés Hurtado, a 57-year-old man from Murcia, was visiting Seville with his family when an artwork leaning against a garage door caught his eye while on a walk around the city center. He picked it up, particularly take
  
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• Photograph by Boris Mikhailov Stolen from Lithuanian Museum

  02-07-2026 19:44 via artnews.com
  
  A photograph by acclaimed Ukrainian artist Boris Mikhailov has been stolen from the Lithuanian National Museum of Art in what officials believe was a targeted theft.The work, part of Mikhailov’s 1993 series At Dusk, disappeared from the Radvila Palace Museum of Art in Vilnius on June 28 while on view in the exhibition Ukrainian Dreamers: Kharkiv School of Photography, according to museum officials. Police are investigating after the incident was captured on security cameras. 
  
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• ‘The Accidental Collector’: Herbert Lust Dead at 99

  02-07-2026 19:39 via artnews.com
  
  Herbert Lust, a major collector of modern and contemporary art who befriended Alberto Giacometti, Robert Indiana, and other artists, died on May 12 at his home in Greenwich, Connecticut, the New York Times reports. He was 99.Lust often described his life in the art world as something of an “accident.” On multiple occasions, he recounted how in 1949, while on a Fulbright scholarship to study literature at the Sorbonne in Paris, he ended up at a luncheon sitting next to Giacometti. Int
  
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• Phillips Has Sold Nearly $2 M. Worth of Art from Disgraced Art Adviser Lisa Schiff’s Collection

  02-07-2026 17:14 via artnews.com
  
  Phillips has sold $1.9 million worth of art from the holdings of disgraced art advisor Lisa Schiff—and the sales are not finished yet.According to a list provided by a Phillips spokesperson, the house has so far sold 231 pieces from Schiff’s collection of contemporary art. The result of $1.9 million is roughly in line with an estimate set two years ago.In September 2024, Artnet News reported that bankruptcy trustees had retained Phillips to sell some 220 pieces from Schiff’s co
  
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• Taste-Making Downtown Gallery Lyles & King to Close After a Decade in Business

  02-07-2026 16:57 via artnews.com
  
  Lyles & King, a taste-making downtown New York gallery that’s been in business for just over a decade, announced on Thursday that it had closed.Its final exhibitions, a solo for Jessie Makinson and a three-person show for Cato Ouyang, Fernanda Galvão, and Ren Light Pan, closed on June 20. The gallery’s roster included artists like Aneta Grzeszykowska, Mira Schor, Jo-ey Tang & Thomas Fougeirol, Kathy Ruttenberg, and Lily Wong.A number of artists had exhibitions at Lyles
  
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• Santander Bank Says Gelman Collection’s Travel to Spain Is in ‘Full Compliance with Mexican Law’

  02-07-2026 16:54 via artnews.com
  
  As controversy has continued to swirl around a mass of important Mexican artworks that were partially rediscovered in the holdings of the Madrid-based Banco Santander earlier this year, the bank spoke at length about the matter for the first time, saying it had done nothing illegal by bringing the trove to Spain, where it is on view at Faro Santander.Amassed by the late collectors Jacques and Natasha Gelman during the 20th century, the Gelman Collection is particularly rich in works by Frida Kah
  
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• New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani Announces a Record $323.8 M. in Culture Funding

  02-07-2026 16:31 via artnews.com
  
  New York mayor Zohran Mamdani and the speaker of the city council have announced their first budget, totaling $125.8 billion. That will include some $323.8 million for the city’s Department of Cultural Affairs (DCLA), its highest-ever appropriation, as part of the city’s 2027 fiscal year budget, per a report in Hyperallergic. That figure represents a more than 6 percent increase from last year’s allocation of $299.6 million, which was also a record.DCLA is the largest cult
  
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• Precious Okoyomon’s New MoMA PS1 Commission, Assembly Art Fair Launch, and More: Industry Moves for July 2, 2026

  02-07-2026 16:25 via artnews.com
  
  Editor’s Note: This story originally appeared in On Balance, the ARTnews newsletter about the art market and beyond. Sign up here to receive it every Wednesday.Happy Thursday! Here’s a round-up of who’s moving and shaking in the art trade this week.MoMA PS1 Inaugurates New Courtyard Commission Program with Precious Okoyomon: The Long Island City institution has launched an annual Courtyard Commission program, with its first edition going to Nigeria
  
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• León Ferrari Exhibition Nixed by Chile’s Far-Right Government, NYC Gets Record Arts Budget: Morning Links for July 2, 2026

  02-07-2026 16:23 via artnews.com
  
  To receive Morning Links in your inbox every weekday, sign up for our Breakfast with ARTnews newsletter.The Headlines THEY SHOOK ON IT. Mayor Zohran Mamdani and New York’s City Council have approved $323.8 million in funding for culture, reports Hyperallergic. That’s a record amount of yearly funding. Specifically, the $323.8 million will go to the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs (DCLA), representing a seven percent
  
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• Seattle Art Museum Names New Chief Curator

  02-07-2026 15:00 via artnews.com
  
  The Seattle Art Museum (SAM) has appointed Frank Feltens as its next chief curator. He succeeds José Carlos Diaz, who departed the institution last October to be the chief curator of the Peréz Art Museum Miami. Feltens will start in his role on August 17.Feltens is currently associate director for curatorial affairs and curator of Japanese art at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art in Washington, D.C. He joined the museum as a postdoctoral fellow in 2016 and worked
  
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• Angela Nikolau, the Woman Who Climbed the Empire State Building, Is an Artist

  02-07-2026 13:54 via artnews.com
  
  Details may still be coming into focus about the couple who climbed the Empire State Building on Wednesday, but here is one thing for certain: Angela Nikolau, the woman who ascended the skyscraper alongside her partner Ivan Beerkus, is an artist.On her website, Nikolau terms herself a “neo-artist working with extreme performance, visual art and projects with global reach.”“I create high-impact cultural moments, extreme performances and visual content that brands want to be part
  
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  02-07-2026 10:20 via zouchmagazine.com
  
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• London Old Masters Sales Reveal a Market Split Between Trophy Works and Everything Else

  02-07-2026 00:21 via artnews.com
  
  Editor’s Note: This story originally appeared in On Balance, the ARTnews newsletter about the art market and beyond. Sign up here to receive it every Wednesday.In London on Wednesday, Sotheby’s Old Master & 19th Century Paintings and Sculpture sale brought in £37.8 million ($50.2 million), a solid result that masked a sharply divided market. Record prices, a flurry of bidding for museum-quality works, and a £13.6 million sculpture suggest
  
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