Arts news

• Three Swiss Museums Return Trove of Benin Bronzes to Nigeria

  29-06-2026 22:36 via artnews.com
  
  Three Swiss museums have returned 18 royal and religious artifacts from the Kingdom of Benin to Nigeria, marking another significant repatriation of the so-called Benin Bronzes.A handover ceremony took place today at the University of Zurich between Swiss Federal Councillor Elisabeth Baume-Schneider and Nigeria’s Minister of Culture, Hannatu Musa Musawa. The university returned 14 objects from its Ethnographic Museum, while two additional Benin Bronzes came from Museum Rietberg Zurich and
  
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• Refik Anadol to Stage Monumental AI Installation on Smithsonian Castle in DC

  29-06-2026 22:27 via artnews.com
  
  Fresh off the opening of Dataland, Refik Anadol’s new AI art museum in Los Angeles, the media artist has partnered with the Smithsonian Institution for a new monumental installation.Dubbed Smithsonian Dreams, the new project will see Anadol transform the Smithsonian Castle, the headquarters of the Institution on the National Mall, with an immersive performance of light, sound, and visuals on July 17 and July 18 at 9 p.m..For the work, Anadol built a custom AI system that reinterprets 200 y
  
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• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy Announces Replacement for Long-Toppled Lenin Monument in Kyiv

  29-06-2026 22:23 via artnews.com
  
  A pedestal that once supported a Lenin monument in Kyiv that has remained empty ever since 2013 may soon host a statue of a Cossack leader Ivan Mazepa, who is revered by many in Ukraine as a national hero.A 12-foot-tall red quartzite sculpture of Vladimir Lenin stood on the pedestal at the intersection of two main roads in Kyiv for almost 60 years, until it was toppled during the Euromaidan Uprising. The Euromaidan demonstrations had begun the previous month when then-president Viktor Yanukovych
  
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• Chyrum Lambert’s Paper Cutouts Open New Dimensions

  29-06-2026 21:47 via artnews.com
  
  Chyrum Lambert moved to Los Angeles in 2012 and was immediately struck by the community of artists and poets he found there. “I didn’t go to art school, and I don’t have any formal education other than high school, so I’ve never had friends who are artists,” he said. “There’s just so much here that I never had in my life. This whole practice came out of LA.” For around a decade, Lambert has ventured beyond typical painterly techniques to creat
  
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• National Museum Cardiff in Wales May Close for Repairs to Address ‘Deteriorating Condition’               

  29-06-2026 21:39 via artnews.com
  
  The National Museum Cardiff in Wales may close for much-needed repair work, according to a workers’ union claim that it is in early discussions about a temporary closure in the wake of work last year to address what the institution’s director general described as the building’s “deteriorating condition.”As reported by the BBC, “The Public and Commercial Services union (PCS) said it understands that Amgueddfa Cymru, which runs the site, is ‘consideri
  
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• 70-Ton Statue of Lionel Messi Appears in Argentina Amid World Cup Fervor

  29-06-2026 21:01 via artnews.com
  
  Lionel Messi, the Argentine superhero of soccer who is the highest-scoring player in World Cup history as of last week, has been monumentalized in a remote town in Patagonia. The stats: 85 feet tall, 70 tons in weight, and $130,000 to fabricate.As reported by the New York Times, the statue by artist Aldo Beroisa follows from other creations of his including statues of dinosaurs and Jesus, and has been in the works for more than a year. “This is going to be our Sistine Chapel,” said t
  
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• As the California African American Museum Celebrates 50 Years, Its Leader Looks Ahead

  29-06-2026 20:56 via artnews.com
  
  This week, the United States marks its 250th birthday, arguably no closer to agreeing on how the story of its journey should be told—or who gets to tell it. Under the second Trump administration, museums have become one of the clearest arenas for that struggle. These are places where America’s myth of exceptionalism collides with its lived reality: a contested memory of race, class, and political ambition. As the unfolding case of the Smithsonian at
  
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• Heir of German Jewish Collector Seeks Return of Van Gogh Painting from Musée d’Orsay

  29-06-2026 20:20 via artnews.com
  
  Klaus Kallmann is 98 years old, but he still remembers being a little boy and looking at a painting by Vincent van Gogh that hung in his grandfather’s Berlin villa until the early 1930s. The work depicts the artist’s doctor, Théophile Peyron, standing by a gnarled tree, his hands on his hips, in front of the mental hospital he ran, where Van Gogh was also a patient. That painting, titled Hôpital Saint-Paul à Saint-Rémy-de-Provence (1889), is now in the
  
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• What the Hell Is That Weird Painting Donald Trump Just Posted?

  29-06-2026 18:13 via artnews.com
  
  The point of art, arguably, is to make us ask questions, including such open-ended queries as: What the hell is that? Indeed, that’s a question one might ask while staring at the latest artwork posted by President Donald Trump to his social media platform Truth Social.Late on Sunday night, he posted an image of an artwork—apparently a framed painting—that sets out to provide a full picture of American history. Represented here are George Washington, American soldiers planting t
  
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• Man Pleads Guilty in Fraud That Swindled Bruce Springsteen Manager

  29-06-2026 18:09 via artnews.com
  
  Thomas Doyle, a man who was once described by a federal judge as a “career criminal,” pleaded guilty Friday to wire fraud in a scheme involving a Gustave Courbet painting that eventually ended up in the collection of Jon Landau, Bruce Springsteen’s longtime manager. According to the New York Times, Doyle persuaded London dealer Patrick Matthiesen to send him Courbet’s Mother and Child on a Hammock, painted around 1848, after promising to broker its sale. Ma
  
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• Swiss Institute to Move to Permanent Home on the Bowery Next Spring

  29-06-2026 16:00 via artnews.com
  
  The New York–based Swiss Institute has acquired the ground floor and lower level of 250 Bowery, which will become its permanent home when it opens in spring 2027.In an interview, Swiss Institute director Stefanie Hessler described the move as a “new chapter” in the institution’s history as it celebrates its 40th anniversary. The organization had been looking for about 2.5 years for a new home while also securing the funds needed to purchase the space.“We wanted to f
  
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• Seven Artworks to Catch Up On During the FIFA World Cup

  29-06-2026 15:00 via artnews.com
  
  A ceaselessly ticking clock, sweat-drenched players, and howling crowds: Soccer is a game of extremes. A few minutes spent watching a heated match proves why it is the most popular sport on earth. Fans obsess over what most of the world calls football for its glorious display of the desire to win. The emotional complexities and the politics of competition and stardom make the game an attractive subject for artists as well. Footage from canonized matches and emblems associated with the game have
  
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• Family of Venezuelan Artist Trapped in Earthquake Rubble Pleads for Help, Workers Dismantle JR Work Impacted by Heat Wave, and More: Morning Links for June 29, 2026

  29-06-2026 14:23 via artnews.com
  
  The HeadlinesVENEZUELA FALLOUT. The painter Onai Quiñonez is one of thousands still missing since Venezuela’s devastating double earthquake on Wednesday, June 24, reports Hyperallergic. His family has issued a call for help in rescuing the artist, whom they believe remains trapped under rubble from his collapsed residential building in the coastal town of Caraballeda in La Guaira. “We need to give visibility to Onai’s situation,” his sister
  
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