Arts news

• 55-Carat Ruby of ‘Unprecedented Size’ Sells for $34.8 M. at Sotheby’s

  12-06-2023 19:42 via artnews.com
  
  Sotheby’s has auctioned off a 55.22 carat ruby in New York for $34.8 million. The unmounted stone was unveiled by the auction house in Dubai in May. It was promoted as the largest and most valuable ruby ever to appear at auction, with sales expectations of greater than $30 Million. The ruby sold as part of Sotheby’s Magnificent Jewels auction on June 8.Quig Bruning, head of Sotheby’s Jewelry in New York, told the UK press agency PA Media that he was entranced after seeing the E
  
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• The term “religion” is both more recent and more complicated than you might expect

  19-12-2025 01:41 via aeon.co
  The term “religion” is both more recent and more complicated than you might expect
  
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• Norman Podhoretz, chief pugilist of the neoconservative movement, longtime editor of Commentary, is dead. He was 95...

  19-12-2025 01:41 via nytimes.com
  Norman Podhoretz, chief pugilist of the neoconservative movement, longtime editor of Commentary, is dead. He was 95...
  
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• Murder, sex, duplicity, betrayal — a new history of Suleyman the Magnificent has it all

  19-12-2025 01:41 via lrb.co.uk
  Murder, sex, duplicity, betrayal — a new history of Suleyman the Magnificent has it all
  
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• Qatar’s Mathaf Museum Announces Major Expansion, Led by Architect Lina Ghothem

  18-12-2025 23:23 via artnews.com
  Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art in Doha has tapped Lebanese architect Lina Ghothem to lead a major campus expansion. The news arrives as the Qatari institution celebrates its 15th anniversary, and figures into an ambitious phase of cultural development underway in the Arabian Gulf nation. “The Arab Museum of Modern Art is an unrivalled institution,” Ghothem said in a statement. “This expansion will offer a remarkable platform for presenting art and ideas, particularly by
  
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• Rome Has Two New Metro Stations That Offer Underground Mini-Museums, With More On the Way

  18-12-2025 23:15 via artnews.com
  Construction projects in cities that have been inhabited for thousands of years often run into special challenges as work crews come upon ancient artifacts, and suddenly, what was a construction site becomes an archaeological dig. Officials in Rome have been at work for two long decades on a new subway line for just that reason, as workers excavating stations on the new Line C, which will link the city center with distant southern suburbs, have turned up more than 500,000 artifacts. The cit
  
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• Phillips Records 10% Rise in Global Sales for 2025, Taking $927 M. as Private Sales Surge by 66%

  18-12-2025 22:50 via artnews.com
  Phillips has closed 2025 with global sales of $927 million, marking a 10 percent increase against last year. The result follows impressive projected totals by Sotheby’s and Christie’s in 2025, with the houses registering a 17 percent and 7 percent increase, respectively.The narrative coming from the “big three” is quite rightly upbeat, with their balance sheets showing renewed confidence from collectors. At Phillips, auction sales this year accounted for $725 million, whi
  
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• David Oyelowo and Ava DuVernay Team Up for New Art Thriller, ‘Heist of Benin’

  18-12-2025 22:41 via artnews.com
  David Oyelowo and Ava DuVernay are reuniting for the new film, “Heist of Benin,” more than a decade after their Academy Award-winning film “Selma.”Oyelowo will star in the film, which is set in modern-day London and described as “a thriller that intertwines art, love and restitution.” DuVernay will direct from a screenplay by Jesse Quiñones, based on an original idea.The project was announced on Tuesday during Canal+’s ORIGINAL+ pre
  
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• New Report Shows a Rebounding Auction Market in 2025, With Impressionist and Modern Art Most Improved

  18-12-2025 22:21 via artnews.com
  The two biggest auction houses recently released their 2025 numbers, showing a 17 percent sales jump at Sotheby’s and a nearly 7 percent rise at Christie’s. Now, a year-end report from art market research and analysis company ArtTactic delves into the details of the art sales from all the major auction houses. The auction market rebounded to $4.55 billion, up some 11.1 percent from 2024, ArtTactic finds. Among Old Masters, Impressionist and modern art, the strongest historical c
  
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• New Report Shows a Rebounding Art Auction Market in 2025, With Impressionists and Moderns Most Improved

  18-12-2025 22:21 via artnews.com
  The two biggest auction houses recently released their 2025 numbers, showing a 17 percent sales jump at Sotheby’s and a nearly 7 percent rise at Christie’s. Now, a year-end report from art market research and analysis company ArtTactic delves into the details of the art sales from all the major auction houses. The auction market rebounded to $4.55 billion, up some 11.1 percent from 2024, ArtTactic finds. Among Old Masters, Impressionist and modern art, the strongest historical c
  
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• Texas State University Cancels Black History 101 Mobile Museum Visit, Prompting ACLU Challenge

  18-12-2025 21:13 via artnews.com
  A decision by the Texas State University (TXST) to cancel an appearance of the Black History 101 Mobile Museum at one of its campuses, scheduled for 2026 Black History Month, has prompted a First Amendment challenge from the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas, according to a report by the University Star, TXST’s student-run paper. In a letter sent to TXST president Kelly Damphousse, the ACLU of Texas noted a 2023 Senate bill banning DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) at Texas
  
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• ‘Victims of Communism’ Memorial in Canada Will Leave Off Names After Findings Link Some to Nazism

  18-12-2025 21:09 via artnews.com
  A memorial to “Victims of Communism” in Ottawa, Canada, that was slated to be inscribed with the names of so-called victims will focus instead on more general thematic content related to its subject, after a government report prompted the Department of Canadian Heritage to change course. The reversal follows claims issued last year that connected more than half of the proposed 550 names to Nazism or fascist groups.As reported by The Art Newspaper, concern over links between the
  
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• Atlanta’s High Museum Adds 361 Works to Collection, Including Rediscovered Jacob Lawrence Watercolor

  18-12-2025 21:03 via artnews.com
  The High Museum of Art in Atlanta has added 361 artworks and objects to its collection in 2025. The acquisitions are part of a strategic plan to grow its holdings, now numbering over 20,000 objects, ahead of the museum’s centennial next year.“As we look ahead to our centennial in 2026, our curators have strategically acquired artworks that not only support where we’ve traditionally built strengths as an institution but that also signal where we’re heading in the next 100
  
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• Rare, Complete Dinosaur Skull Fossil Acquired by Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History

  18-12-2025 20:48 via artnews.com
  The Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History has added a new, rare fossil to its collection: a dome-shaped skull of a Pachycephalosaurus, a type of dinosaur that lived about 67 million years ago.The fossil was donated to the museum by philanthropists Eric and Wendy Schmidt. (Eric Schmidt was the CEO of Google until 2011.) The Schmidts purchased the skull from Sotheby’s for $1.7 million in July. It was excavated in 2024 from the Hell Creek Formation, an area known for fossil d
  
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• Louvre Director Grilled in Senate Hearing Over ‘Cult of Secrecy’ Accused of Enabling Theft

  18-12-2025 20:47 via artnews.com
  Louvre president Laurence des Cars faced an fraught Senate hearing on Wednesday as lawmakers pressed her on years of allegedly neglected security warnings preceding the October theft of $102 million in imperial jewels — an interrogation that has intensified calls for her resignation. The session followed revelations that multiple audits conducted in 2017 and 2018 flagged structural vulnerabilities in the Apollo Gallery, where intruders broke in on October 19. Des Cars, who assumed lea
  
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• Guggenheim Bilbao Scraps Biosphere Expansion Amid Local Opposition

  18-12-2025 18:01 via artnews.com
  Plans to build a €100 million satellite of the Guggenheim Bilbao in Spain’s protected Urdaibai biosphere reserve have been abandoned after nearly two decades of legal challenges and escalating local opposition. The museum’s board of trustees — which includes the Basque regional government, the Biscay provincial council, and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation — voted this week to halt the project, citing insufficient public support and scientific objections. Co
  
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• Christie’s to Auction 1804 Portrait of George Washington Now on $1 Bill

  18-12-2025 16:12 via artnews.com
  Early next year, Christie’s will offer up an 1804 oil portrait of George Washington by artist Gilbert Stuart. The painting, commissioned by James Madison, the US’s fourth president, served as a model for the US Mint’s engraving for the one dollar bill.The work is set to be offered with an estimate of $500,000 to $1 million at the house’s “We the People: America at 250” sale during its annual Americana week. Stuart was an early American painter who was primaril
  
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• Rothschild’s ‘Mini-Louvre’ at Center of Family Feud, British Museum on ‘Decolonization’ Mission, and More: Morning Links for December 18, 2025

  18-12-2025 14:25 via artnews.com
  To receive Morning Links in your inbox every weekday, sign up for our Breakfast with ARTnews newsletter.THE HEADLINES COLLABORATION, NOT RESTITUTION. The British Museum is lending artifacts from its collection to former colonies as part of an effort to support what it describes as “decolonization” through collaboration rather than restitution. Curators have arranged the transfer of 80 significant Greek and Egyptian objects to Mumbai’s Chhatrap
  
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• Dig In to the Traditions Behind Two Holiday Dishes That Make the Season Even More Delicious

  18-12-2025 13:00 via smithsonianmag.com
  Two culinary traditions from two island nations reveal what glues communities and families together across time
  
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• What Does This Career Coach’s New Survey of 1,000 Artists Tell Us? They Are Struggling But Somehow Hopeful

  18-12-2025 11:00 via artnews.com
  The art world may not be the most data-informed industry, but there are regular reports on the art market, such as the UBS Art Basel Market Report, which surveys auction houses, galleries, and fairs; UBS collector surveys; and the Artnet Intelligence Report, which analyzes that company’s proprietary auction data. If you noticed that artists don’t seem to appear in those reports, well, New York artist mentor Paddy Johnson is one step ahead of you. Her inaugural New Visions Report, rel
  
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• Malcolm Cowley’s time at the helm of American literature was full of ambition and glamour. Our period, in comparison, is impoverished

  18-12-2025 02:46 via harpers.org
  Malcolm Cowley’s time at the helm of American literature was full of ambition and glamour. Our period, in comparison, is impoverished
  
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• J.R.R. Tolkien was at his funniest when he was filled with rage, and nothing set him off like the automobile

  18-12-2025 02:46 via lareviewofbooks.org
  J.R.R. Tolkien was at his funniest when he was filled with rage, and nothing set him off like the automobile
  
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• A Socrates gone mad. Diogenes, who wrote nothing that survives, was part hobo, part insult comic, part performance artist

  18-12-2025 02:46 via wsj.com
  A Socrates gone mad. Diogenes, who wrote nothing that survives, was part hobo, part insult comic, part performance artist
  
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• LACMA Workers Vote to Unionize With AFSCME

  18-12-2025 00:09 via artnews.com
  Workers at the the Los Angeles County Museum of Art voted to unionize with AFSCME District Council 36, the union announced on Wednesday.The new union, LACMA United, will represent around 300 workers across the museum, from curators to art handlers. Workers announced their plan to unionize in late October, citing high turnover, low wages compared to the city’s rising cost of living, and a lack of transparency from management. The group sent out an open letter, addressed to colleagues and ma
  
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• Libya’s National Museum Reopens After 14 Years

  18-12-2025 00:07 via artnews.com
  Libya’s National Museum, known as As-Saraya Al-Hamra or the Red Castle Museum, has reopened in Tripoli for the first time since the 2011 revolution that ended the four-decade rule of Muammar el-Qaddafi. The Red Castle is a symbol of Libya’s ancient, layered history, with a foundation dating to the Roman era, and significant expansions undertaken in the 1500s, 1930s, and 1980s—when the structure was first converted into a museum. The largest museum in the North African coun
  
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• M+ Sigg Prize Winner, Jessica Silverman Takes on Trevor Paglen, and More: Industry Moves for December 17, 2025

  17-12-2025 21:36 via artnews.com
  Happy Wednesday!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 Wednesday! Here’s a round-up of who’s moving and shaking in the art trade this week.Industry Moves
  Jessica Silverman Now Represents Trevor Paglen: The gallery will debut a solo show in January featuring prints from four major series, including works that explore dr
  
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• Bay Area Artist Mildred Howard to Receive Major Retrospective at Oakland Museum of California

  17-12-2025 21:00 via artnews.com
  The Oakland Museum of California (OMCA) will stage a major retrospective for Bay Area artist Mildred Howard, opening next June.Titled “Poetics of Memory,” the exhibition will bring together work from across five decades of Howard’s career and will also debut new work by the octogenarian artist, who was awarded a 2025 Guggenheim Fellowship. The retrospective will be accompanied by a fully illustrated catalog, and the museum is working on a national tour for it.Howard’s his
  
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• Two Days Into Walkout, Louvre Staff Unions Vote to Continue Strike

  17-12-2025 19:41 via artnews.com
  The world’s most-visited museum, it seems, cannot catch a break lately. Unionized staff at Paris’s Louvre Museum voted unanimously on Wednesday to continue a strike that began Monday, when hundreds walked out in protest over “increasingly deteriorated working conditions,” the Associated Press reports. The action had closed the museum on Monday, and it was closed Tuesday as per its usual schedule. It opened late and only partially on Wednesday, offering a “maste
  
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• SFMOMA and Museum of the African Diaspora Name Cornelia Stokes as Inaugural Holder of Joint Curatorship Focused on African Diaspora

  17-12-2025 19:15 via artnews.com
  The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Museum of the African Diaspora (MoAD), two Bay Area institutions that are around the corner from each other, have appointed Cornelia Stokes as assistant curator of the art of the African diaspora. She will begin in the role on January 5.The newly created position, first announced in 2023, will be shared by both museums, with Stokes working across the two institutions. The position has been endowed for its first three years by the KHR McNeely Family
  
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• Using Flight Simulators, Peggy Ahwesh Crafts an Elegy to a Disused Palestinian Airport and the Freedom It Represented

  17-12-2025 19:03 via artnews.com
  ‟The stewardess has a recurring dream of her airplane soaring / through a milky veil of rotating clouds / Clouds of memory, clouds of erasure, / Clouds blurring the view of her homeland below,” says Peggy Ahwesh in the poetic yet pointed voiceover anchoring her solo exhibition ‟The Wayfinders,” recently on view at New York’s Microscope Gallery. Ahwesh (b. 1954) is an icon of experimental film and forerunner in avant-garde digital animation whose traveling
  
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