NewsHeritage
Vandals smash statue of Mary Magdalene in French chapel—apparently because she is naked
A note was left at the scene by the perpetrators saying they “did not accept” that the saint should be “represented in such a way”
NewsMuseums
Send the religious art in museums back to the churches, says the director of the Uffizi gallery
Eike Schmidt says up to a thousand works are languishing in state-run stores all over Italy
Featurecoronavirus
The art world's favourite Easter and Passover images
We asked artists, museum directors, art historians and public figures who love art to pick the images that mean something to them at this time
CommentReligious art
Pope Francis, his crucifix and the Virgin Mary: miraculous or merely traditional?
Art history removes the numinous from art. At the Vatican’s Covid-19 blessing we saw it invoked again
ReviewBook Shorts
Medieval books’ margins are shown to be areas of dissent and fun, rather than mere doodling
The extra-textual decoration of medieval illuminated manuscripts are full of clues about sections of society normally overlooked by historians
ReviewBooks
How to try to understand Jusepe de Ribera's many scenes of violence
The Spanish artist’s extraordinary paintings of tortured bodies and tormented souls
NewsProtest
Hundreds of Christians protest against McJesus sculpture at Haifa Museum of Art in Israel
Finnish artist Jani Leinonen has asked museum to remove the work—with no response
ArchiveExhibitions
Giovanni da Rimini's images of religious splendour shine in the National Gallery
A Renaissance masterpiece is unveiled, but its mystery remains unsolved
ArchiveExhibitions
Good things come in small packages: 16th-century microsculptures at the Rijksmuseum
These tiny masterpieces are both pious and playful
ArchiveNews
New culture war takes root in US as major news outlet censors art
Artists say they are under pressure to tone down their work after Associated Press removes images of controversial pieces
ArchiveLibya
Libyan shrines under attack as militant Islamists target Muslim mausoleums
Protesters demand protection for cultural heritage as clashes turn violent
ArchivePrivate Museums
Dom Icony brings icons to the blind in central Moscow
Created in consultation with the Russian Society for the Blind, Nadezhda Gubina and her husband Igor Vozyakov have created a didactic and tactile exhibition
ArchiveLawsuits
Widow and ex-wife battle over Russian collector Mikhail de Boire’s icons
When his former wife gave part of $30m collection to the Pushkin Museum, his last wife called in lawyers to determine the fate of 75 icons from north Russia
ArchiveBBC
Art in the media: Alastair Sooke inspires, Matthew Collings takes a swipe at Tracey Emin and Martin Creed fails to enlighten
Plus, Stephen Fry as Pope Innocent X
ArchiveVictoria & Albert Museum
No, not Madonna the singer in the V&A's new Medieval and Renaissance galleries
How the Victoria & Albert Museum’s new Medieval and Renaissance galleries have dealt with our ignorance of Christianity
ArchiveFrançois Pinault
Pinault’s electric chair Christ upsets the French; black version to be shown in London
Paul Fryer's work was installed in the city of Gap over Easter weekend
ArchiveForgeries
Judge orders conclusion to case on the legitimacy of the ossuary which may have belonged to Jesus' half-brother
The forgery enquiry has lasted four years, so far
ArchiveTehran
Iran's Saba Cultural Institute announces Russian Orthodox icons show
The news comes as unexpected due to suppression of religion freedom in the nation
ArchiveRestitution
Orthodox Church seeks control of Moscow icon museum
The fate of Ryazan's Art and History Museum could set a precedent for restitution
ArchiveRestitution
V&A sends stolen monstrance on long-term loan to Spain
The 16th-century silver object had been taken from a church in Toro in 1890
ArchiveArt & Technology
The story of the Thornham Parva retable shows how technology is increasingly influencing art history
Conservation and connoisseurship joined at the altar
ArchiveBooks
The production of works for garth and home
This study tries to prove that there was an aesthetic specific to cloistered women
ArchiveNews
Cavallini discovery reopens superiority debate between Quattrocento Roman and Florentine schools
Will Cavallini or Giotto reign supreme?
ArchiveArtist interview
Interview with Andres Serrano: Mining the seamy side for all it’s worth
After sacrilege and violent death the artist whom the moral majority (minority?) love to hate, is now into explicit sex
ArchiveExhibitions
The National Gallery provides a grand overview of Lorenzo Lotto, the 16th century painter with a still undefined image
The exhibition contains some stunning examples of Lorenzo Lotto’s approach to portraiture, which is to show the private rather than the public individual
ArchiveMount Athos
Mysterious religious treasures from Mount Athos go on display in Thessaloniki
The monastery has been forbidden to women since 1060 and remains barely accessible to laymen, making this public exhibition an opportunity of a lifetime
ArchiveWestminster Abbey
The Westminster Retable: technically daring and now in danger
£250,000 needed to restore the greatest English medieval altarpiece
ArchiveConservation & Preservation
Save a medieval rarity spared by the Reformation and Civil War: Thornham Parva retable in urgent need of conservation
Unless a small Suffolk church can raise £168,000 to conserve one of the earliest English paintings, it may have to sell it
ArchiveExhibitions
Holy Russia at the V&A, touring exhibition is repackaged for the UK
Via many points in the US
ArchiveRestitution
Patriarch Aleksey II of Moscow and All Russia on restitution: "Places of worship first, museums second"
The official position of the Russian Orthodox Church, as explained by its spokesman
ArchiveNovember 1992
World War II ends for a small town in eastern Germany as treasures are finally returned
Church valuables were dispersed in 1945, reunited in 1992, and return home in 1993
ArchiveConservation & Preservation
Tug-of-war over baroque church of San Luca in Genoa as baroque gem falls into ruin
The Spinola family has created a Foundation and is looking for sponsors; the State would like to get possession of the sadly-neglected building
ArchiveExhibitions
New exhibition on Cola dell’ Amatrice, a Raphaelesque shrinking violet
The exhibition at he Pinacoteca Civica di Palazzo Arringo is open until 15 October
Archive'Degenerate' art
Nazi 'degenerate art' show to be reconstructed in LA
An irony that the American art world will enjoy after the Mapplethorpe censorship row: the N.E.A. is sponsoring a partial replay of the Nazi “Entartete Kunst” exhibition of 1937
CommentCultural heritage
Why we should be concerned about President Erdogan turning museums into mosques
Hagia Sophia and the Chora Church will remain “open to all”, Turkish government promises—but restricted access may not be the primary worry
Holger A. Klein