NewsMuseums
Are museums as Covid-risky as saunas? Culture leaders outraged over late reopening of English art spaces
Commercial galleries, non-essential retail, and even gyms have been given the green light to open before museums under the UK government's "roadmap" to lift coronavirus restrictions
NewsControversies
Bank of England wades into UK's escalating culture war on controversial monuments, saying it will remove images of slave owners
“Retain and explain” or restrain and refrain? Culture chiefs raise the alarm on government’s policy to keep problematic statues ahead of crucial meeting
NewsStatues
Keep problematic monuments and ‘explain them’, UK government to tell cultural leaders
Opponents argue that some public statues reinforce racism, chauvinism, sexism and homophobia
NewsMonuments
Actor Riz Ahmed and Chisenhale director Zoé Whitley selected for new commission to diversify London's public monuments
New 15-member body will focus on the capital’s statues, street names and memorials
NewsStatues
City of London to remove statues of politicians with slavery links
The decision to take down historic William Beckford and John Cass sculptures could go against new UK government policy
NewsPublic art
UK government announces new laws to protect controversial historic monuments from 'woke worthies and baying mobs'
Proposed plans have been criticised as distraction tactics from the state's "lethally failed response to the pandemic and the consequences of a disastrous Brexit"
NewsMonuments
Vilified statue of Abraham Lincoln and kneeling slave removed from Park Square in Boston
Artist’s campaign and petition prompted dismantling of ‘Emancipation Group’ piece—but original still stands in Washington DC
ReviewBooks
Attribution of a Venus discovered in a French scrapyard is highly contested—this book defends the ascription
This weighty tome looks at the life and work of the Italian sculptor Giambologna but focuses on the contested bronze
ReviewThe Year in Review 2020
The best and worst art world moments in 2020
It was tempting to simply put “everything and everyone” in the bad-year column. But even this most challenging of years was not entirely terrible
CommentDiary of an art historian
People see only 'silver tits' and 'bouffant pubes' now—but I predict Mary Wollstonecraft sculpture will become widely admired
One of the iron rules of art history is that the more derided a work of art at first, the more celebrated it will become
NewsMuseums & Heritage
Debate flares as British Museum moves bust of slave-owning founder Hans Sloane
As part of the museum's efforts to address Britain’s colonial past, officials acknowledge that the collector "exploited slaves"
CommentDiary of an art historian
'When the politics change, so must the statues'
History can teach us a lot about how to—and how not to—deal with problematic historic monuments
NewsStatues
UK's first statues of black Brits—sited at Brixton station—to be restored after 34 years
The overlooked works are modelled on local residents
NewsProtests
National Trust for Historic Preservation supports removal of Confederate statues that glorify white power
Trust says such monuments “do not reflect, and are in fact abhorrent to, our values”
NewsMonuments
Riga installs six-metre statue to honour medical workers
Sculpture by Latvian artist Aigars Bikse is in a prominent spot in front of the National Museum of Art
NewsPublic art
Officials reject reports of permanent Prince Philip statue for London's Fourth Plinth
Mayor of London’s office says contemporary art series will continue with Heather Phillipson sculpture planned for 2020
ArchiveCambodia
Cambodia made up its own laws concerning art ownership, US lawyer says
This statement came during recent dispute over Cambodian statue that was consigned to Sotheby's
ArchiveFakes & copies
The owner of Christie’s continues his battle to have a statue that he bought declared a fake
The statue of Pharaoh Sesostris III has already been deemed authentic in the Pinault's two lost lawsuits
CommentMonuments
Tearing down troubling statues is not lying about our history—it is removing impediments to truth
The UK communities secretary Robert Jenrick's plans to prevent the removal of controversial monuments reveals his inability to view the past as shifting and complex
Ben Luke