Opinion The Gray Market: How My 7 Highly Specific Art-Industry Predictions for 2020 Worked Out (and Other Insights) Upholding an annual tradition, our columnist tests the sturdiness of his tea leaves at the end of a year like no other. By Tim Schneider, Dec 27, 2020
Politics Trump Threatens to Derail Congress’s Coronavirus Relief Bill Unless Funding for the Smithsonian and Other Cultural Institutions Is Cut The funding for the museums is actually part of the government's annual budget, not the relief bill. By Ben Davis, Dec 23, 2020
Politics A Statue of Civil Rights Activist Barbara Rose Johns May Soon Replace One of Robert E. Lee in the US Capitol Building The new statue would commemorate a key figure in the Brown vs. Board of Ed Supreme Court decision. By Taylor Dafoe, Dec 21, 2020
Opinion The Gray Market: Why a Colossal Hack of US Interests Should Wake Up the Art Industry to Cybersecurity Threats (and Other Insights) Our columnist sees the breach of SolarWinds as a red alert about the heightened danger of cybercrime in the work-from-home era. By Tim Schneider, Dec 20, 2020
Politics Ai Weiwei’s Startling and Sympathetic New Documentary Takes Viewers Into the Protests That Have Rocked Hong Kong The film is now available on demand. By Artnet News, Dec 18, 2020
Politics France Pushed Through a Bill to Return 27 Looted Artifacts to Benin and Senegal After Senators Threatened to Derail the Plan The debate broke down amid a discussion of how claims would be processed. By Naomi Rea, Dec 17, 2020
Politics Virginia’s Governor Wants to Spend $11 Million to Reimagine a Confederate Monument-Lined Promenade in Richmond The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts would be tasked with transforming Monument Avenue if the budget goes through. By Taylor Dafoe, Dec 16, 2020
Politics An Iconic Barbara Kruger Text Artwork Has Become a Symbol in the Protest Movement Against Poland’s Strict Anti-Abortion Laws The artwork first appeared in Poland in 1991. By Sarah Cascone, Dec 16, 2020
Op-Ed How Did the Benin Bronzes Come to Europe? Here’s How Colonial Powers Raced to Loot Them Amid a Program of Imperial Destruction Author Dan Hicks takes a detailed look at what really happened before and after the UK's punitive raid on the Benin Palace in 1897. By Dan Hicks, Dec 15, 2020
Opinion The Gray Market: Why Bob Dylan’s $300 Million Windfall Debunks the Myth of the Sellout Artist (and Other Insights) Our columnist uses the sale of Dylan’s songwriting catalog to show artists have little to fear from aggressively monetizing their practice. By Tim Schneider, Dec 13, 2020
Opinion The Humboldt Forum in Berlin, Finally (Almost) Ready for the Public, Wears Germany’s History Like a Crown of Thorns We took a walk through the enormously controversial German cultural institution, which has been plagued by delays and protests. By Kate Brown, Dec 11, 2020
Politics A Single US Republican Senator Has Blocked the Approval of New Museums Dedicated to Women’s History and the American Latino Mike Lee of Utah scuttled what other senators expected to be a simple vote. By Taylor Dafoe, Dec 11, 2020
Crime A $1 Million Marsden Hartley That Was Stolen 30 Years Ago and Replaced With a Forgery Is Finally Returning to Its Original Owner The case took some wild twists and turns on its year-long journey through the courts. By Eileen Kinsella, Dec 11, 2020
Politics Georgia Runoff Candidate Kelly Loeffler Allegedly Owns a $56,000 Warhol Portrait of Mao, and a Fellow Republican Thinks It’s Weird Loeffler's campaign has denied that she owns the artwork. By Sarah Cascone, Dec 10, 2020
Op-Ed What International Audiences Must Understand About the Conflict Between Armenia and Azerbaijan—and the Cultural Heritage That’s at Stake Younger Armenian and Azerbaijani scholars can do a great deal if they dare to break from nationalist taboos. By Thomas de Waal, Dec 10, 2020
