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Simone Forti’s See-Saw and the choices left to its performers
In Yvonne Rainer’s recollection, the experience on the see-saw left performers free to choose their movements and sounds.
Renoir and Love: from crowded dances to quiet conversations
At London’s National Gallery, ‘Renoir and Love’ explores friendship, courtship and family affection in the artist’s paintings, from crowded gatherings to more intimate encounters.
A drawing in an Italian collection is newly attributed to Manet
Stylistic details and a studio stamp support the attribution proposed by Emily Beeny and Francesco Baccanelli. Who the drawing depicts, and what it was made for, remain open questions.
Torino Esposizioni is becoming a library for the city
In Venice, art questions our relationship with water
A Twenty-Four-Foot Blue Man Just Became the Kennedy Center's Last Casualty
INCLUDE-ID: designing accessibility as part of the museum experience
A Crumbling Saint in Brazil May Become ARTEMIS's First Test Outside Europe
A weathered stone medallion of St Francis in Ouro Preto could become the first cultural heritage 'digital twin' built outside Europe, linking a Brazilian masterpiece to an EU research network.
Read the investigation→Inheritance
What was handed down
Two restored Madonnas by the Master of 1416 meet in Florence
Two panels by the anonymous painter known as the Master of 1416 have been brought together at the Galleria dell’Accademia in Florence after different conservation treatments. Comparing them makes both the paintings’ characteristics and their conservation histories easier to understand.
William Morris Gallery explores the wealth and labour behind his designs
The new welcome desk at the William Morris Gallery refers to his father’s investments in the Devon Great Consols copper mine. The redisplay connects the family’s wealth with labour and Morris’s socialist ideas.
Hadrian’s Wall and the crossings that changed over time
Some gates were closed, settlements changed and goods moved across the frontier. Archaeology reveals a boundary whose role did not stay fixed.
Digitising ethnic minority heritage in Vietnam: deciding what to share
Digital records can help songs, languages and skills reach new audiences. They also raise a question for the communities that practise them: what should remain theirs to share on their own terms?
Raphael painted a dog, then hid it under a unicorn, and the woman who owns both stares out with eyes nobody can name
X-rays found a faithful little dog beneath Raphael's famous unicorn. The animal changed twice; the identity of the woman holding it has never been settled at all.
Mirabilia
Curiosities from around the world
Bartolomeo Litterini’s stolen altarpiece returns to its Treviso church after 48 years
The return of Our Lady of Mount Carmel to San Francesco restores more than an object: it brings the painting back to the setting for which it was made.
Cleaning reveals details in a Battle of Lepanto painting in Granada
In Granada’s chamber of the Virgin of the Rosary, cleaning has made figures and small scenes in Domingo Chavarito’s painting legible again. The newly visible details give researchers more to study, without settling every question about who is depicted.
Removing coins from the basalt columns of Giant’s Causeway
Visitors have wedged coins into cracks in the basalt at the Giant’s Causeway for good luck. As the coins corrode, they can damage the rock. The National Trust is removing them and asking visitors to stop leaving them there.
At Bari’s Petruzzelli, projections revisit the subjects of lost dome frescoes
The Battersea Shield: bronze craftsmanship and unanswered questions about the Thames
A charred modern scroll tests whether lead could help locate writing in Herculaneum’s papyri
The Brief
Editorials and opinionFrom the archive
From the magazine
In Calcinera, a cultural project extends into the woods
Prime Luci opened the association’s activities. Calcinera Lab plans workshops, stays and work to bring indoor spaces back into use, with the aim of encouraging more people to spend time in the hamlet.
Funding and skills among concerns raised in World Monuments Watch 2027 nominations
Nominations for the 2027 World Monuments Watch point to funding difficulties, extreme weather and a need for training. They also identify opportunities for conservation to create jobs and support local economies.
A study dates historic oak using as few as 30 growth rings
Oxygen isotopes can help date oak samples that conventional methods cannot date. The result also depends on comparing them with timber from the same area that has already been dated.
In Stuttgart, The Wa turns a house into a childlike drawing
With bright colours, simplified windows and playful shapes, the artist brings the visual language of A Kid Could Do It onto an urban building.
Giacomo Balla’s art in the wardrobe and the home
At the Mart in Rovereto, clothes, furnishings and designs on paper trace Giacomo Balla’s exploration of art in everyday life.
DeafCity Hub to test plans for a Deaf-led cultural centre in London
A temporary space in 2027 will allow Amanprit Arnold to test how a cultural centre might be designed around the ways the Deaf community communicates and gathers.
Restoration in St Mark’s Square reveals earlier paving beneath the stones
Work to stabilise the paving after the exceptional tides of 2019 has documented older surfaces beneath St Mark’s Square. Archaeological evidence also emerged near the Procuratie Vecchie.
Mary Cassatt’s Modern Woman: tracing a lost triptych
Cassatt’s monumental painting for the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair has disappeared. Photographs and related works show how she pictured women sharing knowledge and pursuing their ambitions.