Record Sales, Restored Masterpieces, and War’s Shadow
Vaccine billionaire buys $17.9m Raja Ravi Varma, setting new record for Indian painting at auction • Stolen Van Gogh Back on View at Dutch Museum After Dramatic Restoration • Cecily Brown Turns Pastoral Visions Into Painterly Chaos in Her London Museum Debut
Today's stories:
Vaccine billionaire buys $17.9m Raja Ravi Varma, setting new record for Indian painting at auction
Raja Ravi Varma’s oil painting “Yashoda and Krishna” (1890s) set a new auction record for a South Asian painting when it hammered at $15 million...
Stolen Van Gogh Back on View at Dutch Museum After Dramatic Restoration
Vincent van Gogh’s painting “Parsonage Garden at Nuenen” has returned to public view at the Groninger Museum in the Netherlands after undergoing a...
Cecily Brown Turns Pastoral Visions Into Painterly Chaos in Her London Museum Debut
British painter Cecily Brown is having her London museum debut with the exhibition “Cecily Brown: Picture Making” at Serpentine South in...
Paul Pfeiffer will be inaugural artist-in-residence at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center arena
Conceptual artist Paul Pfeiffer has been named the inaugural artist-in-residence at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center, as the arena expands its art...
Unesco grants enhanced protection to 39 Lebanese heritage sites as war escalates
Unesco granted “enhanced protection” to 39 cultural sites in Lebanon on 1 April during an extraordinary session of the Committee for the...
Frieze New York to Include Whitney Biennial Commission and New $50,000 Acquisition Fund
Frieze New York’s 2026 edition will run May 13–17 at the Shed with more than 65 exhibitors and will include institutional collaborations plus a...
Lebanese Artist Ali Cherri Files War Crimes Complaint Against Israel After 2024 Beirut Bombing
Lebanese artist Ali Cherri and the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) filed a civil complaint on April 2 in France with the French...
Trump’s White House Ballroom Plan Stalls as Congress Balks
Donald Trump’s plan for a $400 million White House ballroom has been halted after a federal judge ordered construction to stop unless Congress...
Brooklyn’s Barclays Center Arena Launches Art Program, with Paul Pfeiffer As First Artist-in-Residence
The Barclays Center in downtown Brooklyn is launching “Brooklyn Art Encounters,” a multi-year program expanding public art at the arena and...
Melvin Edwards, Who Sculpted a New Vocabulary for Political Art, Dies at 88
Sculptor Melvin Edwards died on Monday, March 30, at age 88, according to confirmation from his gallery, Alexander Gray Associates. Born in 1937...
—The Daily Art Download