Previous Posts: January 2026
Sotheby's New York Part II Sale
January 13 2026
Picture: Sotheby's
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Sotheby's New York have just published their upcoming Master Paintings & Sculpture from Four Millennia Part II sale online. The auction will take place on 6th February 2026.
As usual with such sales, I won't point out what may or may not be of interest.
The Barber Institute are hiring!
January 12 2026
Picture: The Barber Institute
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Barber Institute in Birmingham are hiring a Curator.
According to their website:
This is a pivotal role within the Barber Institute’s curatorial team and would suit a candidate who is eager to bring new ideas, enthusiasm and knowledge to the organisation. We are looking to welcome someone to our small team who has experience of working with living artists and a specialism/research interest that extends beyond those existing within the team (existing specialisms include art from Britain, France and US c. 1930-1960; and British and European paintings and sculpture, 1600-1800), and who would be excited to contribute to re-interpretation initiatives.
The Curator will lead on all aspects of the successful development, planning, and delivery of specific displays and artists projects as well as vital elements of the collections rehang, which will reimagine and reinterpret our collections, connecting the Barber's existing and new audiences to research and new narratives. This reflects the Barber's mission to make its growing internationally significant collections and programmes relevant to people’s lives today as well as being a committed convenor of, and collaborator with, researchers and communities.
The job comes with a salary between £33,002 to £35,608 and applications must be in by 1st February 2026.
Good luck if you're applying!
National Trust for Scotland are hiring!
January 12 2026
Picture: nts.org.uk
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The National Trust for Scotland are hiring a new Head of Collections.
According to the job description:
The Head of Collections provides strategic leadership and policy oversight across the management, care and conservation of collections and interiors, as well as the technical solutions that support delivery of this work across the Trust. The scope of interest within the Collections Team includes historic interiors, objects, books, photographs, digital collections and archives. This national role supports, advises and at times directs colleagues in regional and local teams to maintain standards and further the strategic priorities of the trust and leads on the promotion of the importance of management and conservation of collections for preservation and access in support of the Trust’s charitable purpose.
The job comes with a salary between £64,953 - £72,168 per annum and applications must be in by 16th January 2026.
Good luck if you're applying!
Rembrandthuis borrow Rembrandt from Rijksmuseum
January 12 2026
Picture: Rijksmuseum
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Rembrandthuis in Amsterdam have shared news on Instagram that they will be borrowing Rembrandt's preparatory oil study for Joseph relating his dreams to his parents and brothers from the nearby Rijksmuseum. The painting will be on display for their latest exhibition Rembrandt's Masterclass which opens at the end of this month.
According to their post:
The great sadness of the Rembrandt House Museum is that it has never managed to acquire a painting by Rembrandt, despite the fact that he made over 100 paintings in the world-famous studio on the Jodenbreestraat. Within the current art market, a museum like ours can only display a Rembrandt painting as a loan or acquire it thanks to a donation. Therefore, we are delighted with the generous loan from the Rijksmuseum and the support of Vereniging Rembrandt. They are helping us to continuously display a Rembrandt painting in the coming years and to make this important piece of Dutch heritage accessible to a wide audience.” Milou Halbesma, Director of the Rembrandt House Museum.
''The intimacy of the scene in a room perfectly complements the domestic setting of the Rembrandthuis. The painting provides a fascinating insight into Rembrandt's working methods. The painter at work. It is wonderful that visitors will be able to see it permanently on this special site.” Taco Dibbits, Genral Director of the Rijksmuseum.
Louvre clean Titian's Entombment of Christ
January 12 2026
Video: Louvre via Facebook
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Louvre's recent campaigns of painting conservation are moving on apace. The video above provides some details of the recent conservation of Titian's The Entombment of Christ which was recently treated by C2RMF (Centre for Research and Restoration of Museums of France). Click here to see some photos of how the painting looked previously (scrolling backwards through the photos). It's a good job that the unsightly canvas extension on the upper margin is hidden by the frame!
Curate Old Masters and Sculpture at Staatliches Museum Schwerin
January 12 2026
Picture: Staatliches Museum Schwerin
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
News via CODART that the Staatliches Museum Schwerin are hiring a Curator of Old Master Paintings and Sculptures.
According to the link above:
Your tasks
• Scientific management of the painting and sculpture collection (publications, inventory, management of the database for paintings, sculptures and objects)
• Conception and realisation of exhibitions
• Compilation of scientific catalogues and publications
• Strengthening the profile of the collection and its further development, proposals for acquisitions
• Close cooperation with collection management, restorers and the communications and press office, marketing and event coordination
• Enhancing the profile of the collection and its further development, proposals for acquisitions
• Close cooperation with collection management, conservators and the press, marketing and event coordination department
• Processing loan requests, accompanying loans as a courier
• Administrative tasks
• Developing international collaborations, networking, fundraising, processing grant applications, acquiring sponsors
• Coordinating the future online collection
Applications must be in by 30th January 2026 and no salary has been indicated.
Good luck if you're applying!
The Winter Show 2026
January 8 2026
Picture: thewintershow.org
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Winter Show 2026 will be opening to the public on 23rd January. The fair, hosted at the Park Avenue Armory in New York City, will as usual feature some of the top fine and decorative arts dealers from across the globe. Click on the link above to review all the exhibitors and events which will covered by the show.
Upcoming Release: Noble Beasts - Hunters and Hunted in Eighteenth-Century French Art
January 8 2026
Picture: Yale Books
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Yale University Press will be releasing Amy Freund's new book Noble Beasts: Hunters and Hunted in Eighteenth-Century French Art next week.
According to the book's blurb:
Noble Beasts highlights the work of François Desportes, Jean-Baptiste Oudry, and others who, operating from the heart of institutions such as the Royal Academy and the Gobelins manufactory, produced an astonishing volume of highly accomplished work. The book draws on the critical frameworks of human-animal studies and on Enlightenment philosophical debates to explore how and why hunting art’s aesthetic and political claims blurred the lines between human and animal.
Filippino Lippi and Rome in Cleveland
January 8 2026
Picture: Cleveland Museum of Art
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
I'm a little slow to news that the Cleveland Museum of Art opened a new exhibition at the end of last year dedicated to Filippino Lippi and Rome.
According to the museum's website:
Filippino Lippi and Rome reconsiders the lasting impact of the painter’s time in the Eternal City, juxtaposing Filippino’s Roman artworks with their Florentine precursors and successors. The exhibition places 25 paintings, drawings, and antiquities in direct conversation with important loans from national and international lenders, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art; His Majesty King Charles III; the National Gallery, London; the Galleria degli Uffizi; and the Gemäldegalerie, Berlin, among others. For the first time, these related artworks are brought together, in some cases reuniting paintings with their studies.
The show will run until 22nd February 2026.
The Image of Anne Boleyn at Hever Castle
January 8 2026
Picture: Hever Castle
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Tudor fans might be interested to know that Hever Castle in Kent will be opening a new exhibition next month dedicated to the likenesses of Anne Boleyn.
According to their website:
Discover a world-first exhibition exploring one of history’s most debated faces. Capturing A Queen: The Image of Anne Boleyn brings together the largest ever gathering of portraits believed to depict Anne Boleyn, including a ground-breaking newly identified contemporary image unveiled for the first time.
Developed from new research by Hever Castle historian Dr Owen Emmerson, the exhibition traces how Anne’s image has changed over 500 years and reveals new scientific findings about Hever’s famous ‘Hever Rose’ portrait. You are invited to examine the evidence and vote for the likeness you believe best represents Henry VIII’s most enigmatic queen.
The display will run from 11th February 2026 until 1st January 2027.
The Burlington on the National Gallery's new collecting plan.
January 7 2026
Picture: The Burlington Magazine
Posted by Bendor Grosvenor:
This month's editorial in The Burlington is a welcome change from most of those of the last couple of years, in that it actually has something interesting to say. The subject is the National Gallery's decision to change its traditional collecting plan, which saw it stop acquiring works made (roughly) after the First World War. The idea had been to leave modern art more or less up to to Tate. But now the National Gallery wants to collect works made up to present day.
The Burlington welcomes the National Gallery's decision, and says those wary of such a change must not be so backward looking:
The National Gallery has given the title ‘Project Domani’ to its new scheme; those voicing opposition should be wary of becoming the champions of a ‘Project Ieri’.
The Burlington's main argument is that concerns over how the National Gallery might impinge on Tate's collecting are misplaced. It should instead be a case of the more the merrier. The Burlington points to New York as an example, where a new wing for modern art at the Metropolitan Museum is not seen as a challenge to other New York museums:
There is no evidence to suggest that this development is perceived in any way as a challenge to the other great collections of modern and contemporary art in the city, at, for example, the Museum of Modern Art or the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. Rather, the development is perceived as a new and welcome addition to New York’s art ecosystem and the reasons for visiting. The same measured and positive view should be taken about plans evolving at Trafalgar Square.
All of which would make sense, if the funding environment in London was anything like that of New York. But it isn't. And for that reason we have to work with what we've got: a government wanting to reduce the amount of public funding to museums; an economy which is not growing as much as we'd like; a tax system which does not incentivise philanthropy as much the US does; and collapsing provision for arts funding outside London.
In this kind of environment, having one extremely wealthy, prestigious institution draw away donations and acquisitions from other institutions is something we should probably be cautious about.
To be fair, The Burlington does raise the funding point:
The key questions are not whether national collections, such as those of the National Gallery and Tate, should overlap but rather whether they are properly resourced, where the appropriate expertise resides, and how it can be shared and supported. Equally important, are there monies to fund ambitious collection growth of works of appropriate quality?
And yet The Burlington must surely know that the answer to these questions will, for some time at least, always be 'no'. We may wish it weren't the case, but there just isn't the money. The National Gallery and Tate, say, are unlikely ever to both be rich enough to compete for the same Gustav Klimt. As I wrote in The Art Newspaper, for both institutions to 'sink hundreds of millions of pounds into collecting and displaying similar art within a few miles of each other in central London' feels like an extravagance, especially when we should be thinking more about arts provision outside London.
The fact is, our acquisitions landscape tends to be a blend of donation and state involvement. If acquisitions come as a result of schemes like Acceptance-in-Lieu or the Cultural Giving Scheme, then there is a role for government in making sure artworks are properly distributed across institutions, and the whole country. And this, it seems to me, is why clear demarcation lines between institutions are useful.
As ever on AHN, we welcome your thoughts!
Louvre Abu Dhabi Fellowship & Grants
January 7 2026
Picture: Louvre Abu Dhabi
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Louvre Abu Dhabi are inviting applications for their 2026 Fellowship & Grants programme.
According to their website:
Louvre Abu Dhabi’s Research Programme focuses on transversal areas such as art history, museum studies, collection studies, and heritage science, with the aim of fostering groundbreaking research in collaboration with scholars and institutions, both regionally and globally.
Structured around three thematic axes—Global History of Museums and Collections, Circulation of Styles, Images and Texts and Precious Materials and Routes of Exchange—the programme addresses key topics of art historical scholarship, while also advancing and cooperating with research initiatives beyond the museum’s walls.
At the core of this programme are Louvre Abu Dhabi’s research facilities, which include the museum’s Resource Center, the Library, the Conservation Center, and a Scientific Laboratory allowing for the material analysis of artworks—the first of its kind in the Gulf region. The activities encompassed by the programme include symposiums, workshops, and publications aimed at stimulating dialogue and disseminating knowledge around collections and related themes.
Grants of up to AED 85,000 (roughly the equivalent of £17,137) are available for Short Term Fellowships (there are also Long Term Fellowships available too) and applications must be in by 7th February 2026. Click on the link above to find out more.
Good luck if you're applying!
What happened to the Duchess of Alba's Renoir
January 7 2026
Picture: elmundo.es
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Spanish news outlet El Mundo have published an article following the later and winding history of Renoir's The Cherry Hat. The picture was acquired by the Duchess of Alba in 1973 and was later divided amongst her children on her death in 2014 (rather than kept in the family's foundation). The picture has now turned up in a dealer's collection in the USA. Click on the link to read the full story.
Veil-Picard Collection at Christie's Paris in March
January 7 2026
Picture: Christie's via artnet.com
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Christie's Paris have unveiled that they will be offering works from the collection of the late Arthur Georges Veil-Picard (1854–1944) on 25th March 2026.
According to artnet's article linked above:
Christie’s is billing the sale as offering a glimpse into one of “the most mysterious and coveted” private collections in art history, largely known only through black-and-white reproductions. It features 30 works by the likes of Hubert Robert (1733–1808), Gabriel de Saint-Aubin (1724–1780), Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun (1755–1842), and Marie-Suzanne Roslin (1734–1772). It could bring in as much as €5 million to €8 million ($5.85 million–9.35 million) in total.
Pearlman Foundation Gifts on Display at LACMA in February
January 7 2026
Picture: lacma
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art will be opening a new exhibition in February dedicated to the The Henry and Rose Pearlman Foundation which have been gifted to the Brooklyn Museum, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), and The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York respectively. The gift includes works by Cézanne, Van Gogh, Modigliani, Degas, Soutine, Manet, Gauguin, Toulouse Lautrec, Sisley and more.
According to their website:
Comprising an exceptional group of Impressionist, Post-Impressionist, and modern artworks, the Pearlman Collection will be gifted across the three institutions in a novel sharing arrangement that will enhance access to larger and more diverse audiences through continually changing contexts.
In recognition of the late Pearlmans' generous spirit, the collection will travel as an exhibition before being placed under the care of the respective institutions. From February to July 2026, the exhibition Village Square: Gifts of Modern Art from the Pearlman Collection to the Brooklyn Museum, LACMA, and MoMA will be on view at LACMA, and in the fall of 2026 the collection will travel to the Brooklyn Museum. In the near future, MoMA will also present an exhibition of the Pearlman gifts.
Sotheby's New York Sale
January 6 2026
Picture: Sotheby's
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Sotheby's New York have uploaded their Master Paintings & Works of Art Part I online. The auction will take place on 5th February 2026.
Amongst the highlights of the sale are Antonello da Messina's Ecce Homo estimated at $10m - $15m, Jan Lievens' Allegory of the Five Senses at $2m - $3m, Francisco de Zurbarán's Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherine of Alexandria carrying an estimate of $800k - $1.2m, Biagio d'Antonio's Portrait of a Young Man Wearing a Red Berretto estimated at $800k - $1.2m, and a Head of a Bearded Man by Fragonard estimated at $600k - $800k.
Update - Bendor adds: come along Sotheby's; your high-res images seem to be getting worse and worse. How can you expect to entice people to drop six, seven figure sums based on a small jpeg? Christie's now has 'superzoom'.
Luca Giordano Soars
January 6 2026
Picture: Abalarte Subastas
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
I'm slow to news (via Drouot) that the following Battle of the Amazons by Luca Giordano soared to past its starting estimate of €180,000 to achieve €854,000 (inc. commission) at Abalarte Subastas in Spain at the end of December. This is apparently the second highest price at auction for the artist.
Ignacio Iriarte landscape acquired by Museo Bellas Artes de Sevilla
January 6 2026
Picture: arsmagazine
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
News via the Artsmagazine in Spain that the Museo Bellas Artes de Sevilla have acquired a Landscape with St Jerome by the 17th century Spanish artist Ignacio Iriarte. The work was acquired from a Spanish collection, where it had previously been considered Flemish, for €42,000.
Happy New Year!
January 6 2026
Picture: Sworder.co.uk
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Wishing readers of AHN a very Happy New Year! I hope it has been a very good start to 2026 for you all, wherever you may be.
Some personal news to report that I have at the end of last year had the pleasure of joining the Picture Department at the UK auction house Sworders as a Consultant. I will be assisting and collaborating with the very nice and friendly team there for the Old Master, British & European Art sales held twice a year. Do get in touch, in case you have any suspected Catherine Reads (or likewise) you might have hanging up on your walls that you would like valued (!)
I'll continue posting on AHN as usual, perhaps with the added post about interesting artworks that come through the doors there. Equally, this increased freedom will allow me to comment more openly about the big sales which this blog regularly reports on.
Many thanks as ever to those readers who get in touch with comments and stories, they are always very much appreciated.
______________
Ps. In case any of you might be flying past Warwickshire later this spring, I am presenting a walking tour of the Portraits of Shire Hall in Warwick with my colleague Aaron Manning (of the Historic Royal Palaces) on Saturday 21st March 2026. 50% of ticket proceeds will go towards the restoration fund for Ralph Sheldon's portrait of Henry VIII.
'Wright of Derby: from the Shadows' - reviewed
January 2 2026
Picture: National Gallery
Posted by Bendor Grosvenor
Happy New Year AHNers! I have written a review of the National Gallery's exhibition on Joseph Wright of Derby, 'From the Shadows', for the British Art Journal. It's a good show, but repeats a number of misunderstandings about Wright which (I feel) need to be challenged. You can find it here.
