Apologies...
July 14 2025
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Wishing readers of AHN a very good summer break. I'll be back in a few weeks or so, or earlier if any big news stories appear.
Recent Release: The Italian Paintings of the Napoleon Museum
July 11 2025
Picture: mare et martin
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
I'm a little slow to news that the Louvre have co-published and released a new book on the Italian Paintings in the Musée Napoléon. This first volume, penned by Stéphane Loire, contains an account and commentary of the Italian pictures found in the museum's inventories for the period 1810-1815, and contains no fewer than 760 pages (!)
New Conservation Studios at Princeton University Art Museum
July 11 2025
Picture: Princeton University Art Museum
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Princeton University Art Museum have shared details of their new state of the art conservation studios, which are due to open later in October.
It seems that they have done a brilliant job in designing the spaces to allow members of the public to get a glimpse of what goes on in such places:
Adjacent to the galleries, on the second floor of the new building, visitors will encounter the conservation vestibule, a space where conservation-related installations will be displayed. Visitors will also be able to catch a glimpse of the conservators at work through the two windows in the double doors to the studios. The 2,000-square-foot space behind the doors will house both paper and objects conservation. Each area will have ample room and highly specialized equipment to carry out day-to-day treatment and research activities.
Click on the link above to read more and have a glimpse of the new studios.
Harewood House clean Lawrence
July 10 2025
Picture: Harewood House via Instagram
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Harewood House, the ancestral home of the Lascelles family, have shared some nice images on Instagram of the recent conservation of Sir Thomas Lawrence's full-length portrait of Henry Lascelles, 2nd Earl of Harewood by Critchlow & Kukkonen Ltd. Regular readers will remember the full-length portrait of Lady Worsley which was sold from Harewood earlier this year for a reported £25m.
Pedro Orrente in València
July 10 2025
Picture: Museu de Belles Arts de València
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Museu de Belles Arts de València are opening their latest exhibition today dedicated to the paintings of Pedro Orrente (1580-1645). This show, the first monographic exhibition dedicated to the artist, will examine his influences and creative world.
Berger Prize 2025 Longlist
July 10 2025
Picture: walpolesociety.org.uk
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Walpole Society, the home of the Berger Prize for excellence in British art publishing since 2024, announced the 2025 prize's longlist yesterday evening.
Here's a list of the books that have made the cut:
Fay Blanchard and Anthony Spira (editors) - Vanessa Bell: A World of Form and Colour
Rosie Broadley (editor) - Francis Bacon: Human Presence
Bruce Boucher - John Soane’s Cabinet of Curiosities: Reflections on an Architect and his Collection
Esther Chadwick - The Radical Print: Art and Politics in Late Eighteenth-Century Britain
Bryony Coombs - Visual Arts and the Auld Alliance: Scotland, France and National Identity c.1420-1550
Paul Gough - Gilbert Spencer: The Life and Work of a Very English Artist
Bendor Grosvenor - The Invention of British Art
Elain Harwood and Alan Powers (editors) - Ernö Goldfinger
Mark Laird - The Dominion of Flowers: Botanical Art & Global Plant Relations
Cristina S. Martinez and Cynthia E. Roman - Female Printmakers, Printsellers and Publishers in the Eighteenth Century: The Imprint of Women 1735-1830
Nicholas Olsberg - The Master Builder: William Butterfield and His Times
Madeleine Pelling - Writing on the Wall: Graffiti and Rebellion in Eighteenth-Century Britain
Eleonora Pistis - Architecture of Knowledge: Hawksmoor and Oxford
Dorothy Price, Esther Chadwick, Cora Gilroy-Ware and Sarah Lea - Entangled Pasts, 1768-now: Art, Colonialism and Change
Natalie Prizel - Victorian Ethical Optics: Innocent Eyes and Aberrant Bodies
Jeff Rosen - Julia Margaret Cameron: The Colonial Shadows of Victorian Photography
Fiona Smyth - Pistols in St Paul’s: Science, music, and architecture in the twentieth century
Gavin Stamp - Interwar British Architecture 1919-39
The winner will be announced on 12th November 2025.
Luca Giordano reacquired by Convent of Santa Isabel
July 10 2025
Picture: Galeria Caylus via Instagram
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Galeria Caylus in Madrid have shared news on Instagram that they have reunited Luca Giordano's Christ and the Samaritan Woman with the Augustinian The Convent of Santa Isabel in the same city. The video explains that the gallery had acquired the work from a sale in Lisbon, where it was misattributed. Research subsequently revealed a signature and its earlier provenance showing it had been owned by the convent in the early 20th century. The painting has now gone back on display there.
Curiously, it appears that an identical work (perhaps the same) was actually offered at auction in Spain in 2022.
Upcoming: Trois Crayons Museum Forum
July 10 2025
Picture: Trois Crayons
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Exciting news that the works on paper collective Trois Crayons will be launching a new online Museum Forum this summer, an initiative which will focus on the discussion of attributions of works in public collections.
According to their website:
The forum provides a space for curators and institutions to share lesser-seen and lesser-studied works from their collections—so-called ‘problem’ drawings—raising unresolved questions of attribution, sitter identity, dating, subject matter, and provenance. By opening these discussions to the global community of experts and enthusiasts, the platform enhances visibility and invites fresh perspectives on drawings that might otherwise remain in obscurity.
This free-to-use digital resource will harness the power of collective research and community collaboration, encouraging knowledge exchange and innovative approaches to longstanding art-historical challenges. Through crowd-sourced insights and collaborative scholarship, the Trois Crayons Museum Forum aims to deepen our understanding of Pre-Modern drawings and deepen public engagement with institutional collections.
Interested institutions are encouraged to get in touch with the organisers (more details are available via the link above).
Update - It has been pointed out to me that the Forum has just been launched and is filled with the many interesting works that are up for discussion. Click on the link above to access the site!
Ed Sheeran's Dabbling in Art
July 10 2025
Picture: BBC
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
It has been widely reported this week that the pop singer Ed Sheeran has been turning his creative energies to art recently. His works, which he has styled 'Cosmic Carpark Paintings', will be on display at the Heni Gallery in London until August.
There is some irony in the fact that a singer, who has faced multiple lawsuits on accusations of copyright infringement regarding his songs, is now being accused by many in the art world for ripping off Jackson Pollock. At least funds from the sale of his painted pastiches will go to his foundation, that helps works to offer music education and opportunities to young people from all backgrounds.
The Traits of Genius at the Musées de Grasse
July 9 2025
Picture: Musées de Grasse
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Musées de Grasse opened an exhibition last month of drawings by Jean-Honoré Fragonard, Alexandre-Évariste Fragonard and Marguerite Gérard. Supported by a loan of sixty works on paper from the Louvre, the show will investigate Fragonard's life and circle and will run until 26th October 2025.
Louvre acquire René-Michel Slodtz Marble
July 9 2025
Picture: @MuseeLouvre
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Louvre have announced their acquisition of René-Michel Slodtz bust portrait of François d'Harcourt, 2nd Duke of Harcourt (1689-1750). The marble was undertaken when d'Harcourt visited Rome in 1736 and will be displayed in the museum alongside other works by the likes of Edmé Bouchardon.
Manage Exhibitions at the Dulwich Picture Gallery
July 9 2025
Picture: Dulwich Picture Gallery
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Dulwich Picture Gallery are hiring an Exhibitions Manager.
According to the job advert:
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
You will be managing key exhibitions in the Gallery’s programme. Responsibilities include:
• Devising and managing project schedules and ensure delivery against milestones, coordinating approvals and sign off where required.
• Coordinating effective internal communication to ensure plans are well communicated and understood by all members of the wider Gallery team.
• Carrying out loan negotiation, co-ordinating transport and logistics.
• Line management and development of the Programme and Engagement Assistant.
• Organising and supporting installs and take-downs of exhibitions
• Supporting the Gallery’s Environmental Monitoring and Salvage Groups.
• Developing audience-centred exhibition interpretation with the project team.
• Coordinating exhibition design elements and production, working closely with the Gallery’s content team, curators and external creative agencies.
• Managing the contracting, briefing and commissioning of 2D designers, lighting, AV, and graphic contractors through all stages of development, production and deinstallation.
• Monitoring and reporting.
The job comes with an annual salary between £30k - £35k and applications must be in by 14th July 2025.
Good luck if you're applying!
Il Sodoma acquired by Museo de Bellas Artes de Valencia
July 8 2025
Picture: Museo de Bellas Artes de Valencia
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
News from Spain that the Museo de Bellas Artes de Valencia have acquired Giovanni Antonio Bazzi's 'Il Sodoma' Ecce Homo. The work was purchased at auction for €70,000 and is the first painting by that artist in the museum's collection.
The fire of love - Mary Magdalene in Agrigento
July 8 2025
Video: Beni Culturali Arcidiocesi Agrigento
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
A new exhibition on Mary Magdalene in art has just opened at the Diocesan Museum of Agrigento in Sicily. The show features loans from across Italy, including a large Guercino from the Vatican Museums, and features artists including Cecco del Caravaggio, Nicolas Regnier, Mattia Preti, Andrea Vaccaro and Francesco Hayez. The show will run until 30th October 2025.
Medieval Desires at the MET Cloisters in October
July 8 2025
Picture: MET
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The MET Cloisters will be opening a new exhibition later this autumn entitled Spectrum of Desire: Love, Sex, and Gender in the Middle Ages.
According to the museum's website:
Discover a world of powerful desires and fluid identities in the art of the Middle Ages. Set in the stunning atmosphere of The Met Cloisters, Spectrum of Desire explores the often-overlooked themes of sexuality and gender in the medieval past, a period of time when most artistic production served religious purposes.
Desire in the Middle Ages was multifaceted. It could be courtly or carnal, sacred or subversive, and expressed as a kind of longing, suffering, or joy. Medieval artists could be both deeply serious and comical in their evocations of these feelings. Spectrum of Desire opens up new ways of seeing the past through stirring works of art that inspire us to think more expansively about people who lived in the Middle Ages, their relationships, and the artworks they produced.
The show will run from 15th October 2025 until 29th March 2026.
Fake or Fortune Preview
July 8 2025
Picture: BBC via Antiques Trade Gazette
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The new series of the BBC's Fake or Fortune will be premiering on 21st July 2025. In anticipation of the first episode, the Antiques Trade Gazette has provided a preview of the pictures that will be subject to Fiona Bruce and Philip Mould's examinations.
Petit Palais cleaning Greuze ahead of Autumn Show
July 7 2025
Picture: Nicolas Milvanovic on 'X'
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Louvre curator Nicolas Milovanovic has shared this rather pleasing mid-clean image of Greuze's Jeune berger in the collection of the Petit Palais. The conservation project is in anticipation of the museum's autumn exhibition on the artist entitled Painting Childhood which will run from 16th September 2025 until 25th January 2026.
£17.5m Nicholas Hilliard Portraits to be Sold from Waddesdon Manor
July 7 2025
Picture: Waddesdon Manor
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Arts Council Website has announced that two rare oil paintings by Nicholas Hilliard, depicting Queen Elizabeth I and the English Ambassador to France Sir Amias Paulet, are subject a private treaty sale for £17.5m (in other words, a private sale to a presumably non-UK buyer has been arranged). The sale, which will happen 'no sooner than the 4th of October 2025', has been organised by the auction house Sotheby's. The portraits, which are from the Rothschild Collection kept at Waddesdon Manor, were part of a special exhibition there in 2017 regarding their reattribution to Hilliard.
Earlier in May it was announced that a Guercino from the Rothschild collection was accepted by The National Gallery in lieu of £5.6m worth of tax.
More news as and when it appears.
Update - It transpires that the Hans Eworth portrait of the 4th Duke of Norfolk, featured on AHN earlier this year but ultimately did not appear in the Sotheby's July sale, is also a Rothschild painting as per the following article on the Waddesdon Manor website.
New Release: Deaccessioning Museum Objects
July 5 2025
Picture: Routledge
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Following on from news that an NHS Trust in the UK and Albright College in the US are selling off their collections and historic works of art, it seems like a perfect time to plug this recent release from Routledge on Deaccessioning Museum Objects: Transparency and Ethics in Disposal Practice. The book was penned by Jennifer Durrant.
According to the publisher's website:
Disposal of objects from museum collections aids in the creation of dynamic and sustainable institutions but can be perceived as a betrayal of public trust and professional duty. Written by an experienced museum professional and researcher, Jennifer Durrant delves into the historical development of disposal to offer insight into the fundamental transience of museum collections. Durrant explains the ethical timeliness and social responsibility of object removal, presenting real‑life examples and practical models for transparency creation to show how deaccessioning can be brought to public view and understanding. Emphasising the interaction between professional practice, personal action, and the centrality of conscious reflection, Durrant helpfully investigates what ‘open and honest’ working entails and explores the creation of transparency to museum practices through the lens of disposal.
Dior borrows Louvre & NGS Chardin for Summer 2026 Launch
July 5 2025
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Fashion House Dior borrowed the Louvre newly acquired Strawberries and the National Gallery of Scotland's Vase of Flowers by Chardin for their recent Summer 2026 launch in Paris this week.
According to their website:
Dior is part of the collective imagination. It is embedded in culture and popular culture. Initiating the recoding according to the view of Creative Director Jonathan Anderson – inside a room modeled on the velvet-lined interiors of Berlin’s Gemäldegalerie – is a programmatic act that speaks a language of understatement and poise. On the walls hang two modest yet beautiful paintings by Jean Siméon Chardin (1699-1779). At a time when art was often concerned with excess and spectacle, Chardin revered the everyday, trading grandeur for sincerity and empathy. A museum is a public space where conversations happen and history becomes part of the everyday. Museum rooms, occasionally, also host breathless, liberating and joyful runs amidst masterpieces.
