Bing Crosby’s personal collection sold for $6.7m at Sotheby’s in New York, delivering a white-glove sale to close out the year. buff.ly/IyQHF2M

From record auction prices to major exhibitions and a first acquisition in Korea, 2025 proved a pivotal year for Van Gogh’s legacy. buff.ly/23ExNCy

Plans for a €128m Guggenheim Bilbao expansion have been abandoned following years of public opposition to the proposed site. buff.ly/0tSmq9J

A temporary public artwork in New Orleans marks the anniversary of a terrorist attack, using more than 800 flags to commemorate the 15 victims. buff.ly/MGHPLSh

Francis Kéré has unveiled plans for the Las Vegas Museum of Art, drawing on the city’s Modernist legacy and its surrounding desert landscape. www.theartnewspaper.com/2025/12/18/l...

The Brutalist Wolverhampton School of Art building, home to England’s first National Black Art Convention, has been granted Grade II listed status, saving it from demolition. buff.ly/e6W4PM4

New small-scale, low-cost art fairs are emerging across Europe and the US, offering an alternative to cancelled mega-events and signalling a shift towards more nimble, collaborative models. www.theartnewspaper.com/2025/12/18/i...

Theaster Gates will create a monumental frieze for the Obama Presidential Center, drawing on Ebony and Jet archives to celebrate Black life in Chicago. buff.ly/XPW3NPn

Construction of Donald Trump’s privately funded White House ballroom will continue after a federal judge rejected a lawsuit seeking to halt the project. buff.ly/QLrj3HE

Canada will remove all names from its monument to the “victims of communism” after a review linked many originally proposed names to Nazi affiliations. buff.ly/LSRgbCQ

Buenos Aires’s Malba has acquired the 1,233-work Daros Latinamerica Collection and plans a major expansion to house one of the largest holdings of Latin American art. buff.ly/h0ao7pG

Libya’s National Museum has reopened in Tripoli after more than a decade, a milestone seen as a symbol of stability and renewed commitment to the country’s cultural heritage. www.theartnewspaper.com/2025/12/17/r...

A new book revisits the notorious theft of a Rembrandt in Boston in 1975, offering fresh insights into the methods and motives of art thief Myles Connor. buff.ly/Rs9zx3A

NEW EPISODE | A brush with… Olafur Eliasson Olafur Eliasson talks to Ben Luke about his influences—from writers to musicians, film-makers and, of course, other artists—and the cultural experiences that have shaped his life and work Download and listen to the full episode: buff.ly/WcTvzQk

Christie’s and Sotheby’s both report higher projected revenues for 2025, driven by luxury goods, trophy lots and a rise in private sales. buff.ly/PRxtRGd

A major review of Arts Council England proposes reforms including new funding models, endowment funds and tax incentives to support the UK’s creative sector. buff.ly/uIQJhxB

Comment | When did US museum design get so boring? buff.ly/F6DV56g

Ecuador’s Bienal de Cuenca marks its 40th anniversary with a playful theme and a serious focus on social and political issues, spotlighting artists and curators from the Global South. buff.ly/buXjC8R

Art Fund has awarded more than £1.2m to 29 UK museums to support innovative projects, from new provenance research models to digital heritage preservation. buff.ly/hoEhY8h

A new MoMA exhibition examines how West and Central African studio portraits of the 1950s and 60s helped shape ideas of freedom and Black identity. buff.ly/48pdbWh

After a turbulent year, dealers are rethinking scale, arguing for a smaller, more sustainable art trade rather than a return to pre-2023 market highs. buff.ly/ek9ZIBb

The Whitney Museum has announced 56 artists, duos and collectives for the 2026 Biennial, spanning 25 US states, Puerto Rico and regions shaped by US power. buff.ly/4vK9bq9

Curators and museum directors select the standout exhibitions of 2025, from Wolfgang Tillmans at the Centre Pompidou to Linder at the Hayward Gallery. buff.ly/h4feprI

Despite internal upheaval, plans for cultural events marking the 250th anniversary of the United States are beginning to take shape. buff.ly/uSPhMm0

A Russian court has designated Pussy Riot an “extremist organisation”, a move that effectively bans the collective’s activities inside Russia. buff.ly/JAcSe8k

London’s Barbican Centre will close for a year from June 2028 as part of a £240m renovation, affecting its galleries, foyers and public spaces. buff.ly/6Iszr3I

A new exhibition at Tokyo’s National Museum of Modern Art revives the anti-action art of Japanese women artists long overlooked by institutions and scholarship. buff.ly/hCgC1oW

Two former University of the Arts buildings in Philadelphia have reopened as a Village of Industry and Art, offering studios, offices and housing for the city’s creative community. buff.ly/itmgyOn

The San Antonio Museum of Art has returned nine antiquities to Italy, including works identified through evidence linked to convicted antiquities dealer Giacomo Medici. buff.ly/6qSLOPf

Ceal Floyer, the Pakistan-born British conceptual artist known for her minimalist, quietly humorous works, has died aged 57. buff.ly/zONauhh

At Art Basel Paris, hand-made, analogue work dominated the booths, prompting questions about whether the art world is turning away from digital practices and AI. www.theartnewspaper.com/2025/12/12/a...

Beyoncé, Nicole Kidman and Venus Williams will co-chair the 2026 Met Gala alongside Anna Wintour at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. buff.ly/a9nqwFR

UK police are searching for suspects after more than 600 high-value objects were stolen from offsite storage linked to the former British Empire and Commonwealth Museum. buff.ly/tVngdzI

Gérard Lhéritier, founder of Aristophil and once a dominant force in the manuscripts market, has been found guilty of gang fraud and faces five years in prison. buff.ly/QKepjGE

A collection of 61 works by Henri Matisse—many depicting his daughter Marguerite—has been donated to the Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris. buff.ly/OvZa8o2

NEW EPISODE | The Week in Art Podcast: Frank Gehry remembered, Serpentine and FLAG Art Foundation prize, Joan Semmel Download and listen to the full episode: buff.ly/EytAJul

Maria Balshaw will step down as director of Tate in spring 2026, concluding her tenure by co-curating the largest-ever survey of Tracey Emin. www.theartnewspaper.com/2025/12/12/m...

A turbulent year—marked by political upheaval, climate disasters and sweeping policy shifts—also saw new museums and major exhibitions reinforcing art’s resilience. buff.ly/NszNvxJ

Romania’s Oscar submission Traffic revisits the 2012 Kunsthal Rotterdam theft, linking the story to broader struggles faced by Eastern European migrant workers. buff.ly/ZNhzhWG

The Vancouver Art Gallery has received 131 works from an anonymous Hong Kong collector, the largest gift of Hong Kong art in its history, to be shown in 2027. buff.ly/yu7qsrI

A François-Xavier Lalanne hippo bar sold for $31.4m at Sotheby’s, tripling its estimate and becoming the most expensive design object ever sold at auction.

Napoles Marty has won the 2026 Frieze Los Angeles Impact Prize, earning $25,000 and a solo stand at the fair for work blending dream imagery and Cuban heritage. buff.ly/tTuhlw6

New research from UK archaeologists suggests humans made fire 400,000 years ago—350,000 years earlier than previously thought—based on finds from a Suffolk site. buff.ly/CX0lQiS

A major exhibition of 130 historic jewels opens in Paris, though key pieces stolen in October’s Louvre heist are notably absent from the display. www.theartnewspaper.com/2025/12/10/p...

Sotheby’s inaugural Collectors’ Week in Abu Dhabi realised $133.4m, with high demand for jewellery, cars and rare handbags, including a $2.9m Birkin once owned by Jane Birkin. buff.ly/krgu6J9

Gagosian will present the first UK exhibition of Nan Goldin’s The Ballad of Sexual Dependency, marking 40 years since the landmark series was published. buff.ly/wr4rvIK

A new essay revisits Frank Gehry as an artist’s architect, tracing how his close ties to Los Angeles artists shaped his radical approach to building. buff.ly/xkfjksy

Nnena Kalu has won the 2025 Turner Prize, becoming the first learning-disabled artist to receive the award for her sculptural and drawing-based practice. buff.ly/roNYsWz

MoMA PS1 will eliminate admission fees starting 1 January 2026, becoming New York’s largest free museum thanks to support from philanthropist Sonya Yu. buff.ly/PD2AE4T

A planned exhibition on the Palestinian Nakba at the Canadian Museum of Human Rights has drawn both strong support and sharp criticism from community groups. buff.ly/8DN5BvF