The artist’s rare archives were released ahead of a dedicated study center slated to open near the museum later this year, Radio France Internationale reported on Sunday. The center is intended for researchers and artists in residence.

This digital portal, however, makes accessible the museum’s vast collection of Picasso artworks, essays, conferences, podcasts, and interviews. A total of 19,000 photos, which have never been seen by the public, are included.

An additional 200,000 texts from Picasso’s workshops are also slated to be digitized and added to the portal in the coming years.

The Spanish painter and sculptor is one of the most influential artists of the 20th century, most notably as cofounder of the Cubist movement with Georges Braque. Born in 1881, he lived most of his life in France; he died in 1973. In 1992 his family archives were entrusted to the French state, which has continued to oversee them.

Last year, in honor of the 50th anniversary of the painter’s death, there were a number of exhibitions highlighting his lasting legacy.

CIMA was founded by Italian art historian, curator, and collector Laura Mattioli in 2013. It promoted scholarly and public engagement with Modern and contemporary Italian art.

Many of CIMA’s 13 total exhibitions highlighted major Italian Modern artists who had scarcely been shown in North America, including Italian Futurist Fortunato Depero, Greek-Italian painter Alberto Savinio (and brother of Giorgio de Chirico), still life painter Giorgio Morandi, and sculptors Medardo Rosso and Marino Marini.

“This was not an easy decision,” Mattioli said in a statement to the Art Newspaper. “At present, we are holding conversations with various cultural institutions to find the place that will best preserve Cima’s archival documentation, including the video archive of public events, and the online academic journal. It is our goal that these resources will continue to remain accessible to scholars and to the general public, free of charge.”

CIMA also hosted 42 residential fellows and supported 10 travel fellows in their scholarly research. The institution helped to produce numerous articles, catalogues, and books that promoted the exchange of Italian-American scholarship.

“Meeting these fellows was a constant source of learning and inspiration for us, and we know that many of you enjoyed the opportunity to meet and converse with them during our tours, scholarly conferences and public events,” Mattioli added.

CIMA’s current exhibition Nanni Balestrini: Art as Political Action—One Thousand and One Voices is the first stateside retrospective for the experimental Italian visual artist and novelist and will mark the institution’s final show.

The Broome Street location was previously home to Health Ledger, before his untimely passing in 2008. It also housed the Leonard Gallery between 1984 to 2003.

The construction on Grainger Plaza in Millennium Park that effectively cut off access to the sculpture was for necessary maintenance, including rebuilding the plaza podium, replacing pavers, and making accessibility upgrades such as new stairs and ramps, as well as a new waterproofing system. Cloud Gate has been closed since last August and was expected to open earlier this spring.

“Weather-permitting, we expect to reopen the Plaza to the public before the end of the month,” a spokesperson with Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events told local news outlet WGN.

At 33 feet high, 42 feet wide, and 66 feet long, Cloud Gate (2006) is one of world’s largest public art installations and the top-ranked tourist attraction in the Midwest. The $23 million sculpture comprises 168 stainless steel plates welded together and polished to a mirror finish, making it extremely popular for selfies and other photographs.

Last year, Kapoor debuted a “Mini Bean” sculpture in New York to mixed reviews. The 19-foot-high, 40-ton sculpture was estimated to have cost between $8 to $10 million.

Today, the temperatures are supposed to set a record high climbing from 105.8°F on Wednesday to 107.6°F on Thursday, the New York Times reported. The country’s health ministry has issued a warning to older people and those with chronic ailments to stay indoors during this time. Outside workers were recommended to avoid strenuous activities between 12pm and 5pm. Temperatures are expected to drop on Friday.

On Wednesday, members of the Hellenic Red Cross could be seen handing out water bottles and sunscreen to the unhoused, while city authorities offered a few air-conditioned locations for those needing to cool down. These efforts also came with advice from the health ministry on how to treat heat stroke.

Additionally, authorities closed primary schools across many parts of the country, along with the Acropolis from 12pm to 5pm. This announcement came after a tourist fainted while standing in line to see the monument on Tuesday.

Similar restrictions were issued last year, but not this early in the season. These high temperatures have raised concerns following wildfires in Greece last summer, which resulted in more than 20 deaths and razed a large part of the country’s forests. As a result, 24-hour patrols were also undertaken by the civil protection authority and the army, monitoring notable woods this week.

Last year’s heatwave negatively impacted some of Greece’s tourism, though they still grossed record revenue numbers for the year. Though Greece is hardly alone, with climate change globally creating radical shifts in the weather and temperature.

They were found at a residential development project at Calthorpe Gardens, on the outskirts of the historic market town Banbury in southern England. The contractor Orbit Homes, which is overseeing the development, announced the find in a press release.

A group of Mesolithic flint tools dating from 10000 BCE to 4000 BCE were among the oldest artifacts found.

The remains of a small settlement from the Late Bronze Age or the Middle or Late Iron Age was also unearthed, as was an Anglo-Saxon cemetery from the early Medieval period. There, the remains of 52 people have been identified, along with a variety of such goods as beaded necklaces, pendants, and weapons. Among those items was a gold pendant with an intertwined serpent design.

“This is a once-in-a-decade site … with once-in-a-lifetime kinds of finds that are coming up—it’s incredible,” BA field archaeologist Hayley Parsons said in video released by Orbit Homes.

“I think the potential of the site is to show people were here over a very long period of time, doing different things at different times,” McLeish said. “We’ve been so lucky at Calthorpe Gardens, we’ve been totally spoiled with the finds that have been recovered.”

Stefanie Hessler, director of the Swiss Institute in New York, curated this year’s iteration, and it focuses on themes of circulation and transformation. As fairgoers wander the city streets in search of the Parcours installations, it behooves them to pay close attention to distilleries, shops, and bridges for such art interventions.

To learn more about her approach to curating Art Basel’s public art sector, ARTnews spoke with Hessler ahead of the fair’s opening.

ARTnews: I know this is your first time curating Parcours, which was previously overseen by Samuel Leuenberger. What was your approach to curating Art Basel’s public art sector?

Stefanie Hessler: Yes! Parcours is accessible to the public without a ticket to the fair. And it really—this year, especially—will engage a lot of locations in the city along Clarastrasse, the street leading from the fair building toward the river Rhine. Alongside it, there are 22 projects in all sorts of different venues and locations, from empty storefronts—a former pharmacy, a former bakery, an empty restaurant, and a shop in a shopping center—to a functional hotel, a food court, a car ramp leading underneath the Congress Center, and a bunker, as well as some outdoor locations such as a public park and flags on the bridge leading over the river. It’s really interesting to think about public space in a way that is more expansive and about how people perceive artwork differently when they visit it in non-art spaces.

How has the public sphere influenced your curatorial approach?

For this project, in particular, it was important for me to have artworks that respond to the sites. There are certain challenges that come with exhibiting works in non-art spaces, but also really exciting challenges that make us engage and interact with art differently than we normally would.

Tell me about some of the most notable projects.

All of the works engage the sites they’re shown at. For example, Alvaro Barrington is creating a structure inspired by his grandmother’s house in Grenada and the Caribbean where he grew up. This “distracter” will, on the outside, be clad with paintings that he’s making for this occasion, and on the inside it will house the products that are usually on sale in the shop. There will also be an artwork in the window and large wallpaper in the back of the shop. Outside of this project, the shop is called tropical zone, and it specializes in importing products from Africa to Basel, Switzerland.

Rirkrit Tiravanija is making flags with pirate symbols that are going to line the bridge leading over the Rhine. He is of course interested in communication structures and how different symbols change meaning over time as they transfer from one culture to another. The pirate symbol has been, in the Western imagination, this symbol of a romantic outlaw, but it’s also been appropriated by the fashion industry. The pirate skull and crossbones, as well as lesser-known symbols, are printed on flags, with newspaper article backgrounds. This, combined with its location on the Rhine, which has played such an important role in the history of Europe, refers to travel and the circulation of information.

Another one that I’m really excited about is by Ximena Garrido-Lecca, who is an artist from Peru researching the oil-rich coastal town of Lobitos, known for petroleum extraction. In recent years, there has been a discussion about whether this town will be turned into a tourist resort. And Ximena made these sculptures from ceramic and steel, combining a traditional material and technique also used in pre-Columbian cultures with steel used in industrial processes like petrol extraction. There are also references to Minimalism. These sculptures are installed inside an artisanal distillery in Basel, creating a beautiful connection between the distillation processes for liquor and oil.

This is a pretty big undertaking, with a lot of moving parts. What are some of the biggest challenges that you faced?

It’s been such a joyful process thinking about these projects in all of these very diverse spaces. It’s like a puzzle finding the right match between the artists, galleries, and venues. Many of the artists also came for site visits so that we could have direct conversations, and look at potential places where their works could make sense and how they would be installed. We visited so many sites and offer such amazing selection for the 22 projects. Most people were really excited about partnering with us.

There are some really unique pairings. What are you most looking forward to?

I’m excited about Parcours night on Wednesday, where we’ll have three performances from 8 pm until midnight. The first performance is a major new commission by Madeline Hollander, a former choreographer and visual artist, who has taken inspiration from the Carnival tradition in Basel. During my visits to the city, I came across these spaces used by the Basel Carnival crews to practice their instruments and so on, some of which are in bunkers underneath the city. Madeline was inspired by the invisible forms of circulation underneath the city, and she made a connection between the people practicing for Carnival underground and the sewer system—these hidden infrastructures and performances [happening below the city]. For Parcours, she cast seven manhole covers to be passed back and forth by 14 dancers, while they’re leading a procession from the fair to the Rhine, in Basel’s cleaning crew outfits and masks made out of confetti, which the cleaning crews have to clean up after Carnival each year.

That performance will be followed by a karaoke bar night at the Merian Hotel, organized by Wendy’s Wok World, the alter ego of Sam Lui, an artist who’s been interested in the principles of Cantonese cooking. She’s collaborated with the Savory Project, which is a bar in Hong Kong, to create three specialty cocktails that will be available during the night. Visitors can perform two songs chosen by Wendy that reflect some of the works and concepts in her practice. There’s also a performance by Chuquimamani-Condori, hosted by Jan Vorisek and Mathis Altmann.

At the end of April, a critical report from France’s court of auditors, who assess the use of public funds, revealed that the Centre Pompidou‘s economic model is unsustainable. The report outlines the financial strain on the museum caused by its forthcoming renovation, as well as its establishment of a new branch in Massy, France.

According to the report, costs have increased since the project began. The court estimated that this undertaking will cost €358 million ($383 million), nearly €100 million more than the French government’s initial estimate of €262 million ($282 million). An additional €207 million ($223,000) has been requested from sponsors by the museum’s chairman Laurent Le Bon to account for the difference.

Per the court, the institution must raise the money itself by the beginning of 2025 at the latest. As of now, it has raised €39 million ($42 million). Of the €39 million, €20 million ($21.5 million) came from Seoul’s Hanwha Culture Foundation. Centre Pompidou leadership has “very little time left” to raise the necessary €168 million, the court has warned.

Le Bon’s fundraising campaign has focused on individual American sponsors, as well as countries including Saudi Arabia. Le Bon has agreed to share program plans this month and finalize it before the start of the new year.

According to the Art Newspaper, Le Bon has admitted that he may have to “adapt his plans according to the funds collected.”

The 86-square-foot sacrarium features painted blue walls decorated with female figures depicting the four seasons of the year, along with allegories of agriculture and shepherding. The room’s color is notably rare, and would have demarcated it as a place of importance for ritual activities and storing sacred objects.

“Pompeii is truly a treasure chest that never ceases to surprise us and arouse amazement because, every time we dig, we find something beautiful and significant,” Italian culture minister Gennaro Sangiuliano told Euro News.

In the room were 15 transportable amphorae and a bronze set of two jugs and two oil lamps.

Also found at the site were construction materials that were ready for renovations, including the remains of oyster shells, which would have been crushed and added to plaster and mortar mixes.

The discovery is one among many in an ongoing excavation in Regio IX in the city’s center. In its heyday, it was a residential area believed to include more than 13,000 rooms among 1,070 housing units.

Experts are trying to improve on the “protection of the vast Pompeiian heritage” and to make the site “more effective and sustainable,” the culture ministry told CNN.

This is just the latest in a string of notable finds made in the ancient city. Recently announced at the House of the Chaste Lovers was the identification of violent children’s sketches of gladiators and hunters, along with the remains of two people, presumably a couple, discovered outside of the nearby House of the Painters at Work. Also recently found was an unusual small painting of a hooded boy believed to be the deceased son of the building’s owners.

In the same area, a banquet hall with black frescos depicting the Trojan War was discovered earlier this spring.

Bernardo Bellotto’s The Marketplace at Pirna (ca. 1764), which has been part of the MFA Houston’s permanent collection since 1961, was once owned by the German department store magnate Max J. Emden, who lost much of his wealth due to Nazi persecution.

A panel of three judges for the US Fifth Circuit court of appeals affirmed a lower court’s dismissal of a claim brought by some of Emden’s heirs, the Art Newspaper reported.

The legal dispute stems from a misidentification by a foundation established by the Dutch government, which sent the wrong painting — the Bellotto — to a Nazi loot claimant after the end of the war. In 2021, three of Emden’s heirs filed a lawsuit based on the misidentification.

An earlier 2022 ruling by a judge in US District Court for the Southern District of Texas in Houston declared that, despite the mistake, the Dutch restitution was “a sovereign act” and that the decision to dismiss the case was based on the district court’s inability to determine the “invalidity” of “proceedings” related to a “foreign nation.”

The ruling, however, did not determine the painting’s rightful owner.

Emden was allegedly forced to sell three Bellotto paintings under duress below market value to German dealer Karl Haberstock in 1938 during the Nazi regime. Around the same time, German art dealer Hugo Moser, who owned a reproduction of Marketplace at Pirna “after Bellotto” painted by an anonymous artist, fled to the Netherlands and left the painting with an art restorer in Amsterdam. Both versions were seized by the Nazis and were intended to be included in Adolf Hitler’s Führermuseum.

At the war’s end, the Monuments Men and Women recovered Emden’s three paintings from an Austrian salt mine, as well as Moser’s copy from another storage facility. Both versions of Marketplace at Pirna were sent to the Munich Central Collecting Point (MCCP).

Later, the Dutch Art Property Foundation received a claim for the “after Bellotto” copy of Marketplace at Pirna from Amsterdam’s Goudstikker Gallery to the MCCP. Emden’s Bellotto was inadvertently shipped to the Netherlands. Before Goudstikker took possession of the work, however, Moser filed a competing claim and the original Bellotto was send to Moser.

Even though the Monuments Men and Women recognized the error in 1949, it was already out of the Dutch Art Property Foundation’s control. Moser sold the Bellotto to the American businessman and collector Samuel Kress three years later. Kress loaned it to the MFA Houston in 1953 and subsequently gifted it to the museum.

Since the mistake was made by the Dutch government, the Fifth Circuit judges ultimately ruled that “it is not our job to call into question the decisions of foreign nations”.

The stunt was carried out by a member of Riposte Alimentaire (Food Response), a group of environmental activists and defenders of sustainable food production in response to the climate crisis. The group has been targeting museums across Europe for years, including most recently a protest at the Louvre last month.

A video on X showed the activist sticking an adhesive barren red landscape on top of Claude Monet’s 1873 painting Coquelicots, saying, according to the Guardian, “this nightmarish image awaits us if no alternative is put in place”.

The French Impressionist’s work depicts people with umbrellas roaming through a blooming poppy field. Unlike works like Leonardo’s Mona Lisa, which has been the subject of much backlash, it was not protected by glass.