Rare Photos of Picasso in His Studio Go on View in Paris
Rare, previously unpublished photographs of Pablo Picasso in his studio are now on view in Paris, offering intimate views of the artist in several of his French ateliers. The black-and-white photographs, taken in the 1940s and ’50s by different photographers, are being exhibited by Cahiers d’Art, the gallery of the eponymous art magazine, in the exhibition Picasso: In the Studio as well as in the publication’s latest issue. Click here to continue reading.

A New Book Highlights Masterpieces from the Prado’s Collection
A luxurious new oversized art book for your coffee table, published by Thames & Hudson called The Prado Masterpieces, brims with the former Spanish Royal Collection of Spanish painting greats like Diego Velazquez, Francisco Goya and Jose de Ribera, as well as those from other lands like Bosch and Rubens and runs the gamut from antiquity to the early 19th century. Click here to continue reading.

Tate Britain Will Mount a David Hockney Retrospective in 2017
The California-based artist David Hockney is having his moment in the sun. After his triumphant exhibition of landscapes at the Royal Academy in 2012, which pulled in 600,000 visitors, the British artist is to have a major retrospective at Tate Britain. Opening in 2017, it will be one of the largest exhibitions Tate Britain has ever staged. A second show at the Royal Academy featuring 70 portraits by Hockney is due to open in July. Click here to continue reading.

The Norton Simon Explores Marcel Duchamp’s Influence on Pop Artists
It was a simple, metal bottle rack, purchased in a department store, that forever changed the evolution of the art world. Bottlerack (1914) was Marcel Duchamp's first piece of "ready-made" art, as he called it. The artist signed the utilitarian object as is, then coined it "a sculpture." A snow shovel and a urinal soon followed. Conceptual art was born. Click here to continue reading.

German Art Fairs Speak Out Against the Country’s Cultural Protection Act
Koelnmesse, the organizers behind the German art fairs Art Cologne and Cologne Fine Art have written an open letter expressing their opposition to the amendment of Germany's cultural protection act. “If the current version of the draft is passed, not only will galleries, art dealers, auction houses, private collectors, and museums be negatively affected, but also the entire German art fair landscape," Gerald Böse, CEO of Koelnmesse said. Click here to continue reading.

The Tastemakers: A Conversation with Interior Designer Thomas Jayne
Thomas Jayne is a master at making the old seem new again. A graduate of the University of Oregon School of Applied Arts, where he studied with the noted architectural historian Marian Card Donnelly and earned a Bachelor of Architecture, as well as the University of Delaware’s Winterthur program, where he trained in American material culture and decorative arts, Jayne initially set out to become a curator. Click here to continue reading.

Scientists Explore the Link Between Van Gogh’s Color Choices and Mental State
Newly uncovered colors of two Van Gogh paintings show how the artist’s darkening life cast a shadow over his work and change the way art experts see the late period of his life. Both paintings portray Vincent van Gogh’s bedroom in Arles, southern France, in the late 1880s, and are part of a new exhibition in Chicago.Click here to continue reading.

After Numerous Starts and Stops, the Munch Museum Moves Forward
After battling repeated waves of opposition, Oslo's city council has announced that it will resume its controversial plans to built a high-rise museum in the Norwegian capital devoted to the artist Edvard Munch. “Now we're counting on the museum opening at Bjørvika in 2020 as planned," city councillor Raymond Johansen told Aftenposten this past weekend, according to News in English. Click here to continue reading.

The Former Director of the  Palm Springs Art Museum Heads to the Richard Diebenkorn Foundation
The Richard Diebenkorn Foundation has announced that Steven Nash, a curator, art historian, and recently retired executive director of the Palm Springs Art Museum, will succeed the artist’s late widow Phyllis Diebenkorn at the helm of the organization. Click here to continue reading.

UC Davis Will Unveil Its New Art Museum in November
UC Davis is widely acknowledged as a wellspring of invention and instruction in the visual arts, a central player in Bay Area art history, particularly in the 1960s and ’70s. Now that heritage will be marked permanently with the opening, announced Tuesday, Feb. 23, of the new Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Museum of Art on Nov. 13. Click here to continue reading.

An American Academic Has Been Named the Director of London’s Soane Museum
Bruce Boucher is to take over as director of the Sir John Soane’s Museum in May. A US citizen, he taught art history at University College London for 24 years. Boucher later worked at the Art Institute of Chicago and since 2009 has been the director of the Fralin Museum of Art at the University of Virginia. Abraham Thomas, the previous Soane director, left last October, after less than two years in the post. Click here to continue reading.

Art Historian Reveals the First Glimpse of Francis Bacon's Final Painting
It could be a bull backing into a burning, black void or one escaping it, moving hopefully into the heavenly light. What seems certain is that this final, extraordinary painting by Francis Bacon, unseen and undocumented until now, is by an artist who knows he will soon die. Click here to continue reading.

Mallett is Selling Their Leases in Prestigious Mayfair and Manhattan Locations
Troubled dealership Mallett are to look for new galleries in London and New York after putting the blue-chip leases of both of their current premises up for sale. Negotiations to sell the lease on the New York store, 929 Madison Avenue, are at an advanced stage. Click here to continue reading.

The University of Oklahoma Returns Nazi-Looted Pissarro Painting to Rightful Owners
The University of Oklahoma said Tuesday that it had agreed on the terms under which it will return a Pissarro painting to a Jewish family whose relatives had their artworks looted by the Nazis. In a settlement that appears to be the final chapter in a long-running dispute, the university will transfer title to the painting, La Bergère, or Shepherdess Bringing in Sheep, to Léone Meyer, the daughter of a businessman, Raoul Meyer, whose collection was looted by the Nazis. Click here to continue reading.

The National Portrait Gallery Commemorates the 200th Anniversary of Charlotte Bronte’s Birth with a New Exhibition
The National Portrait Gallery in London is presenting a major new display of personal items, original manuscripts and works of art to mark the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charlotte Brontë, author of Jane Eyre. The exhibition opened at the National Portrait Gallery on Monday, February 22.  Celebrating Charlotte Brontë 1816-1855, explores the author’s life, creative development and professional success. Click here to continue reading.

Sotheby’s to Auction Antiques Dealer Alan Rubin's Illustrious Collection
Sotheby’s is to sell what it describes as one of the finest groups of antiques to be auctioned in recent years. The 180 lots coming up in London on March 8 are from the collections of Alan Rubin of Pelham Galleries and include some items formerly in the White House, Hamilton Palace, and Rothschild and Mountbatten collections. Click here to continue reading.

A New Website Aims to Make Images of Every Publicly Owned Artwork in Britain Available Online
A huge project has been launched that aims to include every publicly owned painting, drawing, sculpture and print in Britain in one website, creating the most comprehensive access to one country’s art in the world. The artist Bob and Roberta Smith – who is one man, Patrick Brill – celebrated the creation of Art UK by presenting a new work in his trademark sign-painter’s lettering, proclaiming “through our public collections we all own art.” Click here to continue reading.

Christopher Forbes' Major Napoleonic Art Collection Heads to Auction
Media and business tycoon Christopher Forbes’s collection of art, objects and historical souvenirs from Napoleon III’s Second Empire will return to France for auction at Osenat in Fontainebleau on March 5-6. Forbes’s collection includes 500 paintings, two being portraits of the emperor and empress by Winterhalter. Click here to continue reading.

FIAC Cancels Satellite Fair Due to Lackluster Sales
Paris's Officielle Art Fair will not take place in 2016, according to an email to exhibitors from Foire Internationale d'Art Contemporain (FIAC) staffers Jennifer Flay and Maxime Hourdequin of Reed Expositions, which organized the fair. Officielle, an official satellite, functioned as a kind of off-site extension of FIAC.Click here to continue reading.

The UK’s Culture Minister Places an Export Ban on a Giacometti Sculpture
A sculpture by Alberto Giacometti, one of the most important sculptors of the 20th century is at risk of being exported from the UK. Femme will be lost to the Nation forever unless a buyer can be found to match the asking price of £2,083,500. Culture Minister Ed Vaizey has placed a temporary export bar on Femme by Giacometti to try to save the plaster sculpture for the nation. Click here to continue reading.

Daniel & Cristina of D.Larsson Discuss the Singular Beauty of Swedish Antique Furniture
The 18th century is generally regarded as the golden age of antique Swedish furniture. During the first half of the century a significant amount of furniture was imported, mainly from England. In 1731, the Swedish government decided to ban the importation of furniture in order to support the domestic carpenters and carvers. Click here to continue reading.

The Philadelphia Museum of Art Receives a Major Gift, Including Its First Edward Hopper Painting
The Philadelphia Museum of Art has received a major bequest of over 50 works of American art, including the museum's first painting by Edward Hopper. The artworks are from the estate of collector Daniel Dietrich II, who died last year. The suburban Philadelphia philanthropist was an heir to a family conglomerate that once included Luden's cough drops. Click here to continue reading.

Two Longtime Sotheby’s Employees Step Down
Two high-ranking Sotheby’s employees have announced their departures from the auction house, the same month that the company’s stock prices have fallen to their lowest levels since 2009, Katya Kazakina has reported at Bloomberg. Alex Rotter, co-head of contemporary art, plans to leave the firm by the end of this month. Click here to continue reading.

Sting’s Art and Furniture Collection Nets $4.19 Million at Auction
Pop rocker Sting and wife Trudie Styler decided to clean out one of their England homes and the contents earned about £3 million ($4.19 million) at Christie's London last night. The nine bedroom mansion, dubbed Queen Anne's Gate, sold for £19 million ($26.52 million) last year. Click here to continue reading.

Court Rejects Maya Widmaier-Picasso’s Plea to Void a Seizure Order for Embattled Sculpture
A French court has rejected a plea by the daughter of Pablo Picasso to void a seizure order for a valuable sculpture at the center of a dispute over ownership between the New York dealer Larry Gagosian and an agent for the Qatari royal family. Instead, the court on Wednesday ordered Maya Widmaier-Picasso, who is 80 and a Paris resident, to pay 25,000 euros, about $28,000, in court costs to the Qatari family’s representative, Pelham Holdings. Click here to continue reading.

The US Will Return a Sculpture Stolen From Mussolini’s Villa Over 30 Years Ago
The United States will repatriate a marble statue stolen from a Roman villa in 1983, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and United States Attorney’s Office announced Thursday, February 25. The sculpture of a woman wearing an ancient Greek garment known as a peplos was stolen from Villa Torlonia, a neo-Classical manse purchased by Vatican banker Giovanni Torlonia in 1797. Click here to continue reading.