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BreakingDolly Parton Official SiteNashville Dolly Parton has died in Nashville at 80Dolly Parton’s official site and family memorial confirm the singer-songwriter, actor and philanthropist died on 25 August 2026 in Nashville. Representatives told the USA TODAY Network she died at Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center after a brief, previously undisclosed cancer battle; the type of cancer was not named. A small private family service will be held at her request, with donations directed to the Imagination Library. Her husband, Carl Dean, died in March 2025.

BreakingYayoi Kusama Official SiteTokyo Yayoi Kusama has died in Tokyo at 97Yayoi Kusama Inc. and Yayoi Kusama Studio announced on 27 August that the artist died on 14 August at a Tokyo hospital, and that she continued to paint until her final days.

BreakingBBC NewsLondon David Hockney, painter of pools and Yorkshire light, has died at 88Hockney’s representatives said the Bradford-born artist died peacefully at home on 11 June 2026, one month short of his 89th birthday. BBC and The Art Newspaper reported King Charles, Keir Starmer and Tate Britain among the tributes. Born 9 July 1937, he was known for Los Angeles pool paintings including A Bigger Splash (1967), Yorkshire and Normandy landscapes, and iPad drawings. He is survived by partner Jean-Pierre Gonçalves de Lima, great-nephew Richard Hockney, and brothers Philip and John. Tate said planned 2027 Tate Britain and Tate Modern projects will continue.

BreakingArtribune Franco Fontana, Italian colour photographer, dies at 92 in Modena

Nordjyske Museer (official press release) Denmark’s largest known Viking Age silver hoard — 18.5kg from a Rebild garden — unveiled by Nordjyske Museer

The Associated PressNew York Gloria Steinem, Ms. magazine co-founder and figurehead of US feminism, dies at 92Gloria Steinem died on Wednesday 2 September 2026 at her home in New York City, aged 92. Her foundation announced the death on 3 September, saying she “passed away peacefully at her home in New York City, surrounded by some of the many who loved her”, and disclosed no cause. Ms., the magazine she co-founded, confirmed she was 92 and had kept working for equality to the end; the Associated Press reported she had been in declining health and had recently finished a memoir due this autumn. ARTnews devoted a same-day appraisal to her long ties to artists and the art world.ARTnewsWashington UPDATE (2 Sep 2026, 12:01pm): Ivy Shapiro told the New York Times her father would have been "alarmed" by the Kennedy Center removal of Blue (2019), calling it one of his greatest site-specific commissions of joy, freedom and creativity. NYT: limbs dismantled Wednesday. WTOP + FOX 5 DC: NPS closed Rock Creek Parkway NB ~6am–1pm Wed 2 Sep for a crane lift at the REACH. KC said the Shapiro/Phelan foundation will decide next display and thanked years Blue "spent animating our campus," with no public why. Hands Off the Arts: façade then grounds. Did not invent dollar value or next venue.

Corriere della SeraVenice Venice Biennale president says he would host Russian Pavilion again BreakingARTnews Spanish coverage of the 27 August 2026 early-morning raid on Villena’s MUVI museum says Guardia Civil investigators are seeking three hooded people who removed most of the Bronze Age Villena Treasure display in minutes after alarms sounded around 05:20. Mayor Fulgencio Cerdán said most of the jewels were taken and that the city is devastated; ARTnews reported an about €1.7 million estimate for the stolen gold pieces.

BBC NewsLos Angeles Tim Curry, Rocky Horror’s Frank-N-Furter, has died at 80Manager Marcia Hurwitz told BBC News and the Associated Press that Tim Curry died on 25 August 2026 at his home in Toluca Lake, Los Angeles. No cause was disclosed. Curry, who had used a wheelchair since a 2012 stroke, originated Dr. Frank-N-Furter in The Rocky Horror Show at London’s Royal Court in 1973 and on film in 1975. AP later corrected an initial report that had given the death date as 26 August.

Parkwood Entertainment / PR NewswireNew York Beyoncé gives Studio Museum in Harlem a $2 million birthday giftParkwood Entertainment announced via PR Newswire on Sept. 4, 2026 that Beyoncé marked her birthday with a $2 million gift to the Studio Museum in Harlem. Founded in 1968 and reopened Nov. 15, 2025 in an Adjaye Associates–designed home at 144 West 125th Street, the museum champions artists of African descent. Director and chief curator Thelma Golden said the gift will help strengthen work for Harlemites, New Yorkers, and global audiences. ARTnews covered the announcement Sept. 5.ARTnewsWashington

Wereldmuseum AmsterdamAmsterdam Wereldmuseum Amsterdam’s Made in China closes 30 August

UPI State Department explores selling the Kehinde Wiley embassy painting it removedUPI reported on 28 August that the US State Department is consulting lawyers on whether it can sell Kehinde Wiley’s Young Artists After Siamesas 1960 after removing the taxpayer-commissioned work from the US Embassy in Santo Domingo. Ambassador Leah Campos posted video of the removal on 11 August. Vanity Fair’s 28 August report quotes Art in Embassies director Erin Scavino saying the same review could apply to other works and that an auction would be the most appropriate path, though she called any sale far in the future. The Art Newspaper covered the removal and sale exploration on 25 August.

AP News Thieves steal Antonello da Messina works from Messina’s MuMe on FerragostoOn the evening of 15 August 2026, during Messina’s Assumption Day celebrations, thieves took three panels from Antonello’s 1473 San Gregorio Polyptych and a double-sided panel from the Museo Regionale di Messina (MuMe); two other polyptych panels were abandoned outside and recovered. Carabinieri and regional authorities are investigating; four on-duty custodians have been transferred pending disciplinary review.ArterIstanbul

Clarín Argentina court orders return of Nazi-looted Portrait of a Lady to Goudstikker heirOn Friday 4 Sep 2026 in Mar del Plata, Federal Judge Santiago Inchausti homologated an agreement restoring the 18th-century painting Retrato de una dama to Marei von Saher, sole heir of Jewish dealer Jacques Goudstikker—Clarín calls it Argentina’s first adjudicated Nazi-looting restitution. Possessors Patricia Kadgien and Juan Carlos Cortegoso renounced all rights under a probation deal (4.8 million pesos over 24 months to HIEMI hospital). Academia Nacional de Bellas Artes experts reattributed the work from Giuseppe Ghislandi to Giacomo Antonio Melchiorre Ceruti (Il Pitocchetto). The work remains under Corte Suprema custody pending transfer; heirs seek temporary display in Argentina.

Seoul Shinmun (Yonhap photo)Gwangju China pavilion curators formally withdraw from Gwangju Biennale at 3 September press conferenceChinese pavilion curators told a morning press conference at Gwangju’s Ha Jung-woong Art Museum on 3 September that they unanimously decided to withdraw the China Pavilion from the 16th Gwangju Biennale (opens 5 September), citing the organizer’s use of the name Taiwan Pavilion. Speaker Ruan Yuanlai (루안 웨라이) said political elements had entered the arts; installation work had been halted since 28 August. Seoul Shinmun and Sportalkorea/News1 report the on-site declaration; a Guangzhou municipal delegation also cancelled a 6–7 September Jeonnam-Gwangju visit in protest. Gwangju Biennale Foundation still hopes China will return.Drexel UniversityPhiladelphia Drexel University and Academy of Natural Sciences leadership announced September 1 that the Academy’s public museum will close as of September 30, 2026, citing lasting post-pandemic visitation changes and rising operating costs. The Academy, founded in 1812 with a museum open since 1828, says research and stewardship of its natural history collections will continue, and it will seek new public-engagement models. President and CEO Scott Cooper, PhD, is stepping down and will advise through the transition.Christie'sNew York

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement ICE HSI seizes more than 22,000 ancient artifacts in Florida

Hungarian National Gallery Hungarian National Gallery’s Dolce Vita Italy survey closes Sunday in BudapestThe Hungarian National Gallery homepage banners Dolce Vita: Impressions of Italy in Two Centuries of Hungarian Art as Until 30 August. Official notice: between 28–30 August 2026 the show is open until 19:00, with ticket sales and last admission at 18:00. The official exhibition page presents around 150 works by 75 artists, curated by Adrienn Prágai, spanning nineteenth-century academies and Grand Tour landscapes through Vaszary, Aba-Novák, Csontváry and Gulácsy to contemporary work including Emese Benczúr. Venue: Hungarian National Gallery, 1014 Budapest, Szent György tér 2. Sunday 30 August is the final day.Art Gallery of OntarioToronto The Impressionist Revolution: Monet to Matisse from the Dallas Museum of Art is listed on now until 18 October 2026 at the Art Gallery of Ontario. Official copy calls it the Canadian debut of a DMA-organized survey, with the Toronto presentation led by Caroline Shields. Named artists include Monet, Morisot, van Gogh, Pissarro, Gauguin, Matisse, Mondrian and Munch. Edna Taçon on the same campus is listed through 30 August.Roberts ProjectsLos Angeles Art Gallery of OntarioToronto The Art Gallery of Ontario announced Tuesday that Stephan Jost will step down as Michael and Sonja Koerner Director and CEO effective December 31, 2026, after a decade in the post. Jost said AGO 2028 goals were met ahead of schedule and will stay focused on the Dani Reiss Modern and Contemporary Gallery opening in 2027 (about 40,000 sq ft). The museum will appoint an interim leader and launch a global search for his successor. Board co-president Beth Horowitz credited collection expansion and the fully funded Reiss project as his legacy.National Museum of IrelandDublin The National Museum of Ireland – Decorative Arts & History at Collins Barracks presents A New Form of Beauty: Dublin youth culture, street style and subculture history, 1960s to 1990s, an archival photography exhibition commissioned for Bealtaine Festival’s 30th anniversary and curated from Garry O’Neill’s public/photographer archive. The official exhibition page states it is on display until the end of August 2026 at Benburb Street, Dublin 7, D07 XKV4; contemporaneous last-chance coverage specifies Sunday 30 August as the final day. Admission is free with no booking required for individuals and small groups. Sunday hours at Collins Barracks are 13:00–17:00 (last entry recommended 16:30).

MeinBezirk / Innere StadtVienna Vienna police say MAK necklace suspect may have carried a firearmAustrian police continuing the search for two men in the 27 August 2026 daytime theft of a platinum Van Cleef & Arpels necklace with 673 diamonds from Vienna’s MAK said one suspect allegedly carried what investigators treat as a real firearm. Local reports on 28 August said the pair fled on foot toward Stadtpark and that the search is now national and international; the museum said the affected exhibition reopened after a police security review.

ABC NewsWashington Kennedy Center delays Trump facade inscription until at least 8 October

BBC NewsLos Angeles Peter Cullen, the voice of Optimus Prime, has died at 85

Fundación Paiz Cuauhtémoc Medina named curator of 25th Bienal de Arte PaizFundación Paiz appointed Mexican curator, critic and historian Cuauhtémoc Medina to lead the conceptual and narrative project for the 25th Bienal de Arte Paiz, set for November 2027–February 2028 in Guatemala City and Antigua Guatemala for the biennial’s 50th anniversary (founded 1978). Medina previously served as Tate Modern’s first associate curator of Latin American collections and as MUAC chief curator; the foundation announced the selection after its advisory committee process. Artforum and The Art Newspaper also reported the appointment.Serpentine GalleriesLondon Serpentine’s official FAE R&D Fellowship page now names the 2026–27 inaugural fellows: Alice Bucknell, Reina Mun, Alfredo Salazar-Caro and Auriea Harvey. The six-month low-residency Art x Convergence programme runs September 2026–March 2027 with a £10,000 award each, London intensives, and mentorship via Glass Castle Foundation. ARTnews and Artnet report the same cohort and quote CEO Bettina Korek. Home carousel still omits the names; dedicated programme page is the lock. Did not invent project titles beyond Bucknell’s Medium Sized World as stated on the official page.

Artforum (citing Reuters / United24) Russian FPV drone strike sets fire to Kherson Regional Art Museum Shannon's Fine Art Auctioneers Shannon’s Fine Art Auctioneers in Milford says two Eastman Johnson works stolen from New York galleries in 1978 — Mary and Her Lamb (from Kenneth Lux Gallery) and The Young Mother (from Hirschl & Adler Galleries) — were identified in an estate collection by Long Island dealer Brandon Levine and returned to their rightful owners after Art Loss Register confirmation. Shannon’s owner Sandra Germain coordinated the recovery; similar Johnson works have sold in the six-figure range. ARTnews, NBC Connecticut, News 12 and NBC New York reported the return in early September 2026.

GOV.UK / Department for Digital, Culture, Media and SportLondon UK export bar keeps Rembrandt’s £71m Catrina Hooghsaet in play through DecemberDCMS deferred export of Rembrandt’s 1657 Portrait of Catrina Hooghsaet through 26 December 2026 inclusive, calling it the most expensive object given national-treasure status. A UK buyer would need to match £71,696,324.90 plus VAT of £754,698.15; a second nine-month deferral can follow an option agreement. The Arts Minister announcement landed 27 August and remained a major story on 28 August.

MercoPress Uruguay declared official mourning for Ruben Rada, dead at 83Ruben Rada’s family said the Montevideo singer, composer and percussionist died at 3.30pm on 26 August 2026, aged 83, after a month of pneumonia and its complications. President Yamandú Orsi’s government decreed official mourning for 27 August, with a wake in the Salón de los Pasos Perdidos of the Palacio Legislativo. MercoPress describes more than six decades fusing Afro-Uruguayan candombe (UNESCO-listed as intangible heritage in 2009) with rock, jazz, funk and murga, including El Kinto, Tótem and Opa, a 2011 Latin Grammy for musical excellence and Uruguay’s 2014 Delmira Agustini Medal. He was born in Montevideo on 16 July 1943.

The National Palestinian painter Sliman Mansour has died in Jerusalem at 79 CourtListener / PACER Virginia Museum of Fine Arts VMFA’s Aug 31 press says it added 3,314 works over the past year (808 purchases, 2,506 gifts), including a landmark 1,989-photograph gift from Joy of Giving Something, Inc. Highlights include Jaune Quick-to-See Smith’s monumental bronze Making Medicine: Coyote (Going Forward, Looking Back) (2024–25), now on view in American Art’s Waterways; Paul Signac’s 1882 oil The Haystack (first Signac oil in the collection), slated for The Impressionist Revolution (opens 14 Nov 2026); plus Theresa Bernstein’s Sun, Sand, and Sea (1916), Roberto Lugo’s Roundel with Boy from the Hood (2023), and Tuan Andrew Nguyen’s Scars (2025). Many will appear after the McGlothlin Wing II expansion.

The Art Newspaper Canada still cannot account for 111 works in its federal Indigenous art collectionThe Art Newspaper reported on 21 August 2026 that Canada still cannot locate 111 works from the Indigenous Art Centre’s collection of more than 5,000 peer-juried pieces by First Nations, Métis and Inuit artists, valued at about C$14.4 million. A November 2024 CIRNAC audit had listed 132 as unaccounted for; spokesperson Maryéva Métellus said 17 are now resolved (six found in storage, 11 database duplicates) and that 20 of the remaining 111 are reproductions. She told TAN the label is a records designation, not a finding of theft, and that no criminal investigations are underway. Artforum and The Canadian Press confirmed the 111 figure.

RTÉ NewsDublin National Museum of Ireland employee granted bail in Semtex case

Amnesty International China sentences artist Gao Zhen to three years over satirical Mao sculpturesThe Sanhe City People’s Court in Hebei sentenced Gao Zhen on 25 August for slandering China’s heroes and martyrs. The Gao Brothers artist, detained since August 2024, plans to appeal; Amnesty International called the verdict an assault on artistic freedom.ARTnewsMinneapolis ARTnews, citing MPR News, reports that after a mid-August Reddit post branded Hydricosmic Litanies as undisclosed generative AI, Jeyifous and the Walker rejected the claim that works were simple prompt outputs. Chief curator Henriette Huldisch said the artist uses sophisticated tools that may embed AI but not prompt-to-image generation; curator Taylor Jasper described an iterative process. The museum told MPR it would add clarifying wall text. MPR’s 19 August story headline confirms the clarification.Hauser & Wirth Hauser & Wirth and 303 Gallery confirmed that Mary Heilmann died on 14 August 2026 on Long Island, aged 86. Her studio told ArtNews the cause was complications from a fall. Born in San Francisco on 3 January 1940, she showed in the 1972, 1989 and 2008 Whitney Biennials and had her first New York museum survey at the New Museum in 2008, later at the Whitney (2015), Whitechapel Gallery (2016) and Kunstmuseum Bonn (2013). Dia Beacon showed her Starry Night series from September 2023 through October 2025; the Whitney’s site-specific Long Line closed in January 2026. She is survived by nieces Ann Jaime and Chris Heilmann and nephew John Heilmann Jr.Cape Ann Museum

N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural ResourcesAbu Dhabi Valerie Hillings leaves NCMA to lead Guggenheim Abu Dhabi

Triennale MilanoMilan Francesco Clemente’s Triennale retrospective is up through 6 SeptemberFrancesco Clemente: In Between, a survey of the painter’s work from the late 1970s to now with about 70 works, is listed until 6 September on Floor 0, Galleria at Triennale Milano.Artists’ Legacy Foundation Bay Area artist Mildred Howard is the 2026 Artists’ Legacy Foundation Artist Award recipient, the foundation confirms on its Artist Award page. The unrestricted $25,000 merit prize goes annually to a painter or sculptor; 2026 jurors were Anna Katz (SFMOMA), Jessica Bell Brown (ICA at VCU), and Mary Weatherford. Howard’s Oakland Museum of California retrospective runs through Oct 18. Prior winners include Marie Watt (2024), Jaune Quick-to-See Smith (2023), and Howardena Pindell (2019). Artforum reported the announcement Sep 4.Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos AiresBuenos Aires

BFMTV (citing Élysée)London Macron to inaugurate Bayeux Tapestry exhibition at the British Museum on 2 SeptemberThe Élysée announced on 28 August that Emmanuel Macron will travel to London on Wednesday 2 September to inaugurate the Bayeux Tapestry loan exhibition at the British Museum. The 11th-century embroidery arrived in London on 10 July; public opening is scheduled for 10 September through 11 July 2027.ARTnewsMarseille French coverage of an Inspection générale des affaires culturelles report, reported around 21 August 2026 via Le Monde and ARTnews, says investigators accuse suspended MuCEM president Pierre-Olivier Costa of sexual and moral harassment, favoritism, and public-contract breaches, warning Marseille’s national museum is “at risk.” Costa denies wrongdoing. He and managing director Véronique Haché were suspended from 1 July 2026; Marseille’s prosecutor has expanded a criminal inquiry.

The Art Newspaper (citing Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism) Turkey announces an 11,000-year-old human-and-leopard statue from Karahan TepeCulture minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy said archaeologists found a 70-centimetre composite statue of a human sitting on a leopard during 2026 excavations at Karahan Tepe near Şanlıurfa, on a bench in a three-metre stone-floored structure. The ministry called the style unlike any previously encountered at the site.

The Art Newspaper Christian Bernard, who invented Geneva’s MAMCO, has died at 76

Cornell Chronicle Edouard Kopp named director of Cornell’s Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art

Zeitz MOCAACape Town Elvira Dyangani Ose named Zeitz MOCAA artistic directorZeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa announced on 12 August 2026 that Elvira Dyangani Ose will become Artistic Director effective 1 October 2026. The Cape Town museum said she will oversee curatorial vision as it approaches its second decade, succeeding the late Koyo Kouoh in artistic leadership under a split model with managing director Fawaz Mustapha on operations.ARTnewsNew York Welsh photographer Justin Thomas filed a copyright suit in the Southern District of New York on 20 August 2026 against Elizabeth Peyton, David Zwirner Gallery, and Sotheby’s, alleging that Earl’s Court (Liam + Noel) (1996) copies his 1995 photograph of Liam and Noel Gallagher. The painting sold at Sotheby’s New York in May 2026 for $1,920,000. The complaint is an allegation; Peyton’s fair-use defense has not been ruled on.

Portland Press Herald Star of Hope Foundation lists Robert Indiana’s Vinalhaven home for $1.4m

Artforum Ryoji Ikeda wins the 2026 Nam June Paik PrizeThe Nam June Paik Art Center in Yongin named Japanese media artist Ryoji Ikeda the ninth Nam June Paik Prize winner. He receives KRW 50 million at a 8 September ceremony, with a solo exhibition planned at the center in 2027.

ArtforumZurich Kerstin Brätsch wins the 20th Zurich Art Prize, with a Haus Konstruktiv solo show due in June 2027Museum Haus Konstruktiv and Zurich Insurance Company Ltd. have named the Hamburg-born painter Kerstin Brätsch (b. 1979) the 20th recipient of the Zurich Art Prize, worth CHF 130,000 in total — CHF 100,000 toward producing a solo exhibition at the Zurich museum plus CHF 30,000 in prize money. The jury cited her binding of painting, craft and conceptual art, and her engagement with Hilma af Klint and Emma Kunz. The exhibition, her first solo show in Switzerland, is due to open in June 2027. Also nominated were the Mataaho Collective, Claudia Comte, Iman Issa, Sopheap Pich and Liesl Raff.

La Biennale di Venezia Italian video-installation pioneer Fabrizio Plessi has died at 86La Biennale di Venezia announced on 24 August that Plessi, born in Reggio Emilia in 1940, died the previous day in Dolo. A pioneer of Italian video art, he showed at the Biennale from 1970, including Bronx in 1986. Venice held his funeral on 28 August.

Museum of Contemporary Art San DiegoSan Diego Brett Littman named director and CEO of MCA San Diego