To receive Morning Links in your inbox every weekday, sign up for our Breakfast with ARTnews newsletter.
The Headlines
PLUGGING TRUMP’S ART GAP. Amid efforts by the Trump administration to eliminate funding for federal cultural agencies like the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Institute of Museum and Library Services, many US states have continued to support their arts and humanities agencies, albeit at reduced levels. According to the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies (NASAA), states and territories allocated almost $650 million to these agencies in fiscal year 2026, a 7.4 percent drop from 2025. Despite overall uncertainty, 29 states has increased arts funding. As NASAA adviser Kelly Barsdate told the Art Newspaper, this reflects sustained legislative commitment. But economic shifts and one-time funding adjustments have led to wide variations. New Hampshire cut its arts funding by 90 percent due to a revenue shortfall, while California, Missouri, Kansas, and Hawaii also saw significant reductions. On the other hand, Florida, North Dakota, Connecticut, and Oregon increased their arts appropriations, helping offset overall losses. Per capita, Minnesota leads arts funding at $7.85, while New Hampshire, Georgia, and Wisconsin allocate less than $0.20.
LO ZINGARO RETURNS! A 16th-century Madonna and Child painting by Italian artistAntonio Solario, aka Lo Zingaro, will soon be returned to Italy. The painting went missing more than 50 years ago from the Civic Museum of Belluno and resurfaced in 2017, the Guardian reports. Baron de Dozsa bought the painting shortly after its theft in 1973 and was on display in the home of his widow, Barbara de Dozsa, until recently. Despite the painting being listed on Interpoland the Italian Carabinieri’s stolen art databases, Barbara de Dozsa initially refused to return it, citing its purchase in good faith under the UK Limitations Act of 1980, which would eventually allow her to be recognized as the legal owner. After years of persistent advocacy by Art Recovery International, de Dozsa eventually agreed to return the painting unconditionally. Belluno’s mayor, Oscar De Pellegrin, welcomed its return, calling it “a fragment of the city’s identity, history, and soul.”
The Digest
Police in Haiti have rescued thousands of artworks from Port-au-Prince’s Centre d’Art under a barrage of gunfire from gangs, who have seized control of the surrounding area. The museum is one of the oldest art institutions in the Caribbean, and its collection includes works by Haitian artists like Hector Hyppolite, Georges Liautaud, and Philomé Obin. [Artnet News]
The animated characters Wallace and Gromit are to feature in a major exhibition at the Harris Museum in Lancashire, England, when it re-opens in September after a four-year, £16 million ($21.5 million) renovation. [BBC]
Ukrainian cultural NGO The Shadows Project has launched The Stolen Art Campaign,the first coordinated, youth-led project aimed at challenging the mislabelling of Ukrainian artists in major museums around the world. The initiative claims that some Western institutions, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Tate in London, and the Centre Pompidouin Paris, are complicit in labelling Ukrainian artists as “Russian.” [United24 Media]
The Irish Museum of Modern Art in Dublin has confirmed it will re-screen a film by the late British artist Derek Jarman, which features a kiss between two men. The museum denied allegations that the work was censored in response to a public complaint. [The Art Newspaper]
The Kicker
SWEATY BETTY. It’s hot in New York, and the humidity looks set to continue for the next few days. That’s why Cultured asked eight museums in the city just how cold they set their air conditioning. Take the Noguchi Museum, which has its temperature set to 74°, a nice temperature to view Lagos-based artist Temitayo Ogunbiyi’s first institutional solo. MoMA apparently has its AC purring one degree cooler at 73°. However, if the low 70s are still too hot for you, over at the Guggenheim the air is being kept at 68° where a Rashid Johnson survey is currently on view. (A Tripadvisor user, however, said, “It wasn’t very cold.”) And if the sweat is still rolling down your back, the Brooklyn Museum has turned its AC down to a chilling 67°! “The museum is an official NYC cooling center, giving free access to whomever may need respite from the next record-hot summer,” Cultured reports.
Credit: Source link
