Restitution Reckonings and Biennale Blowups

A major restitution headline out of Switzerland: Zurich’s Museum Rietberg is transferring ownership of 11 Benin objects from its permanent collection to the Republic of Nigeria, represented by the National Commission for Museums and Monuments, according to The Art Newspaper. The works trace back to the Kingdom of Benin in present-day Nigeria and were dispersed after British forces raided Benin City in 1897. Rietberg director Annette Bhagwati highlighted two especially significant pieces: a commemorative bronze head from around 1850 and an 18th-century ivory tusk once mounted on a bronze memorial head. Those two “ritual objects of great importance,” Bhagwati said, are likely to be sent to Nigeria this summer. The other nine will stay in Zurich, reflecting Nigeria’s interest in having Benin’s history and artistry still told in Switzerland.

Staying with museums, Hyperallergic is asking what’s actually new about the New Museum’s new building as the Lower East Side institution reopens to the public on March 21 after a two-year, eighty two dollars million expansion. The new OMA-designed addition joins the SANAA flagship like a close companion, and the connection point is marked by Tschabalala Self’s facade work “Art Lovers” (2025), showing a Black couple kissing. Inside, there’s a new atrium stairway rising seven floors, plus reorganized ground-floor traffic: the coat check and gift shop have been moved to the back. During the press preview, masking tape was still on railings and some panels were missing, exposing wires and insulation, as Massimiliano Gioni joked about “blue tape.” The opening includes three site-specific commissions and a 732-artwork exhibition titled New Humans: Memories of the Future.

Across the Pacific, The Art Newspaper reports that New South Wales Police are investigating alleged antisemitic comments made at the Sydney Biennale opening night party at White Bay Power Station on March 13. The onstage monologue came from Zubeyda Muzeyyen, a US citizen who performs as DJ Haram. On March 17, the New South Wales Jewish Board of Deputies filed a complaint letter signed by its president, David Ossip, urging police to investigate statements including “long live the resistance” and “glory to all our martyrs,” arguing the language can align with messaging tied to groups listed as terrorist organisations under Australian law. Ossip also objected to the phrase “vile Zio-Australian-Epstein empire,” asking police to consider potential breaches of the Crimes Act 1900 (NSW). Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon said the matter was being investigated, noting hate-speech has a “high bar.”

Staying with Biennale politics, The Art Newspaper reports Venice’s mayor, Luigi Brugnaro, said Russia’s pavilion at the Venice Biennale would be shut down if it features propaganda. Brugnaro spoke on March 19 at the presentation of the Biennale’s Central Pavilion, which has reopened after a 16-month, €31m renovation. The issue escalated after Mikhail Shvydkoy—Vladimir Putin’s international cultural envoy—announced on March 3 that Russia would participate with a musical programme of folklore and world music, marking Russia’s first appearance since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Brugnaro also stressed Venice as a forum for “diplomacy and openness,” saying Russia as an invading state is “a problem,” but “the Russian people are not,” and noting he twinned Venice with Odessa. Meanwhile, the Biennale said sanctions have been fully complied with, and Pussy Riot publicly challenged the event’s approach to “dissent.”

Moving into Central Europe, ARTnews reports Czech culture minister Oto Klempíř dismissed Alicja Knast as director of Prague’s National Gallery, a decision that has generated scrutiny and claims it may be politically motivated. Knast began the role in 2021 after being appointed by then–culture minister Lubomir Zaoralek, a Social Democrat. Klempíř, a member of the right-wing Motorists party, became culture minister last year and did not offer a formal explanation. The culture ministry said the move was meant to help the National Gallery “strengthen its position in the European context.” Knast told Czech television channel CT, “I am somewhat surprised by this decision.” The museum’s head of Old Masters, Olga Kotková, will serve as interim director; Klempíř praised her as someone who knows the institution “perfectly” and has a “clear professional vision.” Former culture minister Martin Baxa criticized how the dismissal was handled, saying a joint press conference is the norm.

Back in New York, a sharply critical essay argues the 2026 Whitney Biennial feels timid rather than confrontational. The writer says the exhibition doesn’t clearly register the current political moment, even while the overall mood is “somber and moody,” suggesting fear and inhibition humming beneath the surface. A few works are singled out as exceptions, including Ali Eyal’s “Ferris wheel of horrors” connected to his childhood in Baghdad and Kainoa Gruspe’s doorstops made from found materials on US military bases and golf courses in Hawaii. The critique also points to ambient sound baths by Oswaldo Macía and Young Joon Kwak, along with altars by Zach Blas and shrines by Enzo Camacho and Ami Lien, as forms of retreat rather than direct engagement. The catalog is cited too: director Scott Rothkopf addresses complaints that the Biennial might not be “political enough,” while co-curator Marcela Guerrero argues that insisting on urgency can feel “trite.”

Staying in New York, Hyperallergic reports Israel’s Ministry for Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism has reportedly moved to bar multi-media artist and New York City First Lady Rama Duwaji from entering Israel, according to Haaretz. The ministry accused the Syrian illustrator and ceramicist of antisemitism, pointing to pro-Palestinian art and social media activity. Hyperallergic notes the ministry took issue with Duwaji’s animation “Eyes on Jenin” (2025), described as linking police brutality against pro-Palestinian protesters to Israel’s genocide in Gaza. It also cited Duwaji’s reported “like” of an October 7, 2023 post by @theslowfactory that used the word “resistance” and described Gaza as an “open-air prison.” Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli reportedly called her comments “unrestrained” and said, incorrectly using her husband’s last name, “we will not allow people like Mrs. Mamdani” to enter Israel. Duwaji did not respond to Hyperallergic’s request for comment.

Still in California, Hyperallergic reports a mural of Cesar Chavez in San Francisco’s Mission District was painted over this week at the Latin Rock Music House at 25th and York Streets. ABC7 Eyewitness News reported the building’s owner, Richard Segovia, removed it with artist Carlos “Kookie” Gonzalez after a New York Times investigation detailed allegations that Chavez abused women and girls connected to the United Farm Workers movement. Segovia said, “I did this to let everyone know. Let’s get the ball rolling.” Gonzalez, who has painted Chavez multiple times over three decades, said a planned new mural has already been changed to center labor leader Dolores Huerta, who has publicly said she was among those harmed. The story also tracks how fast institutions are reacting: the California Museum plans to remove Chavez from the California Hall of Fame, where he has been since 2006; Denver removed a Chavez bust and is moving to strip the name from a park and civic holiday, pending City Council approval.

On a more elegiac note, Artnet News reports Calvin Tomkins has died at 100, as confirmed by New Yorker editor David Remnick, who announced the death without stating where Tomkins died. Tomkins joined The New Yorker’s staff in 1960 and spent more than 60 years reporting on contemporary art, producing profiles that helped define public understanding of postwar and contemporary movements. Remnick, introducing a six-volume, one thousand six hundred forty-page compilation of Tomkins’s work published in 2019, compared him to Giorgio Vasari and called him “our patient, better-educated, non-patronizing friend.” Tomkins traced his art-writing path back to a 1959 assignment at Newsweek interviewing Marcel Duchamp at the King Cole Bar, an encounter he later described as the most interesting conversation he’d ever had. Born December 17, 1925, Tomkins grew up in West Orange, New Jersey, studied at Princeton, served two years in the Navy, and wrote the novel Intermission (1951).

And finally, Hyperallergic reviews Miljohn Ruperto’s work on view at Stanford’s Cantor Arts Center, where the artist uses AI to conjure luminous, otherworldly creatures in Fathoms (Tartarapelagic), 2025–26. The piece draws on species recently discovered in the Pacific Ocean’s Clarion-Clipperton Zone, while underscoring the irony that mining for minerals essential to AI—manganese, nickel, copper, and cobalt—endangers those same ecosystems. Ruperto calls his approach a “moral position,” saying, “The current moment is directing us towards fractured individuation, and I want to show our entanglement… It’s OK to be entangled.” The show also includes five framed renditions of Caspar David Friedrich’s Monk by the Sea (1808–10) produced in a Chinese village known for making European-painting copies, and a tent installation that lets visitors don Meta VR goggles to step into Ruperto’s Unreal Engine re-creations of Thomas Cole landscapes.

That’s today’s episode—links to every story are in the show notes. Come back tomorrow for another download of the art world’s biggest headlines.

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