Restitution Reckonings and Biennale Boycott Fever

Germany is setting up a new council to oversee the restitution of cultural property and human remains in public collections that were acquired in a colonial context. The new panel is called the Coordination Council for Returns of Cultural Property and Human Remains from Colonial Contexts, and it will include representatives of the central government, the states, and municipal authorities. The plan was outlined in a statement released after a meeting on 30 March by 16 state culture ministers and representatives of Germany’s foreign ministry and culture ministry. Culture minister Wolfram Weimer called it “an important step” that will help “shape ongoing and future restitution processes more effectively.” The statement also says the council will coordinate with counterparts in receiving countries.

Staying in Germany, there’s a Nazi-era restitution in Bavaria. The Pinakotheken in Munich will return a painting by the German painter Lesser Ury that was auctioned under duress during the Nazi regime. The work is Interior with Children (The Siblings), and it was originally owned by the Berlin banker Curt Goldschmidt. According to the museum, the Goldschmidt family bank collapsed under National Socialist economic policies, forcing the family to auction assets, including the Ury painting, believed to have sold for around 800 Reichsmarks. Goldschmidt fled to Paris in 1937 and lived in hiding during the German occupation until his death in 1947. Bavaria’s minister of art Markus Blume said persecution robbed him of his fortune and collection.

Shifting to Iran, The Art Newspaper describes a Nowruz season upended by a US-Israeli bombardment that began on 28 February. With travel increasingly unsafe and internet blackouts leaving people cut off, museum collections have been evacuated, studios have fallen idle, and galleries have closed. An emerging Tehran artist identified as Homa says anxiety has consumed her and that survival has displaced creative work; she also says she’s baffled that some Western governments refuse to describe what’s happening as a war. Another artist, Mina, says missile strikes near her neighborhood pushed her to move in with friends, and that projects have stopped entirely. Iran’s Heritage Ministry said on 14 March that 56 sites were damaged.

From crisis to foot traffic: The Art Newspaper’s visitor-numbers survey of the world’s 100 most visited art museums for 2025 shows more than 200 million visits across the list—below 2019’s 230 million, but far above 2020’s 54 million. In London, the National Gallery climbed to nearly 4.2 million visitors after reopening its Sainsbury Wing in May of last year, about 30% up on the previous year but still 30% down on 2019. The British Museum had 6.4 million visitors, and Madrid’s Prado broke the 3.5 million barrier for the first time. Director Miguel Falomir cautioned that “The Prado doesn’t need a single visitor more,” warning that success can “collapse” a museum through oversaturation.

Over at Venice, a new protest is aimed directly at the Biennale’s national-pavilion structure. An open letter circulated by artists is calling for the Venice Biennale to ban the United States, Israel, and Russia from the exhibition. The appeal frames participation as political, arguing that the Biennale’s country-based representation carries diplomatic weight, not just cultural prestige. The letter’s demand puts pressure on an institution that is both a global arts showcase and a system of state-backed pavilions. The push also folds three countries into the same proposed exclusion—U.S., Israel, and Russia—making the argument less about a single conflict and more about who gets a platform at a major international event. It’s a reminder that, at Venice, “national participation” is never just administrative.

Back in the United States, plans to extend the Mexico–US border wall through parts of Val Verde County, Texas, are drawing concern from archaeologists and local landowners who fear damage to prehistoric rock art sites in the Lower Pecos region. Landowner Raymond Skiles Jr. told KSAT he received federal notices suggesting a wall could cut across private property west of Del Rio, near where the Pecos River meets the Rio Grande. The region has hundreds of Pecos River style murals, some created as early as five thousand seven hundred years ago, and it was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2021. Archaeologist Carolyn Boyd of Texas State University and Shumla said the wall could put sites at risk; she estimates around 80 known sites would fall south of it.

Let’s head to Mexico, where an open letter is demanding transparency around one of the country’s most important private collections. The Art Newspaper reports that 350 cultural professionals signed a letter urging authorities to be more transparent and to abide by heritage laws in the management of the Gelman Collection, now re-branded as the Gelman Santander Collection. The collection includes 18 works by Frida Kahlo and was acquired by the Monterrey-based Zambrano family in 2023; Banco Santander will oversee conservation, research, and exhibition for 160 works. Thirty works are national artistic monuments requiring INBAL oversight. An exhibition at Mexico City’s Museo de Arte Moderno—extended until July—shows ten Kahlo paintings, including Self-Portrait with Monkeys (1943) and Self-Portrait with Necklace (1933).

Jumping to the market beat, Gladstone Gallery now represents the estate of Pope.L and will mount its first solo show for the artist in 2027 in New York. Gladstone will represent Pope.L with Modern Art in London and Vielmetter Los Angeles, which represented him when he died in December 2023. Gladstone director Julian Ehrlich called Pope.L “a ground-breaking visionary artist,” and senior partner Max Falkenstein said his innovations across visual, performance, and conceptual art left “a profound mark.” Over four decades, Pope.L’s work often centered the experience of Black Americans; notable performances included eating the Wall Street Journal and a “Crawls” series. His best-known crawl, carried out in parts from 2001 to 2009, had him crawl the length of Manhattan in a Superman suit.

Still in New York, the 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair has announced more than 20 galleries for its next edition, running May 13–17 at the Starrett-Lehigh Building in Chelsea. The fair will take place alongside Frieze New York at the Shed, and NADA New York will also be in the Starrett-Lehigh. 1-54 returns to the building after holding its 2024 edition there. Exhibitors include returning galleries like 193 Gallery, Galerie Myrtis, and Kates-Ferri Projects, alongside first-timers such as Adegbola Gallery (Lagos), Aura (São Paolo), The Current: Baha Mar Gallery & Art Center (Nassau), and Picture Theory Projects (New York). Founding director Touria El Glaoui said the lineup reflects the fair’s “international reach” and commitment to diverse perspectives.

This year’s 1-54 also adds a new curated section with a specific emphasis: “1-54 Presents: Brazil Beyond Brazil.” The section is organized by independent curator Igor Simões and focuses on Afro-Brazilian artists, explicitly nodding to Brazil’s history as the largest African-descendent nation outside of the continent. According to the release, the works will engage archival research, reinterpret modernist legacies, and interrogate how national and art-historical narratives get constructed. El Glaoui told ARTnews by email that the section extends 1-54’s mission by foregrounding Afro-Brazilian perspectives, and that Simões’s presentation challenges reductive readings of Brazilian art. It’s a clear signal that the fair is thinking in diaspora terms—how African identity is debated and reshaped across geographies.

One more New York story, and it’s delightfully unexpected. A rare Robert Rauschenberg experimental dance is being revived at a Brooklyn roller rink. The report describes it as an experimental work connected to Rauschenberg and being brought back in an unusual venue that matches the piece’s offbeat energy. The roller rink setting is central to the revival’s identity, turning the space into part of the experience rather than a neutral container. It’s also a reminder that Rauschenberg’s legacy isn’t confined to what hangs on a wall—his influence runs through performance and collaborative experimentation, too. For audiences, a revival like this isn’t just nostalgia; it’s a chance to encounter a historical work through live movement and shared atmosphere, in a setting built for speed and momentum.

That’s today’s download—links to every story are in the show notes. Come back tomorrow for more news, sharper context, and the occasional cultural side-eye.

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