Seized Treasures, Culture Cash, and Political Pressure

A new round of antiquities recoveries has pushed the total value of looted objects surrendered by the Metropolitan Museum of Art to ninety five dollars million, after several objects were removed from the collection in June. Investigators have taken 120 objects worth between twenty thousand dollars and twenty six dollars million from the Met since 2017, alongside hundreds of smaller items tied to smuggling schemes. The Met told the New York Times the work is a mutual effort between its provenance research team—instituted in 2023 and expanded to 12 people under former Sotheby’s restitution head Lucian Simmons—and the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office Antiquities Trafficking Unit. Curatorial records, including condition reports noting dirt-encrusted arrivals, have been cited as evidence of illegal digging and trafficking.

Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg’s office removed dozens of antiquities from the Metropolitan Museum in June, bringing the total taken from the Met since 2017 to more than 120 objects collectively worth more than ninety five dollars million, according to an inventory produced by the office. The removals follow investigations into international smuggling rings and dealers suspected of ties to trafficking networks; investigators subpoenaed records on objects the museum acquired from such dealers. The latest seizures were linked to dealers including Robert Hecht, who sold the Euphronios krater to the Met in 1972; that vase was returned to Italy in 2008. Items removed in June range from twenty thousand dollars to twenty six dollars million and include a first-century CE Roman marble head from Greece and a gold diadem from ancient Egypt.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani and the City Council are giving New York City’s Department of Cultural Affairs its highest-ever yearly appropriation in the Fiscal Year 2027 budget: three hundred twenty three dollars million, a nearly 7% increase from last year’s record two hundred ninety nine dollars million. Mamdani struck a “handshake” deal with City Council Speaker Julie Menin and others ahead of the July 1 deadline to distribute a one hundred twenty five dollars billion city budget. The package also creates a “Cultural Stability Fund,” a ten dollars million annual pool through fiscal year 2029 for eligible organizations facing emergency circumstances, managed by DCLA. Mamdani called artists and cultural institutions the city’s “beating heart,” pointing to affordability pressures that threaten to drive artists out.

In Winnipeg, the Canadian Museum for Human Rights opened “Palestine Uprooted: Nakba Past and Present” to the public on Saturday, centering on the displacement and dispossession of approximately seven hundred fifty thousand Palestinians during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War after the partition of Palestine and the establishment of the State of Israel. The show uses video testimonies, photography, visual art, and text, with personal stories shared by Palestinian Canadians, and was developed in collaboration with an advisory network of scholars. Heritage Minister Marc Miller criticized the exhibition for not identifying Hamas as a terrorist organization or mentioning Jews killed during Hamas’ 7 October attack, and said he was surprised the board allegedly hadn’t reviewed it. A museum spokesperson said concerns would be addressed through an established revision process.

In Chile, the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes in Santiago canceled a León Ferrari retrospective after nearly three years of preparation, citing a lack of funding amid budget cuts under President José Antonio Kast, who took office in March. The exhibition was planned for June 2026 as an adaptation of Recurrencias, the 2023 Ferrari show at the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes in Buenos Aires, and around 160 works were expected to travel, including major pieces. MNBA director Varinia Brodsky Zimmermann said the show was suspended due to funding, and noted the work with curators Cecilia Rabossi and Andrés Duprat and the Augusto and León Ferrari Foundation. Kast’s cuts included nearly 10% to the Ministry of Culture, Arts and Heritage.

At New York’s Swiss Institute, an exhibition by Brooklyn-based artist SoiL Thornton links institutional critique to the city’s housing crisis. The show, up through 5 July, includes evict relief, which Swiss Institute chief curator Alison Coplan calls “the heart of the show.” Thornton was served an eviction notice on 18 September 2025 and faced a court-ordered schedule requiring fifty three thousand fourteen dollars paid to their landlord in under three months. evict relief includes copies of the notice, legal filings, and emails between Thornton, Coplan, and SI director Stefanie Hessler about a proposal involving SI support toward the remaining housing debt. Instead of a “gift,” SI agreed to direct five thousand seven hundred dollars of a ten thousand dollars production budget to the tenancy settlement, with Thornton also able to use their nine thousand five hundred forty four dollars honorarium.

Getty Images and Shutterstock called off their planned three dollars billion merger after hitting a regulatory roadblock in the United Kingdom. Getty, led by CEO Craig Peters, said its board unanimously decided to abandon the deal after the Competition and Markets Authority required the sale of Shutterstock’s editorial business—something Getty’s board viewed as a non-starter, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Getty also said it intends to hire a financial advisor to assess “strategic financing alternatives.” The merger, unveiled in January 2025, would have consolidated two major photo and stock-image marketplaces, with projected cost synergies of one hundred fifty dollars million to two hundred dollars million within three years. Days before ending the deal, Getty inked a pact with OpenAI to license its library across ChatGPT.

A legal case surrounding the late Anishinaabe artist Norval Morrisseau took a new turn after expert John Zemanovich testified that the artist’s children were active participants in a scheme involving forged works sold as authentic. Investigators have labeled it Canada’s largest art fraud ever, and last year the court battle culminated in the conviction of Jeffrey Cowan, one of eight people arrested in 2023. Cowan has been accused of taking part in an effort to sell one thousand four hundred faked Morrisseau works between 2008 and 2021. Zemanovich told Ontario’s Superior Court of Justice that Morrisseau’s children were “critical to the success of the fraud,” and estimated there may be five thousand to seven thousand authentic works, with a similar output in fakes. The Morrisseau estate has said it is aware of the issues.

In Mexico, the government is again facing scrutiny over its handling of the Gelman Collection, a 300-work trove amassed by Jacques and Natasha Gelman that includes paintings by Frida Kahlo and other major artists. Parts of the collection resurfaced in Spain’s Banco Santander holdings in January, about a year and a half after the Mexican government said it did not know the collection’s whereabouts. The bank then traveled the works to Spain, which many in Mexico’s art world said was illegal under cultural heritage laws. INBAL said public resources would not necessarily be sufficient to acquire a collection of that magnitude, and Mexico has said the collection would return in 2028. Now Defense of the Gelman Collection says it has begun legal proceedings against Banco Santander and the government, calling the actions “unconstitutional.”

On Truth Social, President Donald J. Trump posted an AI-generated image appearing to show a giant golden bald eagle on the Truman balcony of the White House, calling it “A Golden Gift to the White House for its 250th Birthday Year!” CNN reported the image metadata shows it was created with Google AI, and the image includes flaws, like a shield with 11 stars instead of the customary 13. Photographer Andrew Leyden posted photos of the White House about an hour after Trump’s post showing no eagle on the balcony. USA Today also noted Trump’s birthday framing is incorrect: while it’s the 250th anniversary of the nation’s founding, the White House was built between 1792 and 1800, meaning its 250th birthday would be in 2050.

That’s today’s Daily Art Download—links to every story are in the show notes. Come back tomorrow for more; until then, Chinga la migra.

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