Museum Scandals, Censorship Clashes, and a Stolen Jewel

Rotterdam’s Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen has been swept into a wider alleged bribery scandal after two Rotterdam civil servants were summarily dismissed. In a briefing to the city council last month, Mayor Carola Schouten said the pair were found to have breached the code of conduct by “accepting gifts from the municipality’s business contacts in exchange for possible preferential treatment.” The allegations involve over-inflated construction contracts, including work connected to asbestos treatment at the museum. One of three employees accused of fraud retired, while the other two were suspended and have now been fired. Schouten also said Rotterdam city council asked the police to investigate in 2024, and a criminal investigation is ongoing.

A major Felix Gonzalez-Torres survey in Madrid is framing his work as both politically charged and quietly lyrical. The show, Felix Gonzalez-Torres: Sweet Revenge, runs at the Museo Reina Sofía until 12 October, and takes its title from the artist’s own words about returning to Madrid nearly 20 years after arriving there as a 13-year-old in 1971, sent from Cuba by his parents. The exhibition opens with “Untitled” (Revenge), a candy work with an ideal weight of 325lb of blue candies in clear wrappers, installed here in a rectangular carpet format. The piece connects to the artist’s “manifestable” works—candy piles and paper stacks that can be replenished and rearranged—and to themes of loss, including Ross Laycock’s death on 24 January 1991, two days after that Madrid show opened.

Sliman Mansour, a defining figure of Palestinian visual art, was mourned this week in his hometown of Birzeit in the occupied West Bank. Mansour died on Monday (24 August) aged 79, his family said in an Instagram post, and his funeral took place on Wednesday (26 August) at the Anglican Church in Birzeit. Widely regarded as a pioneer of the contemporary Palestinian art movement, he helped shape a distinctly Palestinian visual identity. In 1973 he co-founded the League of Palestinian Artists and made Jamal al-Mahamel [Camel of Hardships] (1973), depicting a porter carrying Jerusalem. He later co-founded the New Visions group in 1987, using materials like mud, straw, wood, herbs, henna, and natural dyes, and helped establish the al-Wasiti Art Center in Jerusalem in 1994.

In Bruges, a new exhibition is trying to do two things at once: “decenter” the West while also highlighting the Belgian city’s historical centrality in international networks. Bigger Picture: Connected worlds of Bruges 900-1550 is the inaugural exhibition of BRUSK, a large new gallery attached to the Groeningemuseum, and it’s guest curated by Oxford medievalist Peter Frankopan. The show presents more than 250 objects—everything from a chain mail jacket and fragments of ancient silk to paintings by Titian, Jan van Eyck, and Hans Memling, plus relics, manuscripts, Turkish carpets, Viking artifacts, coins, and religious garb. It’s divided into four “worlds,” each enclosed by hanging cloth and paired with distinct soundscapes, while a video featuring Frankopan plays at the entry. The result is dramatically staged as linked “islands” in a darkened gallery.

A diamond necklace worth millions was stolen from Vienna’s Museum of Applied Arts (MAK) on Thursday, after two men entered during opening hours as ordinary visitors. According to police, the men bought tickets, were not wearing masks, and were captured clearly on surveillance cameras. They used a hammer to smash a glass display case, grabbed the necklace, and fled; no one was injured. The piece is a platinum Van Cleef & Arpels necklace set with 673 stones totaling more than 200 carats, created for Egypt’s royal family and worn by Queen Nazli in 1939 at the wedding of her daughter, Princess Fawzia, to Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, then crown prince of Iran. It sold at Sotheby’s New York for four dollars million in 2015. The MAK has closed the “Glanzstücke” exhibition indefinitely.

Demolitions are underway on the Rike Park Music Theatre and Exhibition Hall in Tbilisi, Georgia, prompting pushback from civilians, architects, and preservation advocates. The two-structure complex is known locally as the “Rike Tubes” for its futuristic glass-and-steel appearance, set against the capital’s historic 19th-century buildings. Tbilisi City Hall’s Architectural Service issued a demolition permit in June to the owner, Rike Dom. Dismantling began last month and is due to wrap up by December. Italian architects Massimiliano and Doriana Fuksas, of Fuksas Studio, were commissioned in 2010 to design the complex for musical performance and contemporary art exhibitions, under then-Prime Minister Nika Gilauri and United National Movement President Mikheil Saakashvili. Construction began in 2011, but when the Georgian Dream party came to power in 2012, officials froze construction, leaving it unfinished.

Just 10 weeks before its planned opening, the chief executive of Sydney’s Powerhouse Parramatta has stepped down. Lisa Havilah left her role amid ongoing “investigations into governance and procurement,” according to a statement from the office of Australia’s Minister for Arts John Graham. Havilah had overseen the nine hundred fifteen dollars million build of Powerhouse Parramatta, described as Sydney’s most significant cultural infrastructure project since the Sydney Opera House, which opened in 1973. Powerhouse is also known as the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences (MAAS), and Havilah joined as CEO in 2019. An interim leadership team is set to begin on September 1: Abbie Galvin, New South Wales government architect, will step in as CEO, with former Sydney Opera House CEO Louise Herron as strategic adviser. The institution’s opening date, November 7, is not expected to change.

China has ordered its artists to withdraw from the 16th Gwangju Biennale, which opens September 5, after the Gwangju Biennial Foundation allowed Taiwanese exhibitors to participate under the name “Taiwan,” South Korean media reported. At a meeting with Gwangju Mayor Min Hyung-bae at Gwangju City Hall, Chinese Ambassador Dai Bing expressed “regret and concern” about restoring the name “Taiwan Pavilion,” reportedly done at the request of Taiwan’s Ministry of Culture. Dai then demanded that Chinese curators and installation staff halt preparations and withdraw from the Hajeongung Art Museum in Gwangju, which was set to host their special exhibition. The dispute follows more than a year of controversy over a satellite exhibition name change from “Taiwan Pavilion” to “NTMoFA Pavilion,” and GBF has said it is monitoring the situation closely as opening approaches.

In Washington, the Kennedy Center board told a federal judge it will pause efforts to add President Trump’s name to the building until at least October 8. The delay came after an emergency hearing following a Justice Department filing that warned the Kennedy Center could be demolished and potentially replaced with an outdoor amphitheater if the board is not allowed to close the building for two years for repairs. The board is pushing to inscribe “Restored and renovated by President Donald J. Trump” beneath John F. Kennedy’s name. Trump’s name had been added in December 2025, but U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper ordered it removed in May 2026, and it was removed in June; a tarp has blocked the façade since. Cooper pressed DOJ lawyers on why the earlier September 8 timing mattered and signaled he could bar renaming while litigation continues.

The Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation denied use of Mapplethorpe’s 1981 portrait Roy Cohn for the cover of a forthcoming biography, American Scoundrel: Roy Cohn‘s Dark Journey from Joe McCarthy to Donald Trump, according to the New York Times. The portrait, titled Roy Cohn, shows the lawyer staring head-on against a black backdrop. The image originated when writer and book editor Steven M.L. Aronson, working on an interview for Andy Warhol’s Interview magazine, convinced Cohn to pose for Mapplethorpe. The foundation reportedly declined to license it because the book, co-authored by Kai Bird and Susan Goldmark, characterizes President Donald Trump negatively, and the foundation—registered as a 501(c)(3)—worried the cover could be seen as political activity. The Times reported the board feared retaliation, including threats to its nonprofit tax status.

That’s today’s Daily Art Download—links to every story are in the show notes. Come back tomorrow for the next round of headlines and hot takes; until then, Chinga la migra.

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