Berlin inaugurated a new addition to its UNESCO-listed Museum Island on Thursday, after a construction delay lasting several years and at costs that were twice the budgeted sum. Keys to the James Simon Gallery were finally handed over to Berlin's museum authorities, the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation. Designed by British star architect David Chipperfield, the 4,600 square metres (49,500 square feet) building will be a one-stop entry to the group of five museums on the island. Besides housing a common ticketing point for the museums, the gallery also features a space for temporary exhibitions, a bookstore, an auditorium and a cafe. It will be opened to the public from July next year. Michael Eissenhauer, the director of Germany's pu

The National Portrait Gallery, London is to stage the first-ever major exhibition to focus on the untold story of the women of Pre-Raphaelite art as part of a 2019 autumn season that also includes the first exhibition situating leading contemporary artist Elizabeth Peyton within the historical tradition of portraiture. Both exhibitions will include works on public display for the first time in the UK. 160 years after the first pictures were exhibited by the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in 1849, Pre-Raphaelite Sisters (17 October 2019 – 26 January 2020), explores the overlooked contribution of twelve women who contributed to the movement in different ways. Featuring new discoveries and unseen works from public and private collections across the world, the exhibition reveals the women behind the pictures and their creative roles in Pre-Raphaelite’s successive phases between 1850 and 1900. Women, such as Joanna

The National Museum of Wildlife Art first approached Eli Wilner & Company for the reframing of Joseph Wolf’s 1861 “Bearded Vultures Attacking an Ibex� in March of 2014. This massive painting, 90 ½ x 67 inches, had previously been housed in a 20th century reproduction frame, machine shaped and finished with metal leaf, and therefore not original to the artwork. Joseph Wolf (1820-1899) was a German-born painter, who later lived and worked in London, and is known for having helped establish wildlife art as a genre. Taking into consideration the artist’s regional influences as well as the dramatic subject matter, the Wilner team suggested creating a replica of a 19th Century European frame from their inventory of over 3,000 antique frames. This Dutch-style

The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, announced today that it has received the largest and most significant gift of Chinese paintings and calligraphy in the Museum’s history: the Wan-go H. C. Weng Collection, comprising 183 objects that were acquired by and passed down through six generations of a single family. The donation was made by Wan-go H. C. Weng—one of the most respected collectors and connoisseurs of Chinese painting in the world—and his family. Weng’s great-great-grandfather assembled the core of the collection during the 19th century. The Weng Collection is considered among the greatest private holdings of Chinese art in the U.S., distinguished for its superb quality, abundance of work by the great masters of Chinese art, fine condition and well-documented provenance. Encompassing 130 paintings, 31 works of calligraphy, 18 ink rubbings and four textiles, the

Pop icon Janet Jackson, angst rockers Radiohead and post-punk innovators The Cure on Thursday earned spots in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, organizers announced. Also joining the Hall in the Class of 2019 is American folk rock legend Stevie Nicks, already an inductee with her band Fleetwood Mac, but now also honored as a solo artist. British heavy metal group Def Leppard, pop experimentalists Roxy Music and English psychedelic rock harmonists The Zombies round out the list of artists entering the shrine to rock culture. The Cleveland-based Hall of Fame -- which surveyed more than 1,000 musicians, historians and industry members to choose the winners -- will honor the seven acts in a gala concert on March 29 in New York. The inclusion of Janet