Eighteen artefacts from the Kingdom of Benin have been returned to Nigeria by three Swiss museums. The courtly and religious objects are among the famous ‘Benin Bronzes’, which were looted from the Kingdom of Benin – in modern-day Nigeria – at the end of the 19th century. Switzerland also returned to Nigeria five artefacts seized...
Art & Style
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Why Gen Z Is Falling in Love with Film Photography
Film photography is experiencing a resurrection, summoned by unlikely conjurers: Gen Z. It wasn’t too long ago that analog photography – which uses photographic film and chemical processing – was declared all but dead, relegated to the province of niche hobbyists and professional artists. Digital cameras had taken over nearly all areas of photographic production....
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What a Decade of Research Reveals About the Global Art Market
Dr. Clare McAndrew reflects on insights from the Art Basel & UBS Art Market Report and the shifts that have shaped the trade in recent years The Art Basel & UBS Art Market Report is marking its 10th anniversary in 2026. Researched and written by Dr. Clare McAndrew, the founder of Arts Economics, the report analyzes the...
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Dreaming in Color, Memory, and Mischief at the Lyric’s El Último Sueño De Frida Y Diego
At Lyric Opera of Chicago, El último sueño de Frida y Diego unfolds not as a linear narrative, but as a sequence of dreams, vivid, surreal, emotionally charged visions that blur the boundaries between life and death, memory and myth. And like any good dream, it lingers. From the moment the curtain rises, the audience...
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With AI Finishing Your Sentences, What Will Happen to Your Unique Voice on the Page?
It’s a familiar feeling: You start a text message, and your phone’s auto-complete function suggests several choices for the next word, ranging from banal to hilarious. “I love…” you, or coffee? Or you’re finishing an email, and merely typing the word “Let” prompts your app to suggest “Let me know if you have any questions”...
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Lyric Opera of Chicago’s Madama Butterfly, Tradition Reimagined
On opening night of Madama Butterfly at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, audiences were presented with a production that both honored and challenged one of opera’s most beloved works. As a first time viewer of Giacomo Puccini’s masterpiece, the experience was both emotionally powerful and intellectually intriguing. The evening offered the sweeping music and tragic...
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Zimbabwean Artist Option Nyahunzvi Explores Cultural Values in a Bold New Exhibition
In Zimbabwe, hunhu is a cultural belief system that instructs us to embrace our neighbours, honour our elders and respect each other’s rights. Also known as ubuntu, it’s a way of being that resonates with southern Africa’s interconnected but diverse communities, where generational wisdom and values are passed from elders to the young. Hunhu is...
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Thomas Houseago: On collaboration, renewal, and building worlds
A chance encounter off the coast of Malibu set artist Thomas Houseago on a mystical path ‘There was a whole mystical thing that occurred,’ Thomas Houseago says, when we speak ahead of his solo show at Xavier Hufkens gallery. He is talking about a serendipitous, maybe even ordained, series of events that led to Cosmic Snail (Shell Temple) (2025), his immersive...
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Why Are So Many Statues Naked? An Art Historian Explains This Tradition’s Ancient Roots
We are all born naked, and sculptures of the human body in its natural state are as old as humankind. In the history of art, nudity does not have just one meaning; it can express everything from innocence to sexual desire, from triumph to defeat. The 20th-century art historian Kenneth Clark made a distinction between...
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Michelangelo Hated Painting the Sistine Chapel – and Never Aspired to Be a Painter to Begin With
When a 5-inch-by-4-inch red chalk drawing of a woman’s foot by Michelangelo sold at auction for US$27.2 million on Feb. 5, 2026, it blew past the $1.5 million to $2 million it was expected to receive. Experts believe it to be a study for the figure of the Libyan Sibyl, a female prophet who appears...
