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What to See at Milan’s Best Museums and Galleries During the 2026 Winter Olympics

The 2026 Winter Olympics are upon us, with the opening ceremony—featuring a performance by Mariah Carey!— taking place at Milan’s San Siro Stadium at 8 PM local time on Friday, February 6. Events will take place throughout northern Italy, with indoor ice events in Milan and outdoor events in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Livigno, Bormio, Predazzo, and Tesero. While the Dolomites and Italian Alps are lovely this time of year, winter sports fans who hope to slip in some art viewing while in Italy should probably stick to things like figure skating, speed skating, or hockey. Milan has a lot more to offer in terms of museums and galleries, though only the Museo del Novecento seems to have made an effort to cater to sports fans. Below are some of Milan’s top museums and galleries, including notes about what will be on view during the three-week run of the 2026 Winter Olympics. Museums Fondazione Prada Miuccia’s Prada’s art foundation opened its outpost in Milan in 2015 in a former distillery bu...

National Club Sevens all day Saturday at Ngati Toa Domain

For the third time in the past decade, the National Club Sevens comes to Wellington, with Paremata-Plimmerton hosting the 2026 tournament at Ngati Toa Domain on Saturday. Paremata-Plimmerton will be seeking to become the first Wellington club of the modern era to successfully defend it on home soil, following Wainuiomata’s and Northern United’s unsuccessful defences...

Community match for the Hurricanes on Saturday

The corporate veil will soon descend over the Hurricanes for another year, but first fans can view the team in action up close when they take on the Chiefs at Porirua Park on Saturday, kick-off 1.00pm. The Hurricanes have traditionally brought a pre-season match to their community, with Wainuiomata last year, Levin the year before...

London’s Stephen Friedman Gallery Abruptly Closes, Enters Insolvency Proceedings

Rumors have been swirling about London’s Stephen Friedman Gallery, especially after ARTnews reported on Tuesday that the gallery had pulled out at the last minute from a coveted spot at the inaugural Art Basel Qatar, which kicked off Tuesday in Doha.  Now, ARTnews can confirm that the gallery has entered administration—the UK equivalent to bankrupcy proceedings —and is closed to the public. The gallery was founded in London’s Mayfair neighborhood in 1995.  “Stephen Friedman Gallery commenced the administration process on 2 February 2026 to allow for an orderly review of its financial position,” the gallery told ARTnews in an emailed statement Wednesday. “FRP Advisory have been appointed as the administrator. All matters are now subject to the administrator’s consideration. The gallery is now closed to the public and is not presenting at Art Basel Qatar this week.” According to an anonymous source with knowledge of the gallery’s operations, about forty people are employ...

Hirshhorn Museum and Art Bridges Team Up to Lend American Artworks to Museums Throughout the US

The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C., has announced a new, large-scale partnership with the Art Bridges Foundation. The initiative, called 50 for 50, will bring key artworks by American artists from the Hirshhorn’s collection to smaller museums throughout the US’s 50 states and Puerto Rico. The loans will be long-term, lasting three to five years, and will typically include several artworks chosen by each participating museum that will complement their existing collection or programming. The project will allow for significant artworks that are typically in storage to be enjoyed by American museum-goers in places that don’t have collections nearly as robust as the Hirshhorn’s, which owns some 13,000 pieces across all mediums by giants of American art. “It’s Georgia O’Keeffe, Thomas Eakins, Joan Mitchell, Calder,” Melissa Chiu, the Hirshhorn’s director, told the New York Times . “We asked ourselves, how can we do more to make the Hirshhorn the national mu...

Sotheby’s Second Sale in Saudi Arabia Tops $19.6 M., Sets Record for Saudi Artist

Just under a year ago, Sotheby’s made its biggest foray in the Gulf yet with its first-ever auction in Saudi Arabia. That sale, titled “Origins” and featuring 117 lots spanning art and luxury objects, brought in $17.3 million with fees—squarely within its $14 million–$20 million presale estimate. It wasn’t a spectacular result, but also wasn’t a disaster. Over the weekend, the house staged its second such sale, titled “Origins II,” to far stronger results. The auction netted $19.6 million with fees on just 61 lots, comfortably above its $11.7 million–$16.6 million presale estimate. The house even had an artist record to trumpet: Safeya Binzagr’s Coffee Shop in Madina Road sold for $2.1 million with fees, more than ten times its $200,000 high estimate. The result nearly doubled the previous auction record for a Saudi artist, set in 2023 at $1.2 million for a work by Mohammed Al Saleem. The sale featured nine works by Saudi artists, all of which sold, totaling $4.3 million against ...

Palestinians Decry Israel’s Plan to Seize West Bank Archaeological Site: ‘A Violation of Our History’

Israeli authorities have announced plans to seize a sprawling archaeological site overlooking the Palestinian town of Sebastia in the West Bank, sparking outrage among the roughly 3,500 Palestinians who depend on tourism to the site and nearby olive groves for their livelihoods. Residents of Sebastia have denounced the planned seizure as a pretext for expanding illegal Jewish settlements and as a means of erasing Palestinian identity through the appropriation of heritage sites, the Guardian reported Monday. Sebastia’s mayor, Mahmud Azem, received notice from Israeli authorities in November, according to the Guardian . Talk of settlement expansion, however, has circulated for years, amid an escalating pattern of land seizures across the West Bank by Israeli settlers. The current development plan calls for a visitor center, a parking lot, and a fence that would separate the archaeological site from the town, cutting off Palestinian access to both the ruins and the surrounding olive t...