The Hispanic Society Museum will auction 45 works at Christie’s to fund new acquisitions.
During the VIP preview of Frieze London, Tate acquired three new works by women artists using its $200 million Frieze Tate Fund. The purchases include Lubna Chowdhary’s Assembly (2025), a ceramic and wood sculpture; Barbara Walker’s End of Affair II (2025), a drawing in conté, charcoal, and pastel; and Madge Gill’s Untitled (Venus Mid Heaven), created between 1920 and 1930. The fund, supported by philanthropic donations, has enabled Tate to collect more than 170 works since Frieze London’s debut in 2003. Tate director Maria Balshaw said the acquisitions strengthen the museum’s commitment to expanding its representation of women artists across its four galleries.
A 200-year-old German museum is experiencing an influx of visitors to view its Ophelia painting.
Museum Wiesbaden in western Germany has seen a surge of visitors after fans linked a Friedrich Heyser painting of Ophelia to Taylor Swift’s new music video for The Fate of Ophelia. Since the video’s release earlier this month, hundreds of fans—many of them young women—have traveled to view the 1900 painting that closely resembles the video’s opening scene. The museum, celebrating its 200th anniversary, said the sudden attention has been both surprising and welcome, with visitors posing for photos and sharing the work widely online. Staff plan to host a special “Ophelia” event in November to explore the artwork’s connection to Shakespeare’s play and Swift’s interpretation.
A Hudson Valley retreat favored by Franklin Delano Roosevelt has hit the market.
A one-time retreat for Franklin Delano Roosevelt has come on the market in New York’s Hudson Valley for $1.55 million. Designed in 1930 by Aymar Embury II, the five-bedroom stone house sits on 12 acres of meadows and woodland once belonging to FDR’s close friend and Treasury Secretary, Henry Morgenthau Jr. The residence still bears the hand-hewn materials and Tudor-style detailing of its era, paired with modern updates like a chef’s kitchen and heated saltwater pool. Just outside Beacon and Cold Spring, the property offers the quiet grandeur that once drew Roosevelt to its hills.
The 2026 Winter Olympic Games will feature a tribute to the late Giorgio Armani.
The 2026 Winter Olympics will open with a tribute to Giorgio Armani, honoring the late designer’s lasting impact on Italian culture. The ceremony, titled Armonia (“Harmony”), will unfold across multiple sites in northern Italy, including Milan’s San Siro Stadium and Cortina d’Ampezzo, reflecting the event’s theme of unity. Creative director Marco Balich aims to celebrate the athletes as the central figures of the Games, alongside a vision of a modern and optimistic Italy. The opening, expected to reach billions of viewers, will feature performances by an all-Italian creative team and actress Matilda De Angelis.
Picasso’s Still Life With Guitar has seemingly “disappeared” en route to an exhibition.
A 1919 Picasso painting, Still Life With Guitar, valued at €600,000, has gone missing while being transported from Madrid to Granada for an exhibition. The van carrying the work made an unexplained overnight stop just 15 miles from its destination, which police now see as central to the investigation. The painting, part of a 58-piece loan for the CajaGranada Foundation’s show Still Life: The Eternity of the Inanimate, was discovered missing when curators unpacked the crates days later. Authorities are reviewing video footage and delivery records to determine whether the work vanished during the stop or after reaching Granada.
Today’s attractive distractions:
Angel Reese is an actual Angel—the WNBA star walked the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show.
Charli XCX covered Vanity Fair’s art issue as a painting by Issy Wood.
In the U.K., a new “stamp” of approval denotes A.I.-free books.
Julez Smith, Lee Hanson, Riad Nasr and more front Saks’ sparkly holiday campaign.
