MSCHF cofounder and founding chief creative officer Lukas Bentel announced his departure from the collective in a press release. Founded in 2016, the collective is known for provocative artwork and viral projects that challenge consumer culture and the art world, including Persistence of Chaos, an artwork created by artist Guo O Dong in collaboration with the collective and sold at auction for $1,345,000 in 2019. Lucas Bentel justified his decision to leave by saying that after conceiving, designing, creating, or directing nearly 300 released works, he wants to focus on solo art and design projects and make work with a lasting impact. See more here. [A.S]

After the U.S. Embassy in the Dominican Republic removed his artwork, artist Kehinde Wiley formally asked President Trump for the opportunity to buy it back. Originally commissioned in 2013, the painting depicts four local art students surrounded by flowers. However, the ambassador and the head of the State Department’s Art in Embassies program described the piece as “terrifying” and incorrectly characterized it as a lesbian picnic. Believing his work was targeted because he painted Barack Obama’s presidential portrait, Wiley expressed sadness over the misunderstanding and requested to bring the artwork home. Read more here. [JV]

Recent scientific analysis of Claude Monet’s 1873 masterpiece has uncovered new details ahead of its presentation at the Musée d’Orsay to mark the centenary of Monet’s death, followed by its restoration in 2027. Advanced X-ray and infrared imaging revealed an earlier underlying composition featuring obscured figures, including a possible hidden self-portrait. The discovery sheds new light on Monet’s creative process and offers deeper insight into one of French Impressionism’s foundational works from a pivotal period in his early career. Read more here. [JV]

Two newly filed California lawsuits are testing state legislation designed to remove legal obstacles to the restitution of Nazi-era art. The lawsuits target the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena and the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum in Poland over a 16th-century diptych and portraits created by a prisoner at Auschwitz. The plaintiffs filed their claims shortly before the expiration of a 2024 California statute and under the Holocaust Expropriated Art Recovery (HEAR) Act of 2026, which aims to limit museums’ ability to invoke traditional act-of-state defenses. Read more here. [JV]

The Milwaukee Art Museum has transferred two stoneware jars created by the renowned enslaved ceramicist David Drake to the Dave the Potter Legacy Trust. At the request of Drake’s descendants, who sought to establish more ethical ownership of their ancestor’s surviving works, the museum returned the vessels, which had originally been gifted to it by the Chipstone Foundation. To keep the works publicly accessible, the museum subsequently purchased one jar back from the family and arranged a long-term loan for the second, reflecting broader efforts by museums to address the legacies of slavery and contested ownership. Read more here. [JV]

Another French cultural institution has fallen victim to a brazen art theft, with thieves making off with a bronze book cover weighing 150 kilograms. Adorned with gold and precious stones, the cover was specially crafted for the Book of Revelation, also known as the Apocalypse of St. John. Designed by Salvador Dalí, the cover was originally valued at two million French francs, equivalent to approximately €305,000 today. The theft occurred on October 4 at the C. Karoutzos Contemporary Art Centre in Issoire, adding to the growing list of French cultural institutions targeted by criminals. Read more here. [AS]

An art heist that took place in southern France in early September has come to a happy ending. French police have recovered two paintings by Pierre-Auguste Renoir stolen from their host institution in Cagnes-sur-Mer. The recovery was accompanied by the arrest of six suspects, who are believed to include the two burglars responsible for the theft. Four paintings were initially stolen from the Renoir Museum, but two were dropped during the escape. The remaining two were Madame Colonna Romano (1910) and Jeune femme au puits (1886). The theft was the latest in a series of high-profile art crimes across Europe. Read more here. [AS]

Bavaria is taking a major step toward addressing the legacy of Nazi-looted art. The German state plans to establish a new Centre for Provenance Research and Restitution at the Institute of Contemporary History in Munich. The centre will investigate the provenance of artworks held in Bavarian state museums, particularly those stolen or unlawfully appropriated during the Nazi era. An independent commission will assess the findings and recommend whether works should be returned to their rightful owners or their descendants. The initiative follows recommendations from a panel of experts that included representatives of Jewish organizations and the Claims Conference. Read more here (original article published in German). [AS]

Mexico has sought the restitution of Moctezuma’s feather headdress from Vienna’s Weltmuseum since the 19th century, without success. Now, aspiring Austrian presidential candidate Gunther Fehlinger-Jahn has pledged to return the cultural treasure if elected in 2028. The unique 16th-century headdress arrived in Europe under uncertain circumstances and was first documented at a castle in Innsbruck in 1596. However, Fehlinger-Jahn’s candidacy has yet to be confirmed, and the Austrian president cannot unilaterally decide to return the object. Whether his pledge will ultimately lead to the headdress’s return to Mexico remains to be seen. Read more here. [AS]

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has vowed to “ramp up” efforts to secure the return of the Parthenon Marbles from the British Museum. Although UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham has previously expressed support for restitution efforts, negotiations over a proposed “hybrid” deal involving the return of the marbles in exchange for loans of other antiquities have reportedly stalled. The Parthenon Marbles comprise sculptural elements that once adorned the Parthenon in Athens. Removed by the British ambassador more than two centuries ago, they remain part of the British Museum’s collection. Mitsotakis’s remarks are the latest in a series of calls for their return. He has also rejected the British Museum’s comparison of the marbles’ removal with the proposed loan of the Bayeux Tapestry from France to England, arguing that keeping the marbles in the British Museum is akin to tearing the Bayeux Tapestry in two. Read more here. [NS]

A sculpture by Danish artist Jens Galschiøt depicting a naked, gold-encrusted President Donald Trump was unveiled at the European Parliament on October 6. Titled The Orange Plague and also known as King of Injustice, the work depicts Trump sitting on the back of a frail man, symbolizing the world order that Galschiøt believes is being destroyed. Danish politician Per Clausen sponsored the exhibition, which members of the European Parliament approved, indicating a form of “tacit approval.” Clausen described Trump’s conduct as a “very, very big problem for people in Europe.” He said the exhibition aimed to spark discussion about greater European political independence as a means of self-defense against Trump. Read more here. [NS]

An oil painting discovered in a “dark corner” of a Michigan home was purchased for just $30 at an estate sale. It later sold for more than $1.35 million at auction after being authenticated as Alderman Merriam’s Shells by surrealist artist Gertrude Abercrombie. The work had not been seen in public for nearly 75 years. The anonymous buyer took a $30 gamble on the painting before having it authenticated by Abercrombie expert Susan Weininger, an art history professor at Roosevelt University. Art restorer Julian Baumgartner subsequently cleaned the painting, describing it as being in “perfect condition.” Although the work had been estimated to sell for $150,000 to $250,000, it far exceeded expectations, setting a new auction record for Abercrombie. Read more here. [NS]

Miami art dealer Leslie Roberts was sentenced to 46 months in federal prison on October 2 after being convicted of selling counterfeit paintings as genuine works by Andy Warhol. He used forged authentication documents, stamps, and identification numbers to support the fraudulent sales. Roberts pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and admitted to selling more than $2.5 million worth of fake art. His lawyer, Jason Wandner, noted that the sentence was at the lower end of the range recommended by the federal government but hopes it will be reduced further in recognition of Roberts’s assistance to authorities investigating additional art fraud. Wandner said his client’s “significant efforts were critical in the government exposing this network” and expressed his hope that the court would consider the full extent of Roberts’s cooperation. Read more here. [NS]

On October 22, Claude Monet’s Iris (1924–1925) sold for €50 million, including fees, at Sotheby’s Paris, setting a record for the highest-priced artwork sold at auction in France. Meanwhile, three Cézanne mural fragments designated as national treasures were withdrawn from the sale following an agreement between the Schlumberger family, France’s Ministry of Culture, and the City of Aix-en-Provence, which hopes to acquire them for display at the Musée Granet. Read more here. [AS]

Art Basel Paris closed on October 23, two days earlier than scheduled, amid concerns about protests in the French capital. Despite the early closure, galleries reported major sales, including works by Gerhard Richter and Georg Baselitz that Hauser & Wirth reportedly sold for approximately $10 million each. Read more here. [AS]

On October 23, Authentic Brands Group and other rights holders associated with Elvis Presley sued Anthropic, alleging that the company used copyrighted lyrics from 274 songs performed by Presley without authorization to train its Claude AI models and that the models generated infringing outputs. Anthropic disputes the allegations and has stated that it intends to defend itself against the claims. Read more here. [AS]