[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/GettyImages-1242143446.jpg?w=1024″]<\/p>\n
The Headlines<\/strong><\/p>\n IN THE DOGEHOUSE<\/strong>. A federal judge slammed the US\u00a0DOGE Service<\/strong>, ruling on Thursday that the\u00a0Elon Musk<\/strong>\u2013led department made unconstitutional and discriminatory cuts to\u00a0National Endowment for the Humanities<\/strong>\u00a0grants worth over $100 million, according to the\u00a0Washington Post<\/em>.\u00a0<\/strong>US District Judge\u00a0Colleen McMahon<\/strong>\u00a0said DOGE violated the First and Fifth Amendments when it used ChatGPT to determine which grants to cancel based on whether they mentioned diversity, equity, and inclusion in their programs. She called the DOGE\u2019s actions \u201ca textbook example of unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination,\u201d and stated that Congress gave no authority to cut the funding it had appropriated. Some canceled grants highlighted in the case include projects about the Holocaust, HIV in prisons, and Indigenous culture at the\u00a0Mesa Verde National Park and Wupatki National Monument<\/strong>. In its defense, the government suggested ChatGPT was responsible for determining what constituted DEI, not the DOGE employees. Judge McMahon shot back by comparing their argument to saying, \u201cThe devil made me do it.\u201d That excuse, McMahon wrote, \u201cdoes not work for the Government.\u201d<\/p>\n THIRD TIME\u2019S A CHARM<\/strong>. On Thursday, France\u2019s Parliament unanimously passed a long-awaited law easing the restitution of artworks looted during the colonial era, between 1815 and 1972, reports\u00a0France 24<\/em>. It is the third so-called \u201cframework law\u201d designed to streamline the return of artwork that was taken illicitly and ended up in France\u2019s national, publicly owned art collection. The law should go into effect this month, helping to fulfill President\u00a0Emmanuel Macron<\/strong>\u2019s 2017 promise of returning African heritage to the continent, with the hope of bolstering diplomatic relations with France\u2019s former colonies. Previously, Parliament had to enact individual laws for every item removed from its public collection. Now, two committees, including experts from France and the requesting country, plus government representatives, will examine restitution requests. France\u2019s highest administrative court will make a ruling based on their conclusions, which will be enacted by government decree. The law does not specifically mention the word \u201ccolonialism,\u201d contrary to demands of some left-leaning lawmakers, but it meets with another request from the political left: that countries should not have to prove they can properly care for objects once returned, as some conservatives hoped. The law also tasks museums with the mission to research provenance within their collections.<\/p>\n The Digest<\/strong><\/p>\n American Folk Art Museum<\/strong>\u00a0workers in New York demanded better wages and benefits in a protest outside the museum\u2019s annual gala on Wednesday night. [Hyperallergic<\/strong>]<\/p>\n \n\tIndonesian-born artist\u00a0Dian Suci<\/strong>\u00a0has been awarded the 2025\u201327\u00a0Max Mara Art Prize for Women<\/strong>, which includes a residency and solo exhibitions at the\u00a0Museum MACAN<\/strong>\u00a0in Jakarta and at the\u00a0Collezione Maramotti<\/strong>\u00a0in Italy. [ARTnews<\/strong>]<\/p>\n \n\tA restored\u00a0Banksy<\/strong>\u00a0mural titled\u00a0Migrant Child<\/em>, which was removed from a 17th-century palazzo in Venice, will tour the city this weekend. [Venezia Today<\/strong>]<\/p>\n \n\tRead about the poetic performance work of artist\u00a0Shoji Yamasaki<\/strong>, who dresses up as litter he finds on the street and choreographs movements mimicking how the paper trash rustles and flutters in the wind. [The Financial Times<\/strong>]<\/p>\n The Kicker<\/strong><\/p>\n HARING\u2019S HOUSE.\u00a0<\/strong>Artist\u00a0Keith Haring<\/strong>\u2019s best friend since childhood, the artist\u00a0Kermit Oswald<\/strong>, discussed the artist ahead of an auction of his work on May 14 and 15 that includes unseen, \u201cintimate\u201d works by Haring in Oswald\u2019s collection, reports the\u00a0Guardian<\/em>. The artworks are on view at\u00a0Sotheby\u2019s\u00a0<\/strong>in New York, in a show called \u201cHaring\u2019s House: Works From the Collection of Kermit Oswald.\u201d A highlight is a bright yellow crib Haring painted when Oswald didn\u2019t have the money to buy one. Also for sale is a 1985 self-portrait, one of only six Haring is thought to have made. Oswald also shares stories of the two doing \u201cartistic pranks\u201d and delivering newspapers together. \u201cYou have to remember, Keith was a paperboy \u2026 Works were untitled because he wanted you to see the date and look at the headlines from the\u00a0New York Post<\/em>\u00a0or\u00a0New York Times<\/em>,\u201d he explained. Haring died at 31 of AIDS-related complications, and is the godfather to Oswald\u2019s son. As for any rivalry between the two artists: \u201cThere was no competition. You don\u2019t compete against your friends.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n [analyse_source url=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/art-news\/news\/france-restitution-law-folk-art-museum-morning-links-1234784654\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/GettyImages-1242143446.jpg?w=1024″] The Headlines IN THE DOGEHOUSE. A federal judge slammed the US\u00a0DOGE Service, ruling on Thursday that the\u00a0Elon Musk\u2013led department made unconstitutional and discriminatory cuts to\u00a0National Endowment for the Humanities\u00a0grants worth over $100 million, according to the\u00a0Washington Post.\u00a0US District Judge\u00a0Colleen McMahon\u00a0said DOGE violated the First and Fifth Amendments when it used ChatGPT to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,226],"class_list":["post-1927158","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-artnews-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1927158","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1927158"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1927158\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1927158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1927158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1927158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}