[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/girls-watering-flowers.jpg?w=1024″]<\/p>\n
To receive\u00a0Morning Links\u00a0in your inbox every weekday,\u00a0sign\u00a0up\u00a0for our\u00a0<\/em>Breakfast with ARTnews\u00a0newsletter<\/em>.<\/p>\n \n\tGood Morning!<\/p>\n LIFE\u2019S A LOOT. <\/strong>Manhattan prosecutor Matthew Bogdanos<\/strong>, who witnessed mass looting in Baghdad<\/strong> in 2003, has been profiled in the FT <\/em>\u00a0about taking on the fight against the global trade in stolen antiquities. He reveals how New York City\u2019s Antiquities Trafficking Unit<\/strong> has recovered thousands of objects worth hundreds of millions of dollars. The piece looks at how provenance investigations have transformed the art market, forcing museums and auction houses to rethink how they acquire ancient works, reigniting debates over restitution, ownership, and whether aggressive repatriation efforts go too far.<\/p>\n BITTER CHOCOLATE. Edvard Munch<\/strong>\u2019s famous Freia<\/em> frieze, painted in 1922 for a Norwegian chocolate factory, is being viewed in a more critical light, the Guardian<\/em> reported. A new exhibition at the Munch Museum<\/strong> examines the gap between the cheerful scenes of workers enjoying nature and the harsher realities surrounding factory labour, gender inequality, and the colonial history of cacao production. The show questions whether Munch\u2019s public commissions celebrated workers or simply created an appealing image for industry.<\/p>\n \n\tA major retrospective at the Crocker Art Museum<\/strong> is bringing renewed attention to Gladys Nilsson<\/strong>, the Chicago<\/strong> artist who helped define the countercultural Hairy Who<\/strong> movement of the 1960s. [Vogue]<\/p>\n The British Council<\/strong> is closing offices in nine countries, including Tanzania <\/strong>and Mozambique<\/strong>, as the UK cultural organization cuts its global footprint to tackle financial pressures. [The Independent]<\/p>\n London\u2019s V&A <\/strong>has unveiled its 2027 exhibition programme, including shows spanning South Asian<\/strong> contemporary art, textiles, punk music, and fashion, as the museum continues to broaden its programming across design, popular culture, and global histories. [The Art Newspaper]<\/p>\n <\/strong>The Guardian<\/em> has delivered a sharply critical review of Whitechapel Gallery<\/strong>\u2019s \u201cBackyard Biennial: East,\u201d arguing that its attempt to explore east London identity, migration, and community is \u201cmuddled.\u201d [Guardian]<\/p>\n HOLY SPACE JUNK.<\/strong> Forget saints\u2019 bones and ancient relics\u2026 the new objects of devotion might be bits of fallen spacecraft if an exhibition titled \u201cNew Religion\u201d<\/em> at the Ngununggula art gallery in Australia is anything to go by. The Australian<\/em> wrote about how it explores how artists are reshaping faith for a secular age; artists Claire Healy<\/strong> and Sean Cordeiro<\/strong> have turned SpaceX<\/strong> debris into a modern-day shrine, while other artists have reimagined religious imagery through the lens of sexuality, technology, and pop culture.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n [analyse_source url=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/art-news\/news\/a-new-perspective-on-munchs-famous-frieze-how-nycs-antiquities-trafficking-unit-transformed-the-art-market-morning-links-for-july-16-2026-1234792361\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/girls-watering-flowers.jpg?w=1024″] To receive\u00a0Morning Links\u00a0in your inbox every weekday,\u00a0sign\u00a0up\u00a0for our\u00a0Breakfast with ARTnews\u00a0newsletter. Good Morning! Manhattan prosecutor Matthew Bogdanos on the fight against the global trade in stolen antiquities.\u00a0 A new show in Norway explores the \u201charsher realities\u201d behind Edvard Munch\u2019s famous 1922 Freia frieze, which depicts cheerful scenes of workers enjoying nature.\u00a0 The British […]<\/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-2046667","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\/2046667","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=2046667"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2046667\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2046667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2046667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2046667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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