The Headlines
EXTRAORDINARY LOAN. The Mauritshuis in The Hague revealed on Thursday that it will send its most famous painting, Johannes Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring (circa 1665), to Japan this summer, the Japan Times wrote. The work will be loaned to the Nakanoshima Museum of Art in Osaka while the Dutch museum temporarily closes from August 24 to September 20 for building alterations. The decision is surprising because the painting, one of just 37 works attributed to Vermeer, was effectively grounded in 2014 due to its status as the Mauritshuis’s star attraction. “Girl with a Pearl Earring is one of the most famous paintings in the world,” the museum said, adding that it is loaned only in “highly exceptional circumstances.”
EXIT STRATEGY. The Art Newspaper reported that in a memo released on January 7, President Donald Trump announced that the US will withdraw from more than 60 international groups, treaties, and UN-affiliated organizations, among them several focused on the arts and the protection of cultural heritage. The administration argues that these bodies operate “contrary to the interests of the United States.” Those affected include ICCROM, the Rome-based organization devoted to the preservation and restoration of cultural heritage worldwide, and IFACCA, a global network that connects arts councils and cultural agencies. The US joined ICCROM in 1971, and IFACCA counts the National Endowment for the Arts as its American member, an agency Trump has repeatedly tried to eliminate.
The Digest
Canada faces a shortage of professional archaeologists, a gap that reportedly carries significant economic consequences. [Phys Org]
Here’s a look at all the rare Pokémon merchandise that will be sold at the Natural History Museum’s upcoming pop-up. [Time Out]
South Africa‘s Arts and Culture minister Gayton McKenzie has reportedly cancelled a work proposed for the upcoming Venice Biennale because it referenced Gaza. [Daily Maverick]
The Van Gogh Museum has brought the artist’s iconic Yellow House to life in an exhibition that reunites his celebrated Roulin family portraits. [Artnet News]
The Kicker
HIGH FLYER. In 2025, artist Precious Okoyomon found “peace, perspective, and thrill” not on the ground but piloting a Cessna, a practice that “resets” their nervous system and inspires their art, TAN wrote. Their first show with Mendes Wood DM in Paris, “It’s important to have ur fangs out at the end of the world,” features sculptures, wallpaper, poetry, and three sky-inspired dioramas depicting burning landscapes with anthropomorphic suns, flowers, and bears. Drawing on experiences as a recreational pilot, the dioramas explore ecological destruction, resilience, and humanity’s consequences. Flying, one of Okoyomon’s lifelong passions, threads their work together, inspiring poems, video, and a continuous archive of landscapes seen only from above.
