Good Morning!
- Sid Motion Gallery, the South London dealership founded in 2016, will shutter this fall.
- Scientists have recovered ancient human DNA from cave walls, offering new clues about the people behind prehistoric art.
- Could the Bayeux Tapestry loan offer a model for using the Parthenon Marbles to boost British soft power while paving the way for their eventual return?
The Headlines
ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST. Sid Motion Gallery, the South London dealership founded in 2016 to support emerging and mid-career artists, will shutter this fall after 85 exhibitions, The Art Newspaper reported. Founder Sid Motion described the decision as a positive, conscious choice to wind down while the program and finances remain strong, rather than compromise her support for artists. The closure reflects wider pressures facing London’s commercial art sector, including a slower market, rising costs, and changing collecting habits that have hit smaller galleries particularly hard. Motion says London’s art scene remains vibrant, but the traditional gallery model is increasingly difficult to sustain. The gallery’s final exhibition, “That Which Appears,” opens September 18.
GENOME GALLERY. Scientists have recovered ancient human DNA directly from cave walls in Spain and Portugal, opening a new way to study the people behind prehistoric rock art. The Conversation reported that researchers found DNA on painted and unpainted surfaces at 11 sites, including traces linked to ancient Western hunter-gatherers. Although the technique is unlikely to identify individual artists—DNA can be transferred easily—it could reveal which human species and populations used particular caves and help resolve debates over whether Neanderthals created some of Europe’s earliest art.
The Digest
The Cultural Center of the Philippines in Manila has appointed Carlos Quijon Jr. as chief curator of its contemporary art museum. The center, which has been undergoing renovations since 2021, is due to reopen next year. [ArtReview]
V&A staff in London have won two paid breaks after threatening strike action, though wider disputes over pay and working conditions remain unresolved. [Museums Association]
The Prado Museum in Madrid has unveiled an AI-powered audiovisual experience that uses digital art to reimagine how an eclipse transforms some of the museum’s most iconic paintings. [Euronews]
Archaeologists have uncovered the remains of a colonial-era hospital and church, including walls, floors, human burials, and 18th-century tiles, in Lima’s historic center. [The Art Newspaper]
The Kicker
BRIT SOFT POWER. As Michael Vatikiotis, a senior adviser at the Center for Humanitarian Dialogue, argued in the FT, the Bayeux Tapestry loan to the British Museum shows how cultural diplomacy can strengthen relations and generate museum revenue. A similar UK-Greece agreement over the Parthenon Marbles, he wrote, could advance British soft power, improve ties with Europe, and create a pathway toward permanent repatriation. A temporary loan, enabled by a parliamentary carve-out from the British Museum Act, would give both sides time to build trust without establishing a wider precedent for deaccession. The partnership could extend to reciprocal loans, museum renovations, digital technology, and exhibitions, creating a “Cosmopolitan Commonwealth” of shared Greek heritage.
