December 7, 2024 – January 25, 2025

November 21, 2024 – February 1, 2025

Why David Lynch's film topped our poll to find the greatest film of the century

How faded stars have revived their careers with one breathtaking role

December 14, 2024 – February 1, 2025

December 7, 2024 – February 1, 2025

Why the President-elect has become so closely tied to the Village People's songs

November 2, 2024 – January 25, 2025

November 29, 2024 – January 25, 2025

Marie Kondo on magic, minimalism – and how being a Shinto maiden shaped her

November 21, 2024 – January 18, 2025

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BBC Culture's film critics reveal who they think will be up for awards

November 23, 2024 – January 18, 2025

November 23, 2024 – January 18, 2025

The scarring childhood of the star of Batman and The Emperor's New Groove

As fires raged across Los Angeles this week, due to the ongoing Palisades, Eaton, and Hurst fires, numerous artists, collectors, and arts professionals have reported losing their homes and art collections in the affected areas. While it is still too early to truly assess the damage, art insurers and conservators told ARTnews that they expect it to be extensive.

“This is going to be substantial and possibly one of the most impactful art losses ever in America,” Simon de Burgh Codrington, fine arts insurance specialist and managing director at Risk Strategies, told ARTnews in a phone interview. The devastating losses, de Burgh Codrington added, are expected “to be much more impactful than Sandy was to the art world.”

Similarly, Christopher Wise, vice president of Risk Strategies, told ARTnews, “There are huge amounts of fine art value under threat at the current moment. Many, many billions of fine art.”

While Risk Strategies insures “many collectors, museums, galleries, artists, and warehouses throughout Los Angeles,” according to Wise, many have already moved artworks into safer locations following evacuation offers. Still, he said, the “destruction is devastating.”

“Our hearts break to hear of the scale of the losses,” Wise said. “We have also been actively reaching out to try and help … As the fires continue to expand and new areas are affected, we continue to communicate and act vigilantly on behalf of our clients.

In a late-term legislative move, President Joe Biden signed the EXPLORE Act, whose name is short for the Expanding Public Lands Outdoor Recreation Experiences Act. The law reforms existing rules that restrict film and photography in national parks.

A part of the law, the FILM Act, will also address long-running concerns about burdensome permit requirements for filmmakers and photographers seeking to take footage in the parks.

Under the old standards, permits were mandatory and could be denied for various reasons that some detractors saw as inconsistent. The process was challenged in a lawsuit in December 2024 by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), the National Press Photographers Association, and videographers Alexander Rienzie and Connor Burkesmith. The groups claimed the government’s restriction as unlawful, arguing the procedure violated First Amendment rights.

The new law takes away permit requirements for small groups carrying out photography on national park land. Fewer than six people are now allowed to shoot footage of the parks, provided they abide by regulations by avoiding disruptions to the habitats native to these lands. Sets and staging equipment are still not permitted under the new law, which stipulated that commercial producers with larger-scale operations still require permits.

In a statement, FIRE Chief Counsel Bob Corn-Revere approved of the permit reform, saying, “This new law allows filmmakers to share the beauty and stories of our national parks without facing jail or fines for how they use the footage.”

After several Sally Mann photographs were removed from a show at Texas’s Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth amid controversy, the institution has finally responded, issuing a brief statement on the matter.

The Mann photographs were removed after some locals and politicians claimed that these images were “child porn.” The Dallas Express, which published several articles reporting on locals’ concerns, previously reported that there was a police investigation surrounding the works as evidence for alleged child abuse, but the museum had not responded to inquiries about it until now.

Mann has regularly faced controversy about her depictions of children. She became known for photographing her home in Lexington, Virginia; some of her shots have featured her own children in the nude. These photographs do not depict sexual activity.

“An inquiry has been made concerning four artworks in the temporary exhibition Diaries of Home. These have been widely published and exhibited for more than 30 years in leading cultural institutions across the country and around the world,” a spokesperson for the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth told ARTnews in an email. The spokesperson said the museum was unable to comment further.

“Diaries of Home” features the work of 13 women and nonbinary artists who, according to the museum’s website, “explore the multilayered concepts of family, community, and home.” The website includes a warning that the show features “mature themes that may be sensitive for some viewers.” Glasstire reported news of the removal of five Mann works and their accompanying wall texts this week.

In Los Angeles this week, museums burned to the ground, many artists’ homes were lost, and a number of artworks were endangered. And with four fires currently blazing, members of the city’s art scene have banded together to raise money for artists and art workers impacted by all the destruction.

On Thursday, a GoFundMe effort was launched by artists Andrea Bowers and Kathryn Andrews, Various Small Fires senior director Ariel Pittman, Vielmetter Los Angeles associate director Olivia Gauthier, and arts professional Julia V. Hendrickson. As of publication time, the fund had already raised more than $23,000.

“Over the last few days,” they wrote in their GoFundMe’s description, “we have watched as neighborhoods that are home to many of Los Angeles’ artists, gallerists, and cultural workers burn to the ground in an unprecedented Santa Ana wind and fire event. Many members of our personal communities, and our broader creative communities, have lost everything. The ramifications of that impact are varied: some people will be able to rebuild, while others may not have the same access to insurance coverage or other resources.”

Dealers Matthew Marks and Jessica Silverman have already donated $2,000 each. Artist Dyani White Hawk, curators Rujeko Hockley and Amy Sadao, and art adviser Benjamin Godsill have also donated to the fund, which has a goal of $500,000.

Andrews lost her home this week to the fire in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood, which also claimed her collection works by Rashid Johnson, Charles Long, and Jim Shaw. She previously told ARTnews, “It’s not just the loss of stuff, you know, it’s the loss of nature, it’s the loss of a community, it’s the loss of dreams. It has a very intense impact.”