Shinjuku

Baghdad

The Real Jinn: How the Middle East Imagined Them Before Disney

Seven kings, one for each day of the week. A portrait of Fever. Two spirits keeping a bathhouse warm. What the manuscripts actually show — and what the lamp replaced.

Folio 35v of a manuscript in Oxford shows the public baths at Tiberias in cutaway. Upstairs, people washing. Downstairs, two jinn tending the furnace, mid-conversation. It is not what most of the world expects — and it is much closer to what the unseen was actually understood to be for. A long read across twelve centuries of manuscripts, fieldwork, survey data and horror cinema.

Abu Dhabi · United Arab Emirates

Renoir's Double Portrait of Berthe Morisot Joins the Permanent Galleries at Louvre Abu Dhabi

The 1894 painting, the latest addition to the Abu Dhabi Masterpieces Collection, will be on view for a year alongside Monet, Japanese prints and photography that trace Impressionism's cross-cultural roots.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir's 1894 double portrait of Berthe Morisot and her daughter, Julie Manet, is now on display in the permanent galleries of Louvre Abu Dhabi for one year — the latest addition to the Abu Dhabi Masterpieces Collection, placed in dialogue with Monet, Japanese prints and period photography.

Detroit · United States

Detroit Institute of Arts Director Identifies Lost Velázquez Portrait of Spanish Statesman

A 1626 painting of the Count-Duke of Olivares surfaces in private hands after centuries of obscurity

Salvador Salort-Pons has authenticated a previously unknown Velázquez portrait of Gaspar de Guzmán, Count-Duke of Olivares, discovered in a Madrid restoration studio. The work will feature in a major 2027 exhibition at the Detroit Institute of Arts.

Abu Dhabi · United Arab Emirates

The Rub' al Khali: Inside the Real Desert Where Dune Was Filmed

How the Liwa desert — the Empty Quarter's northern edge, and the real Arrakis — became one of the most filmed, least understood landscapes on Earth.

Denis Villeneuve filmed Dune in Liwa, on the rim of the Rub' al Khali — the largest sand sea on the planet. A desert that has been an ocean, birthed a nation, and is only now being discovered as a subject for art.

Van Gogh's Million-Dollar Masterpieces: Tracking the Auction Record Holders

From asylum landscapes to floral still lifes, the Dutch master's most valuable works reveal a shifting global market

Van Gogh's rare auction appearances command astronomical sums, with his top ten works all exceeding $50m and revealing a dramatic shift in collecting power from West to East.

London · United Kingdom

London Celebrates David Hockney's Legacy with Dual Exhibitions and Birthday Screening

Serpentine North draws record crowds while Lightroom presents immersive tribute on artist's 89th anniversary

Two concurrent London presentations honour the late British painter, combining a major survey of his Normandy period with an innovative digital experience tracing six decades of creative output.