Morning Links for May 26, 2026

To receive Morning Links in your inbox every weekday, sign up for our Breakfast with ARTnews newsletter.

Good morning!

The Headlines

KYIV CULTURE ATTACKED. Early Sunday morning, Russia struck Kyiv and nearby towns with its largest attack on the Ukrainian capital city since 2024; a rare Oreshnik ballistic missile and drones killed four, injured about 100, and hit cultural institutions, according to reports. Among the approximately 40 damaged sites are the National Chernobyl museum and the National Art Museum of Ukraine (NAMU), per the Kyiv Post. An estimated 40 percent of the Chernobyl museum was reportedly destroyed, while the NAMU’s landmark building was damaged by a blast wave. No artworks were harmed in the NAMU, which was recently restored and reopened in the summer of 2023. On May 21, it debuted a “performance-exhibition” by Holyi/Kostiantyn Mishukov and Oleh Tistol, about art as a form of therapy during war. “We saw how deeply art is capable of supporting people in times like these,” curator and artist Hanka Tretiak told the Kyiv Post. Following the strike, the exhibition had to be dismantled. “Russians are destroying cultural heritage that belongs not only to Ukraine, but to all of Europe and the world,” said Tretiak.  

RADIO SILENCED. Romania’s culture minister, Andras István Demeter, has resigned following an outcry over leaked audio recordings in which he appears to mock Romanian national interests, according to reports. Demeter announced he was stepping down on Monday. “I must also apologize for having unintentionally caused confusion and division in our contemporary society, which is already fraught with tension… I apologize to those who feel offended and to those who feel betrayed,” he said in a statement. He was referring to a 2012 audio recording with government staff, in response to questioning by the Prosecutor General’s Office about Radio Romania acquiring the Moldovan Radio Chișinău. In the profanity-laced recording, Demeter, who comes from Hungary, was heard saying, “I don’t give a damn about the national interest, because I’m Hungarian!” He also seemed to joke or threaten the Russians about selling Radio Chişinǎu to them. Demeter at first did not take responsibility for the remarks, which he didn’t remember making, and claimed that the recording was taken out of context. However, he resigned after leaders of his own, minority party, the Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (UDMR), called for him to do so.

The Digest

One of the earliest medieval manuscripts that tells the tale of King Arthur, which has been in private hands for over 700 years, heads to auction at Christie’s for an estimated £1.5 million to £2 million ($2.02 million–$2.69 million). [The Guardian]

An over-decade-long dispute over a Spanish galleon full of treasure, which sank off Colombia’s coast in 1708, is plagued by new allegations of looting and mismanagement. [The Art Newspaper]

Wolfgang Tillmans has won the 2026 Roswitha Haftmann Prize, worth CHF 150,000 ($191,000) [ArtReview]

Singaporean artist Ho Tzu Nyen has won the 2026 Fukuoka Prize, for individuals who have contributed to Asian studies, arts and culture. [ArtAsiaPacific]

The Kicker

PUSHING THE RIGHT BUTTONS. Artifacts from an encampment of French troops who helped defeat the British during the American Revolutionary War were discovered in a cornfield in Virginia, becoming the first such find to ever be documented, reports the Washington Post. As America’s 250th anniversary approaches, the timing couldn’t be better. Metal detectorists Lafayette “Scotty” Crabtree Jr. and Greg Lagasse had been hunting for Civil War artifacts when they stumbled on eleven 244-year-old buttons from France, and coins from Spain and England dating from the early 1700s. Researchers now say they belonged to French soldiers who rested in Fredericksburg, Virginia, on their way to join General George Washington in New York. Only one other French march has been excavated in Connecticut. While archaeologists were critical of the metal-detectorists for removing so many of the artifacts before they were studied, they called the discovery “amazing” and hoped to find more at the site. In another stroke of luck, the site has remained almost untouched thanks to the nonprofit Meadowview, which bought the surrounding land to preserve a rare carnivorous plant, the purple pitcher, in its natural habitat. Meadowview granted Crabtree and Lagasse permission to search for relics, as long as findings would become part of a future museum in the property’s 1830s farmhouse.