French President Francois Hollande (R) speaks with Pascal Terrasse, President of the Cavern of Pont-d'Arc Grand Project, during his inauguration visit in Vallon Pont d'Arc, on April 10, 2015. The Cavern of Pont-d'Arc project is a replica of the pre-historic decorated Cave of Pont-d'Arc known as Chauvet Cave, in Vallon Pont-d'Arc in the Ardeche region, containing the world's earliest known cave paintings which was recently named a UNESCO World Heritage site. The facsimile cavern, which condenses some 8000m2 of the original site into 3000m2, will display faithful reproductions of paintings and engravings and will open to the public on April 25. AFP PHOTO / POOL / PHILIPPE WOJAZER (Photo credit should read PHILIPPE WOJAZER/AFP via Getty Images)AFP via Getty Images

Studies Warn of Major Risks to Historic French Heritage Due to Climate Change, Surrealist Painter Cossette Zeno is Having Her Moment, and More: Morning Links for October 29, 2026

by · ARTnews

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Good Morning!

  • Three recent studies outline how global warming is a major risk to historic French heritage buildings.
  • New York’s New Museum director, Massimiliano Gioni, discusses the big challenges facing American museums.
  • At 96, Surrealist painter Cossette Zeno is having her moment.

The Headlines

LA VIE EN ROUGE. France has its share of problems at the moment, from civil unrest over a widening gap in living standards to the broader planetary threat of climate change. The country just experienced its hottest summer on record, and now, three recent studies outline how global warming is a major risk to historic French heritage buildings going forward, reports Le Monde. There is the Château d’Azay-le-Rideau on an island in the Loire Valley, plagued by flooding, as well as the opposite—receding water levels that expose its wooden, foundational beams to air and decomposition. Among the three studies published since September is one by the Climate Institute at the Edhec Business School, which estimates that by 2050, 60 percent of listed French heritage sites will be in danger. Other studies include one by the publicly run Monuments Nationaux organization, and the Réseau Action Climat. Grégory Quenet, a professor who led the latter study, asks: “Are we ready to accept that floods will damage the Château de Chambord, that paintings will disappear at Lascaux [the cave], that the Strasbourg Cathedral will crumble…?”

New Report Says UK Art Market Growth Slower Than Competitors, Outsider Austrian Artist Josef Hofer, Has Died at 80, and More: Morning Links for October 28, 2026Outsider Austrian Artist Josef Hofer, Has Died at 80, and More: Morning Links for October 28, 2026Devorah Lauter, 28 Oct 2026Former Stedelijk Museum Director Rudi Fuchs Has Died at 84, V&A Plans Cuts to Academy Program, 100 Years of Marisa Merz, and More: Morning Links for October 27, 2026V&A Plans Cuts to Academy Program, 100 Years of Marisa Merz, and More: Morning Links for October 27, 2026Devorah Lauter, 27 Oct 2026

BORN TO BE BOLD. New York’s New Museum director, Massimiliano Gioni, discusses the big challenges facing American museums today and where he wants to take the newly expanded institution, in an interview with Le Journal des Arts. With his new promotion from his former position as artistic director to the institution’s head honcho, Gioni said money had now become “a much greater preoccupation.” But he isn’t letting that get in the way of ambitious programming. “What matters is impact,” he said. “Our budget is increasing by about $8 million, but we remain at a scale that allows for risk-taking.” After all, “a certain radicalism” is in the museum’s DNA, he added. He also commented on the democratic responsibility of museums: “The fact that Donald Trump is attacking the Smithsonian is further proof: why does he spend so much time on the Smithsonian or the Kennedy Center? Because he knows they embody values that many of us believe should be universal rather than determined by parties,” said Gioni.

The Digest

At 96, Surrealist painter Cossette Zeno is having her moment, most recently with a small survey of her work from the 1950s at Richard Saltoun’s New York gallery. [ARTnews]

Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner’s former Greenwich Village studio is listed on Sotheby’s International Realty for $7.995 million. [Artnet News]

The World Monuments Fund has raised $62 million for its endowment, beating its fundraising target 18 months ahead of schedule. [ARTnews]

Tomorrow, Artissima, Turin’s contemporary art fair known as a favorite among curators, opens to the public with 183 galleries from 35 countries. [Finestre sull’Arte]

The defense manufacturer Roshel has donated one of its Senator mine-resistant armored vehicles used by Ukrainian forces in the war with Russia to the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa. [The Canadian Press]

The Kicker

TACITA MEETS MARISA. Tacita Dean discusses her new film about Arte Povera artist Marisa Merz with Financial Times reporter Caroline Roux, on the occasion of three institutional exhibitions celebrating the Italian artist, 100 years after her birth. Dean met Merz in 2005, when she was given a swift tour of her home and studio, which have been preserved as a museum. “She was incredibly … secretive,” remembers Dean of the late artist. “She barely let me see anything. It wasn’t exactly welcoming.” These days, “the onus is on us, the artists, to get out there, to do the marketing. We have to co-operate. They didn’t,” she said of Marisa Merz and her husband, fellow artist Mario Merz, who until recently enjoyed most of the critical acclaim. But even for his famous igloos and other installations, Marisa “worked on so many of his projects with him that they were mostly collaborations,” says Dean.