The remains of a Gallo-Roman site overlooking the French city of Alès have been identified by archaeologists, the National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research (Inrap) announced on Tuesday.

Excavations conducted between February and June this year revealed the remains of dwellings, hydraulic systems, a domus with an intricate mosaic, and a necropolis across the 40,365-square-foot site.

There were at least four ancient dwellings that were partially excavated from the limestone rock. Experts found that the interior walls of these structures were coated in a layer of clay to contain any potential water leakage during times of heavy rainfall. Underground conduits made from roof tiles and infill blocks further helped with drainage.

Though remnants of the wall paintings are still visible in some sections of the walls, they have heavily deteriorated over time. On the floor, rock slabs would have once sat on a basier base of stone fragments and limestone dust.

Another 8,073-square-foot structure initially contained compacted earth floors, which were subsequently replaced with concrete and adorned with tesserae to create a massive mosaic floor.

Housed inside a room measuring nearly 15 by 12 feet, the well-preserved mosaic features at its center interlaced geometric patterns made from black, white, and red tesserae. Experts believe the red was made using the mineral pigment cinnabar, which was reserved for the elite. Another rare detail includes yellow-painted tesserae. The tesserae and ornamentation are not consistent throughout, however, which could indicate that there were other rooms nearby.

A drainage system, made by cutting and fitting together the ends of amphorae, channeled excess rainwater from the roof to the outside of the building along its east side.

Researchers are still trying to determine if this was the private residence of a wealthy urban family.

A late Roman necropolis, dating to the 5th and 6th centuries CE, was also discovered with ten burials along with the south side of the site. The dead were laid to rest with their heads facing west. Though some were covered with stones, most did not contain funerary offerings. Radiocarbon dating is still being conducted on two burials northwest of the necropolis.

Between the 16th and 18th centuries, the land was used for agricultural terraces (faïsses) and again reused in the 19th century.

Continuous activity between the 2nd and 6th centuries CE, along with the number of technical advancements found at the site, indicate a high level of skill. The mosaic is also one of the most notable finds in the area in decades.

The final design plans for a national memorial to Queen Elizabeth II in London’s St James’s Park have been determined by the UK government.

A team led by architect Norman Foster of Foster + Partners, which includes British-Nigerian artist Yinka Shonibare CBE RA, was selected to design the memorial.

The design plans to connect nearby royal gardens with a natural stone path, along with the existing Blue Bridge over the lake in St James’s Park for a translucent cast-glass balustrade inspired by Queen Elizabeth II’s wedding tiara.

Art figures heavily into the project, with Shonibare’s Wind Sculpture to be included and new figurative sculptures of the late Queen with her husband Prince Philip at Birdcage Walk. Alongside the mall, there will be a dedicated gate to Prince Philip and a monument of Elizabeth II.

The team also includes landscape designer Michael Desvigne, who will work in conjunction with the Queen Elizabeth Memorial Committee.

“They will work together to select a sculptor to design the memorial’s figurative element,” the project statement detailed. Adding, “The final design will be formally announced in April 2026, alongside a legacy programme, to coincide with what would have been Queen Elizabeth’s hundredth birthday year.”

The winning project proposal was selected from a shortlist of five designs by the UK government.

Public funds to the tune of £23 to £46 million ($31.3 to $62.6 million) will be used to pay for the memorial.

For his part, Shonibare has long interrogated cultural and national identities in his oeuvre, including a reclamation of monumental sculpture. The artist was awarded the honor of Commander of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II in 2019.

A 17th-century portrait of Grand Prince Ferdinando de’ Medici was damaged when a tourist tried to take a picture with the work for social media on Saturday at the Uffizi Galleries in Florence, Italy.

On a visit to the museum, the young Italian man in question asked his girlfriend to take a photo of him with the oil painting, attempting to mimic the prince’s pose.

As he stepped closer to the artwork, however, the man tripped over a one-foot-tall barrier intended to keep distance between visitors and the work. When he put his hand out to catch himself, the man landed on the panting and tore the canvas. The incident was caught on a security camera.

The man has since been identified and reported to police. In addition to criminal charges, he may also have to cover for the cost of repairs to the painting.

“A tourist who wanted to create some sort of meme in front of the painting, striking the same pose as the Medici prince, ripped the canvas of the artwork,” the director of the Uffizi Simone Verde told the Telegraph.

“The problem of visitors coming to museums to create memes or take selfies for social media is now rampant. We put in place very precise rules to try to impede behaviour that is not compatible with respect for our cultural heritage,” he added.

Ferdinando de’ Medici was the grand prince of Tuscany from 1670 through 1713. He was known as a patron of music, in particular funding the invention of the piano by instrument maker Bartolomeo Cristofori. During his time, Ferdinando helped make Florence a hub for music and its practioners.

The Medici family was rose to power in Florence during the Renaissance, where they remained highly influential through the 18th century. Though they made their money in banking, they were known for their political ruling and patronage of the arts.

The portrait of Ferdinando de’ Medici was painted by Anton Domenico Gabbiani around 1690. It was on display as part of the exhibition “Florence and Europe: Arts of the 18th Century at the Uffizi”, which recently opened on May 28 and is now closed until July 2. The show is expected to reopen and run through November 28, as scheduled.

This follows news of a man sitting on a breaking a crystal-encrusted Van Gogh chair at the Palazzo Maffei Museum in Verona just last week.

Editor’s Note: This story is part of Newsmakers, a new ARTnews series where we interview the movers and shakers who are making change in the art world.

More than a decade after Pussy Riot cofounder Nadya Tolokonnikova was imprisoned in Russia for two years after performing a “punk prayer” inside of Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Savior, the artist is putting herself back into a prison of her own making. 

For her installation Police State (2025) at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles (LA MOCA), Tolokonnikova has recreated a Russian jail cell. This time, however, she reimagines the cell as a space for art. The work is a form of reclamation not only for Tolonkonnikova but also for all the Russian, Belarusian, and American prisoners whose work is also included in the installation. The effort to include them is part of a larger ongoing project between Tolokonnikova’s organization Art Action Foundation and the Artistic Freedom Initiative, which work together to archive and exhibit prisoners’ art.

Within the piece, visitors are thrust into an eerie authoritarian state. Inside a prison cell, one can observe Tolokonnikova making music or art, or even resting throughout the day, via security camera footage and peepholes. Initially, these sights were meant to be seen only between June 5 and 14, but the show was extended due to the museum’s closure amid anti-ICE protests and the deployment of the National Guard.

ARTnews spoke with Tolonkonnikova to hear about staging this installation during ongoing political conflict in the US and abroad.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity and concision.

ARTnews: How did you first conceive of Police State?

Nadya Tolokonnikova: I think the starting point was this idea I had about five years ago of reclaiming my prison experience as an art piece. I began thinking about my prison time from 2012 to the end of 2013 as one of the longest durational performance pieces in art history. That was my way to reclaim the time my government stole from me. I wanted to make them my bitches—not the other way around. The day after the United States elections, the [associate] curator of performance and programs at the Geffen, Alex Sloane, wrote me.

Walk me through what you’re doing as you perform in Police State.

Each day starts at 11 a.m. and runs through the end of the workday, which is sometimes at 5 p.m. or 6 p.m., and once, on a long Friday, went until 8 p.m.

I enter the cell a bit earlier to get ready, and I put all the stuff in its place. Sometimes I’m changing the artworks that I have on the walls because I’m showing a lot of artworks by current and former political prisoners. Then, I put on my uniform and headscarf, as all Russian female prisoners have to wear them in prison—it’s a super patriarchal norm and the law in Russia—and, if you refuse, then you’re not eligible for parole.

Once the day starts, I rotate between two tables. I stuffed them with everything I wanted to have in jail but couldn’t. I’m fulfilling my dreams around this idea of: what if prison could be place of creation? I’ve been thinking a lot about rehabilitation versus punishment, and how we can move toward the former. How can we help rehabilitate people through art? I’ve been in touch with a lot of people in different countries who run these programs.

One table is for audio production, where I mix and essentially produce music on the go. It’s a combination of different layers. The base layer is this deep subbase that penetrates your body. I wanted to create this very visceral feeling, before layering different sounds on top of it. Then, I took actual prison sounds from several jails in Russia. There are human rights groups who make videos of this torturing available on YouTube. I downloaded them, and I show the video footage on the TV in the installation and overtop I’m playing this very ambient, yet disturbing soundtrack. There is another layer that is more nostalgic to me, with old Russian lullabies my mother used to sing to me. Sometimes I play the old recordings or I sing them in a microphone that I have. Other times I play them on this little pink piano that’s on the table.

On the second table is a very old 1921 Singer sewing machine that I found on the street and made it work. When I was in the Russian prison camp, I was sewing military and police uniforms. So, I wanted to recreate that part of the experience of being in jail as well, but with my own twist. I attached some things, like lace and teddy bears, to the police uniforms to make them less menacing and to almost neutralize them, along with slogans and words that have meaning to me, like “alien”, “revoked”, “ghosts”, “deleted”—basically all the feelings I’ve had as a person who was forced to leave her home and try to find it elsewhere.

What does it mean to show this work in the United States right now?

It’s surreal. When the protests first broke out, it was only my third day of Police State and the museum closed. I decided to stay until the end of the workday because that’s what I agreed to, but my husband, John Caldwell, went to the protest and live streamed the sounds of protests. Now, instead of the original Russian prison sounds, I layered the sounds of the protests to create new soundscapes. The recording is chilling. There was one activist talking about this country turning into Russia. But we recognize having military on the streets. I have years of fighting with the National Guard in Russia under my belt. When I finally left the museum that day, there were lines and lines of police tear gassing and shooting peaceful protestors with rubber bullets. The bullets were flying so close to me and, since they don’t do that in Russia, I had never experienced that before.

I felt like those two days, when the biggest protests were happening, were like the scene from a 2001: A Space Odyssey where the character flies through multi-dimensional worlds. I felt like time and space were twisted in this ugly geopolitical authoritarian dance, where I’m experiencing once again what I did before. America started to remind me of Russia in 2011 and 2012, when we had this huge protest against Putin. We believed that we could save the country, and then we were not able to do that. From there, it all went downward. I just really hope that people here in the US have the capacity and persistence to defend this democracy. And the entire Pussy Riot movement is ready to help as much as we can.

What do you hope people will get out of Police State?

I want them to come experience it. It sucks that we can’t run it everywhere, all at once. We’re kind of tied to this big metropolitan city that understands everything anyway, but I want people to make their own conclusions—that’s the number one point. I don’t want to put any ideas in their head. There is room for interpretation.

How does it feel to put yourself in a kind of police state on your own terms?

The entire installation has this uplifting, almost church-like quality. I play a lot of religious music, mostly Gregorian chants, that are kind of sad on the one hand but also feel like they almost bring you to heaven. And so, through this horror and sounds of the police state, we have this beautiful, angelic choir to help us transcend this moment.

I want to encourage people to speak up and use any instruments they have—whether it’s art or something else. This moment reminds me of Russia in 2011 and 2012, when it felt like there was a potential for us to actually become democratic. I’m not an historian and I didn’t know what went wrong, but I feel like Americans still have a lot of room to express themselves and to exercise their rights. It’s not as bad as it could be and as it might be at some point.

There’s work by current political prisoners on the wall of the installation that I would like people to witness. If those people have courage to make their political artworks from the literal Gulag, where they could be murdered, like Alexei Navalny, and they can overcome such terrifying circumstances through the act of creation to show this, then each of us can too.

Tell me about this collaboration with prisoners.

There are two works. One is in collaboration with anonymous prisoners in the United States and Belarus. I sourced fabric produced by these prisoners and used that instead of canvas in the installation, on top of which I put my own calligraphy. One of the works says, “The last one here. I’m going to be the first one in heaven.” I guess this is the mood that I’m experiencing lately a lot—it’s sad, but also weirdly uplifting. Another features the signature Pussy Riot balaclava and I write in Russian the phrase, “They will not go through,” which was the slogan by antifascists against General Francisco Franco during the Spanish Civil War in the 20th century. The interesting part about acknowledging the pain that one has to go through in order to fight the system of oppression is also the beauty and the hope of it. Ultimately, the community is the place where I get most of my strength.

As I mentioned earlier, I also feature artworks by prisoners on the walls of the installation. Some that stood out to me include the portrait of a woman in jail by artist Asya Dudyaeva, who is serving three and a half years in Russia for distributing postcards against the war in Ukraine; an anarcho-kitten by poet Artem Kamardin, who is in jail for seven years for reading poetry on the streets of Moscow; and a bleeding banana work by Anya Bazhutova, who is serving five and a half years for speaking out about Russia’s crimes in Bucha, Ukraine. This little exposition of political prisoners’ work is part of a larger, joint project with my organization Art Action Foundation and the Artistic Freedom Initiative that I’m super passionate about. Our mission is to prevent artwork by artists from vulnerable groups from being erased by archiving and exhibiting the work.

The nonpartisan Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a decision on Monday finding that the Trump administration’s withholding of funding for the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), appropriated by Congress, is in violation of the law.

In March, President Trump signed the executive order “Continuing the Reduction of the Federal Bureaucracy,” which called for the IMLS to be “eliminated to the maximum extent consistent with applicable law” within seven days. That order followed another that shrank seven federal agencies, among them the IMLS.

The agency, which is responsible for distributing federal dollars to American museums and libraries, was then gutted by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) in April, its entire 75-person staff placed on leave by acting director Keith Sonderling.

The IMLS is legally bound to support libraries and report important issues to Congress. After the president’s directives, however, the GAO, a part of Congress that monitors federal spending, found that the IMLS “ceased performing” and withheld approved funding intended to support its goal.

It also determined that Trump’s executive order is in violation of the Impoundment Control Act of 1974 (ICA), as he cannot instruct the IMLS to withhold funding that had previously been appropriated by Congress, including slashing programs that are supported by federal funds and failing to operate the agency as was originally intended.

The GAO attempted to contact and confirm the withholding with the IMLS, but the agency could not be reached. As such, publicly available “evidence indicates that IMLS withheld appropriated funds from obligation and expenditure, and because the burden to justify such withholdings rests with IMLS and the executive branch, we conclude that IMLS violated the ICA by withholding funds from obligation and expenditure, as well as by withholding funds that could not be withheld for any reason,” the GAO explained in its report.

This is not the first time this year that the GAO has raised an issue with the Trump administration, with more than three dozen investigations into Trump’s expenditures. In late May, it announced that the first of those findings indicated that the administration violated the law when it withheld funds as part of a $5 billion program to expand electric vehicle charging stations. The administration, however, has denied the charges.

Mark R. Paoletta, the general counsel for the White House’s Office of Management and Budget, wrote in a May letter that the GAO’s decision is an “invasion by an arm of Congress” that “undermine[s] agency efforts to faithfully implement the law and the president’s priorities,” reported the New York Times.

It is unclear whether the GAO will sue the administration for refusing to release the congressionally appropriated funds.

Earlier this month, a federal judge ruled against stopping the Trump administration from continuing to slash the IMLS. The IMLS is also facing the possibility of federal defunding should the Trump administration’s proposed 2026 fiscal budget be approved by Congress, with an allocation of only $6 million that would be used to close the agency and several others at the beginning of 2026.

On Wednesday, the Getty announced that it is launching a new initiative to further sustainability efforts within the art and cultural sectors.

The Getty Global Art and Sustainability Fellows program will support early-career professionals and visual artists focused on climate resiliency. As part of this program, the Getty will support 15 cultural and scientific organizations across six continents for a two-year cycle.

“Getty is launching this initiative amongst global concern about climate threats and the need for practical solutions, and we continue to believe that the arts can play an unorthodox but compelling role in this conversation,” Katherine Fleming, president and CEO of the J. Paul Getty Trust, said in a statement. “This is just one part of a much larger, holistic approach by Getty around sustainability, which includes its physical locations, its many global projects, and major regional collaborations like PST ART: Art & Science Collide.”

Participating organizations include the Academy of Athens in Greece, the Bibliothèque nationale de France, Guggenheim Bilbao in Spain, James Cook University in Australia, Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi in Brazil, Rochester Institute of Technology in the United States, Singapore Art Museum with the National Gallery Singapore, University College London’s Institute for Sustainable Heritage, and the Photosynthesis networked artist residency program at Denniston Hill in the United States, LUMA Arles in France, Pivô in Brazil, Srihatta in Bangladesh, Tate St Ives in the United Kingdom, and The Mothership in Morocco.

“These partners were chosen for their abilities to advance the field at this intersection with sustainability, and we anticipate that their efforts as part of this program will contribute leadership and changemaking in this area,” said Camille Kirk, sustainability director at Getty, in a statement.

There, Getty Global Fellows will identify critical priorities for the sustainable management of heritage resources, apply new scientific advancements at these cultural institutions, and communicate to the broader public specific climate and biodiversity crises. They will work to preserve collections and sites threatened by climate change through technical investigations and planning.

An additional aim includes raising awareness around climate resilience through artist residencies, public art, and disseminating information on climate action.

The fellows are drawn from a range of disciplines, including higher education, museums and galleries, libraries and archives, cultural heritage management, and visual arts. Each will be placed for a minimum of two years, with organizations hosting a maximum of three consecutive fellows.

The projects they will be working on, for example, range from mathematical modeling of the effects of different environmental scenarios on artifacts at the Bibliothèque nationale to expanding the Climate Vulnerability Index (CVI) assessment tool on World Heritage properties and other sites.

“We urgently need more qualified professionals in heritage sustainability, so our first Getty Global Fellow will focus on expanding training to accelerate CVI implementation in high-needs areas around the world,” Scott Heron, professor of physics at James Cook University who co-developed the CVI and is the UNESCO Chair on Climate Change Vulnerability of Natural and Cultural Heritage, explained in a statement.

“We’re also collaborating with First Nations people to tailor the CVI approach to the perspectives of Indigenous groups. The land and sea Country of many peoples are in zones of elevated risk,” he added. So far, the CVI has already been implemented across 19 UNESCO sites.

The global climate continues to shift amid ongoing disasters, such as the hurricane in Asheville and the Los Angeles wildfires, more often than not with devastating consequences.

The Getty itself has taken immense precautions, which left the estate largely unscathed during last year’s fires in LA. Despite this preparedness, the institution has been quick to recognize that it, too, is not immune to the results of rapid climate change, even going to far as to cash in $500 million in bonds to further increase protection against future natural disasters.

As such, the Getty’s latest initiative marks another step towards more far-reaching sustainability efforts that stand to have lasting global impacts among some of the world’s most prominent cultural institutions.

The Judd Foundation reached a settlement with Kim Kardashian and Clements Design earlier this month, according to court records, after the reality TV star promoted knockoff versions of the late artist’s minimalist tables and chairs.

The lawsuit centered around a now-deleted 2022 promotional video in which Kardashian tours the offices of her Skims by Kim company, therein boasting about what she called her “Donald Judd tables.” The tables in question are reminiscent of Judd’s La Mansana Table 22 and Chair 84. The video received more than 3.6 million views before it was removed. In 2024, the foundation sued her over false claims, as the dining set is not an authentic Judd.

In a joint statement, the Judd Foundation and Clements agreed to acknowledge the “rights inherent to Donald Judd’s furniture and art.” Adding that Kardashian instead “will now have authentic Donald Judd tables and chairs from Donald Judd Furniture LLC”.

The Judd Foundation previously insisted that the video be deleted and the furniture “recycled”.

The agreement comes as a surprise twist, departing from what Megan Bannigan, a lawyer representing the foundation, previously told the New York Times: “We don’t want to be mixed up with Kim Kardashian. We respect what she does, but we don’t want to be involved with this.”

Both the Judd Foundation and Clements, however, are reportedly “pleased” with the outcome.

This is not Kardashian’s first foray with the art world, as the potential owner of a $4.9 million Jean-Michel Basquiat painting and the owner of a George Condo painting, as well as, of course, her controversial appearance at the Met Gala in an altered Marylin Monroe dress.

Just last week, the Texas Historical Commission, a group that oversees preserved sites in the state, announced that a series of buildings repurposed by Judd and overseen by two artist foundations, has been added to a national register that gives protected status to long-standing cultural sites.

The official opening of Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) that was slated for July 3 has yet again been delayed. Egyptian prime minister Mostafa Madbouly said in a press conference on Saturday that the museum won’t fully open until the final quarter of this year, citing “current regional developments.”

While Madbouly did not specify what developmemts he was referring to, conflict erupted between Israel and Iran last week after Israel launched airstrikes on Friday. Iran quickly followed with retailiatory strikes.

“In light of the current regional developments, it has been decided to postpone the official opening of the Grand Egyptian Museum,” the GEM explained in a statement on social media. A new date will be determined “following coordination with all relevant authorities to ensure the organization of an event that reflects Egypt’s prominent cultural and tourism status on the international stage.”

Though Egypt is not directly involved in the conflict, the institution said it decided to postpone the official inauguration out of a “national responsibility” in what will hopefully be a more auspicious time.

“This decision also stems from Egypt’s national responsibility and its commitment to presenting a truly exceptional global event in an atmosphere worthy of the grandeur of Egyptian civilization and its unique heritage, and in a way that ensures broad international participation aligned with the significance of the occasion,” the statement continued.

Since the museum plans were first announced in 1992, there have been a number of reasons for previous delays, including most recently political unrest in nearby Gaza and Sudan, the Covid-19 pandemic, and internal economic struggles.

The GEM, however, has already partially opened, with 12 main galleries on view since late October 2024. It is considered a large part of Egypt’s future in terms of both economic generation and cultural tourism, which involves a major redevelopment of the Giza plateau. Perhaps even more significantly, the museum marks a kind of reclamation of Egyptian history within its own boarders.

A judge sentenced two men who stole Maurizio Cattelan’s 18-carat gold toilet during a 2019 raid at England’s Blenheim Palace, according to a release from Crown Prosecution Service.

The 227-pound toilet, titled “America” (2016), was dismantled in a five-minute raid only two days after it was publicly displayed in England. The piece, which first appeared at the Guggenheim Museum in New York several years earlier, was featured in an exhibition of the artist’s work at the 18th-century castle and family home of Winston Churchill.

James Sheen was convicted of the theft and received a four year prison sentence, while Michael Jones, who staked out the palace, received a 27-month prison sentence.

A jury at Oxford Crown Court previously found Jones guilty of burglary and Frederick Doe guilty of conspiracy to convert or transfer criminal property. Sheen, a builder who employed Jones, previously pleaded guilty to burglary.

Sheen was previously sentenced to 21 months in prison, suspended for two years, and ordered to do 240 hours of community service.

“Given the level of planning that enabled the raid to be carried out within five minutes, it was unusual that the offenders left such a trail of evidence in their wake. From phone messages to DNA traces found in a stolen car and on the sledgehammer used in the burglary, this wealth of evidence ultimately enabled us to secure their convictions,” Shan Saunders for the Crown Prosecution Service said in a statement.

Jones allegedly visited Blenheim Palace twice: once prior to the toilet’s exhibition and again after it was installed to take photos of the scene.

On September 14, 2019, around 5 a.m., Sheen and the accomplices drove two stolen vehicles through the palace’s locked gates. As captured on CCTV, the group used sledgehammers and crowbars to break into the palace and remove the toilet. They then loaded it into the back of one of the vehicles before escaping.

Sheen contacted Doe in the days following the burglary about selling the gold using coded messages. The pair discussed a pay out of £26,500 ($34,500) per kilogram of the stolen gold.

“We reviewed nearly 30,000 pages of evidence as we built our case, including a significant amount of material from James Sheen’s phone. We examined text messages, images, and hours of voice recordings, many of which implicated other individuals. Sheen and those he communicated with used code and slang, and it required careful analysis to decipher these messages to understand how the raid was carried out and how the stolen gold was disposed of,” Saunders continued.

“Three of the individuals involved in this crime have now been sentenced, and we believe this prosecution has played a part in disrupting a wider crime and money laundering network,” he added.

Insured for approximately $6 million, the toilet still has not been recovered.

On June 10, the Trump administration laid off an estimated 100 employees at the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) as part of a  “reduction in force,” according to USA Today. Since then, about two-thirds of the organization’s workers have lost their jobs. Fewer than 60 employees are thought to remain at the government agency.

“A major agency restructuring is underway without the appropriate planning needed to ensure the continuity of operations,” the NEH’s union, the American Federation of Government Employees Local 3403, said in a statement. “These drastic changes … represent an existential threat to those institutions and individuals who rely on support from NEH to research, preserve, and interpret our shared heritage.”

Founded in 1965, the NEH has awarded more than $6 billion in grants to museums, historical sites, universities, libraries, and related organizations.

Cuts from the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) already halted all remaining funding to the NEH for the 2025 fiscal year. DOGE also cut $65 million from the NEH’s overall $210 million budget and attempted to fire roughly 65 percent of its staff. Those funds have instead been funneled into the creation of President Donald Trump’s National Garden of American Heroes, among other projects.

A lawsuit blocked the planned “reduction in force” at the NEH, but the new layoffs were not announced at the time of that case.

“It is absurd to think that grant dollars that were being used to do things like publish President George Washington’s writings, restore Mark Twain’s artifacts and support civics education are instead being directed to commission statues. While NEH staff have the expertise to help provide historic context about these individuals and their impact, commissioning the artworks falls well outside of the agency’s purview. History is not something that can be set in stone”, the NEH’s union told the Art Newspaper.

Several organizes have filed lawsuits against the NEH, seeking to halt what some have described as the organization’s “dismantling.” The picture looks to only get worse next year: a proposed 2026 federal budget includes a plan to eliminate the NEH, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

A Reuters review of government agency departures found that they have been cut by nearly 12 percent, with 260,000 of the 2.3 million federal civilian workforce having been laid off thus far.

The gutting of federal agencies continues amid an ongoing feud between President Trump and former head of DOGE Elon Musk, who told the Washington Post, “The federal bureaucracy situation is much worse than I realized.”