The Santa Monica Museum of Art, which closed to the public last year, announced that it will reopen in Los Angeles’ Arts District in 2017. The institution was previously located in Santa Monica’s Bergamot Station—a railroad-facility-turned-art-hub. The museum will also go by a new moniker—the Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles—when it reopens.

The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts has received a painting by the German Expressionist Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. The canvas, Sand Hills in Grünau, was donated to the institution by the heirs of its original owner—the writer Max Fischer, who abandoned his art collection before fleeing Nazi Germany in 1935. The work was recently returned to Fischer’s heirs by the Museum of Modern Art, which purchased the work from a local gallery in 1949.

In February 1914, Marsden Hartley wrote to Alfred Stieglitz from Berlin: “Mabel Dodge is really the most remarkable woman I ever knew…a real creator of creators.” 1 In January, Mabel had written an introduction to Hartley’s exhibition at Stieglitz’s gallery, 291, later published in the June 1914 issue of Stieglitz’s journal Camera Work. Hartley would be one of the first, and most important, of the numerous modernist artists and visionaries Mabel drew to Taos, New Mexico.

On Wednesday, May 11, a long-lost work by the Dutch Golden Age painter Rembrandt will go on view at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles. Painted when the artist was only eighteen, The Unconscious Patient (An Allegory of Smell), is one of Rembrandt's earliest works. The painting, which surfaced at a New Jersey auction house in September, has not been on public view in centuries.

The Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum—the only institution in the country devoted exclusively to historic and contemporary design—has announced the winners of its seventeenth annual National Design Awards. Conceived to honor lasting achievement in American design, this year’s recipients include industry leaders working across a range of disciplines such as the architect Moshe Safdie and the San Francisco-based interior design firm Studio Q&A.

On November 14, the Jewish Museum in New York will unveil the country’s first exhibition dedicated to Pierre Chareau. While the French architect is widely unrecognized today, Chareau was extremely prolific during the twentieth century and his landmark building, the Maison de Verre, is recognized as one of Paris’ most important Modernist structures. Pierre Chareau: Modern Architecture and Design will remain on view through March 26, 2017.

It’s well known that the Kips Bay Decorator Show House is the gold standard of interior design events. Launched in 1973 by supporters of the Kips Bay Boys & Girls Club, the project has grown into a must-attend event for design enthusiasts, attracting thousands of visitors from New York and beyond each year. Now in its 44th year, the 2016 Kips Bay Decorator Show House, which opens to the public on May 12, will take place in the Carlton House Townhouse on East 61st Street.

On Monday, May 2, the Italian government announced that it will spend one billion euros to restore thirty-three of the country’s museums and cultural heritage sites. The monumental investment will involve revamping a number of well-known attractions, including the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, the Reggia di Caserta palace near Naples, and the ancient Roman ruins of Pompeii and Herculaneum. The government hopes that the investment will draw an increased number of tourists to Italy’s myriad cultural treasures.

The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C., has announced a major Yayoi Kusama exhibition, slated to open next year. The survey will feature six of the artist’s immersive Infinity Rooms, which are extremely popular among museum-goers. The mirror-lined chambers, which are  filled with dazzling LED lights, will be complemented by over sixty paintings and sculptures as well as archival material.

Real estate tycoon and well-known art collector, Aby Rosen, has been ordered to pay $7 million as part of a settlement with New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman. Since 2002, Rosen had failed to pay taxes on $80 million worth of art that he either purchased or commissioned. His vast collection includes works by big-ticket artists such as Damien Hirst, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Cy Twombly, Andy Warhol, and Pablo Picasso.

On June 29, Sotheby’s London will auction the largest rough diamond found in over a century. The 1190-carat stone was discovered in a mine in Botswana by Lucara Diamond Corp. in November 2015. The diamond, which is estimated to be around 2.5 billion to 3 billion years old, will go on view at Sotheby’s New York ahead of the sale. 

When Spring Masters New York debuted at the Park Avenue Armory in 2014, it filled a considerable hole in the city’s spring arts calendar. Specializing in art from every period, including contemporary art and design, the fair is a distinct departure from the typical American art fair model, which tends to be less all-encompassing. James Carona, Owner of Heather James Fine Art, says, “I appreciate the eclectic mix of artwork at the fair—you might see a modern master’s painting beside a classical sculpture. Spring Masters sets itself apart in this eclecticism.”

A sculpted ceiling designed by Isamu Noguchi has been discovered in a St. Louis U-Haul office. Created in 1946 for the Magic Chef stove company, the work has been hidden from view for decades. U-Haul acquired the building in 1977, but the Noguchi ceiling wasn’t revealed until the company launched a renovation project two years ago.

On Monday, May 2, FBI agents searched the Connecticut home of Robert Gentile—a former mobster long-tied to the Gardner Museum heist—for the third time. Agents searched Gentile’s residence and property, digging up a portion of the suspect’s yard. The 1990 theft at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, which remains unsolved, is one of the most devastating art heists in history.

The Judd Foundation, which maintains, preserves, and provides access to the permanently installed spaces and archives of Minimalist Donald Judd in New York City and Marfa, Texas, will expand the artist’s 1975 catalogue raisonne. While an official publication date has not yet been set, the Foundation has announced a public call for works, which aims to supplement current data.

Chris Bedford, the Director of Brandeis University’s Rose Art Museum in Waltham, Massachusetts, has been named Director of the Baltimore Museum of Art. Bedford will join the institution in August, filling a void left by Doreen Bolger, who retired from her post in 2015. Before his tenure at the Rose Art Museum, Bedford worked for a number of illustrious institutions, including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the J. Paul Getty Museum.

1. This cool California estate boasts astonishing views of the entire Santa Barbara coastline.

This spectacular home combines two of California’s defining features—an effortlessly cool aesthetic and breathtaking views. Perched on 160 acres in Santa Barbara County, the 4,780-square-foot home was designed by Barbara Bestor, a Los Angeles-based architect known for her unique brand of West Coast modernism.

The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, will conserve two of its most beloved masterpieces—Vincent van Gogh’s House at Auvers and Enclosed Field with Ploughman. The project will involve removing varnishes from both of the paintings’ surfaces. Guests of the museum will be able to watch conservators at work thanks to the institution’s glass-enclosed “Conservation in Action” space.

The Frick Collection in New York has acquired 450 historical medals thanks to a promised gift from the Stephen K. and Janie Woo Scher Collection. The metal portraits will be exhibited at the museum in 2017. Often overlooked today, metal portraiture was a popular medium in Europe, especially during the period between the fifteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Los Angeles councilmember Mitch O’Farrell has announced that Frank Lloyd Wright’s Residence A—the guesthouse for the architect’s iconic Hollyhock House—will undergo a comprehensive restoration. The structures, which are both owned by the city of Los Angeles, are located in Hollywood’s Barnsdall Art Park. The project is expected to cost around $3.2 million. The Hollyhock House—the first residence that Wright designed in Los Angeles—underwent a major restoration last year.