Ghanian artist Ibrahim Mahama has taken the top spot in ArtReview's Power 100 - making history as the first African to do so in its 24-years of publication.

The list also reflects the increasing importance of the Gulf States with Sheikha Al-Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, who chairs Qatar Museums and reportedly controls a billion-dollar budget for acquisitions, in second place.

Third is the head of the Sharjah Art Foundation, Sheikha Hoor Al Qasimi.

Mahama, who last year draped the concrete walls of London's Barbican art center with 2,000 sq metres of bright pink cloth, has used his own money to open a studio and gallery in his hometown of Tamale.

He was described on the list as a "totemic artist and institution maker".

Other prominent entries in the top 10 include artist Wael Shawky, who was recently named artistic director of Art Basel Qatar, Amy Sherald, Wolfgang Tillmans and Singaporean artist and filmmaker Ho Tzu Nyen.

To read more about Mahama click on his HENI News in-depth profile here.

Read the full 100 here.

The amount Creative Australia spent sending staff abroad in the last two years, according to opposition politicians. The agency was criticized this year for mishandling the commission for the 2026 Venice Biennale by appointing artist Khaled Sabsabi only to sack him and then reinstate him.

At last some good news from the Louvre where the Paris museum has just opened its new gallery dedicated to art from around the world.

The Gallery of Five Continents is home to 130 works which it says draw connections across "geographies and cultures".

The news is a rare bright spot for museum director Laurence des Cars who has spent much of the year dealing with the shocking $102 million jewelry heist and a planned $400 million renovation project to restore the crumbling building and its creaking infrastructure.

1 - Vienna-based painter Marianne Vlaschits has received an $11,677 travel fellowship from the Maria Lassnig Foundation. She said she will use the money to walk around Great Britain creating "at least one picture every day".

2 - An auction record for a Rembrandt print was set at Christie's in London yesterday. The work, Arnout Tholinx, Inspector, from around 1656 sold for $4.1 million. It last sold at the same auction house 101 years ago.

3 - The Andy Warhol Foundation will hand out $1.04 million in grants to 31 writers this year. It has given more than $300 million in grants and donated 52,786 works of art to 322 institutions since being set up after his death.

4 - A New York state school district is being asked to provide counseling for students “psychologically affected" by looking at the website of the Keith Haring Foundation. It is part of a potential legal action brought by the American Center for Law and Justice against the Watertown City School District after parents raised concerns about 11 and 12-year-olds seeing "wholly inappropriate" content on the website which they looked at as part of an art project.

5 - Works by Renoir and Alfred Munnings are going on sale in the auction of the collection of Hollywood legend Bing Crosby and his wife Kathryn. The sale will be at Sotheby's Breuer Building in New York on December 18.