London's British Museum is used to items in its vast collection causing controversy - think Benin Bronzes or the Parthenon Sculptures - but it is clearly now worried by the storm being caused by one particular exhibit it has not even got yet.

More than 71,000 people have signed a petition calling on the French government to cancel its loan of the Bayeux Tapestry to the museum and things have got so bad director Nicholas Cullinan has put pen to paper and written to the Guardian newspaper to defend the plan.

He says "experts on both sides of the Channel have been carrying out rigorous planning and due diligence to ensure the safe transport and conservation of the tapestry" and says there will even be a "full dry run of the journey" to bring it to London.

Cullinan also tells readers the tapestry will be exhibited on a "state-of-the-art table, designed to support its long-term preservation while allowing visitors to view it in a striking new way" which will eventually go back to France with the exhibit for use at the Bayeux Museum.

Public art in the world's underground railways is hardly unusual, but New York's subway is doing something slightly different and handing over its public address system to conceptual artist Chloë Bass.

Commuters in 14 of the city's subway stations will hear a series of short announcements on October 5 recorded in English, Spanish, Arabic, Bangla, Haitian Kreyòl and Mandarin — the six most commonly spoken languages in New York.

The announcements will all end with the words “If you hear something, free something", according to the New York Times which reports Bass as saying it is a play on the usual security messages broadcast on the transport system and an attempt to make it "a place where we engage with others instead of only being suspicious of others".

The largest-ever survey of Tracey Emin's career opens at London's Tate Modern next year.

The show, which spans 40 years, will bring together 90 works including her notorious Turner Prize-nominated installation My Bed.

It will also feature work from her first solo exhibition at White Cube made up of tiny photographs of 1980s art school paintings which she destroyed, video work and a recent bronze sculpture inspired by her life-changing diagnosis and treatment for bladder cancer as well as a string of new paintings.

Emin said the show would be a personal "bench mark" for her and "a true celebration of living”.

Tracey Emin: A Second Life will run from February 26 to August 30.

Maybe Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie Bunch could learn something from the slightly more humble Woodmere Art Museum which scored a rare victory after standing up to the White House.

The Philadelphia museum's director William R. Valerio said he was “over the moon thrilled” after the administration did a 180-degree turn on cancelling a grant and said it will get its money.

It comes after the museum started legal action when a previously approved $750,000 grant was revoked. The grant came from the Institute of Museum and Library Services which was targeted by President Trump who placed its staff on leave and canceled all grants.

The Smithsonian has come in for consistent criticism from the White House in recent months. National Portrait Gallery director Kim Sajet resigned after being threatened with the sack by the president and the government announced it will review Smithsonian exhibitions and seek changes to programming it finds objectionable.

1 - Clement Delepine, the director of Art Basel Paris, is taking the top job at the Lafayette Anticipations exhibition space in the French capital. He succeeds Rebecca Lamarche-Vadel, who has been director for six years, in November after this year's fair which is now searching for his replacement.

2 - Banksy's latest work has already been covered up by security staff outside London's Royal Courts of Justice. He confirmed the work, showing a judge using a gavel to beat a protester on the wall of the courts, was genuine when he posted a picture of it on Instagram this morning. It is believed to refer to the recent crackdown on protesters supporting the proscribed Palestine Action campaign group.

3 - German artist and curator Arnika Ahldag has been appointed director of the MAP Museum of Art & Photography in Bengaluru, India. She takes over in January from Harish Vasudevan who has served as Acting Director since 2024.