Another day, another row over who goes to this year's Venice Biennale.

This time it is the turn of South Africa where arts minister Gayton McKenzie canceled the selection of Gabrielle Goliath saying he could not support her proposed work Elegy, which refers to events in Gaza, describing it as "highly divisive political narrative".

That prompted the selection committee who chose her to fire back at McKenzie accusing him of "attempts to silence free expression and compromise artistic integrity" and adding they offered their "continued and unequivocal support for the artist, the curator, and their project in the face of political pressure".

It is unclear who, if anyone, will now represent South Africa at the Biennale.

They are not the first country to tie themselves in knots over their selection for the event - Creative Australia managed to select artist Khaled Sabsabi and curator Michael Dagostino then promptly dropped them after a prominent politician criticised some of his early works before re-appointing them a few months later.

In Serbia, almost 800 people have signed a petition opposing the choice of painter Predrag Dakovic saying his selection is "the result of an unprofessional and non-transparent process".

The Mauritshuis art museum is loaning its prized possession - Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring - to Japan in a deal to help pay for planned renovations.

The Dutch museum said the painting would go "on temporary loan" to the Nakanoshima Museum of Art in Osaka while it was "closed for alterations in August and September".

Its loan is being done in collaboration with Japanese media giant the Asahi Shimbun and a spokesperson for The Hague-based museum said it would "use the support of the Asahi Shimbun to fund the alterations scheduled for this year".

Vermeer's work was last loaned in 2023 for a major show of the painter's work at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam and also went on a world tour in 2012 to 2014 when more building work was being done at the Mauritshuis.

That tour took it to the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum and it was also shown in Kobe before moving on to the United States.

Rome's new photography center opens this month as part of the landmark redevelopment of a former slaughterhouse into an arts quarter.

The first show, dedicated to American photographer Irving Penn, opens on January 30 alongside an exhibition of work by Italian artist Silvia Camporesi.

It is the latest step in the redevelopment of the site in Rome's Testaccio neighborhood which has been transformed into a home for contemporary art and theatre as well as a base for the city's Academy of Fine Arts.

Tributes have been paid to the co-founder of Tokyo's Mori Art Museum, Mori Yoshiko, who has died aged 85.

She opened the museum in the family firm's skyscraper HQ in the city's Roppongi Hills neighborhood in 2003 with her late husband, building tycoon Mori Minoru, and was its founding chairperson only retiring in December 2024.

In a statement, the museum said "it was her joy to contribute to both the international development of the museum and contemporary art in Japan."

The museum's collection includes work by Ai Weiwei, Cao Fei, Lee Ufan, Yoshitomo Nara and Yoko Ono.

1 - This is the year California discovers Sarah Sze - the Boston-born and New York-based artist will unveil two immersive video installations and large-scale paintings at her show at the Gagosian gallery in Los Angeles this month. The show, Feel Free, opens on January 29 and is followed in November by a major site-specific commission at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

2 - And then there were five - the nominees for France's prestigious Marcel Duchamp Prize have been announced. Usually it features four nominees but the shortlisting of duo David Brognon and Stephanie Rollin changes that. Also nominated for the $40,000 award are Joel Andrianomearisoa, Josefa Ntjam and Laura Henno with the winner announced in October.

3 - London's Courtauld Gallery is extending its opening hours to 9pm on January 14 and 15 to allow a last chance to see its Wayne Thiebaud show. The US artist's first museum show in the UK closes on January 18.

4 - US President Donald Trump told the New York Times he has a Washington DC location in mind for his planned National Garden of American Heroes sculpture park. He said it would be "most likely right on the Potomac River" but added there had not been "a final decision".