The director of the Mauritshuis museum in The Hague, Martine Gosselink, has said out loud what many of contemporaries are thinking - admitting she is wary of lending work to US museums.

She told Dutch newspaper Trouw paintings would not go from the Mauritshuis, which is home to works by Rembrandt and Vermeer, to the US in the current political climate without "cast iron guarantees" they will be returned.

She added: "Suppose you lend an object to the National Museum of African American History and Culture which is currently under fire. What if it is closed down?".

That could cause a particular problem for New York's Frick Collection which loaned the Mauritshuis 10 paintings for its anniversary exhibition with Gosselink saying it would have to wait for any reciprocal gesture.

It will put pressure on new Frick director Axel Ruger whose appointment made much of his European connections.

Ruger, whose CV includes stints leading London's Royal Academy of Arts and Amsterdam's Van Gogh Museum, will have work to do to reassure his European colleagues their works are safe in his hands.

A Belgian sculptor, whose tiny tribute to lives lost in the space race was placed on the moon, has died aged 99.

Paul Van Hoeydonck's aluminum figure was left in a crater on the moon's surface in 1971 by Apollo 15 commander David Scott accompanied by a plaque listing 14 astronauts and cosmonauts who died in the exploration of space.

Last year, a series of small sculptures by Jeff Koons were left on the Moon by the uncrewed Odysseus lander.

Australian painter Julie Fragar has won the country's most prestigious art prize for a portrait of her fellow artist Justene Williams.

She was chosen from 57 finalists to take the $64,000 Archibald Prize at the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney, becoming only the 13th woman to win in its 104-year history.

Her work is on show with the other finalists in an exhibition opening tomorrow that runs to August 17.

The war of words between art collectors David Geffen and Justin Sun over a disputed Giacometti sculpture goes on.

Sun claims a member of his staff, Sydney Xiong, sold Le Nez to Geffen without his knowledge but the music mogul says the Chinese-born billionaire is just suffering from "seller's remorse".

A lawyer for Sun, who bought the work for $78.4 million in 2021, has now described Geffen's claims as "desperate and bizarre" and says the case will be "aggressively pursued".

The lawyer also rejected claims Xiong is still at liberty, saying she has been detained in mainland China for the alleged “theft”.

Inflatable balls and textile carcasses will be among work on show at this year's Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition in London.

Argentinian sculptor Tamara Kostianovsky, who credits an internship at her father's plastic surgery practice as a major influence on her work, will hang her fabric made flesh sculptures above the heads of visitors to the main gallery.

Ryan Gander will take over the Annenberg Courtyard with a display of five large inflatable balls inscribed with "absurd questions" asked by children.

The show, the 257th summer exhibition, will run from June 17 to August 17 and also include work by Lubaina Himid, Cornelia Parker and Conrad Shawcross.

Honorary Academician Jenny Holzer will also make her summer show debut.

1 - It has dominated the skyline of Florence and marred views of the Uffizi Gallery since 2006 but the huge crane used in the museum's extension work is finally going. Gallery director Simone Verde raised $200,000 from local entrepreneurs to pay for the crane to be dismantled.

2 - Mary Anne Carter has been nominated by President Trump to head the US National Endowment for the Arts having previously led it for two years during his first presidency. The future of the agency, which funds arts organizations across the country, is in doubt after reports hundreds of grants have been withdrawn.

3 - Stop what you are doing and consider the beauty of art - it is good for you. That is the conclusion of a University of Cambridge study which used the Kettle's Yard gallery as a living laboratory to discover it can "enhance abstract thinking and promote a different mindset to our everyday patterns of thought, shifting us into a more expansive state of mind".