The organizers of the Venice Biennale have been urged to reconsider their decision to admit Russia to this year's event by a leading Italian politician.

Federico Mollicone, a member of Italy's Chamber of Deputies and chair of its culture committee, said seeing the pavilion "next to the Ukrainian Pavilion in this situation is not a message of peace".

He told the Italian newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore that biennale President Pietrangelo Buttafuoco had made a "mistake" by announcing Russia's inclusion.

Speaking to Italian news agency ANSA, he said: "I hope the Biennale will reconsider the presence of the Russian Pavilion."

Earlier this week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Moscow of "exploiting sports, music, cinema, and art festivals—like the Venice Biennale" to spread propaganda, while the European Union has threatened to pull $2.29 million of funding from its foundation if Russia takes part.

One of David Hockney's largest ever works is expected to sell for around $400,000 at auction later this month.

The 39-foot-long print Autour de la maison, été (2019) is printed on a single piece of paper and shows his home in Normandy, France, at the height of summer.

Its sale at Christie's in London coincides with his current solo show at the city's Serpentine Galleries.

Outsider artist Henry Darger's journey to cultural insider continues with a stage show based on his life opening in New York this week.

Actor John Kelly plays the painter in Bughouse, which premiered in the Off-Broadway Vineyard Theatre, on Wednesday.

The play is based on Darger's own writings - he penned an autobiography and an epic novel as well as painting 350 watercolors in his lifetime without ever trying to publish or exhibit them.

He spent his working life as a hospital janitor and his artistic endeavors were only uncovered after he moved to a nursing home and his landlords found his one-bedroom Chicago apartment full of work created over four decades.

His paintings can be seen in the American Folk Art Museum in New York and the Art Institute of Chicago.

1 - A plaque honoring Jean-Michel Basquiat has been stolen from outside his former home in Great Jones Street in New York's NoHo district. The marker, unveiled in 2016 by the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, is believed to have been stolen for scrap.

2 - Artist duo Bugarin + Castle will represent Scotland at this year's Venice Biennale with their show Shame Parade. Described as a "contemporary queer and trans reimagining of public shaming rituals", it includes sculpture, moving images and was chosen by a panel including curator Lucia Pietroiusti.

3 - London's Tate Britain gallery had a royal visitor this week when King Charles III was given a tour of its Turner and Constable exhibition by curator Amy Concannon. The show, staged to mark the 250th anniversaries of both men's births runs to April 12 and has already had more than 185,000 visitors.

4 - Work has begun on a Netflix drama about the relationship of Frida Kahlo and her husband Diego Rivera based on the novel, Nothing is Black, by French writer Claire Berest. Kahlo's life has already inspired several novels, ballets, operas, plays and films including the 2002 biopic starring Salma Hayek and Alfred Molina as the couple.