A French police drug raid ended on a high when officers found a stolen Pablo Picasso painting worth around $17 million.

The painting has not been identified but reports in the French press say it was a portrait of his muse and mistress, Marie-Therese Walter, and is believed to be owned by a Singaporean woman.

It was found during a raid by the narcotics unit on properties in the Paris suburbs which also turned up 17kg of cannabis and $229,000 worth of designer clothing.

Among those arrested was a 37-year-old man who works as a guard at a Paris firm that stores art and other valuable property.

He admitted taking the Picasso from the depot, telling officers “he was seeking to demonstrate security flaws within the company”, according to Le Parisien newspaper.

He has been charged with theft and involvement in drug dealing.

Thousands of people marked the end of Tasmania's Dark Mofo art festival with a dawn dip in a nearby river.

The Nude Solstice Swim marked the end of the festival, which featured an installation by Chunxiao Qu and a performance piece by Regina Jose Galindo, and came only hours after its co-founder David Walsh unveiled the latest addition to his Museum of Old and New Art (Mona) in Hobart.

The Phrontisterion is home to Walsh's personal library including a first folio of William Shakespeare's plays and artworks by Lucas Grogan among others and is located beneath a concrete amphitheatre designed by Anselm Kiefer.

The number of visitors to this year's Art Basel, but no emerging artist won its Baloise Art Prize after its main sponsor merged with a rival firm.

Meet the man with the most under-pressure position in the museum world - the new head of security at the Louvre.

Olivier Goupil starts the job next month with a spokesman for the Paris museum saying he will be "responsible for coordinating security policies" and its new "master plan for security equipment" brought in only months after the $102 million heist.

The French police veteran will report "directly" to Louvre president Christophe Leribault who only last week told politicians the institution was "running out of steam" and its equipment and infrastructure were "reaching the end of their life cycle".

There was further bad publicity for the museum in the last few days after footage of staff trying to block visitors taking selfies with the Mona Lisa went viral - a reminder if one was needed of the museum's struggles to manage the huge crowds it attracts.

Tate Modern's new Frida Kahlo exhibition is a family affair with work by her father, Guillermo, and nephew Antonio, also on show.

They are joined by pieces from the likes of Catherine Opie, Judy Chicago and Spencer Tunick in the show examining her rise to global icon and her influence on generations of artists.

Frida: The Making of an Icon, which opens on Thursday, features more than 30 of her works including rarely seen self-portraits as well as photographs and personal belongings.

Also on show are more than 200 exhibits reflecting her rise to mass market success with everything from t-shirts to tequila bottles included.

Tate has also made its own contribution to her commercial appeal with its shop stocking gifts from a $15 watermelon necklace to a $291 skateboard featuring one of her self-portraits.

1 - The New York-based National Coalition Against Censorship has created a free downloadable guide telling artists and curators how to defend free expression. It has been involved in recent cases including the cancellation of Victor Quinonez's show at the University of North Texas and the seizure by police of Sally Mann's photographs from the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth.

2 - Spanish painter Nieves Gonzalez has made her US debut with a show at the Richard Heller Gallery in Santa Monica, California. The artist, who hit the headlines when commissioned to paint an album cover for singer Lily Allen, has already sold all 13 paintings in the show which opened on Saturday.

3 - Israeli sculptor Yaacov Agam, who has died aged 98, will make one final journey to the museum that bears his name today. His coffin will be at the Agam Museum Plaza in Rishon LeZion, near Tel Aviv, this afternoon during a memorial service for the kinetic artist.

4 - Malta is making history by taking part in South Korea's Gwangju Biennale for the first time. Four artists including Norbert Francis Attard will create a series of site-specific installations for the show which is run by artistic director Ho Tzu Nyen from September 5 to November 15.

5 - A sound sculpture by Harry Bertoia sold earlier this month for $251,550 at Phillips, more than one and a half times its low estimate. It was one of five works by the mid-century designer that went for a total of $446,340 at the design sale in New York on June 12. Read more here.