Italian culture minister Alessandro Giuli is returning from her New York trip with quite the haul - 17 antiquities and rare books valued at more than $1.5 million.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin L. Bragg, Jr. said the works were being returned to Italy and The Vatican after being recovered during "multiple investigations into antiquities trafficking networks".

Giuli hailed the "extraordinary teamwork between Italian and American Authorities" behind the return of the treasures which included a terracotta fragment of a votive relief from New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art and six Jesuit books stolen from a Vatican City archive, sold in London, and seized from the University of Notre Dame in Indiana.

She also met Met director Max Hollein who said the return of treasures from its collection, which also included a pair of Roman silver cups and a pair of earrings, was proof its "collaboration with Italian museums and cultural institutions continues to flourish".

The number of galleries taking part in Art Basel Hong Kong which opens to VIPs tomorrow and the wider public on Friday before running to Sunday.

Georgian artist Tekla Aslanishvili has won a $120,000 commission from the Hans Nefkens Foundation six years after they awarded her a grant for her video art.

The Eurasia Moving Image Commission is designed to increase "contemporary artistic production in the moving image field" and is awarded in collaboration with museums in Antwerp, Helsinki, Seoul and Taipei.

A foundation spokesperson said the award showed its "sustained commitment to her practice, but also highlights the remarkable artistic progression she has achieved over the past six years".

The money must be used to produce "a screen-based video artwork" in the next 18 months which will be exhibited in each partner institution.

Photographs of New York's Chelsea Hotel have gone on show after being lost for almost half a century.

The images, which show some of its famous residents including singer Patti Smith and Robert Mapplethorpe, were taken between 1969 and 1971 by Albert Scopin while he lived there.

Scopin sent the pictures back to his native Germany for publication but they were lost until turning up 10 years ago.

They are now on show at Berlin's FWR Galerie until April 4 with Scopin giving a talk about them at the space tonight to mark their publication in a new book Scopin: Chelsea Hotel.

The Manhattan hotel has been home to dozens of artists, writers and musicians over the years including Dylan Thomas, Bob Dylan, Edie Sedgwick, Robert Crumb and Mark Rothko.

1 - Colombian artist Delcy Morelos unveils her first major public work in the UK later this year at London's Barbican arts center sculpture court. The work, which goes on show from May 15 to July 31, is more than three meters high and includes "soil lined tunnels" leading to a temporary pavilion.

2 - More than 200 posthumous prints by photographer Vivian Maier are being sold at auction and are expected to fetch around $1.5 million after bidding for the Artnet sale ends on Thursday. Maier, who spent her working life as a nanny, was unknown until thousands of her negatives turned up in a Chicago estate sale and caused a sensation that brought her street photography to a wider public.

3 - A museum dedicated to Italian artist Mario Giansone opens near Turin next month. The museum will stretch over seven rooms in a converted knitwear factory and include sculptures, paintings, stencils and a tapestry.

4 - Thaddaeus Ropac gallery has announced it now represents the estate of painter Martha Diamond who died in 2023. The first major European exhibition of her work will open in September at the Sara Hilden Art Museum in Tampere, Finland.