Anti-censorship campaigners have welcomed the return of some Sally Mann photographs seized by police from an exhibition at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth in Texas.

Elizabeth Larison, from the National Coalition Against Censorship, said their return should be celebrated as a "rightful check on the abuse of government power".

Police impounded the pictures of her family after complaints by local officials described them as "grossly inappropriate" and likened them to child pornography but no charges were brought against the museum.

But one battle won does not mean the war is over and Texan galleries and museums may face more trouble under a new law proposed by local politician David Lowe to fine museums that show "obscene or harmful material" up to $500,000 per item per day it is on view.

HENI News has contacted the museum and Rep. Lowe for comment.

It has been a bad few days for Modern art in the Netherlands - first an Andy Warhol print was accidentally thrown away with the trash and now a $56 million Mark Rothko work has been damaged in "an unguarded moment".

The 1960 abstract Grey, Orange on Maroon was scratched by a child at the Boijmans Van Beuningen museum in Rotterdam leaving it needing professional restoration.

The museum said "a number of visible scratches" were "caused by a child who scratched the underside of the work in an unguarded moment".

HENI News reported on Friday how a Dutch politician apologised after town hall staff threw away an Andy Warhol silkscreen print of Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands by accident.

The number of artworks in the collection of the US General Services Administration, the future of which is uncertain under the Trump administration's plan to cut its budget as part of its efficiency drive.

Political portraiture is making headlines again on both sides of the Atlantic.

CNN was given the first look at Russian artist Nikas Safronov's portrait of a bloodied but defiant President Trump clenching his fist after the failed assassination attempt at a 2024 campaign rally in Pennsylvania.

Safronov told the channel he hoped his painting, gifted to Trump by Russian leader Vladimir Putin, would "bring our countries closer".

Meanwhile in Germany, former Chancellor Angela Merkel is ready for her official portrait three years after leaving office and now has to decide who gets the commission.

Among the names of potential painters put forward by the Berliner Zeitung newspaper are Rosemarie Trockel and Anselm Kiefer.

Visitors to the refurbished Sainsbury Wing of London's National Gallery will be greeted by Richard Long's Mud Sun, a five-metre tall wall painting.

The artist collected the mud from the River Avon near his home in the west of England before carrying it up to London in a plastic bag to create the work which has been installed at the top of the staircase of the transformed wing.

Described by the gallery as a "primeval disc of gestural swipes and marks", it goes on show to the public from May 10 when the gallery reopens.

1 - High-profile curator Philipp Kaiser has left Marion Goodman Gallery where he was a director and partner for the past six years. The gallery said he would "return to independent curatorial practice".

2 - Works by artists including Sanford Biggers, Wangari Mathenge and Sergio Sister found buyers at Expo Chicago. The fair, which closed on Sunday, is the second since it became part of the art fair giant Frieze and included a collaboration with 20 Korean galleries.

3 - London's Tate Modern will present Theatre Picasso in September, marking 100 years since the artist painted The Three Dancers. Picasso’s biographer and Tate trustee Roland Penrose persuaded the reluctant artist to sell the museum his masterwork in 1965.