Kehinde Wiley has written to President Trump to ask for one of his paintings back after it was removed from a US embassy amid claims it depicted a "lesbian picnic".

The painter's letter asked for "the opportunity to purchase it back" and was also sent to Leah Campos, the US ambassador to the Dominic Republic, who had the picture removed from her embassy.

He told The New York Times he thought the work, which shows four Dominican art students against a floral background, might have been singled out because he painted the official portrait of the President's predecessor Barack Obama, saying: "That is the elephant in the living room."

Campos told a Dominican radio show that when she first noticed the work, called Young Artists After Siamesas 1960, she "saw a huge painting of a picnic in a park with flowers and some lesbians."

The White House has declined to comment.

The length of time Ann Temkin will have spent as chief curator at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) when she steps down in January. Temkin, who will become strategic adviser to MoMA’s director Christophe Cherix, will be 67 when her tenure ends - two years older than the New York museum's traditional retirement age.

Ed Ruscha could have been a film star.

Twenty-four years ago he turned down a role in Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's film 21 Grams, but the Oscar-winning director finally found a way to collaborate with the artist when he asked him to design a poster for his new film Digger.

Both men were joined by the film's star Tom Cruise to unveil the poster, which features an image of a huge iceberg, on Sunday at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) just days ahead of the film's US cinema release.

Ruscha said the film, which stars Cruise as an oil tycoon trying to save the world, reminded him of "a kaleidoscope", saying: "It’s got so many round and round ideas. It was kaleidoscopic in its message and its content and its humor, and it’s got something to offer to the world."

Works by Edvard Munch and Njideka Akunyili Crosby are the first two paintings to feature in a new loan scheme between two of Australia's biggest museums.

Munch's Man with horse 1918 is going from Canberra's National Gallery to the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney with Crosby's Na Parlour (In the parlor) going the other way.

What they have in common are philanthropist husband and wife Geoff Ainsworth and Johanna Featherstone who gifted both works in the first place on the understanding they would be shared.

National Gallery of Australia Director Nick Mitzevich said the partnership between the two museums "reflects a shared commitment to ensuring exemplary works of art are experienced by as many Australians as possible".

1 - Carole Itter and Faye HeavyShield are among the eight recipients of Canada's 2026 Governor General’s Awards in Visual and Media Arts. Each winner receives a cash prize of $17,600 and their work will be shown in an exhibition at the Beaverbrook Art Gallery in Fredericton, New Brunswick, opening in November.

2 - Sami artist network Daiddadallu has won this year's $31,000 Munch Award presented annually by the museum in Oslo that bears the Norwegian painter's name. The jury, which included the museum's outgoing director Tone Hansen, said the group made up of 22 artists including Maret Anne Sara stood out for their commitment "to their communities" while at the same time challenging "Sami culture from within".

3 - Trustees at the Vancouver Art Gallery will hope two is better than one after naming Eva Respini and Sirish Rao as co-chief executive officers. The dual appointment comes 18 months after the pair were first temporarily appointed co-CEOs after Anthony Kiendl joined the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver.

4 - Bridget Riley said the UK government had "done the right thing" by announcing entry to 15 national museums will remain free and admission charges for international visitors will not be introduced. The policy of free entry first came into effect in 2001 and since then the 15 museums, which include the National Gallery, Tate and the Wallace Collection in London, have seen visitor numbers rise by 96%.