Art Outlook: 22 January

Some of the stories and discussions we’ve spotted online this week

Gabriele Finaldi tipped as the next National Gallery director

According to the Financial Times, the Prado’s co-director Gabriele Finaldi will soon be named as the next head of the National Gallery, taking over from Nicholas Penny.

Italy recovers £38million of looted antiquities in Swiss warehouse raid

The vast hoard of 5,361 looted Italian antiquities was seized by police during the course of their investigation into the Basel-based art dealer Gianfranco Becchina. The items were unveiled in Rome on Wednesday and will be returned to southern Italian museums.

Luc Tuymans found to be in breach of copyright

In 2011 Luc Tuymans painted A Belgian Politician using Katrijn Van Giel’s photograph of Jean-Marie Dedecker as his source. This week, a civil court ruled that the work constituted a breach of copyright. But not everyone in the art world agrees. Yet another case that shows up the complications of contemporary copyright legislation.

Cuba and the US’s cultural collaboration

The Bronx Museum of the Arts and Cuba’s National Museum of Fine Arts have announced a major exchange of artworks to take place this year and next. The plan to mount travelling displays from their collections is the most significant museum collaboration between the two countries for half a century.

Legal battle over missing art in Barcelona

Barcelona has taken the daughters of the late business tycoon Julio Muñoz Ramonet to court, accusing them of removing valuable artworks from a property that he bequeathed to the city. The lawsuit is the latest twist in a decades-long saga over the fate of the house and its contents: in 2012 the Supreme Court dismissed the daughters’ claim that the will was not valid.

End of the line for Paolozzi’s Underground murals?

The Twentieth Century Society has launched a campaign to save Eduardo Paolozzi’s distinctive mosaic murals at Tottenham Court Road. Transport for London’s planned improvement works to the station will include the restoration of most of the artist’s scheme, but two decorated arches over the escalators could be taken down.