The discovery layer for contemporary art.

Baghdad · Iraq

Where Is Agrabah? The City Disney Assembled From Real Places

Agrabah was going to be Baghdad. A war made it fictional — and then Disney built it back out of real places, from a tomb in Agra to a valley in Jordan that usually plays Mars.

The Sultan's palace where Princess Jasmine feels trapped has the silhouette of the Taj Mahal — which is not a palace at all, but a tomb. That is how Agrabah works. Disney's fairy-tale city was going to be Baghdad, until the Gulf War made the name impossible; the studio invented a place that could not be found on a map, then quietly rebuilt it out of real ones — Isfahan and Agra, Marrakesh and Mandalay, a Jordanian desert that has played both Arabia and Mars.

Why Old Sana'a Builds Upward

The tower houses of Old Sana'a rise five to nine storeys of stone and mud — and the usual reasons, defence and lack of space, are both too small.

In one of the oldest cities on earth, families live stacked from the animals on the ground floor to the poetry room at the top, in mud towers nine storeys high. Why Sana'a built vertically has half a dozen answers, heat least of all — and the system that raised the towers is the same one now dissolving them.

Abu Dhabi · United Arab Emirates

The Word for Beautiful Was the Word for Moon

The moon has been the measure of a beautiful face in Arabic verse for fifteen centuries — but beauty was only one of the things that light was ever asked to carry. A history of one disc, from a pre-Islamic ode to a glowing sphere over an Abu Dhabi harbour.

Ya qamar — you moon — is the oldest compliment in Arabic, and almost nothing about it means what we assume. The moon it praised was not always a woman, not always even a kindness, and in the end not only about beauty at all.

Cairo · Egypt

The House Whose Famous Guests All Moved Out

When Tutankhamun's mask left Cairo's Egyptian Museum for the Grand Egyptian Museum, it took the crowds with it — but not the collection. What remains in the old building on Tahrir Square turns out to be a stranger and more interesting museum than the one that emptied.

For most of a century, the golden mask of Tutankhamun stood behind glass on the upper floor of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. In October 2025 it was driven out to Giza, and it was not the only thing to go: the royal mummies, the whole Tutankhamun collection, tens of thousands of objects have left the old museum for Egypt's gleaming new institutions.

The Desert That Was Written Over

Twenty-five thousand ancient inscriptions, one British officer, and a Hollywood desert filmed largely in Spain — how Wadi Rum keeps being renamed by whoever holds the power to make it visible.

The rock at the entrance is called the Seven Pillars of Wisdom, after a book that never named it. Beneath the film legend lies a landscape covered in older writing almost nobody stops to read.

Abu Dhabi · United Arab Emirates

Frieze Abu Dhabi Unveils Roster for Inaugural West Asia Fair

The publisher's first West Asian venture brings global heavyweights and regional pioneers to Saadiyat Island

Frieze debuts in Abu Dhabi with an 84-gallery roster, shifting focus from local development to transnational exchange ahead of its November launch.

Seoul · South Korea

Five Essential Exhibitions During Seoul Art Week

From Martin Parr's photographic archives to Do Ho Suh's textile architectures, a guide to the capital's defining cultural moments.

A curated overview of the key gallery presentations, museum surveys, and cinematic programmes defining this year's Seoul Art Week.

New York · United States

Metropolitan Museum and John Galliano Call Off Costume Institute Show

Designer and institution withdraw planned spring 2027 retrospective following sustained controversy over past remarks.

The New York museum and the fashion figure have mutually agreed to halt a major retrospective after public outcry highlighted the creator's historical hate speech convictions.

Hamburg · Germany

Hamburg Convicts Simonian Siblings Over Looted Antiquities Proceeds

Landmark verdict targets financial gains from alleged Egyptian artefact trafficking network

German court orders €32m seizure and issues fines against the siblings of a prominent antiquities dealer, setting a precedent for European provenance litigation.

London · United Kingdom

Science Museum Ends Decades-Long BP Funding Amid Ethical Reckoning

After twenty-five years of corporate backing, London's flagship science institution severs ties following sustained campaign pressure

The Science Museum Group confirms the conclusion of its quarter-century partnership with BP, marking a significant shift in how cultural venues navigate fossil fuel sponsorship.

Vienna · Austria

The Vienna Heist and the Disappearance of a Royal Jewel

Daylight intrusion at MAK claims historic platinum necklace linked to Egyptian royalty

Authorities pursue two suspects after a legendary diamond chain vanishes from a Viennese gallery during a coordinated daytime breach.

Chicago · United States

Karimah Ashadu: Tendered at Chicago's Renaissance Society

A transnational inquiry into labour, form, and diasporic economies

The Renaissance Society hosts the US debut of Karimah Ashadu, exploring bodily autonomy and informal markets through video and sculpture.