Free entrance to museums may become a thing of the past as the recession and funding cuts bite, according to the head of The Art Fund.

London’s Natural History Museum
David Barrie, who campaigned to have charges scrapped in 2001, said it would be “a disastrous backward step” if charges were reintroduced. Admissions are continuing to rise [...]

Visitors view Vincent Van Gogh’s ‘Irises’ at the Getty centre. Photo: REUTERS
A spokesman for the Paul Getty Trust said its investment portfolio fell to $4.5 billion in the second half of 2008, down from $6 billion the previous year.

The Las Vegas Art Museum is closing its doors.
The museum will close Feb. 28. Staff and board members say the museum will remain an entity and keep its name so that it can possibly reemerge when the economy improves. Members and docents were notified this afternoon.

When works by the British artist Damien Hirst sold for a record $127 million on the same day in September that Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy protection, it seemed the art market might escape the economic crisis. But a string of disappointing auctions over the last four months showed that the art market had no [...]