The year the Louvre robbery attracted more interest in the arts than any other exhibition

• Retrospective 2025: The year at the theater was crowded with audiences, the return of veterans, and a reign of monologues and “evil madness.”
• And more: The year of music was Lady Gaga in Rio, Joao Gomez in Brazil, and Bad Bunny around the world

The robbery, which was carried out with the help of a crane and a saw to open the window of the Apollo Gallery, revealed the fragility of security at the most famous museum in the world. So far, eight suspects have been arrested, including a 34-year-old man who was arrested at Charles de Gaulle Airport while trying to board a plane bound for Algeria. After criticism from the authorities for a lack of investment in security, the museum announced a 45% increase in tickets for non-Europeans, as a way to improve its financial situation: from 2026, these visitors will pay 32 euros (198 Brazilian reais), 10 euros more than the current value.

In Brazil, the biggest event of 2025 was the 36th São Paulo Biennale, which opened in September and runs until January 11, with the Cicillo Matarazzo Pavilion, in Ibirapuera Park, occupied by 125 Brazilian and international artists and groups, most of them from the Global South. With Germany-based Cameroonian Bonaventura Ndikong heading up the curation, along with co-curators Alia Sebti, Thiago de Paula Sousa, Ana Roberta Goetz, and Kienna Ellison, the exhibition’s title, “Not Every Traveler Walks on the Roads – Humanity as Practice,” was inspired by a line from the poem “Da Quiet and Silent,” by Conceição Evaristo.

The selection featured textiles and woven crafts, such as Ghanaian Teresa Ankoma, Nigerian Ruth Ige, Cuban Maria Magdalena Campos, Amazonian Manawara Clandestina, and Salvadoran Alberto Pita. The event was also marked by the cancellation of a debate with Belgian Princess Marie Esmeralda Leopoldine in November, on the occasion of the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP30). Ecologist Marie Esmeralda is the granddaughter of King Leopold II (1835-1909), responsible for more than ten million deaths and maimings in the former Belgian Congo. The Biennale justified the cancellation “in view of the conflict between the tragic Belgian colonial past and the themes covered by the exhibition.”

The African diaspora, which was present in most of the Biennale’s works, was the focus of prominent exhibitions such as “Our Bantu Life” at the Rio Art Museum; “Ancestors: African Americas”, at the CCBBs in Belo Horizonte, Rio and El Salvador; “The Strength of My Hand”, in Ciske Pompeia; “Earth, Fire, Water and Wind – for the Museum of Traveling with Edouard Glissant,” at the Tomi Ohtake Institute; and “Gordon Parks – America is Me” at IMS Paulista.

In Porto Alegre, the 14th edition of the Mercosul Biennale opened in March after an 11-month postponement due to the floods that struck Rio Grande do Sul in May 2024, which killed more than 180 people. The exhibition, in which 77 artists participated, occupied 18 sites, including some at full capacity, such as Farol Santander and Osena de Gasologista, both in the historic centre.

In a year in which the art market saw sales volume decline by 33.5% compared to 2024, the lowest level since 2009, salvation came from established artists (and secured investments) in the New York auction season last month. Both works were sold by Sotheby’s, “Portrait of Elizabeth Lederer”, by the Austrian Gustav Klimt, for US$236.4 million, becoming the second most expensive work of art ever sold at auction (behind “Salvator Mundi”, attributed to Leonardo da Vinci), and the most expensive modern work ever sold at auction, while “El Sueño”, by Frida Kahlo, was sold for US$54.7 million, Setting a record for a work presented by a female artist.

SP-Arte brought together 102 exhibitors for its 21st edition, in April, while the 15th edition of ArtRio, in September, changed direction, with the departure of its founder, Brenda Valancy. The entire operation has been transferred to Dream Factory, a member of the association since 2019, headed by artistic director Maria Luz Bridger.

Their year at Casa Roberto Marinho

Beth Jobim: In April, the painter opened the solo exhibition “Form Volatility” at the Cosme Filho Cultural Center, which includes more than 70 works from her 40-year career, and the “Between Looks” exhibition, in which she held a dialogue with the local group. Curated by Paolo Venancio Filho, Beth has collected solo paintings on canvas and paper, as well as works in other techniques and mediums, such as drawings, sculptures, and textiles.

Beatrice Milhases: In September, it was the turn of another representative of the famous group “How are you, Geração 80?”, from 1984, at the EAV in Parque Lage, occupying two floors of the CRM. In her first institutional solo exhibition in Rio in 12 years, curated by Lauro Cavalcanti, Beatrice showed in “Pinturas nômads” her large-scale productions created for spaces such as Tate Modern in London; São Paulo Pinacoteca and Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon; Inojima Island in Okinawa, Japan and its project for the 60th Venice Art Biennale in 2024.

Sebastiao Salgado: One of the world’s greatest photographers, the Minas Gerais native, died in May at the age of 81, from leukemia. A few days after his death, Casa Verjan, in Botafogo, in the southern region of Rio, opened the exhibition “Workers”, with one of his most famous collections, which became his first posthumous exhibition.

Koyo Koh: In the same month, the art world was surprised by the death of the 57-year-old Cameroonian residing in Switzerland, who was chosen as curator of the 2026 Venice Biennale, succeeding Brazilian Adriano Pedrosa. The biennial confirmed, days later, that its organization would be maintained.

Katie Van Schirpenburg: The painter, draftsman and engraver, a São Paulo native who taught at MAM in Rio and EAV, died in June at the age of 84.

The Golden Throne: Art or Curiosity?

After selling “The Comedian,” a work composed of a banana stuck together with tape, for US$6.2 million in 2024, Italian Maurizio Cattelan has been in the spotlight of the auction season once again, with a toilet bowl made of 18-karat gold being sold for US$12.1 million (about R$75 million) in November by Sotheby’s. “America” is a sculpture in two versions (the other was stolen from Blenheim Palace in England in 2019) and was sold by Ripley’s Believe It or Not! Antiques Museum.

The main exhibition of the “Environmental History” programme, developed by MASP in 2025, “Monet’s Ecology”, broke the attendance record of the São Paulo Museum, exceeding the mark of 410,000 visitors, 8,000 more than the previous mark, with “Popular Tarsila”, in 2019. The selection of 32 works by Claude Monet, some of which had never been shown in the Southern Hemisphere, also broke the record of the Frenchman himself. At the venue, surpassing the 401,000 visitors of the 1997 exhibition “Master of Impressionism”.

Protest and frustration in the art of artificial intelligence

The first auction of works created with the help of artificial intelligence, by Christie’s, between February and March, faced protests and had lukewarm results. An open letter with more than six thousand signatures called for its cancellation on the grounds of intellectual property theft. In the end, 14 of the 34 lots received insufficient bids or sold below the estimated range. Among the exceptions is the painting “Automated Hallucinations – Dreams of the International Space Station – A” by Refik Anadol (photo), which was sold for 277 thousand US dollars.

Brazilians in the Northern Hemisphere