Observer’s Must-See Museum Shows of 2026

2025 was not an easy year for museums, particularly in the U.S., as budget cuts and intensifying scrutiny of financial models, governance and programming collided with an increasingly polarized public debate. At the same time, many institutions were forced to confront their own vulnerabilities, from governance scandals to a troubling rise in art thefts, culminating in the clamorous Louvre case in October. A new report from the Mapping Museums Lab at Birkbeck College, University of London—the first...