The artistic director of this year's main show at the Biennale tells us how he is creating two playful but serious shows in one, each featuring the same 79 artists. We then talk to Venet, the veteran French artist, about his work and his own collection, and ask the director of the Berlin Gallery Weekend if criticism of its gender imbalance is fair. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We talk to Ben Lewis about his book The Last Leonardo, the story of the world’s most expensive painting. And Martin Bailey tells us about his latest book Living with Vincent Van Gogh, exploring the Dutch master’s search for a home. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We talk to Jonathan Foyle about the effects of the fire at Notre Dame, the building’s history, including moments of neglect, and what happens next. And as a book of his photomontages is published, we speak to Christopher Spencer, the man behind the Cold War Steve about his extraordinary journey from a cult Twitter collagist to Britain’s favourite satirical artist. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We talk to Giulia Bartram at the British Museum about her exhibition of Munch’s prints, Love and Angst. And we look at the new shapeshifting cultural centre in New York, The Shed. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We examine the growing unease amongst British museums to accept money from Sackler family members involved in the sale of the opioid painkiller OxyContin, and look at 2018's most visited shows and museums with Met director Max Hollein Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We talk to Marc Spiegler, global director of Art Basel, about the latest fair in Hong Kong, the Asian market and supporting smaller galleries. We look at Bonhams’s show in Hong Kong of Richard Lin’s work – Lin achieved great fame in the West in the 1960s, but later was largely forgotten, especially in the West; only now is he being rediscovered. Finally, we talk to the curators of The World Between Empires at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, focusing on the period between the first century B.C.E and the third century A.D., when the Middle East was the meeting point between two powerful empires, the Parthian and the Roman. We also discuss the troubled recent history of the region and its heritage. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We meet David Bailey at his London studio to discuss his new book: the latest SUMO from Taschen. And we remember the Picasso biographer John Richardson, who died aged 95 last week, with Gijs van Hensbergen, who worked with Richardson on the as-yet-unpublished fourth volume of his magisterial A Life of Picasso. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As George Michael's collection of contemporary art, dominated by Young British Artists, goes under the hammer in London, we speak to Paola Saracino Fendi from Christie's about the collection and then report on the sale immediately after the final fall of the gavel. What does it tell us about the YBA market and the pull of celebrity auctions?Plus, we speak to the artist Shezad Dawood about Encroachments, his new installation for the Sharjah Biennial, featuring a virtual reality work. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We pay tribute to the pioneering painter, performance artist and film-maker, ask what on earth is going on with the New York fairs this week, and discuss what it’s like to curate a Venice Biennale national presentation with the curators of the British pavilion, Scotland + Venice and Wales in Venice. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As numerous exhibitions open marking the 350th anniversary of the Old Master's death, we speak to Taco Dibbits, the director of the Rijksmuseum about the museum's blockbuster shows and its imminent public restoration of The Night Watch. We also look closely at a masterpiece in the Dulwich Picture Gallery and at his prints and drawings in the British Museum. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.