Overview
- MoMA announced that Makeda Best will become the Joel and Anne Ehrenkranz Chief Curator of Photography, a role she will begin in September 2026 and that fills a post left vacant after Clément Chéroux’s 2022 departure.
- Best joins from the Oakland Museum of California, where she has been deputy director of curatorial affairs since 2023, and she previously served as photography curator at the Harvard Art Museums.
- She holds an MFA in studio photography from CalArts and a Ph.D. in the history of art and architecture from Harvard, and she has recently curated high-profile shows including the 2025 ICP exhibition 'American Job.'
- Belgian authorities found photographs of the Louvre, including images of the Galerie d’Apollon, on phones seized from Eastern European suspects arrested on unrelated cargo-theft charges, and France and Belgium have opened a joint investigation; the eight crown jewels remain missing and are estimated at over $102 million.
- The MoMA appointment signals a shift in curatorial direction toward broader, research-driven photographic programming, while the new Louvre leads underline how cross-border policing and forensic evidence are reshaping efforts to recover high-value cultural objects.