May’s New York auction slate rang up roughly $2.5B, led by a record Pollock and high‑ticket Rothkos and Brâncuși works.

Rob Base, the Harlem MC behind "It Takes Two," died May 22 after a private battle with cancer. His family said he passed peacefully surrounded by loved ones.

Lee Mendelson Film Productions sued GameMill in Manhattan on May 20, 2026, saying the publisher used Vince Guaraldi’s Peanuts music without permission in a Snoopy video game.

A rural Wisconsin theater just won the 2026 Regional Theatre Tony Award and a $25,000 grant, a national nod for decades of repertory work on the Hill. The award will be accepted at Radio City Music Hall on June 7, 2026.

Daddy Yankee will head the 69th National Puerto Rican Day Parade, and Anthony Ramos is among this year’s honorees. The march is set for June 14 up Fifth Avenue.

Gucci staged its 'GucciCore' Cruise 2027 show in Times Square on Saturday, closing with Cindy Crawford and featuring Tom Brady as the house pushes to reset the brand. The spectacle was beamed across the neighborhood’s billboards.

The Met will merge with Ronald Lauder’s Neue Galerie in a deal that preserves the house and its café while adding 600+ Austrian and German works to the Met’s holdings.

Sarah Lucas’s VENUS VICTORIA perches on a giant washing machine outside the New Museum, inaugurating the museum’s new plaza commissions. The playful monumental work will be on view for roughly two years.

TEFAF New York returns May 15–19 at the Park Avenue Armory with 88 dealers from 14 countries, pairing ancient antiquities with contemporary highlights.

Rex Reed, the acerbic film critic and New York fixture, has died at 87. His barbed reviews and celebrity profiles leave a complicated, lasting mark.

Sony Music Publishing is reportedly buying Blackstone's Recognition Music catalog — more than 45,000 songs — in a near-$4B deal through its GIC joint venture.

A Tribeca pop‑up has bound 3.5 million DOJ‑released Epstein pages into more than 3,700 printed volumes across a two‑story gallery. The appointment‑only installation pairs a timeline of ties with a survivor memorial.

Ten Carnegie Mellon alumni earned a record 15 Tony nominations across acting, design and producing, with nominees ranging from Will Harrison to veteran producers.