To receive Morning Links in your inbox every weekday, sign up for our Breakfast with ARTnews newsletter.Good Morning!The Louvre was forced to close on Monday after staff launched strike action. The Whitney Museum of American Art released the artist list for its closely watched biennial, set to open in March.Banksy’s Walled Off Hotel in Bethlehem has reopened for the first time since 2023.The HeadlinesA CURSED YEAR. The Louvre just can’t catch a break. On Monday, the museum was forced to close after staff launched strike action demanding urgent building renovations, improved security, and increased staffing levels, while also protesting a planned rise in ticket prices for most non-EU visitors. The Guardian reported that the action raises the prospect of prolonged partial or full closures during one of the museum’s busiest periods, should a majority of its 2,100 employees continue the walkout. The strike follows a turbulent period for the world’s most visited museum. In October, thieves carried out a daylight raid, stealing French crown jewels worth an estimated $102 million in just minutes. Weeks later, a water leak damaged hundreds of documents in the Egyptian department, and safety concerns led to the closure of galleries housing ancient Greek ceramics. All three trade unions at the Louvre announced rolling strikes, saying staff feel they are “the last bastion before collapse” after years of job cuts and underinvestment. Around 200 positions—many in security—have been eliminated since 2015. Unions also condemned a 45 percent ticket price increase for visitors from outside the EU, calling it discriminatory.ROOM WITH A VIEW. The Art Newspaper reported that Banksy’s Walled Off Hotel in Bethlehem has reopened after closing in the wake of the Hamas attacks of October 7, 2023, and the ensuing Israel–Hamas war. First opened in 2017, the hotel sits directly opposite the West Bank barrier, with every room facing the concrete wall topped with barbed wire—a vista Banksy once described as “the worst view of any hotel in the world.” The project was conceived both to attract visitors to a heavily affected region and to confront guests with the realities of life beside the barrier. Wisam Salsaa , the hotel’s manager, said the decision to close during the conflict was difficult, adding that the reopening represents a renewed sense of hope. He described the Walled Off Hotel as more than accommodation, calling it a cultural platform that amplifies voices advocating peace and showcases the work of Palestinian artists as expressions of resilience and identity. Accommodation prices range from shared bunk beds to a luxury presidential suite, and more than 20 original works by Banksy remain on display throughout the property. Funded and established by the British artist, the hotel and its gallery were intended, Salsaa said, “to disturb the comfortable.” As it welcomes visitors again, the hotel positions itself not only as a place to stay but as a space where art continues to communicate powerful stories when words fall short.The DigestThe Whitney Museum of American Art released the artist list for its closely watched biennial. It said the show will examine “various forms of relationality, including interspecies kinships, familial relations, geopolitical entanglements, technological affinities, shared mythologies, and infrastructural supports.” [Press Release]In February, Sotheby’s New York will sell the long-lost Rothschild Vienna Mahzor, described by the house as “one of the most important illustrated Hebrew prayerbooks to come to market.” It dates to the early 15th century. [Sotheby’s]Artist and fashion designer Marina Yee, who was one of the Antwerp Six—a group of singular designers who briefly turned Belgium’s second largest city into a fashion capital—has died at the age of 67. [New York Times]Santa Ana officials restoring aging murals have sparked controversy after demanding that the artists who repair them waive their rights. [Voice of OC]The KickerTR(I)UMP(HAL) ARCH. As criticism mounts over President Donald Trump‘s handling of a growing cost-of-living crisis, including looming health insurance premium increases for more than 20 million Americans, heannounced on Sunday that a key domestic priority of his administration is the construction of a triumphal arch in Washington D.C., the Guardian reported. The revelation came during a White House holiday party, where the president praised Vince Haley, his former speechwriter and longtime aide to Newt Gingrich, who now heads the White House Domestic Policy Council. “Vince is unbelievable on policy,” Trump told guests, hinting at a major initiative that he described as “unbelievable.’