2003 in art

The year 2003 in art involved various significant events.

Events

January 21 – The Spire of Dublin is completed.^[1]
May 11 – Benvenuto Cellini's Saliera is stolen from the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.
June 15–November 2 – A record number of seven co-curators is involved in the 50th edition of the Venice Biennale, directed by Francesco Bonami.^[2]
August 27 – Leonardo da Vinci's Madonna of the Yarnwinder is stolen from the Duke of Buccleuch collection at Drumlanrig Castle in Scotland.^[3] It is recovered in 2007.
November – Gustav Klimt's Landhaus am Attersee sells for $29,128,000.
December 25 – Beagle 2 lands on the surface of Mars; its calibration target plate is painted by Damien Hirst.
date unknown – Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in London takes over the Byam Shaw School of Art.

Archibald Prize – Geoffrey Dyer, a portrait of Richard Flanagan
Beck's Futures – Rosalind Nashashibi
Schock Prize in Visual Arts – Susan Rothenberg
Turner Prize – Grayson Perry
The Venice Biennale (June 15 - November 2) -
- The Lion d'Or Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement: Michelangelo Pistoletto (Italy) and Carol Rama (Italy)
- The Lion d'or for best artwork in the main exhibition: Fischli and Weiss (Switzerland)
- The Lion d'Or for Best Pavilion: Sun-Mei Tse (Luxemburg)
Wynne Prize – Tim Kyle, Seated Figure

Eco-Earth Globe, Salem, Oregon
Jake and Dinos Chapman – Insult to Injury
Tony Cragg – Stainless Steel Pillar
Olafur Eliasson – The weather project (installation in Turbine Hall of Tate Modern, London)
David Fairbairn – Self Portrait DF
Cornelia Parker – The Distance (A Kiss With String Attached): Subconscious of a Monument (interventionist sculpture)
Michal Rovner – Data Zone^[5]
Jørn Utzon – Homage to Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (tapestry in the Sydney Opera House)
Kehinde Wiley – Go

9 January – Constantin Kluge, Russian and French painter (b.1912).
20 January – Al Hirschfeld, American caricaturist (b.1903).
21 January – Tony O'Malley, Irish painter (b.1913).
27 January – Louis Archambault, Canadian sculptor (b.1915).
2 February – Emerson Woelffer, American painter (b.1914).
10 February – Edgar de Evia, Mexican-born American photographer (b.1910).
14 March – Jack Goldstein, Canadian-born American performance and conceptual artist turned painter (b.1945).

9 April – Jorge Oteiza, Spanish sculptor, painter, designer and writer (b.1908).
16 April – Graham Stuart Thomas, English horticultural artist, author and garden designer (b.1909).
23 April – Fernand Fonssagrives, French photographer (b.1910).
25 April – Lynn Chadwick, 88, English sculptor
29 May – Pierre Restany, French art critic and cultural philosopher (b.1930).
7 June – Georges Pichard, French comics artist (b.1920).