Window on Italy, The Corsini Collection; Ed Sheeran; Adelaide

European royalty has descended on Perth as the velvet curtain is lifted on the Art Gallery of Western Australia’s latest exhibition.

Ed Sheeran says he is despised and loved in equal measure.

European royalty has descended on Perth as the velvet curtain is lifted on the Art Gallery of Western Australia’s latest exhibition, A Window on Italy — The Corsini Collection: Masterpieces from Florence. The exhibition marks the first time in 600 years artworks from the collection — Botticellis, Caravaggios and Tintorettos among them — have left their home in Florence. In attendance for the opening weekend are countesses Livia Branca and Elisabetta Minutoli, granddaughters of princess Elena Corsini, the matriarch who famously saved from the clutches of the Nazis the priceless art collection during World War II. AGWA director Stefano Carboni, himself an Italian, will be watching visitor numbers carefully. The Corsini show is his most ambitious undertaking since the ill-fated seven-show Museum of Modern Art experiment, which was cancelled after three iterations in 2013 due to funding shortfalls. Carboni, it must be said, needs a flop like he does a hole in the head, and so there is some irony in the fact that that particular affliction will be one of the current exhibition’ s main attractions. Guercino’s Portrait of Saint Andrea (1630) was shot — through the subject’s forehead — during a Nazi looting spree in 1944 as the Germans retreated from Italy. The result is a war wound, and a story, to rival all others. If you can get out to the west, this is a show worth seeing.

Today, our cover boy is singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran. Ahead of his national tour, starting in Perth next month, he talks openly about being despised and loved in equal measure. The global superstar has a huge following in Australia (his latest album is No 3 on the ARIA charts) but there are two Australians unlikely to be in the audience at his awfully titled ÷ world tour: former Thirsty Merc guitarist Sean Carey and keyboardist-producer Beau Golden. The pair last month filed a lawsuit in the US against the British singer and American country stars Tim McGraw and Faith Hill for copyright infringement. The Rest of Our Life, co-written by Sheeran, was a hit for McGraw and Hill, but Carey and Golden claim its melodic similarities to When I Found You, their song released by Australian Jasmine Rae, are no coincidence.

It’s almost March, which means Adelaide is heating up. The Adelaide Fringe is in full swing, while WOMADelaide, Adelaide Writers Week, the Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art and the mother of them all, the Adelaide Festival of Arts, kick off next week. The Lost and Found Orchestra (see interview opposite) leads off one of the strongest festival programs in recent memory. On paper, at least, artistic directors Neil Armfield and Rachel Healy sure know how to throw a three-week-long party.