Art@Law | Constantine Cannon
Europe
UK’s biggest art prize Artes Mundi brings international politics to Wales: Meteors made of chicken wire and papier-mâché are joined by silhouettes of workers cut from steel in a bright yellow, pink and blue gallery greeting visitors to this year’s Artes Mundi 8 exhibition (until 24 February 2019) at the National Museum Cardiff. The installation, by the Canadian-Egyptian artist Anna Boghiguian, sets the political tone for the exhibition of five international artists shortlisted for the UK’s biggest art prize. The artists are “dealing with pertinent contemporary issues that affect us globally,” says the Artes Mundi director Karen MacKinnon. And it is “a very positive show about citizenship”, she says. Adding that while is political, it is “politics with a small ‘p’”.
27.10.2018, The Art Newspaper: UK’s biggest art prize Artes Mundi brings international politics to Wales
Inside the world of Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé: It will be le dernier adieu. At a three-day auction next week in Paris, Sotheby’s will offer a final glimpse behind the gilded curtain of the exotic world of style and illusion in which Yves Saint Laurent, the great French couturier, and Pierre Bergé, his lover and business partner, lived for a tempestuous half-century.
27.10.2018, The Times: Inside the world of Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé
The great Middle Eastern sell-off: London’s Middle Eastern art auctions this week were dominated by the sale of about 100 items from the corporate collection of private equity firm Abraaj Investment Management. Its parent company, Abraaj Holdings, filed for provisional liquidation this summer amid accusations of mishandling investors’ funds. Abraaj and its founder, Arif Naqvi, have denied any wrongdoing.
26.10.2018, Financial Times: The great Middle Eastern sell-off
Oops, Gaudí’s Sagrada Familia Has Been Building Without a Permit… for 136 Years. Now It Has to Pay a $41 Million Fee: The Sagrada Familia, Barcelona’s landmark church designed by Antoni Gaudí, has been slapped a with a €36 million fine for lacking a building permit—136 years after construction began. The fine will be paid in installments to city authorities by the trustees of Gaudí’s still unfinished masterpiece.
26.10.2018, Artnet: Oops, Gaudí’s Sagrada Familia Has Been Building Without a Permit… for 136 Years. Now It Has to Pay a $41 Million Fee
Following His Show at Versailles, Jeff Koons’s Art Is Now Heading to Oxford University: The Ashmolean Museum at Oxford University will hold an exhibition of works by American artist Jeff Koons, who rarely shows in the UK, the institution announced today. The show, which will open in February 2019, largely came together thanks to a student organization, the Edgar Wind Society for Art History, after the group named him the winner of its inaugural contemporary art prize.
26.10.2018, Artnet: Following His Show at Versailles, Jeff Koons’s Art Is Now Heading to Oxford University
26.10.2018, The Art Newspaper: Jeff Koons’s balloons, basketballs and ballerinas to head to historic Oxford museum for solo show
26.10.2018, The Guardian: Oxford students persuade Jeff Koons to stage rare UK art show
Qatar dynasty’s collection of jewels and antiquities will be shown in the heart of Paris: The prestigious Al Thani collection—which is owned by the ruling family of Qatar—will go on show at the historic Hôtel de la Marine in central Paris following an agreement signed with the Centre des Monuments Nationaux (CMN; National Monuments Centre), the government body which manages the 18th-century property.
25.10.2018, The Art Newspaper: Qatar dynasty’s collection of jewels and antiquities will be shown in the heart of Paris
Central and Eastern European artists come together to collect anti-populist works: Collection Collective, an initiative that seeks to circumvent the established institutional and private models of collecting, will officially launch its new website at a public seminar in Bucharest, Romania, today (25 October).
25.10.2018, The Art Newspaper: Central and Eastern European artists come together to collect anti-populist works
Jeremy Deller says studios are ‘a lifeline’ for artists as Studio Voltaire announces £2.3m expansion: The British artist Jeremy Deller says Studio Voltaire’s planned expansion, which will include 42% more studio spaces at affordable prices, comes at a crucial time, with London’s cultural scene under threat as artists are priced out of the capital. The latest figures from the Mayor of London show that 24% of current studio spaces face closure in the next five years.
25.10.2018, The Art Newspaper: Jeremy Deller says studios are ‘a lifeline’ for artists as Studio Voltaire announces £2.3m expansion
Will Brexit Uncertainty Let Paris Reclaim Its Status as Europe’s Art Capital? We Consulted a Range of Experts: French President Emmanuel Macron invited leading art-world figures to the Élysée Palace during FIAC last Friday. The symbolic event “in honor of artists and creation” in Paris contrasted sharply with a huge anti-Brexit march in London the following day, where leading figures in the British art world were among the nearly 700,000 protesters. As Brexit negotiations intensify, no one on either side of the Channel, pro- or anti-Brexit, knows exactly what will happen as the March 2019 deadline to leave the European Union draws near.
25.10.2018, Artnet: Will Brexit Uncertainty Let Paris Reclaim Its Status as Europe’s Art Capital? We Consulted a Range of Experts
A Painting by Artemisia Gentileschi, the Female Renaissance Painter and Now #MeToo Symbol, Just Sold for Over $2 Million: The 17th-century Italian Baroque painter Artemisia Gentileschi’s Lucretia sold for more than double its high estimate of €700,000 ($800,000) at Dorotheum‘s Old Master sale in Vienna yesterday. The painting, which had never been publicly exhibited before, went to an Australian collection for €1.88 million ($2 million), the latest in a recent string of high prices for Gentileschi’s work. But her growing market should come as no surprise to those familiar with her oeuvre.
24.10.2018, Artnet: A Painting by Artemisia Gentileschi, the Female Renaissance Painter and Now #MeToo Symbol, Just Sold for Over $2 Million
Villa Grisebach to sell founder’s collection to raise funds for new Museum of Exile: This week Berlin’s Villa Grisebach will auction around 400 works on paper from the collection of its founder, Bernd Schultz, to kick off a fundraising campaign for a new Museum of Exile, an initiative championed by the Nobel Prize for Literature winner, Herta Müller. The museum aims to commemorate the hundreds of thousands of Germans who fled Nazi Germany to begin new lives abroad—among them Thomas Mann, Albert Einstein, Max Beckmann, Hannah Arendt and Billy Wilder—and connect these stories to contemporary questions about flight and exile.
24.10.2018, The Art Newspaper: Villa Grisebach to sell founder’s collection to raise funds for new Museum of Exile
Vienna’s Albertina museum receives €90m donation of 1,323 works from Essl Collection: Vienna’s Albertina museum has received a gift of 1,323 works valued at about €90m, including pieces by Cindy Sherman, Tony Cragg, Karel Appel, Georg Baselitz, Alex Katz and Neo Rauch, which it plans to house in a new home for contemporary art opening next year.
23.10.2018, The Art Newspaper: Vienna’s Albertina museum receives €90m donation of 1,323 works from Essl Collection
24.10.2018, Artnet: An Austrian Home Goods Magnate Just Donated a $103 Million Trove of Contemporary Art to Vienna’s Albertina Museum
Emmanuel Macron woos French art world with call for new cultural policy that fights extremism: The French President Emmanuel Macron has told a gathering of art world figures that France must re-think its cultural policy, highlighting how culture and creativity can help fight extremism. At the event held last week at the Élysée Palace in Paris, the presidential residency, Macron highlighted the “political struggle we have today, fighting against obscurantism [extremism], and the marginalisation of creation and culture”.
23.10.2018, The Art Newspaper: Emmanuel Macron woos French art world with call for new cultural policy that fights extremism
The World’s Oldest Intact Shipwreck Has Been Discovered at the Bottom of Black Sea: A marvel of Greek antiquity may have been found one mile under the Black Sea. Maritime archaeologists have discovered an incredibly well-preserved ship, measuring 75 feet and complete with a mast still standing, and rudders and rowing benches still in position. Scientists believe the vessel could have a significant impact on our understanding of ancient seafaring.
23.10.2018, Artnet: The World’s Oldest Intact Shipwreck Has Been Discovered at the Bottom of Black Sea
23.10.2018, The Times: World’s oldest shipwreck is discovered in Black Sea
‘Pioneering’ private museum reveals troubled history of Romania’s post-war art: A new private museum in Bucharest reveals the history of Romanian art under the Communist regime of Nicolae Ceausescu and after the 1989 revolution. The Muzeul de Arta Recenta (MARe) opened on 9 October in the city’s Primaverii district, once reserved for the upper echelons of the Communist party. The 1,200 sq. m, five-floor building in dark brick was designed by the Lebanese architect Youssef Tohme as a “ghostly silhouette” of the original villa on the site, the home of Ana Pauker, the Romanian foreign minister described by Time magazine in 1948 as “the most powerful woman alive”. A short walk away is the former mansion of Ceausescu himself, which opened as a visitor attraction in 2016.
22.10.2018, The Art Newspaper: ‘Pioneering’ private museum reveals troubled history of Romania’s post-war art
Price Check! Here’s What Sold—and for How Much—at FIAC 2018: While many in the art world were distracted by the latest twists and turns in Banksy‘s shredding saga, commerce continued unabated across the English Channel in Paris. The 45th edition of the Foire Internationale d’Art Contemporain (FIAC) welcomed 195 galleries and an estimated 75,000 visitors under the glass-domed ceiling of the Grand Palais for the fair, which closed yesterday.
22.10.2018, Artnet: Price Check! Here’s What Sold—and for How Much—at FIAC 2018
United States
Alaskan dancer helps the Met solve riddle of the Yup’ik mask: When Caitlin Mahony, an assistant conservator at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, first examined a wooden Yup’ik mask last spring, she was at a loss for how to proceed with its treatment. Created around 1900 at the behest of a shaman for use in a ritual dance in Alaska, it was perforated on the sides with holes into which appendages were inserted. Some of these were broken, missing or possibly in the wrong position, which made the mask difficult to understand.
26.10.2018, The Art Newspaper: Alaskan dancer helps the Met solve riddle of the Yup’ik mask
With an Assist From Google, the Met Will Make More Than 406,000 Digital Images of Art Publicly Available: As part of its mission to make art as accessible as possible, the Met has announced the launch of its own API, or application program interface, in an effort to expand the open access program it established in 2017.
26.10.2018, Artnet: With an Assist From Google, the Met Will Make More Than 406,000 Digital Images of Art Publicly Available
Kendrick Lamar Could Be Forced to Share Profits From His ‘Black Panther’ Hit Because of an Artist’s Copyright Lawsuit: Yesterday, New York federal judge Paul A. Engelmayer refused to grant the singer partial summary judgement in the case. The judge ruled that he couldn’t yet say that Viktor would not be entitled to a share in the profits from the sales of the Black Panther album and its hit single “All the Stars” should she be able to prove that he copied visuals from her paintings in the song’s music video.
25.10.2018, Artnet: Kendrick Lamar Could Be Forced to Share Profits From His ‘Black Panther’ Hit Because of an Artist’s Copyright Lawsuit
Street Artist JR Has Created an Epic Artwork About America’s Gun Debate, Collaborating With TIME Magazine: TIME magazine has released a special multimedia report on gun violence in America—and it’s accompanied by an impressive work of art.
25.10.2018, Artnet: Street Artist JR Has Created an Epic Artwork About America’s Gun Debate, Collaborating With TIME Magazine
The First AI-Generated Portrait Ever Sold at Auction Shatters Expectations, Fetching $432,500—43 Times Its Estimate: The first-ever work original work of art created using artificial intelligence to come to auction, Portrait of Edmond de Belamy (2018), smashed expectations at Christie’s New York this morning when it was hammered down for $350,000 after a lively bidding war that lasted for more than six minutes.
25.10.2018, Artnet: The First AI-Generated Portrait Ever Sold at Auction Shatters Expectations, Fetching $432,500—43 Times Its Estimate
26.10.2018, The Guardian: A portrait created by AI just sold for $432,000. But is it really art?
26.10.2018, The Times: Computer painting equals price of a Pablo Picasso at auction
26.10.2018, Antiques Trade Gazette: Painting made by artificial intelligence and algorithm sells for $350,000
Christie’s Will Sell a Major Diebenkorn ‘Ocean Park’ Painting Owned by the Late Mary Tyler Moore: Christie’s has just unveiled another highlight of its upcoming postwar and contemporary art evening sale on November 15: a monumental painting from Richard Diebenkorn‘s famous “Ocean Park” series that was formerly owned by the late actress Mary Tyler Moore and her husband, S. Robert Levine.
24.10.2018, Artnet: Christie’s Will Sell a Major Diebenkorn ‘Ocean Park’ Painting Owned by the Late Mary Tyler Moore
Sackler family—major cultural patrons—amassed $31.2m in offshore HSBC bank accounts, investigation finds: The family of Mortimer Sackler, the late US philanthropist who made his fortune developing the prescription painkiller OxyContin, sheltered $31.2m in private HSBC bank accounts in Switzerland, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) has revealed. Some of those accounts financially controlled four other trusts and companies registered in Jersey.
24.10.2018, The Art Newspaper: Sackler family—major cultural patrons—amassed $31.2m in offshore HSBC bank accounts, investigation finds
Warhol’s newly restored 102-canvas work Shadows goes on show in New York: Installing Shadows (1978-79) according to Andy Warhol’s precise instructions has always been tricky. Not only does this single, monumental work consist of multiple silk-screened and painted canvases (102, to be exact), but they must also hang in the round, edge to edge. The reason is to represent Shadows’s singularity, says Courtney Martin, the deputy director and chief curator of the Dia Art Foundation, which owns the work. But these requirements have taken their toll, so conservators are working to repair damage and prevent future problems.
24.10.2018, The Art Newspaper: Warhol’s newly restored 102-canvas work Shadows goes on show in New York
Judge: NRA can fight ‘Cloud Gate’ copyright lawsuit in Virginia: The National Rifle Association can defend itself against copyright infringement claims by British sculptor Anish Kapoor on its home turf in Virginia, a federal judge in Chicago ruled on Tuesday
24.10.2018, Reuters: Judge: NRA can fight ‘Cloud Gate’ copyright lawsuit in Virginia
The Museum of the Bible Removes Five of Its Dead Sea Scrolls From View After Researchers Prove They’re Fake: Some of the Museum of the Bible’s most valuable objects—five fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls—have been deemed fakes following a German analytics company’s forensic examination. The artifacts will be taken off display from the private Washington, DC, museum, which was founded by Hobby Lobby president Steve Green.
22.10.2018, Artnet: The Museum of the Bible Removes Five of Its Dead Sea Scrolls From View After Researchers Prove They’re Fake
23.10.2018, The Art Newspaper: Museum of the Bible says that five of its Dead Sea Scroll fragments are apparently fakes
Up for Bid, AI Art Signed ‘Algorithm’: With their eyes trained on a gilded frame containing a smeared, half-formed image of a distinguished gentleman, a small group of potential bidders gathered Friday night over cocktails at Christie’s New York and heard the pitch: here was the first portrait generated by an algorithm to come up for auction. The portrait, produced by artificial intelligence, hung on the wall opposite an Andy Warhol print and just to the right of a bronze work by Roy Lichtenstein.
22.10.2018, The New York Times: Up for Bid, AI Art Signed ‘Algorithm’
22.10.2018, The Art Newspaper: Will the market for artificial intelligence art take off?
22.10.2018, The Art Newspaper: Who needs artists? Rise in works made by artificial intelligence raises real questions for the art market
Advertising Standards Authority continues strict scrutiny of the display of fees in the auction market: The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) underlined once again its strict scrutiny of the auction market in a ruling that a Christie’s advert was ‘misleading’.
22.10.2018, Antiques Trade Gazette: Advertising Standards Authority continues strict scrutiny of the display of fees in the auction market
World
The Inaugural Bangkok Art Biennale Brings Contemporary Art to Ancient Temples—and a Mall: Contemporary art may not the first thing most people associate with Bangkok, but Thailand’s capital city is hoping the inaugural Bangkok Art Biennale will change all that.
25.10.2018, Artnet: The Inaugural Bangkok Art Biennale Brings Contemporary Art to Ancient Temples—and a Mall. See It Here
Russia announces major Kandinsky show in Saudi Arabia amid Khashoggi murder controversy: Works by Wassily Kandinsky from the State Russian Museum in St Petersburg that went on show in Riyadh on Tuesday at Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s (MBS) controversial “Davos in the Desert” are a teaser for a major exhibition on the Russian avant-garde artist to be held in the desert kingdom as part of expanding ties between Russia and Saudi Arabia.
24.10.2018, The Art Newspaper: Russia announces major Kandinsky show in Saudi Arabia amid Khashoggi murder controversy
Iraqi artist Dia Azzawi designs new Lebanese private museum: A Lebanese construction magnate has built a museum for his collection of art and antiquities on Lebanon’s coast in just eight months. Jawad Adra hopes his free-entry Nabu Museum, named after the Mesopotamian god of literacy, with 1,200 sq. m of exhibition space over two floors and a planned rooftop restaurant, may draw 200 visitors a day—more, he says, than major institutions in Beirut.
24.10.2018, The Art Newspaper: Iraqi artist Dia Azzawi designs new Lebanese private museum
Could sales slow at Artbo as political conservatism deepens in Colombia?: The contemporary art market in Bogotá has expanded rapidly in the past decade thanks in part to the International Art Fair of Bogotá (Artbo), which opens its 14th edition on 25 October. Yet the divisive election of conservative president Iván Duque in August and resulting political tension could stymie sales.
23.10.2018, The Art Newspaper: Could sales slow at Artbo as political conservatism deepens in Colombia?
26.10.2018, Artnet: What Can an Art Fair Offer Amid Political Instability? For Dealers at This Year’s ARTBO, the Answer Is Complicated
Nigeria plans museum for art looted from Benin: Nigeria has presented plans for a new Benin Royal Museum that would permanently display historic art from the region, including bronze sculptures plundered from the Benin palace by British troops in 1897 that have since found their way into European public collections.
22.10.2018, The Art Newspaper: Nigeria plans museum for art looted from Benin
22.10.2018, Artnet: Europe’s Largest Museums Will Loan Looted Benin Bronzes to Nigeria’s Planned Royal Museum
With the Jewel of Its Collection Recovered, Brazil’s National Museum Can Begin to Rebuild ‘From the Ashes’: All is not lost for Brazil’s National Museum. Officials at the devastated institution have announced that they recovered pieces of “Luzia,” the museum’s oldest human fossil and one of the most celebrated hallmarks of its collection, in the rubble of the building that was obliterated by fire last month.
22.10.2018, Artnet: With the Jewel of Its Collection Recovered, Brazil’s National Museum Can Begin to Rebuild ‘From the Ashes’
Expert views on shifting patterns in the market for Asian art: It is a common observation that, in a relatively short period of time of less than a decade, the market has become far more selective. But this, says London dealer Roger Keverne, has created opportunities for the buyer who is not necessarily focused on the collecting zeitgeist.
22.10.2018, Artnet: Expert views on shifting patterns in the market for Asian ar
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