Mark Rothko Painting Agnes Gund Hung in Her Living Room Sells for $98 M., Setting a Record

A Mark Rothko painting, *No. 15 (Two Greens and Red Stripe)* (1964), formerly owned by prominent art patron and Museum of Modern Art president emerita Agnes Gund, sold at Christie’s on Monday night for $98.4 million (including fees). The work, which Gund purchased directly from Rothko in 1967 and kept in her living room until her death last September, received about a dozen bids before hammering at $85 million to a buyer represented by Christie’s specialist Rachael White Young. The sale broke Rothko’s previous auction record of $86.9 million set in 2012 for *Orange, Red, Yellow* (1961), also at Christie’s New York.

How Christie’s Recruited Nicole Kidman to Sell S.I. Newhouse’s $100 Million Brancusi

Christie's has released a promotional video featuring actress Nicole Kidman to advertise the upcoming auction of Constantin Brancusi's bronze sculpture *Danaïde* (1913), estimated at $100 million. The sculpture comes from the collection of the late media mogul S.I. Newhouse, who purchased it for $18.2 million in 2002. The nearly two-minute film, shot at Christie's Rockefeller Center headquarters, shows Kidman interacting with the work and was conceived by former Sotheby's auctioneer and Newhouse estate advisor Tobias Meyer. The sale is scheduled for May 18 in New York.

The 11 Exhibitions to See in May 2026

ArtReview's editors have curated a list of 11 must-see exhibitions worldwide for May 2026, excluding Venice. Highlights include Audie Murray's solo show at april april in Pittsburgh, featuring works made with her own hair and breast milk; Delcy Morelos's monumental earthwork 'origo' at the Barbican Sculpture Court in London; and Bold Tendencies' 20th anniversary season in Peckham, titled 'Euphoria', with new commissions across multiple disciplines.

Aspen Art Fair Names More Than 35 Exhibitors for 2026 Edition at Hotel Jerome

The Aspen Art Fair has announced more than 35 exhibitors for its third edition, returning to the Hotel Jerome from July 29 through August 1, 2026. This will be the first edition under director Kelly Cornell, who also leads the Dallas Art Fair. Newcomers include Albertz Benda, Friedman Benda, Library Street Collective, Monique Meloche Gallery, and R & Company, alongside returning galleries such as Marianne Boesky Gallery, Perrotin, Sean Kelly, and Galerie Gmurzynska. The fair will debut an outdoor sculpture garden and continue its Art Prize Program with residencies and commissions through Anderson Ranch Arts Center and Buckhorn Public Arts. It also coincides with the AIR festival organized by the Aspen Art Museum and partners with the Aspen Education Foundation to support local student artists.

Overlooked Artist Louisa Chase Returns to the Spotlight

Artnet News reports on a solo exhibition at Berry Campbell, New York, dedicated to overlooked American painter Louisa Chase (1951–2016). Titled "Louisa Chase: The Eighties," the show is the largest and most comprehensive survey of her work in 25 years and the first since the gallery began representing her estate. It features a curated selection of works on paper from the mid-1970s to mid-1980s, highlighting Chase's unique synthesis of abstraction and representation that positioned her between Neo-Expressionism and the New Image movement. Chase, who studied under Philip Guston at Yale, had major early success including solo shows at Robert Miller Gallery, appearances at the Whitney Biennial (1981, 1983), and inclusion in the American Pavilion at the Venice Biennale (1984), with works held by MoMA, the Met, the National Gallery of Art, and the Walker Art Center.

'Trusting that first reaction is important': Nacho Polo and Robert Onuska on the process of collecting

Nacho Polo and Robert Onuska, co-founders of the design gallery Studiotwentyseven, discuss their art collection in an interview with The Art Newspaper. Housed in their Tribeca apartment, the collection spans painting, sculpture, and photography with an emphasis on materiality and sculptural form. They recount their first acquisition—Ron Gorchov's *Autolykos* (2019)—and their most recent purchase, Alex Katz's *Nine Women 5* (2009). The couple also shares their instinctive buying process, a regret over missing a Nick Cave sculpture, and their anticipation for the Jean and Terry de Gunzburg collection at Sotheby's this spring.

15 Art Shows to See in NYC This May

Hyperallergic's May 2025 guide to New York City art shows highlights 15 exhibitions, including a survey of Hawaiian Japanese-American artists from the Metcalf Chateau group at Ryan Lee Gallery, a retrospective of Malian photographer Seydou Keïta at the Brooklyn Museum, and Renée Green's multimedia project 'Secret' at Bortolami Gallery. The article also features Lynette Yiadom-Boakye's quietude-focused works, a meditation on grief and death, and a document of a city devastated by the AIDS crisis through portraits of inanimate objects, among other shows.

Gerhard Richter ‘Candle’ From Estate of Revered Dealer Marian Goodman Falls Short of a Record at $35.1 M.

A Gerhard Richter painting, *Kerze (Candle)* (1982), from the estate of the late dealer Marian Goodman sold at Christie’s on Wednesday evening for $35.1 million (with fees), falling short of the artist’s $46.3 million record set over a decade ago. The lot, estimated at $35–$50 million, was guaranteed by a third party and drew a hammer price of $30 million after less than two minutes of subdued bidding. Goodman, who represented Richter for decades until he left for David Zwirner in 2022, had purchased the work directly from the artist in 1989 and held it for nearly 40 years. The painting was one of eight Richter works from Goodman’s estate offered in the combined “Marian’s Richters & 21st Century Evening Sale.”

The Works, Trends, and Artists Artnet Specialists Can’t Stop Thinking About

Artnet Auctions has three sales currently live: Post-War and Contemporary Art (through May 20), Contemporary Editions (through May 29), and Private Sales for immediate purchase. Three Artnet specialists highlight key lots: Robert Rauschenberg's 'Corridor (Hoarfrost)' (1978), Emily Mason's 'Express Report' (1988), and Andy Warhol's 'Double Mickey Mouse' (1981). The specialists discuss market trends, including the growing importance of artist foundations in supporting scholarship and market health, the rapid revaluation of post-war women abstractionists like Mason, and shifts in the prints market as consignors leverage demand.

It’s the Most Controversial Venice Biennale in Years. Can the Art Stand Up to the Noise?

The 2026 Venice Biennale is embroiled in controversy, with the US Pavilion at the center of a political storm. The Trump administration's State Department overhauled the selection process, bypassing the usual NEA panel and commissioning a nonprofit, the American Arts Conservancy, to organize the pavilion. Artist Alma Allen, who accepted the invitation despite threats from galleries and curators, presents a show that critics find politically muted. The Biennale's jury resigned days before the opening, and annual prizes were canceled, adding to the turmoil.

S.I. Newhouse’s Brâncuși Sells at Christie’s for Record-Breaking $107.6 M.

A Constantin Brâncuși sculpture titled *Danaïde* (1913), formerly owned by media magnate and top art collector S.I. Newhouse, sold at Christie’s on Monday night for a hammer price of $93 million, totaling $107.6 million with fees. This set a new auction record for the modernist sculptor, surpassing the previous record of $71.2 million set by another Brâncuși work in 2018. The bronze head with gold leaf and black patina attracted half a dozen bids before selling to a client represented by Maria Los, deputy chairman of client advisory Americas. The work was one of six bronze casts, the only gilded example still in private hands, and had notable provenance, having been purchased by Eugene and Agnes Meyer at Brâncuși’s first solo exhibition in 1914.

Botticelli under UK export ban purchased by Klesch Collection

A Botticelli painting, *The Virgin and Child Enthroned* (1470s), valued at £10.2 million, has been purchased by the Klesch Collection, a British private collection, after the UK government placed an export bar on the work in May 2025. The painting, which sold at Sotheby’s London in late 2024 for £9.7 million, will be loaned to the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford for three years, ensuring it remains in the UK.

'I get strong gut reactions': Jonathan Travis on what he collects and why

Jonathan Travis, a realtor and art collector who has helped drive the migration of New York galleries to Tribeca, discusses his collecting habits in an interview with The Art Newspaper. Travis, a partner at Redwood Property Group, has found Tribeca homes for around 40 galleries and co-founded the Wolf Hill artist residency in Chappaqua, New York, with Ethan Rafii. He shares details about his first purchase (a Nicole Eisenman painting), his most recent acquisition (a Masanori Tomita painting), and his strong gut reactions when buying art in person. He also mentions works in his collection by artists such as Sasha Gordon, Jenna Gribbon, and Arcmanoro Niles, and expresses excitement for the Salvador Dalí show at Di Donna and the May auctions.

New fund helps museums make purchases at Frieze New York

The Sherman Family Foundation Acquisition Fund has launched at Frieze New York, providing $50,000 annually to help US museums acquire works from the fair's Focus section, which features solo stands by galleries under 12 years old. In its first year, the Baltimore Museum of Art acquired works by Reika Takebayashi, Seba Calfuqueo, and Joanne Burke, while the Brooklyn Museum acquired two works by Bettina (Bettina Grossman). Each artist also receives an unrestricted $5,000 award.

Alma Allen Offers a Quiet Vision in Venice—Even as Questions Swirl the U.S. Pavilion

Alma Allen's exhibition "Call Me the Breeze" has opened at the U.S. Pavilion for the 61st Venice Biennale. The Utah-born sculptor presents a pared-down, whimsical show that contrasts with the bombastic work of his predecessors, grouping new and old pieces to explore themes of conflict, mourning, and transcendence inspired by Hieronymus Bosch's *Visions of the Afterlife*. The exhibition was produced hurriedly over a few months, and Allen, who typically leaves his works untitled, felt compelled to explain his art for the first time in 30 years amid controversy surrounding his commission.

In the Studio with Casey Engel

Casey Engel, an artist based in Asheville, North Carolina, is profiled in her studio, where she creates ceramic, fiber, and paper works that blend craft traditions with avant-garde sensibilities. The article, structured as an interview with writer Merin McDivitt, explores Engel's tactile process—from pinching clay to hand-stitching quilts—and her emphasis on touch, intuition, and the tension between functionality and art. Engel previously curated over sixty shows at Blue Spiral 1 before dedicating herself full-time to her own practice.

Christo, Jeanne-Claude | The Pont-Neuf Wrapped (1976-2020) | Art & Prints

An auction listing for Christo and Jeanne-Claude's limited edition print 'The Pont-Neuf Wrapped' (1976-2020) has closed. The work is an archival digital print on wove paper, part of an edition of 450, accompanied by the exhibition book 'Christo et Jeanne-Claude Paris!'. The listing includes details on the artists' legacy, their monumental public projects like 'The Gates' and 'Wrapped Reichstag', and notes that similar works by Christo are available for purchase from various galleries.

SFMOMA’s ‘Matisse’s Femme au chapeau: A Modern Scandal’ revisits an old controversy

SFMOMA has opened 'Matisse’s Femme au chapeau: A Modern Scandal,' an exhibition that revisits the 1905 debut of Henri Matisse's iconic painting at the Salon d’Automne in Paris, which sparked the Fauvist movement. The show reconstructs Gallery VII of that salon, reuniting works by all ten original artists—including Matisse, André Derain, and Maurice de Vlaminck—and places the painting in dialogue with contemporary artists to trace its lasting influence. The painting, which was purchased by collectors Leo and Gertrude Stein at the 1905 salon, entered SFMOMA’s collection in 1991 as a bequest from Elise S. Haas and never travels, making this the exclusive venue for the exhibition.

Inside New York’s Rogue Project Spaces

A digital cover story profiles New York City's rogue project spaces—artist-run venues like U-Haul Gallery, Desnivel, Spielzeug, Catbox Contemporary, and 95 Gallon Gallery—that operate in unconventional locations such as trash bins, moving trucks, bodegas, laundromats, buses, and cat towers. The article features interviews with founders including Maria De Victoria (Desnivel), James Sundquist and Jack Chase (U-Haul Gallery), and others, highlighting how these spaces counter the bureaucracy of institutional exhibitions by prioritizing artist freedom, intimacy, and community engagement.

Dallas Museum of Art acquires six works at 2026 Dallas Art Fair

The Dallas Museum of Art acquired six works from the 2026 Dallas Art Fair, held April 16–19 at the Fashion Industry Gallery in the Dallas Arts District. The acquisitions, made possible by the Dallas Art Fair Foundation + Dallas Museum of Art Acquisition Fund, include pieces by Nicole Eisenman, Gloria Klein, Caroline Monnet, Hasani Sahlehe, and Raymond Saunders. Selections were made by DMA curators including Dr. Vivian Li, Ade Omotosho, Dr. Emily Friedman, Dr. Nicole R. Myers, and director Brian Ferriso. This marks the tenth year of the fund, which has added 78 works to the museum's permanent collection since 2016 through over $1 million in donations.

What’s on for spring? Spiritualism and symbolic systems

This article surveys several spring exhibitions in Chicago that explore themes of spiritualism, symbolic systems, and interconnected consciousness. Featured shows include Mindy Rose Schwartz's "Countersealed" at M. LeBlanc, which uses deconstructed fur coats, wands, and twisted fiber sculptures to evoke rituals addressing ecological disaster and historical subjugation. Daniel G. Baird's "Margin" at Patron examines thresholds between material and spiritual realms through a gilded canoe, wax arm cast, and birchwood oar. Leah Ke Yi Zheng's "Change, I Ching (64 Paintings)" at the Renaissance Society presents 64 hexagram paintings on silk, connecting abstract minimalism with Eastern silk painting traditions.

Art Busan Bets on Sustainability Over Speculation

Art Busan's 15th edition, taking place May 21–24, 2026 at BEXCO Exhibition Center, will feature over 110 galleries from 18 countries, with expanded programming including craft and design sections, curated exhibitions, and a new section called LIGHTHAUS that reframes gallery booths as curated environments. Data from the 2025 edition indicates an art market reorganization rather than contraction, with increased pre-sale activity, repeat attendance, and purchases across a wide price spectrum, suggesting a shift away from speculation toward sustained engagement.

Maia Chao Performs the Museum

Artist Maia Chao will activate the seventh-floor galleries of the Whitney Museum of American Art with her performance "Being Moved" as part of the 2026 Whitney Biennial programming. The work explores the theatricality and choreography of a museum visit, examining the gap between the fantasy of profound encounter and the ambivalence of spectatorship. Chao, who studied cultural anthropology at Brown University and grew up with artist parents in Providence, Rhode Island, approaches the museum as a structure that quietly trains behavior and participation. Her earlier projects include "My Business (Cards)" (2017), which invokes Adrian Piper's work, and "Look at Art, Get Paid" (2015–20), which paid non-museum-goers to serve as guest critics.

New York Art Week Will Test the Market’s Momentum

New York Art Week is set to test the art market's momentum with half a dozen fairs and major auctions. Frieze New York opens at the Shed on May 13 with 68 galleries, while Sotheby's leads auction sales starting May 14, featuring a Mark Rothko painting estimated at $70–$100 million from Robert Mnuchin's collection. The total low estimate for Sotheby's week is $690.4 million, roughly 70% higher than last year's hammer total. Alternative fair Esther, co-founded by Margot Samel and Olga Temnikova, kicks off May 12 at the Estonian House for its third and final edition, emphasizing intentionality and community over scale.

May You Live in Less Interesting Times

The international jury for the Venice Biennale has collectively resigned just before the press preview, following their announcement that countries accused of crimes against humanity—specifically Israel and Russia—would be excluded from award consideration. The jurors did not provide an explicit reason for their resignation. Meanwhile, Russia's return to the 61st Venice Biennale will involve workarounds to comply with international sanctions, including restricted pavilion access. The article also highlights a widely-read essay by Hakan Topal on the financialization and 'administrification' of American art schools and academia.

Venice, Here We Come

Hyperallergic's newsletter previews the upcoming 61st Venice Biennale, noting the charged political climate that may overshadow the art. It highlights the main exhibition "In Minor Keys" conceived by the late Koyo Kouoh, and includes a guide to national pavilions, collateral events, and notable exhibitions in Venice. The edition also features a studio visit with 93-year-old artist Joan Semmel, an interview with Lebanese artist Tania El Khoury about her "revenge art," and news about Barbara Chase-Riboud declining to represent the US at the Biennale, a $116M gift to the National Gallery of Art, and the death of Argentine painter Ides Kihlen at 108.

How Tech Billionaires Turn Couture into Content

Wie Tech-Milliardäre Couture zu Content machen

The Met Gala, long considered the premier event for fashion and cultural influence, has become increasingly dominated by tech billionaires. This year, Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez Bezos purchased their role as co-hosts, sparking protests in New York and raising questions about whether money alone now buys entry into the highest echelons of fashion. Individual tickets cost $10,000 and a table $350,000, with sponsors including OpenAI, Snapchat, and Meta. The event, organized by Anna Wintour to raise funds for the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, raised $31 million last year but has transformed from a benefit into a spectacle optimized for viral moments and algorithmic appeal.

A Lucas Cranach the Elder Masterpiece Once Hung in Hitler’s Munich Apartment

A Lucas Cranach the Elder painting, *Cupid complaining to Venus* (1526–27), once hung in Adolf Hitler's Munich apartment, according to a report by the Art Newspaper. The work was identified in a 1940s photograph published in a 1978 furniture catalog and later in a 2023 article by art historian Birgit Schwarz, who confirmed Hitler's ownership via a 2006 discovery of an album at the Library of Congress. After World War II, American journalist Patricia Lochridge took the painting from a warehouse in Berchtesgaden and smuggled it to the US. The National Gallery in London acquired it in 1963 from A. Silberman Galleries, which falsely claimed it came from the 1909 auction buyer's heir; it had actually been purchased from Lochridge.

A skateboarder’s lament: the dismantling of San Francisco’s iconic and divisive fountain

San Francisco's Vaillancourt Fountain, a controversial concrete sculpture and centerpiece of Embarcadero Plaza since 1971, caught fire during its dismantling in early May 2025 after the city voted to potentially replace it with a grassy park. Designed by artist Armand Vaillancourt, the fountain was a landmark for the city's skateboarding scene in the 1980s and 1990s, but fell into disrepair and became a flashpoint in debates over modernist public art. The removal, costing $4 million for storage and assessment, was mourned by skateboarders and preservationists who saw it as a loss of cultural and architectural heritage.

Banksy’s Venice mural has been restored and will now tour city

A Banksy mural titled "Migrant Child," originally sprayed onto a 17th-century palazzo in Venice in 2019, has been restored and will tour the city's canals this weekend. The work, which depicts a child holding a flare and wearing a life vest, was removed from the Palazzo San Pantalon after six years of neglect and environmental damage had caused about a third of it to deteriorate. The restoration was funded by Banca Ifis, which purchased the palazzo in 2024 and commissioned Zaha Hadid Architects for the building's renovation. The conservation was supervised by Federico Borgogni, who previously oversaw the removal of another Banksy work in Bristol.