Maurizio Cattelan Opens Up About Sin, Silence, and Stealing: ‘I’m Guilty Too’

Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan directed the Renaissance Society’s annual benefit gala, titled "The Silent Party!", held at the Chicago Athletic Club during the week of Expo Chicago. The event subverted traditional gala expectations by requiring guests to remain silent for two hours, communicating only via handwritten notes while navigating a labyrinth of performances. The evening featured contributions from artists including Jacob Ryan Renolds, Davide Balula, and Isabelle Frances McGuire, culminating in a dinner that raised approximately $600,000 for the non-profit institution.

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Frieze Los Angeles 2026 opened amid concerns over the city's cooling art market, following a wave of gallery closures and a shift toward nomadic dealer models. Despite the economic downturn and the lingering shadow of previous regional fires, the fair week saw a resurgence of energy with 32,000 attendees and significant blue-chip sales, including a $3.75 million Ed Ruscha at Gagosian and a $2.8 million Njideka Akunyili Crosby at David Zwirner. The week was characterized by a mix of high-end commerce at the Santa Monica Airport and grassroots vitality at satellite events like Felix and the newly launched Post-Fair.

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David Hockney’s 1965 painting 'English Garden' is returning to the auction block at Sotheby’s London with an estimate of £2.5 million to £3.5 million ($3.4 million to $4.7 million). Painted while Hockney was teaching at the University of Colorado, Boulder, the work is recognized as his first English landscape and has been held in a private collection for nearly thirty years. It was last sold at auction in 1997 for just £89,500.

Filthy fossil fuels, a dizzying debut and the ominous side of the moon – the week in art

The Guardian’s weekly art roundup highlights the opening of 'Extraction' at Jupiter Artland, an exhibition featuring artists like Marguerite Humeau and John Gerrard that explores the environmental impact of fossil fuels. Other notable UK openings include Michaela Yearwood-Dan’s museum debut at The Whitworth, a survey of Paula Rego’s drawings at Victoria Miro, and a showcase of Thérèse Oulton’s textured landscapes at Vardaxoglou.

Megamurals, Guerrilla Girls and something rotten in the Oval Office – the week in art

The Guardian's weekly art roundup highlights several exhibitions, including Wilhelm Sasnal's politically charged paintings at Sadie Coles HQ in London, a Joan Eardley retrospective in Edinburgh, and a Guerrilla Girls show in East Sussex. It also reports on Art UK's digitization of over 6,700 UK murals, the theft of Impressionist paintings from an Italian museum, and the discovery of a stolen ancient gold helmet.

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Christie’s London achieved a robust £197.5 million ($265 million) across a triple-header of evening sales, including the 20th/21st Century, Art of the Surreal, and the Vanthournout Collection auctions. The evening was headlined by a record-breaking £26.3 million sale of Henry Moore’s bronze sculpture 'King and Queen', alongside new auction highs for Surrealist artists Toyen and Dorothea Tanning. Despite some pre-sale withdrawals and a marathon four-hour runtime, the house achieved a 96 percent sell-through rate by lot.

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Marlene Dumas set a new auction record for the most expensive living female artist when her 1997 painting *Miss January* sold for $13.6 million at a Christie’s evening sale. The work, featuring a nude woman with a ghostly white face, was pre-sold with a third-party guarantee. Other women artists also broke personal records that night, including Simone Leigh (sculpture for $5.7 million) and Emma McIntyre (painting for $201,000). However, the top five priciest works of the week were all by men: Claude Monet, Pablo Picasso, Alberto Giacometti, René Magritte, and Piet Mondrian, with Mondrian’s *Composition with Large Red Plane, Bluish Gray, Yellow, Black and Blue* selling for $47.6 million.

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Tilton Gallery, a fixture of New York’s Upper East Side for over 40 years, has announced it will close its physical space following an upcoming Ruth Vollmer exhibition to focus on private projects. The week also saw significant leadership shifts, including Lisa Phillips announcing her retirement as director of the New Museum after 26 years, and Ebony L. Haynes being promoted to the newly created role of global head of curatorial projects at David Zwirner. Meanwhile, legal tensions surfaced as a court dismissed Ronald Perelman’s $400 million insurance lawsuit regarding fire damage to his art collection.

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Shanghai Art Week 2025 featured two major art fairs, West Bund Art and Design and Art021 Shanghai, alongside numerous satellite exhibitions and events across the city. The author navigated the sprawling metropolis by public bike, visiting highlights including “Artist’s Treat,” a cluster of 11 exhibitions organized by artist Xu Zhen in a repurposed French school, and Blunt Society, an artist-run space showing works by Ma Lingli and Alex Müller. The week was marked by a cautiously optimistic market mood, with dealers reporting better-than-expected sales and new initiatives like Art021’s SVIP preview for serious collectors.

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The sixth edition of New York's Upstate Art Weekend, founded by Helen Toomer in 2020, runs July 17–21 across the Catskills and Hudson Valley, featuring 158 participating art organizations—a dramatic increase from 23 in its first year. Highlights include a Kishio Suga solo show at Dia Beacon, Sonia Gomes's first U.S. outdoor installation at Storm King Art Center, a group exhibition of seven women artists at Toomer's new project space Upbringing, Tomokazu Matsuyama's homage to Edward Hopper at the Edward Hopper House Museum, and a comparative show of Georgia O'Keeffe and Thomas Cole at the Thomas Cole National Historic Site.

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Artist Brad Kahlhamer prepares for his first solo exhibition with Venus Over Manhattan at 39 Great Jones Street, featuring energetic paintings on bedsheets that blend Plains Indian winter counts, pop-cultural graphics, and Manhattan's post-punk scene. The article follows Kahlhamer through the week leading up to the show, including his visit to TEFAF New York at the Park Avenue Armory, where his work "American Horse" was displayed in the gallery's booth, and his reflections on the installation process and the portable bedsheet medium inspired by Indigenous traditions.

From Lee Cronin’s The Mummy to Zayn: your complete entertainment guide to the week ahead

From Lee Cronin’s The Mummy to Zayn: your complete entertainment guide to the week ahead

British artist Michaela Yearwood-Dan is launching her first UK institutional solo exhibition at The Whitworth in Manchester. The immersive installation blends painting, ceramics, sound, and poetry to explore complex themes of colonial history, religious institutions, and the journey toward personal and collective liberation.

Petal passion, super-surreal Polaroids and Billy Childish’s California – the week in art

This week’s art roundup highlights several major exhibitions across the UK, including a floral-themed survey at Kettle’s Yard featuring artists from Henri Rousseau to Lubaina Himid. Other notable openings include Billy Childish’s expressionistic California desert paintings at Carl Freedman Gallery, Katharina Grosse’s site-specific installations at White Cube, and Steve McQueen’s new photography book, 'Bounty', which explores the colonial history of Grenada through its flora.

Estonia exports a modernist, Glasgow gets poetic and Leonora Carrington goes wild – the week in art

The article is a weekly roundup of art events and news highlights. It spotlights several upcoming exhibitions, including a showcase of Estonian modernist Konrad Mägi in London, a poetic conceptual art show by Fiona Banner in Glasgow, lyrical paintings by Turner Prize-shortlisted Hurvin Anderson at Tate Britain, and a surrealist exhibition of Leonora Carrington's work at London's Freud Museum. It also mentions films by Rehana Zaman and features an image story about a unique, family-run trompe l'oeil painting school in Brussels.

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Joel Shapiro, the acclaimed American sculptor known for his abstract wooden and bronze figures, died June 14 at age 83. In the weeks before his death, he gave a career-spanning interview to Max Norman for ARTnews, reflecting on his legacy. The article describes Shapiro's final New York show at Pace Gallery in fall 2024, which featured large works like "Splay" (2024), "Wave" (2024), and his largest wooden sculpture "ARK" (2020/2023–24), alongside small models and bronzes. It also offers a glimpse into his Long Island City studio, where he constantly experimented with form, material, and scale.

Zurbarán in London, the Carnegie International, Walter Sickert’s Ennui—podcast

This episode of The Art Newspaper's podcast covers three major art events opening this weekend. The largest career survey of 17th-century Spanish master Francisco de Zurbarán since the 1980s opens at the National Gallery in London, co-curated by Francesca Whitlum-Cooper. The 59th Carnegie International, titled "If the word we," opens at the Carnegie Museum of Art and other venues in Pittsburgh, directed by Eric Crosby. The Work of the Week is Walter Sickert's "Ennui" (c.1914), featured in the exhibition "Walter Sickert: Working Notes" at Charleston in Lewes, curated by Robert Travers of Piano Nobile in partnership with Charleston.

Chernobyl 40 years on, Paula Rego at Munch in Oslo, Gluck’s flower painting—podcast

This episode of The Art Newspaper's podcast 'The Week in Art' covers three distinct exhibitions. Host Ben Luke discusses the 40th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster with organizer Olha Kovalevska, whose exhibition at Nikolaikirche in Potsdam runs until 27 April. He also explores a new show at Munch in Oslo, 'Paula Rego: Dance Among Thorns', with curator Kari J. Brandtzæg, focusing on Rego's engagement with Edvard Munch. Finally, the episode features 'Convolvulus' (1940) by Gluck as the Work of the Week, part of the group exhibition 'Handpicked: Painting Flowers from 1900 to Today' at Kettle's Yard in Cambridge, discussed with co-curator Naomi Polonsky.

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A four-minute bidding war erupted at Christie’s 20th-century evening sale in New York on November 17 over John Singer Sargent’s watercolor *Gondolier’s Siesta* (1902–03). The work sold for $7.4 million with fees, more than double its $3 million high estimate, setting a new auction record for a work on paper by the artist. Another Sargent painting, *Capri* (1878), also performed strongly in the same sale, fetching $11.5 million with fees.

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New York's marquee auction week delivered strong results, with Sotheby's and Christie's posting combined sales of nearly $2 billion. Sotheby's achieved a record $706 million evening at its new Breuer Building headquarters, driven by the Leonard Lauder estate sale, while Christie's $690 million 20th-century sale was up 41.9% from last November. Gustav Klimt's *Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer* sold for $236.4 million, setting a new auction record for the artist and becoming the most expensive Modern artwork ever sold at auction. Frida Kahlo's *El Sueño (La Cama)* fetched $54.7 million, a record for a work by a woman artist at auction.

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Chicago's annual art week unfolded with gallerist Daisy Sanchez documenting the scene for Artnet News's 'Wet Paint in the Wild' column. Sanchez, who recently co-opened Hans Goodrich gallery with Peter Anastos, attended the Renaissance Society's annual benefit, EXPO Chicago, and after-parties. The week featured artists including Joanne Greenbaum, Leah Ke Yi Zhang, B. Ingrid Olsen, and Isabelle Frances McGuire, with appearances by curators Myriam Ben Salah, Karsten Lund, and Giampaolo Bianconi, among others.

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Gallery Weekend Berlin took place during the city's spring bloom, featuring exhibitions like Alvaro Urbano's melancholic installation "September and Lions" at ChertLüdde and Pamela Rosenkranz's flesh-toned water bottles at KaDeWe. The event kicked off on May Day and included expanded public tours, artist talks at the Neue Nationalgalerie, and a 24-hour window project. Notable attendees included collector Frédéric de Goldschmidt and celebrity Usher, who collected art. The weekend was marked by a mood of resilience despite political turmoil.

From Mother Mary to Foo Fighters: your complete entertainment guide to the week ahead

This article is a weekly entertainment guide from The Guardian, covering cinema, gigs, art, stage, streaming, games, albums, and brain food. In the art section, it highlights two exhibitions: "Handpicked: Painting Flowers from 1900 to Today" at Kettle's Yard in Cambridge, featuring artists like Henri Rousseau and Lubaina Himid; and a show of South African photographer George Hallett's work at the John Lennon School of Art and Design in Liverpool, documenting black resistance in 1970s Britain. It also mentions an open house for Lonnie Holley's new works at Edel Assanti gallery in London.

Shreg the green ogre, a grey obsessive and Vermeer’s boiled egg – the week in art

This week's art roundup from The Guardian highlights a range of exhibitions across the UK, including Bruce Asbestos's 'Bootleg Shreg 2' at Exeter Phoenix Gallery, a playful show featuring a green ogre that parodies copyright rules. Other notable shows include Roy Oxlade's primitive paintings at Alison Jacques, May Morris's craft legacy at Lady Lever Art Gallery, a 30-year anniversary group show at Timothy Taylor, and Alan Charlton's monochrome grey works at Annely Juda Fine Art. The article also features an image of a naturally sculpted rock on Kangaroo Island, a review of the Turner Prize nominees, and a masterwork analysis of Vermeer's 'The Guitar Player' at Kenwood House, which was stolen in the 1970s and recovered with the help of a clairvoyant.

From You, Me & Tuscany to Euphoria: your complete entertainment guide to the week ahead

The Camden Art Centre in London is hosting a significant survey of the late Guyanese-British artist Donald Locke, marking the final stop of a UK touring exhibition. Locke is celebrated for blending the formal language of minimalism and modernism with the potent symbols of Guyanese and Black American culture, effectively challenging the traditional art world's Eurocentric perspectives through his work in ceramics, painting, and sculpture.

Nature by the uncool YBA, armoured ceramics and dizzying Aussie abstraction – the week in art

The article is a weekly art roundup highlighting several major exhibitions opening in London and Cambridge. It spotlights a new show of nature-themed paintings by Cecily Brown at the Serpentine Gallery, ceramics by Phoebe Collings-James at Pitzhanger Manor, a career survey of Turner Prize-winner Veronica Ryan at the Whitechapel Gallery, a Frank Bowling retrospective at The Fitzwilliam Museum, and a presentation of Aboriginal Australian art at Edel Assanti. The piece also features a powerful war photograph from Iraq and includes brief news items on topics ranging from a Matisse retrospective to potential museum entry fees.

Old Masters Records: Gentileschi, Michelangelo, Rembrandt

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Old Masters Week in New York saw a resurgence in the sector, highlighted by the Italian Ministry of Culture's $14.9 million private acquisition of a rare two-sided panel by Antonello da Messina from Sotheby’s. The week featured high-profile sales at both Sotheby’s and Christie’s, resulting in new auction records for major figures including Artemisia Gentileschi and Michelangelo, as well as a record price for a Rembrandt drawing. The success was attributed to a high level of museum participation and more realistic pricing strategies compared to previous seasons.

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Sotheby's held its inaugural Abu Dhabi Collectors' Week at the St. Regis Island Resort on Saadiyat Island, transforming the venue into a luxury showcase with handbags, diamonds, watches, a non-selling art display worth $500 million, and rare cars. The week culminated in open-air auctions under a full moon, netting $133 million—far exceeding the $17 million from Sotheby's first Middle East luxury sale in Saudi Arabia earlier this year. Highlights included a 1994 McLaren Formula 1 car sold for $25.3 million, a Jane Birkin Hermès handbag that fetched $2.9 million, and a 31.68-karat pink diamond called The Desert Rose that went for $8.8 million. A jewelry and timepieces sale achieved white-glove status, taking $25.4 million.

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Frank Gehry, the visionary architect behind iconic cultural landmarks such as the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris, and Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, died on December 5 at age 96. Over the weekend, art and architecture figures including artist Rob Pruitt, Serpentine Galleries artistic director Hans Ulrich Obrist, and leaders of institutions like the Guggenheim Bilbao, LACMA, and the J. Paul Getty Trust shared personal remembrances and tributes, highlighting his groundbreaking designs, enduring friendships, and profound influence.

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Sotheby's has announced November 8 as the opening date for its new headquarters in the iconic Breuer Building at 945 Madison Avenue, New York. The auction house purchased the building from the Whitney Museum in 2023 and commissioned Pritzker Prize-winning architects Herzog & de Meuron, along with PBDW Architects, to renovate the landmarked structure. The opening will feature a blockbuster exhibition of modern and contemporary art, followed by major sales the week of November 17. The building, designed by Marcel Breuer and completed in 1966, previously housed the Whitney Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Frick Collection.

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Christie's, Sotheby's, and Bonhams held Old Masters auctions in London, with Christie's achieving a record £31.9 million ($43.7 million) sale for Canaletto's *Venice, the Return of the Bucintoro on Ascension Day* (circa 1732), more than half the sale's total of £60.8 million. The painting, once owned by Robert Walpole, set a new auction record for the artist. Sotheby's evening sale brought in £14.5 million, with J.M.W. Turner's rediscovered *The Rising Squall, Hot Wells, from St Vincent's Rock, Bristol* (1792) selling for £1.9 million, seven times its estimate. However, mid-market paintings struggled, and the Bristol Museum and Art Gallery failed to acquire the Turner despite fundraising £109,000.