Art News. Vasari Codex

trending_up market schedule Oct 25, 2025 visibility 11 link 1 artist

art basel discounts new galleries 2025 1234758887

Art Basel has introduced booth-fee discounts for first- and second-time exhibitors at its fairs, offering 20% off for first-year participants and 10% for second-year participants. The policy, confirmed by chief artistic officer Vincenzo de Bellis, has been in place since Art Basel Miami Beach in 2021 and applies to all Art Basel fairs in Switzerland, Hong Kong, and Miami Beach, with a new edition launching in Qatar. Starting in 2026, discounts will increase to 25% and 15% respectively.

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article news schedule Oct 15, 2025 visibility 7 link 1 artist

family of israeli graffiti artist who died in hamas captivity demands return of her body after ceasefire 1234757032

As part of the recent ceasefire deal brokered by the Trump Administration, Hamas returned 20 living hostages and four bodies of deceased hostages to Israel on Monday, but failed to return all 28 bodies as agreed. Among the deceased is Israeli graffiti artist and art student Inbar Haiman, known as “Pink,” who was abducted at age 27 from the Nova Music Festival on October 7. Her family is demanding the return of her remains, with her aunt Hannah Cohen emphasizing the need for closure. The Hostages and Missing Families Forum condemned the incomplete return as a violation of the agreement, and Israel has threatened consequences if the remaining bodies are not handed over.

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trending_up market schedule Oct 8, 2025 visibility 20 link 2 artists

frieze acquisition finalized mari ari emanuel 1234756029

Ariel Emanuel, through his newly formed company Mari, has finalized the acquisition of Frieze, which includes its magazine, seven art fairs worldwide, and two exhibition spaces. The deal also encompasses tennis events like the Miami Open and Madrid Open, along with a majority stake in the collector car auction house Barrett-Jackson. The acquisition was first announced in May and reportedly valued at $200 million, with financial backing from investors including Apollo, RedBird Capital Partners, and the Qatar Investment Authority. Mari will be led by Emanuel and Mark Shapiro, with Simon Fox remaining as CEO of Frieze.

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gavel restitution schedule Oct 8, 2025 visibility 10 link 6 artists

ancient rome new orleans tombstone 1234755754

A 2nd-century Roman gravestone inscribed for a sailor named Sextus Congenius Verus was discovered in March 2025 by Daniella Santoro and Aaron Lorenz while doing yard work at their New Orleans home. University of New Orleans archaeologist D. Ryan Gray, working with colleagues at the University of Innsbruck and Tulane University, traced the stone to a missing object from a museum in Civitavecchia, Italy. Researchers believe it was brought to the U.S. as a souvenir by a member of the 34th division of the Fifth Army after the liberation of Rome in 1944. The FBI’s Art Crime Team is now involved in repatriating the headstone to Italy.

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candle obituary schedule Oct 5, 2025 visibility 15 link 3 artists

milton esterow artnews editor dead 1234755429

Milton Esterow, the award-winning journalist who owned and edited ARTnews for 42 years, died on Friday at age 97. His death was confirmed by his daughter Judith Esterow, a former associate publisher of the magazine. Esterow purchased ARTnews in 1972 from Newsweek and transformed it into a news-focused powerhouse, winning a National Magazine Award and two George Polk Awards. He introduced the influential ARTnews Top 200 Collectors list in 1990 and was known for his relentless investigative journalism, particularly on Holocaust art restitution. He continued writing into his 90s, using his 1950 Royal typewriter.

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article news schedule Oct 3, 2025 visibility 16 link 1 artist

trump epstein statue dc returns national mall 1234755268

A controversial 12-foot-tall statue depicting President Donald Trump and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein has returned to Washington, D.C.'s National Mall after being removed by the National Parks Service late last month. Originally titled *The Secret Handshake*, the work was created by anonymous artists to "celebrate" Trump's ties to Epstein during Friendship Month, and features plaques with a message Trump allegedly wrote to Epstein. The National Parks Service cited the statue's height as non-compliant with its permit, and the artists accused the Trump administration of suppressing free speech. The statue has since been repaired and retitled *Why Can't We Be Friends?*.

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rate_review review schedule Oct 2, 2025 visibility 13 link 2 artists

vapid art world novel dimes square zoe dubno happiness love 1234754320

Zoe Dubno's novel *Happiness & Love* is a satire of the art world, heavily borrowing from Thomas Bernhard's 1984 novel *Woodcutters*. The book follows an unnamed narrator who relentlessly criticizes the vapid, social-climbing denizens of the downtown New York scene, using the word "stupid" over twenty times. The narrator laments the art world's obsession with wealth and clout over meaning and beauty, but her own hypocrisy and lack of self-awareness are evident. The novel has received superficial coverage from outlets like *New York Magazine*, focusing on the author's lifestyle rather than the book's content.

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article policy schedule Sep 23, 2025 visibility 12 link 3 artists

federal court rules gender ideology ban on art endowments unconstitutional 1234753210

A Rhode Island federal court ruled on Friday that National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) grants do not have to comply with President Trump’s executive order banning “gender ideology.” The order, introduced in February, prohibited federal funds from being used to promote the idea that males can identify as women and vice versa, and was applied to the NEA grant application process. The ACLU’s Rhode Island branch filed a lawsuit in March on behalf of several theaters, arguing the policy violated First Amendment rights by restricting the types of works that could receive funding. Judge William E. Smith, appointed by former President George W. Bush, found the policy unconstitutional, noting that the 1965 law establishing the NEA requires grants to be awarded solely on merit. A subsequent “final notice” allowing the NEA chair to review applications on a case-by-case basis was also struck down as a viewpoint-based restriction on artists’ speech.

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trending_up market schedule Sep 23, 2025 visibility 12 link 1 artist

fed reserve interest rate cuts art market loans 1234752920

The Federal Reserve cut its benchmark interest rate by 0.25 percentage points, the first reduction since December, bringing rates to their lowest level since late 2022. Art finance experts Anita Heriot of the Fine Art Group and Joshua Greenberg of Bank of America Private Bank told ARTnews that while the cut is unlikely to create new art buyers, it could stimulate art lending and borrowing against collections, as lower rates reduce the cost of carrying debt. The move signals a potential trend of further rate declines, which may encourage collectors to reengage with the market, especially amid softening art prices.

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article news schedule Sep 18, 2025 visibility 10 link 1 artist

charlie kirk statue florida new college 1234752355

New College of Florida, a public liberal arts school in Sarasota that was overhauled by Governor Ron DeSantis in 2023 to become a conservative institution, announced on September 17, 2025, that it will commission a statue of Charlie Kirk, the right-wing activist and founder of Turning Point USA who was assassinated in Utah the previous week. The statue, privately funded by community leaders, will depict Kirk seated at a table with two empty chairs, speaking into a microphone, and is intended to honor his legacy and commitment to free speech and civil discourse on campus.

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article policy schedule Aug 18, 2025 visibility 8 link 1 artist

burmese artist sai exhibition bangkok arts cultural center 1234749521

An art exhibition at the Bangkok Arts and Cultural Centre titled “Constellation of Complicity: Visualising the Global Machine of Authoritarian Solidarity” was censored after repeated visits by Chinese embassy representatives. The show, featuring exiled artists from China, Russia, Iran, and Burma, had black paint applied over artists' names and descriptions of homelands such as Tibet, Hong Kong, and Xinjiang. Works by Tibetan artist Tenzin Mingyur Paldron were particularly affected, with television screens showing her films switched off and Tibetan and Uyghur flags removed. Burmese artist Sai told BBC News that since the censorship, he and his wife fled to the UK to seek asylum.

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trending_up market schedule Jul 22, 2025 visibility 16 link 2 artists

phillips auction house new priority bidding structure 1234747999

Phillips auction house will launch a new "priority bidding" fee structure this September, offering a lower buyer's premium rate to bidders who place a binding written bid at least 48 hours before a live auction, provided the bid meets or exceeds the lot's low estimate. The standard buyer's premium will remain at 29/22/15 percent for New York sales, while priority bidding rates drop to 25/20/14 percent. The policy applies to live auctions across New York, London, Hong Kong, Geneva, and Paris, but excludes watch auctions and timed online-only sales.

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article policy schedule Jul 22, 2025 visibility 13 link 1 artist

trump to withdraw us from unesco for second time 1234747976

President Donald Trump has announced the United States will withdraw from UNESCO for the second time, effective at the end of 2026. The State Department cited the organization's focus on "divisive social and cultural causes" and its alignment with the UN's Sustainable Development Goals as contrary to America First foreign policy, as well as "anti-Israel rhetoric" within UNESCO. This follows a pattern of Trump pulling the US from multilateral bodies, including the UN Human Rights Council and the World Health Organization, and continues a fraught history: the US stopped funding UNESCO under Obama over Palestine's membership, left in 2017 under Trump, and rejoined under Biden in 2023.

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museum exhibitions schedule Jul 17, 2025 visibility 11 link 3 artists

galerie les bois offline 2667122

Gallery Les Bois has opened its inaugural exhibition, “Offline,” in London’s Chelsea neighborhood, running through July 22, 2025. The show explores digital saturation, online engagement pressures, and the environmental and human costs of the digital ecosystem. It features work by the artist duo Volcan, including their “Offline Series” (shown at the 60th Venice Biennale) and “Roadworks Series,” alongside contributions from Steve Foster, Oliver Tanay, Miranda Carter, and Jasmine Pradissitto. The gallery, founded by Claire-Julia Hill in 2024, aims to integrate sustainability with contemporary art.

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person people schedule Jul 14, 2025 visibility 6 link 1 artist

volord kingdom art collection 2666536

Artist Walter Paul Bebirian discusses the Volord Kingdom Art Collection, a vast and growing trove of hundreds of thousands of digital artworks he has created over decades. In an interview with Artnet News, Bebirian recounts significant personal challenges since 2022, including a stroke in April 2023 that led to rheumatoid arthritis, limiting his mobility and forcing a hiatus from his practice. He lowered his prices to make his art more affordable and gradually resumed work despite physical difficulties. The collection, born from a need to unify his oeuvre and create a generative artistic world, blends abstraction and representation, photography and digital imagination.

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museum exhibitions schedule Jul 3, 2025 visibility 9 link 1 artist

pompeii garden of hercules restoration 2657556

The Pompeii Archaeological Park has unveiled the restored Garden of Hercules, replanted with 1,200 violets, 1,000 ruscus plants, 800 antique roses, vines, and fruit trees to mirror its appearance 2,000 years ago. The restoration is based on botanical research from the 1950s by Wilhelmina Jashemski, who identified pollen, spores, and plant fossils at the site. The garden, located on Regio VIII, Insula 2, also features a recreated ancient irrigation system and a terracotta statue of Hercules, and was once used for commercial perfume production.

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person people schedule Jul 2, 2025 visibility 8 link 1 artist

ford foundation heather gerken next president 1234746580

The Ford Foundation has appointed Heather Gerken, dean of Yale Law School, as its next president. She will succeed Darren Walker and become the 11th president of the foundation, as well as the second woman to lead the organization in its nearly 90-year history. Gerken will officially assume the role on November 1, following a national search launched after Walker announced his departure after 12 years.

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article policy schedule Jul 2, 2025 visibility 12 link 5 artists

germany colonial restitution conduct 1287815

Germany's culture minister Monika Grütters has released a 130-page code of conduct for museums, titled "Guide to Dealing With Collection Goods From Colonial Contexts," which outlines methods for identifying and confronting colonial-era artifacts in German collections. The guidelines, published by the German Association of Museums, include best practices for provenance research, a list of former and current colonies, and alternatives to full restitution such as long-term loans and joint custody agreements. The release coincides with the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation's official ceremony returning nine artifacts to Indigenous Alaskan communities, and follows increased pressure from public outcry over the Humboldt Forum and similar restitution efforts by French president Emmanuel Macron.

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trending_up market schedule Jun 30, 2025 visibility 14 link 2 artists

phillip hoffman ed dolman patti wong consultancy new perspectives 1234746137

A group of high-profile art market veterans—Ed Dolman, Alex Dolman, Brett Gorvy, Philip Hoffman, and Patti Wong—have launched a new collaborative consultancy called New Perspectives Art Partners (NPAP). Unlike traditional advisory firms, NPAP operates on a flexible, project-based model where partners retain their existing roles and assemble only for high-level, specialized challenges. The consultancy aims to advise collectors, fiduciaries, and family offices on managing, growing, or dispersing significant collections, leveraging the partners' deep experience across auction houses, galleries, institutions, and advisory, with a global footprint spanning Hong Kong to Doha.

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article policy schedule Jun 20, 2025 visibility 10 link 2 artists

trump administration violated law withholding institute of museum and library services funds 1234745552

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued a decision on Monday finding that the Trump administration violated the Impoundment Control Act of 1974 by withholding congressionally appropriated funds from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). In March, President Trump signed an executive order calling for the elimination of the IMLS, and in April the agency was gutted by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), placing its entire 75-person staff on leave. The GAO determined that the IMLS ceased performing its legal duties and withheld funds intended for museums and libraries, and that the administration could not justify the withholding.

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museum exhibitions schedule Jun 13, 2025 visibility 13 link 4 artists

yuge zhou midnight moment 2656704

Artnet is co-presenting Midnight Moment in partnership with Times Square Arts this June, featuring Yuge Zhou's video work *Trampoline Color Exercise*. The piece uses archival Olympic footage to show gymnasts tumbling on pink-gridded trampolines in a seamless collage, exploring themes of globalization, geopolitical tension, and humanity's pursuit of perfection. Zhou, a video artist with a background in computer science and a former child singer in China, discusses her creative journey and the inspiration behind the work in an accompanying interview.

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museum exhibitions schedule Jun 13, 2025 visibility 10 link 3 artists

miriam simun octopus teacher 2650767

Artist Miriam Simun is currently presenting an exhibition about her Institute for Transhumanist Cephalopod Evolution at the art space Recess in Brooklyn. The centerpiece is a series of workshops titled “How to Become an Octopus (and sometime squid),” where she guides participants through psycho-physical exercises developed with marine biologists, engineers, dancers, and synchronized swimmers. Artnet News co-host Ben Davis attended the workshop and discusses the experience on this week's Art Angle podcast.

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article news schedule Jun 10, 2025 visibility 8 link 1 artist

how nebra sky disc made study 2578814

Researchers from Otto-von-Guericke University in Magdeburg, Germany, and the Saxony-Anhalt-State Museum of Prehistory, in collaboration with engineering firm DeltaSigma Analytics and coppersmith Herbert Bauer, have successfully replicated the manufacturing process of the Nebra Sky Disk, a 3,600-year-old bronze artifact depicting the cosmos. By analyzing a small sample of the disk using advanced techniques like energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy and electron backscatter diffraction, the team determined the disk was cast and then forged at least 10 times through repeated heating and hammering. Bauer replicated this by annealing a similar metal mixture 55 times, revealing that the disk's microstructure matches a stage after 10 forging cycles, not the final 55, indicating the original preform was thinner and wider than assumed.

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article policy schedule Jun 9, 2025 visibility 14 link 1 artist

eu import regulations 2653480

The European Union's Regulation 2019/880, aimed at combating illicit trafficking and terrorism, will take effect on June 28, imposing stricter import controls on antiquities and artworks over 200 years old and valued above €18,000 ($19,500). The regulation requires importers to provide evidence that an object was lawfully exported from its country of origin, even for items exported decades ago when such documentation was not required. This reverses the presumption of innocence, placing the burden of proof on importers. Dealers and experts express concern that the rules are not based on market realities, as importers must be registered within the E.U., forcing non-E.U. dealers to rely on third-party agents or shippers. The regulation also poses challenges for ancient objects, where borders and export controls may be historically ambiguous.

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article culture schedule May 27, 2025 visibility 9 link 1 artist

the new rules of subculture 2642595

Writer and theorist Nadia Asparouhova has published a new book titled *Antimemetics: Why Some Ideas Resist Spreading*, which introduces the concept of "anti-memes"—cultural phenomena whose influence derives from being hard to find or difficult to understand, rather than from popularity and visibility. The book is released by the Dark Forest Collective, a group of artists and thinkers inspired by Yancey Strickler's metaphor of the internet as a "dark forest," where meaningful exchange retreats to private spaces away from commercial and contentious public platforms. Artnet News critic Ben Davis reviews the book, connecting its ideas to contemporary art that deliberately operates below the radar.

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trending_up market schedule May 23, 2025 visibility 9 link 2 artists

napoleon sword could fetch 1 million auction 2638647

A ceremonial saber commissioned by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1802 sold for €4.6 million ($5.2 million) at Giquello auction house in Paris on May 22, far exceeding its estimate of €700,000–€1 million. The sword, made by master armorer Nicolas-Noël Boutet, was given to Marshal Emmanuel de Grouchy on the eve of the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 and remained in his family ever since. It features a curved Damascus blade, gold-plated silver mounts, and a stingray-skin sheath, with classical imagery including Medusa, Hercules, and Mars. The sale was part of a 20-lot auction at Hôtel Drouot that also included a 15th-century sword, a Gabonese mask, and a 17th-century tapestry.

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article news schedule May 20, 2025 visibility 15 link 4 artists

president zelenskyy gives pope leo ukrainian icon 2647205

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy presented Pope Leo XIV with a Ukrainian religious icon painted on a fragment of an artillery crate from the front lines in the Kharkiv region, following the Pope's inaugural Mass on May 18, 2025. Zelenskyy described the icon, depicting the Virgin Mary and child, as a symbol of life that must be protected, referencing children affected by Russia's invasion. The meeting in Vatican City also included discussions about peace talks, with the Pope offering to host negotiations between Ukraine and Russia.

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trending_up market schedule May 20, 2025 visibility 11 link 1 artist

asian art market 2638608

The Chinese art market experienced a 31% year-on-year decline in sales to $8.4 billion in 2024, its lowest level since 2009, according to the latest Art Basel and UBS Art Market Report. The downturn is attributed to slower economic growth, a property market slump, and broader economic uncertainties. However, other Asia Pacific markets showed resilience: Japan saw a 2% increase in sales, Australia's dealer market grew 11%, and China remains the second-largest auction market for postwar and contemporary art. Dealer sentiment is improving, with half expecting stronger sales in 2025.

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gavel restitution schedule May 19, 2025 visibility 9 link 1 artist

manhattan da office repatriates artifacts peru 1234742639

The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office returned eight artifacts to Peru during a ceremony at the Peruvian consulate in New York on May 15. The repatriated items include funerary objects illegally taken from tombs in northern Peru during the 1960s and ’70s, a copper mask believed to represent the Moche deity Ai Apaec (circa 300 BCE) from the looted Loma Negra site, and a ceramic portrait vessel from the Chavín culture (1000–700 BCE). This is the second time New York officials have returned a group of works to Peru.

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article news schedule May 19, 2025 visibility 11 link 1 artist

world press photo foundation suspends the terror of war attribution 1234742611

The World Press Photo Foundation has suspended the authorship attribution of the iconic 1972 photograph 'The Terror of War' (also known as 'Napalm Girl') from Associated Press photographer Nick Út. The decision follows new research presented in the documentary 'The Stringer' (January 2025) by the VII Foundation, which suggests that the image was more likely captured by stringer Nguyễn Thành Nghệ or Huỳnh Công Phúc. An independent investigation by forensic analysts and media experts, along with separate inquiries by AP and World Press Photo, found insufficient evidence to definitively confirm the original credit, leading to the suspension until authorship can be conclusively determined.

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