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On Sunday at around 9:30 a.m., robbers broke into the Louvre's Apollo Gallery using a cherry picker and an angle grinder, stealing nine pieces of jewelry worth an estimated $102 million in less than eight minutes. ARTnews consulted security experts who noted that the theft exploited systemic vulnerabilities, pointing to a pattern of recent museum heists including the Natural History Museum in Paris, the Drents Museum in the Netherlands, and the Dresden crown jewels theft in Germany. The Louvre had previously faced staff walkouts over inadequate security staffing, and director Laurence des Cars has requested a police station be installed at the museum.

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The Smithsonian Institution, a government-funded museum network in Washington, D.C., was forced to close this weekend due to the ongoing U.S. government shutdown, marking another blow after repeated attacks by the Trump administration. Meanwhile, a traveling Ruth Asawa retrospective opening at New York's Museum of Modern Art on October 19 is reportedly the museum's largest show ever dedicated to a woman artist, featuring 376 works across 16,000 square feet, though MoMA has not officially confirmed this record. Other news includes a forgotten Paul Gauguin painting heading to auction at Artcurial, Sotheby's seeking third-party guarantees for three Klimt paintings from the Leonard Lauder collection, a reattributed Liotard portrait, and Chilean artist Cecilia Vicuña winning the 2025 Roswitha Haftmann Prize. Additionally, musician Kate Bush has invited 52 UK visual artists to donate works for an auction benefiting War Child, aiding children affected by war in Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan, Syria, and elsewhere.

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Art Basel Paris is undergoing a major transformation for its third edition, officially rebranding from 'Paris+ par Art Basel' and moving into the newly renovated Grand Palais. The historic venue, fresh from a $500 million restoration, allows the fair to expand its footprint by 26 percent, hosting 194 galleries compared to last year's 154. The move includes the opening of the ornate balconies for emerging galleries and a new sector called Premise, signaling the fair's transition from a successful 'preamble' to a permanent fixture in the French capital.

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Sotheby’s Hong Kong concluded its fall auction series with a robust $426 million total, headlined by a record-breaking $25 million sale for Yoshitomo Nara. Amidst this market momentum, Nara’s upcoming LACMA retrospective was announced to travel to Shanghai’s Yuz Museum. Meanwhile, the New York art scene is bracing for major institutional milestones, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s 150th-anniversary plans and the imminent public opening of MoMA’s $450 million expansion.

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Frieze Los Angeles launched with significant early momentum as Endeavor CEO Ari Emanuel acquired three quilts by artist Yvonne Wells from Fort Gansevoort before VIP hours officially began. The fair's opening day saw robust activity, including the $3.7 million sale of an Ed Ruscha painting, while major galleries like Pace Prints and Opera Gallery announced strategic expansions into Los Angeles and Houston respectively.

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This week's art industry roundup covers a flurry of developments across art fairs, auction houses, galleries, and museums. A new boutique fair called Enzo will launch alongside Frieze Los Angeles in an Echo Park warehouse with 10 New York galleries, while Felix Los Angeles returns to the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel with 50 exhibitors. Art Cologne's revived Palma Mallorca fair announces 88 exhibitors for its April debut. At auction, Christie's London will offer the Vanthournout collection of modernist and Surrealist works, including a Magritte painting estimated at $4.7 million, while Bonhams sells rare Oscar Wilde materials and three Bob Ross paintings. In gallery news, Roland Augustine steps down at Luhring Augustine, Lehmann Maupin opens a London space, and several galleries announce new artist representations. Museums see leadership changes at the Park Avenue Armory and Wrightwood 659, and the Rijksmuseum plans a new sculpture garden.

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The article reflects on the final 2025 edition of the Museum Artists list, which tracks the most exhibited artists in U.S. museums each quarter. The author notes that the top artists—such as Marie Watt, Jeffrey Gibson, and Rose B. Simpson—have remained consistent throughout the year, with a narrow band of stars appearing in many shows while a long tail of artists have limited visibility. Below the top 15, notable names include Julie Mehretu, Wangechi Mutu, and Jean Shin, with a cluster of older white female artists like Petah Coyne and Joyce Kozloff also gaining recognition.

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Gloria Klein, a late New York-based painter known for anxious acrylic arrangements and methodical mathematical systems, is the subject of a new solo exhibition titled "Crisis Management" opening January 9, 2026, at Anat Ebgi New York. The show presents many of her later paintings for the first time, and coincides with the announcement that Anat Ebgi now represents her estate. Klein, born in Brooklyn in 1936, was a queer artist who participated in the feminist publication HERESIES, created portraits of critics Arlene Raven and Lucy Lippard, curated the 1977 exhibition "10 Downtown: 10 Years" at PS1, and was a member of the Criss Cross art cooperative. Despite a recent sale of her work for $30,000 at Frieze Los Angeles in 2023, she remains relatively unknown.

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Thaddaeus Ropac, a major European blue-chip gallery, opened its seventh location in Milan in January 2025, occupying a prime palazzo previously home to Massimo de Carlo and Peres Projects. The inaugural exhibition pairs Georg Baselitz and Lucio Fontana in a show titled "L’aurore viene." The move has reignited debate about whether Milan is finally poised to become a contemporary art capital, despite past false starts and the city's stronger identity as a fashion and design hub.

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The Whitney Museum of American Art is preparing to open its new Meatpacking District museum, designed by Renzo Piano, on May 1. The new building will nearly double the museum's previous exhibition space, with two floors dedicated to its collection, and is expected to benefit from the millions of visitors who use the High Line. Despite past public criticism of expansions by other major New York museums like MoMA and the Frick, insiders including former MoMA curator Robert Storr and former Whitney director David Ross express strong support for the move, viewing it as a necessary and bold step forward.

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The Whitney Museum of American Art is preparing to open its new Meatpacking District building, designed by Renzo Piano, on May 1. The museum's exhibition space will nearly double, with two floors dedicated to its collection, and it expects to attract visitors from the nearby High Line. Despite potential criticism, insiders like former MoMA curator Robert Storr and former Whitney director David Ross express strong support for the move, contrasting it with expansions at MoMA and the Guggenheim. The article also traces the museum's origins from Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney's rejected gift to the Met, its early days under director Juliana Force, and its previous homes, including the Marcel Breuer-designed Upper East Side building.

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.

Gagosian Opens a New Ground-Floor Flagship at 980 Madison Avenue with Duchamp-Rauschenberg Double Header

Gagosian is opening a new ground-floor flagship gallery at 980 Madison Avenue in New York, moving from its former upper-floor space in the same building. Designed by Caplan Colaku Architects, the 12,000-square-foot, two-level space consolidates three storefronts into a continuous layout with restrained materials like Portland Taupe stone and brushed stainless steel. The inaugural exhibition pairs a major Marcel Duchamp show with six early works by Robert Rauschenberg on loan from the Cy Twombly Foundation, coinciding with a Duchamp retrospective at MoMA and referencing a 1965 Duchamp exhibition held in the same building.

The Triumphant New LACMA Has the Potential to Rewrite Art History

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) is set to open its new $724 million David Geffen Galleries, designed by Swiss architect Peter Zumthor. The building features a radical, non-linear layout that eschews traditional chronological and geographical hierarchies, allowing artworks from 15 different curatorial departments to be displayed in conversation with one of another. Despite years of controversy regarding its concrete design and a 10 percent reduction in exhibition space, the museum is positioning the new structure as a flexible "laboratory" for global art history.

Thomas J Price, Artist Behind Viral Times Square Sculpture, Unveils New Bronze in London

Thomas J Price, Artist Behind Viral Times Square Sculpture, Unveils New Bronze in London

Thomas J Price has unveiled a monumental new bronze sculpture, *A Place Beyond*, at the entrance to the V&A East museum in London. The 18-foot-tall figure, his tallest work to date, depicts a young Black woman in contemporary clothing holding a cell phone, created from a composite of many individuals rather than a single model. The sculpture will greet visitors when the new museum branch opens next month.

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The VIP opening of Frieze Los Angeles at Santa Monica Airport saw a surge of high-value transactions and heavy foot traffic from both local and international collectors. Major galleries reported multi-million dollar sales within the first few hours, including a $2.8 million work by Njideka Akunyili Crosby at David Zwirner and a sold-out booth of Conny Maier paintings at Hauser & Wirth. Dealers described the atmosphere as a "frenzy," noting that sales figures in some cases already tripled their performance at previous major fairs like Art Basel Miami Beach.

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David Hockney will create a monumental 22-by-32-foot window installation for the Sunley Gallery at Turner Contemporary in Margate, UK. The work, based on a 2020 iPad painting of a Normandy sunrise, will be illuminated at night and is scheduled to be on view from April 1 to November 1 as part of the gallery's 15th-anniversary celebrations.

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Bonhams has opened its new U.S. headquarters at 111 West 57th Street in New York, moving from its longtime Madison Avenue location into a 42,000-square-foot space within the restored Steinway Hall. The design features an 80-foot glass atrium, a grand staircase, and restored historic elements, aiming to create a transparent, cultural-center-like atmosphere rather than a traditional salesroom.

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Gagosian Gallery will open a new exhibition of Roy Lichtenstein's work titled "Painting with Scattered Brushstrokes" in March 2026. The show, drawing exclusively from the Lichtenstein family collection, will feature paintings, sculpture, and works on paper from the 1970s and '80s, focusing on his recurring brushstroke motif. It coincides with a major retrospective at the Whitney Museum and follows a period of intense market activity for the artist's work.

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Auction house Bonhams has opened a new 42,000-square-foot flagship headquarters in New York's Steinway Hall, launching a month of exhibitions and sales. The Philadelphia Museum of Art appointed Katherine Anne Paul as its new curator of Indian and Himalayan Art, while the Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM) awarded its Fund for Black Art Acquisition Prize to Turner Prize-winning artist Lubaina Himid, acquiring her painting "Horn Seller." Several galleries announced new artist representations, including Bortolami with Nathlie Provosty and Deborah Schamoni with Mariann Metsis, and auction house Freeman's appointed two senior executives.

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A new immersive exhibition titled "David Bowie: You're Not Alone" will open at Lightroom in London on April 22. The show, organized by creative director Mark Grimmer, will feature projected performance footage, interviews, film clips, and drawings, including newly recovered footage of Bowie's 1978 "Heroes" performance at Earl's Court.

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London’s Courtauld Gallery will open two new contemporary art galleries at its Somerset House campus, funded by a £10 million ($13.8 million) gift from the Blavatnik Family Foundation. The top-floor spaces, originally built as a display area for the Royal Society in the 18th century, are expected to debut in 2029. The donation brings the foundation’s total support for the Courtauld to £20 million ($27.5 million), following earlier backing for the museum’s 2021 renovation. The new galleries will be programmed in part by students in the Courtauld’s curating master’s program and will host exhibitions connecting historical and contemporary art.

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A group of 21 artists, including Antony Gormley, Brian Eno, and Mona Hatoum, have donated works to “Seeds of Solidarity,” an art auction organized by Health Workers 4 Palestine to support medical professionals in Gaza. The sale will take place on February 1 at The Savoy in London, with proceeds benefiting the Gaza Medics Solidarity Fund, which provides stipends for doctors, supports mobile clinics, and helps rebuild maternity wards. Separately, the Courtauld in London announced plans for two new contemporary art galleries and a reading room at Somerset House, funded by a £10 million donation from the Blavatnik Family Foundation, as part of an £82 million redevelopment set to open in 2029.

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The FOG Design+Art fair in San Francisco opened with a glitzy preview gala at Fort Mason Center, serving as a fundraiser for SFMOMA's education initiatives. VIP tickets started at $10,000 for the first hour, and by 7 p.m., the event filled to capacity as prices dropped to $250. Dealers reported a different energy this year, partly due to the recent Los Angeles wildfires affecting many participating galleries. Sales were strong, with New York dealer Ales Ortuzar selling multiple works by Suzanne Jackson in the first few hours. Local collector Sonya Yu, a recent ARTnews Top 200 listee, highlighted the resilience and sophistication of the Bay Area art community.

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The Columbia Museum of Art in Columbia, South Carolina, is unveiling newly reconfigured collection galleries to cap its 75th anniversary and culminate a yearlong renovation. The museum will reopen its collection galleries following a gala on January 16, presenting a newly conceived display across 20 galleries. The reinstalled galleries draw from the museum’s American, Asian, European, and modern and contemporary holdings, including Italian Renaissance works from the Kress Collection, an Asian gallery anchored by Chinese art from the Tang dynasty, and thematic galleries focused on landscape, still life, and art and architecture. The renovation, which began in January 2025, included new lighting and ceilings, reinforced walls, and conservation work on pieces by Sam Gilliam, Teiji Takai, and Benjamin Wilson.

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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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The chairman of Abu Dhabi's department of cultural tourism, Mohamed Khalifa Al Mubarak, revealed at a recent briefing that the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, designed by Frank Gehry and set to open in 2026 on Saadiyat Island, will feature Western masters like Jean-Michel Basquiat, Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, and Andy Warhol alongside lesser-known contemporary artists from Asia, Africa, and the Arab world. The museum, originally announced two decades ago and delayed multiple times, will also incorporate augmented reality and artificial intelligence to enhance visitor engagement, and will include music, food, and dance as part of its civic space concept.

christies takes 690 m at fall curtain raiser art basel hong kong announces 2026 details and more morning links for november 18 2025 1234762067

Christie’s opened New York’s fall marquee auctions with a $690 million evening sale across 79 lots, surpassing the pre-sale low estimate of $534.7 million. The doubleheader included the Robert and Patricia Ross Weis collection, featuring works by Picasso, Matisse, Mondrian, and Rothko, followed by a 20th-century sale. The auction achieved a 97% sell-through rate by value and a 96% by lot, marking a 41% increase from May’s auctions. Separately, Sperone Westwater gallery announced it will close after 50 years, and Art Basel Hong Kong revealed details for its 2026 edition featuring 240 galleries.

christies takes 690 m at fall curtain raiser art basel hong kong announces 2026 details and more morning links for november 18 2025 1234762067

Christie’s opened New York’s fall marquee auctions with a $690 million evening sale across 79 lots, surpassing the pre-sale low estimate of $534.7 million. The doubleheader included the Robert and Patricia Ross Weis collection and a 20th-century sale, with works by Picasso, Matisse, Mondrian, Rothko, and others. The sell-through rate was 97% by value and 96% by lot, marking a 41% increase from May’s auctions. Separately, Sperone Westwater, a New York gallery that championed artists like Bruce Nauman and Francesco Clemente, announced it will close after 50 years. Art Basel Hong Kong also revealed its 2026 edition will feature 240 galleries from 42 countries.