A Work Gifted to David Drake’s Descendants Is the Star of Theaster Gates’s Powerful Gagosian Show

Artist Theaster Gates has gifted a 19th-century vessel by enslaved potter David Drake to Drake's descendants and made this act of restitution the centerpiece of his solo exhibition at Gagosian in New York. The show, titled "Dave: All My Relations," features Gates's own artworks responding to Drake's legacy and the recently transferred pot, highlighting Gates's decades-long engagement with Drake as a foundational figure for his own practice.

Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential List Includes Artist Cao Fei and Photojournalist Lynsey Addario

Time magazine has named artist Cao Fei and photojournalist Lynsey Addario to its 2026 list of the 100 most influential people in the world. Cao Fei is recognized for her multidisciplinary work exploring digital technology and modernity, while Addario is honored for her decades of courageous reporting from global conflict zones, including her Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage of the war in Ukraine. The list also acknowledges prominent art patrons Susan and Michael Dell.

Hirshhorn Museum Director Melissa Chiu Leaves for Guggenheim, Another Smithsonian Departure

Melissa Chiu has been appointed as the new director of the Guggenheim Museum in New York, departing her long-standing role at the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. Starting September 1, Chiu will report to Mariët Westermann, CEO of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, effectively splitting the leadership responsibilities previously held by Richard Armstrong. During her decade-long tenure at the Hirshhorn, Chiu was known for staging massive blockbuster exhibitions, including the record-breaking Yayoi Kusama "Infinity Mirror Rooms" show, though she also faced criticism for commercial ventures like a reality TV competition.

judge halts construction of trump ballroom maurizio cattelan wants you to confess to him morning links for april 1 2026 1234779586

Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan has launched a global hotline inviting the public to confess their sins to mark the 21st anniversary of the death of Pope John Paul II. The project, which may coincide with April Fools' Day, culminates in a livestreamed event on April 23 where Cattelan intends to perform a secular act of absolution. Other major developments include a federal judge halting construction on a controversial White House ballroom and the death of British illustrator Glen Baxter at age 82.

Mary, Queen of Scots Final Letter on View; French Artist Adds Armor to Dalida Sculpture: Morning Links for March 10, 2026

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Perth Museum has unveiled the final letter written by Mary, Queen of Scots, marking the document's first public display in Scotland in three decades. Penned hours before her execution in 1587, the letter to Henry III of France frames her death as a religious martyrdom and is subject to extreme conservation protocols that limit its exhibition frequency. Meanwhile, in Paris, artist Luz has installed a spiked, mirror-encrusted bodice on the famous Dalida bust in Montmartre to protest the tradition of tourists rubbing the sculpture's breasts for luck.

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Marc Restellini’s Institut Restellini is set to release a definitive six-volume catalogue raisonné for Amedeo Modigliani after four decades of research. The publication, which includes 100 newly authenticated works, utilizes a rigorous methodology combining advanced scientific analysis—such as spectrometry and carbon-14 dating—with traditional stylistic evaluation and archival documentation. To mark the launch, Pace Gallery will host events in London and New York in April.

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Conceptual artist Anicka Yi has joined Pace Gallery, where she will be represented in partnership with Gladstone Gallery, 47 Canal, and Esther Schipper. Known for her research-heavy practice that utilizes scents, bacteria, and robotics, Yi cited Pace CEO Marc Glimcher’s background in biology and the gallery's history with light and space pioneers as primary reasons for the move. Her work will be featured in the New Museum’s upcoming expansion inaugural exhibition, "New Humans: Memories of the Future."

Louvre Theft Caused by Mismanagement; Veterans Sue to Halt Building of Arc de Trump: Morning Links for February 20, 2026

louvre theft caused by mismanagement veterans sue to halt building of arc de trump morning links for february 20 2026 1234774018

A French parliamentary commission has released a scathing report accusing the Louvre of systemic mismanagement and a 'denial of risks' following the October 2025 theft of the French crown jewels. The investigation suggests the museum operates as an unaccountable 'state within a state,' leading to security failures that enabled the high-profile heist. Meanwhile, veterans have filed a lawsuit to block the construction of the 'Arc de Trump' monument in Washington D.C., and the National Constitution Center faces leadership turmoil amid political pressure.

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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 significant number of New York art galleries, including major players like Pace Gallery, David Zwirner, and Marian Goodman, will close on January 30 to join a nationwide general strike protesting expanded Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations. The strike is a response to allegations of federal overreach, including the use of deadly force against protestors and the detention of Native Americans, which have fueled widespread outrage.

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Abu Dhabi Art (ADA) held its final edition at Manarat Al Saadiyat before transitioning into a Frieze franchise in November 2025. The fair featured 53 new galleries, a Focus sector highlighting art scenes from Nigeria, Turkey, and South Asia, and a new Emerge section offering discounted booth prices for works under $3,000 to attract emerging collectors. The shift comes as Abu Dhabi’s cultural landscape moves beyond its iconic Saadiyat Island museums—Louvre Abu Dhabi, Zayed National Museum, and Guggenheim Abu Dhabi—toward more grassroots ventures like the MiZa warehouse district, which hosts experimental spaces such as MamarLab and Iris Projects. Mega-gallery Pace returned after a 14-year absence, citing renewed energy in the Gulf market.

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The Chelsea Art Fair returned for its second edition at New York's Chelsea Hotel, with a VIP preview on Saturday and a one-day public run on Sunday. Organized by Platform (now owned by Basic Space), the intimate fair featured just five exhibitors—56 Henry, Lomex, Magenta Plains, Ramiken, and Castle—plus a special presentation by Off Paradise. Collector Beth Rudin DeWoody was the first to arrive, and other VIPs included Mark Ronson, Jamie Cohen Hort, and Whitney Museum curator Dan Nadel. Dealer Ellie Rines reported strong sales, swapping out a work after it sold within 30 minutes, and some 3,000 people registered for the event.

art basel hong kong 2026 exhibitor list announced 1234761975

Art Basel Hong Kong has announced its exhibitor list for the 2026 edition, featuring 240 galleries from 42 countries and territories, roughly the same size as last year's 242 galleries. The fair runs March 27–29 at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, with preview days on March 25–26. New additions include 32 first-time exhibitors from Australia, Japan, Turkey, France, Germany, and the US, while 33 galleries from the previous edition are absent—some due to closures (Blum, Clearing, Kasmin) or acquisitions (Millan bought by Almeida & Dale). A new sector called Echoes will showcase works created in the last five years, and the Encounters sector will be curated by a team led by Mami Kataoka. Media artist Ellen Pau will oversee the film program for the first time, and Shahzia Sikander has been commissioned to create a public artwork for the M+ Museum facade.

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W magazine's current art issue features Academy Award-winning actress Jennifer Lawrence in a three-part collaboration with French filmmaker and artist Philippe Parreno, American painter Elizabeth Peyton, and German photographer Wolfgang Tillmans. Parreno shot a short film starring Lawrence, Tillmans photographed her at his London studio wearing a T-shirt referencing his Centre Pompidou exhibition, and Peyton painted a portrait of the actress in her signature loose, romantic style. The issue has three different covers, each dedicated to one collaborating artist's work.

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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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Greece's culture minister Lina Mendoni has publicly criticized the British Museum for hosting a lavish £2,000-a-ticket Pink Ball near the Elgin Marbles, attended by celebrities including Mick Jagger, Naomi Campbell, and Janet Jackson. Mendoni accused the museum of showing 'provocative indifference' by using the ancient Greek sculptures as mere 'decorative elements' for entertainment, echoing similar criticism from a fashion show held in the same gallery last year. Separately, disgraced Miami art dealer Les Roberts, previously charged with selling forged Andy Warhols, has opened a shop called Labubu Headquarters in Coconut Grove selling collectible monster figurines, despite bond conditions restricting him from working in the art industry. The article also reports that Richard Diebenkorn's estate has joined Gagosian, the J. Paul Getty Trust and the World Economic Forum will host a cultural table during Art Basel Paris, and Interpol has added stolen Louvre jewelry to its database.

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Dom Pérignon has partnered with artist Takashi Murakami to design limited-edition labels and packaging for its Vintage 2015 and Rosé Vintage 2010 releases. Murakami’s signature smiling floral motifs appear on black backgrounds, and the collaboration is framed as an exploration of time, transformation, and the intersection of historical craftsmanship with contemporary art. Murakami worked with Dom Pérignon’s Chef de Cave Vincent Chaperon, and the project is part of a broader series titled “Creation is an eternal journey,” which also involves actors, musicians, and chefs.

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The Almaty Museum of Arts (ALMA) opened on September 12 in Kazakhstan's largest city, becoming the country's first private museum dedicated to modern and contemporary art. Founded by auto and real estate tycoon Nurlan Smagulov, the museum houses his collection of over 700 artworks by Kazakh, Central Asian, and international artists. Led by artistic director Meruyert Kaliyeva and chief curator Inga Lāce, the museum's opening features a retrospective of Almaty-born artist Almagul Menlibayeva and a group show titled "Qonaqtar" that explores Kazakh art history and hospitality.

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United States Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick posted a video on social media showing off a new tequila bottle, but the backdrop featured a painting from Rashid Johnson's "Anxious Red" series. The artwork, confirmed by Hauser & Wirth as an authentic Johnson piece purchased on the secondary market, sparked criticism online due to the irony of Lutnick—a Trump appointee whose administration has cut public health funding—owning a work born from pandemic-era anxiety. The series originally supported the WHO's Covid-19 Solidarity Response Fund through a 2020 charity auction, the same organization Trump withdrew the U.S. from on his first day in office.

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Frieze has announced the exhibitor lists for its two concurrent October fairs in London: Frieze London and Frieze Masters, which will run from October 15 to 19 in Regent's Park. Frieze London will feature around 160 galleries, including blue-chip names like Gagosian, Pace, Hauser & Wirth, and David Zwirner, alongside 58 London-based galleries. Frieze Masters, with some 120 exhibitors, will be the first edition under the direction of Emanuela Tarizzo. Curated sections include Artist-to-Artist at Frieze London, where artists nominate peers, and Spotlight at Frieze Masters, organized by Valerie Cassel Oliver. Frieze Sculpture, curated by Fatoş Üstek, will run from September 17 to November 2 in the English Gardens.

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The tenth edition of Photo London opened at Somerset House, marking a decade of growth for the UK's largest photography fair. The fair, running through May 18, has become a key event for the photography market, which has shown resilience despite broader art market declines. While global auction sales for photography dropped 5.6% in 2024 to $59 million, this was far less severe than the 27% overall art market decline, and sales volumes remained near record highs. New director Sophie Parker and cofounder Michael Benson highlighted growing interest from young collectors, though challenges remain as established galleries face an aging collector base and market uncertainty.

Paul McCarthy: ‘The world is now an extreme absurdity. The work is a reaction to that’

Paul McCarthy, the 80-year-old American artist known for his transgressive critiques of consumer culture, has opened a new exhibition titled "SS EE Saint Santa Eva Elf" at Hauser & Wirth in Paris. The show features large-scale drawings and a six-channel video installation created during filmed performances with his long-term collaborator, German actress Lilith Stangenberg, who plays the Elf. McCarthy revisits his iconic Santa Claus motif, portraying him as a dark, psychotic figure—the "god of capitalism and consumption." The exhibition also includes earlier drawings made with Stangenberg at Bowman Hal gallery in Madrid. The interview reveals that McCarthy's home and studios in Los Angeles were destroyed by wildfires, resulting in the loss of art, drawings, notebooks, and books, and the cancellation of a planned London show.

Theaster Gates gifts David Drake pot from his collection to enslaved ceramicist’s descendants

Artist Theaster Gates has gifted a 19th-century ceramic vessel by the enslaved potter David Drake, known as Dave the Potter, to Drake's descendants. The gesture is part of Gates's exhibition "Dave: All My Relations" at Gagosian in New York, which also features a second Drake pot recently restituted by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Gates pulverized 45 of his own ceramic works to create a plinth for the vessel, framing the act as a "poetic justice" that elevates Drake's legacy above his own.

The story behind Iran’s only Van Gogh: ‘At Eternity’s Gate'

A rare, inscribed lithograph by Vincent van Gogh, 'At Eternity's Gate,' resides in the collection of the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art. The work, one of only seven surviving examples, was acquired in 1975 by Farah Pahlavi, the wife of the Shah of Iran, for the museum. It passed through notable hands, including those of US Vice President Nelson Rockefeller, before arriving in Tehran just before the 1979 Iranian Revolution.

The Venice Biennale Is High Stakes. James Cohan Gallery Is All In

James Cohan Gallery, a mid-sized New York gallery, is representing four artists in the 61st Venice Biennale's central exhibition, "In Minor Keys," curated by the late Koyo Kouoh. The artists are Ranti Bam, Tuan Andrew Nguyen, Kennedy Yanko, and Yinka Shonibare (whose Guest Artists Space Foundation is also participating). This marks a breakthrough for the gallery, which has more artists in the central exhibition than any of the four mega-galleries—Gagosian, Pace, David Zwirner, and Hauser & Wirth—none of which have as many. The gallery is investing heavily in production, logistics, travel, and events, including a luncheon at the St. Regis Hotel co-hosted with Salon 94 and Esther Schipper, and a dinner thrown by collector Pamela Joyner for Yanko.

A $15M De Kooning Leads Lévy Gorvy Dayan’s New Auction-Style Sales Experiment

Lévy Gorvy Dayan is launching LGD Hammer, a new live-bidding platform that blends private sales with auction dynamics. The inaugural sale on May 16 will feature a 1984 Willem de Kooning painting estimated at $10–15 million, led by co-founder Brett Gorvy, a former auction veteran. The article also reports on gallery closures (Stephen Friedman Gallery, Galerie Philipp Zollinger, Astor Gallery), artist moves (Zoe Leonard to Maxwell Graham, Kehinde Wiley among creditors), and Sotheby’s upcoming single-owner sale of Joe Lewis’s collection expected to exceed $200 million.

King Charles Visits Christie’s in New York, After White House Dinner

King Charles III and Queen Camilla made a surprise visit to Christie’s headquarters in New York on April 29, 2026, following a White House dinner and address to Congress. They attended a gala for the King’s Trust, a charity supporting young people from disadvantaged backgrounds, rather than bidding on auction lots like a $100 million Jackson Pollock or a $60 million Roy Lichtenstein. The event, co-chaired by Lionel Richie, drew guests including Martha Stewart and Anna Wintour, and featured a dinner in the James Christie Room. Christie’s CEO Bonnie Brennan curtsied to the king, and the royals viewed the new rostrum designed by Jony Ive, set to debut in New York during Christie’s May marquee week.

The Women Defining Printmaking at the 2026 IFPDA Print Fair

The 2026 IFPDA Print Fair opened at New York’s Park Avenue Armory, placing a significant spotlight on the contributions of women artists to the medium. High-profile offerings include a new release by Laura Owens from Crown Point Press, Louise Bourgeois’s "Spirals" woodcut series presented by Carolina Nitsch, and large-scale sculptural works by Joan Hall and Orit Hofshi. The fair demonstrates the technical breadth of modern printmaking, ranging from traditional woodcuts to unique, hand-embellished compositions and experimental collaborations between artists and master printers.

Monet and Van Gogh Masterpieces Hit the Shampoo Aisle

Beauty brand Dove has launched a limited-edition haircare collection called "The Art of Repair" featuring iconic artworks by Claude Monet, Mary Cassatt, and Vincent van Gogh on its product packaging. The shampoo, conditioner, and serum bottles display images of Monet's *The Japanese Footbridge*, Cassatt's *The Loge*, and Van Gogh's *Roses*, drawing a parallel between art conservation and hair repair. The collection is exclusively available at Walmart.

tilton gallery to close after over 40 years and more art industry news 2694129

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.