Art News. Vasari Codex

article news schedule Nov 14, 2025 visibility 24 link 18 artists

trustees bolt palm springs art museum director hire

Trustee Patsy Marino resigned from the Palm Springs Art Museum board just one week after Christine Vendredi was appointed director on September 29, 2024. In a resignation letter reported by the Los Angeles Times, Marino alleged that the hiring committee failed to interview any outside candidates, despite two "exceptional" candidates being considered, and cited "inappropriate interference" by the executive committee, individual trustees, and museum staff. Two other board members also left the 22-member body, though the museum claims their departures were unrelated. Vendredi, previously chief curator and interim CEO, has a background in luxury brand management at Louis Vuitton and holds multiple advanced degrees but no prior museum directorship experience.

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trending_up market schedule Nov 13, 2025 visibility 11 link 2 artists

metallica kirk hammett conan frank frazetta

Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammett is auctioning Frank Frazetta's painting *Conan the Berserker* (1967), which he purchased directly from the artist for $1 million in 2009. The work, originally used as cover art for a paperback edition of Robert E. Howard's novel *Conan the Conqueror*, will be offered in Heritage Auctions' “Hollywood/Entertainment Signature Auction” on December 9–10, with bidding starting at $10 million. The sale follows a record-breaking Frazetta auction in September, when his oil painting *Man Ape* (1966) sold for $13.5 million.

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gavel restitution schedule Nov 11, 2025 visibility 18 link 4 artists

stolen painting saint francis returned mexico church

A painting of Saint Francis of Assisi, stolen from the Church of San Francisco de Asis in Teotihuacán, Mexico, in 2001, has been recovered and returned to the church. The six-foot-tall work, painted in 1747 by an unknown artist, was among 18 artworks taken in a nighttime theft. It resurfaced in 2018 when it was consigned to Mexico City auction house Morton Subastas, whose due diligence with the Art Loss Register flagged it as stolen. The painting, valued at 280,000 Mexican pesos ($15,000), was returned to the church in a ceremony led by Padre Teodoro García Romero.

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article news schedule Nov 10, 2025 visibility 23 link 12 artists, 3 galleries

condo moves from hauser wirth to spruth magers and skarstedt was j m w turner neurodivergent trump squeezes arts talent pool morning link for november 10 2025

Artist George Condo has left Hauser & Wirth and will now be jointly represented by Sprüth Magers and Skarstedt, marking a return to galleries with which he had long-standing relationships. Condo first showed with Monika Sprüth in 1984 and was represented by Skarstedt from 2004 to 2019 before joining Hauser & Wirth in late 2019. Separately, a new BBC documentary titled *Turner: The Secret Sketchbooks* explores whether J. M. W. Turner's creative genius was shaped by childhood trauma and neurodivergence, featuring commentary from artists, actors, and a psychotherapist. The article also reports that Dana Awartani will represent Saudi Arabia at the 2026 Venice Biennale, and that the Trump administration has tightened H-1B visa rules, making it harder for arts institutions to hire foreign specialists.

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trending_up market schedule Nov 8, 2025 visibility 17 link 6 artists

manny davidson collection sale results sothebys paris

Sotheby’s Paris raised €18.6 million ($21.5 million) from two live sales of the Manny Davidson collection this week, with a third online sale still ongoing. The collection, spanning nearly 500 lots, included rediscovered Old Masters, 18th-century gold enamel, and an automaton clock by James Cox. Highlights included Michael Sweerts’s *A young man wearing a turban holding an upturned roemer: the fingernail test* (1648–52), which sold for €1.6 million, and Joshua Reynolds’s *Self-Portrait, in doctoral robes* (ca. 1770), which fetched €838,200. The evening sale achieved 83% sell-through by lot, with most buyers from Europe and a third from the US.

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article news schedule Oct 31, 2025 visibility 16 link 6 artists

talladega college hale woodruff murals partnership

Talladega College, a historically Black college in Alabama, has partnered with the Toledo Museum of Art, Art Bridges, and the Terra Foundation for American Art to share six monumental murals by artist Hale A. Woodruff. Painted between 1939 and 1942, the murals depict key moments in African American history, including the Amistad uprising and the Underground Railroad. Under the agreement, the Toledo Museum of Art acquired *The Underground Railroad* (1942), while Art Bridges and the Terra Foundation jointly acquired the three Amistad murals; the remaining two murals stay at the college. All six works will be periodically reunited on campus, ensuring their continued connection to the institution that commissioned them.

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trending_up market schedule Oct 28, 2025 visibility 18 link 4 artists

meet the 20 collectors joining artnews top 200 collectors list

ARTnews has added 20 new collectors to its prestigious Top 200 Collectors list for 2025, reflecting the expanding global reach of serious art collecting. The new cohort includes figures from Latin America, the Gulf region, Southeast Asia, and the United States, such as Catherine Petitgas, Ariel Marcelo Aisiks, Sara Alireza, Faisal Tamer, Basma Al Sulaiman, Sheikh Hamad bin Abdullah Al Thani, Purat “Chang” Osathanugrah, Belinda Tanoto, Andreas Teoh, artist Rashid Johnson, Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation president Wendy Fisher, Napster cofounder Sean Parker, Fanatics founder Michael Rubin, and Oscar L. Tang and Agnes Hus-Tang, who donated $125 million to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Several new additions are second-generation collectors, and many have built private spaces to show their collections, such as Alexander Petalas’s Perimeter in London, Osathanugrah’s upcoming Dib Bangkok, and Basma Al Sulaiman’s virtual museum BASMOCA.

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trending_up market schedule Oct 17, 2025 visibility 15 link 6 artists

gene hackman bonhams auction

Bonhams will auction works from the collection of late actor Gene Hackman this November, spanning three sales—one live and two online. The live sale, titled “Gene Hackman: A Life in Art, Part I,” takes place November 19 in New York and features highlights such as Milton Avery’s 1957 painting *Figure on the Jetty* (estimate $500,000–$700,000) and Richard Diebenkorn’s 1986 color etching *Green* (estimate $300,000–$500,000). Online sales include two of Hackman’s Golden Globes, a still life painting by the actor himself, and additional lots of annotated books, scripts, and cinematic memorabilia. Hackman, who died in February, was a major arts patron in Santa Fe, a painter, and a board member of the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum.

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museum exhibitions schedule Oct 17, 2025 visibility 13 link 7 artists

robert rauschenberg dance guggenheim

A gala performance at the Guggenheim Museum in New York marked what would have been Robert Rauschenberg's 100th birthday, featuring dancers performing Paul Taylor's 'Tracer' (1962), for which Rauschenberg created costumes and sets—including a spinning bicycle wheel that served as a portal to the exhibition above. The show, 'Robert Rauschenberg: Life Can’t Be Stopped,' opened in one of the museum's tower galleries and runs through May 3, presenting select works from the Guggenheim's collections and loans from the artist's foundation, including major pieces like 'Barge' (1962–63), the largest silkscreen painting Rauschenberg made in the early 1960s, back in New York for the first time in nearly 25 years.

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article local schedule Oct 15, 2025 visibility 16 link 1 artist

frank lloyd wright kalil house national historic places

Frank Lloyd Wright's Kalil House, a 1957 Usonian Automatic home in Manchester, New Hampshire, has been added to the National Register of Historic Places. Commissioned by Dr. Toufic and Mildred Kalil, the house was built using 2,580 concrete blocks and retains nearly all of its original Wright-designed furnishings. It is one of only seven such Usonian Automatic homes ever constructed and was purchased by the Currier Museum of Art in 2019.

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article culture schedule Oct 15, 2025 visibility 15 link 6 artists

art heist that inspired the mastermind

Kelly Reichardt's new film *The Mastermind*, starring Josh O'Connor, depicts a low-stakes art heist at the fictional Framingham Museum of Art, inspired by a real 1972 theft at the Worcester Art Museum in Massachusetts. In the actual heist, two robbers stole four paintings by Rembrandt, Picasso, and Gauguin, worth about $7.72 million today, and shot an unarmed guard. The film, set in the early '70s, draws on details like two schoolgirls who witnessed the crime, but Reichardt deliberately makes the cinematic version less thrilling than the real event.

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trending_up market schedule Oct 15, 2025 visibility 23 link 3 artists

qatar owns courbet self portrait

Qatar has revealed that it is the owner of Gustave Courbet's famed self-portrait *Le Désespéré* (The Desperate Man, 1843–45), which has gone on view at the Musée d'Orsay in Paris for the first time in 17 years. The painting, previously listed as being on loan from an unknown private collector, was acquired by Qatar Museums, a state body that oversees the nation's art scene. Sheikha Al-Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, head of Qatar Museums, acknowledged the ownership during a tribute at the Musée d'Orsay, noting that the work will be on long-term loan there for five years before moving to the future Art Mill Museum in Doha, set to open in 2030.

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trending_up market schedule Oct 10, 2025 visibility 20 link 3 artists

frieze abu dhabi fair announced

Frieze, the London-based art fair organizer, announced it will launch Frieze Abu Dhabi in November 2026, partnering with the Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi (DCT Abu Dhabi). The new fair will replace the existing Abu Dhabi Art fair, which has run since 2007, and will take place at Manarat Al Saadiyat in the Saadiyat Cultural District. The announcement follows Frieze's recent acquisition by Mari, a company founded by Ari Emanuel, and comes amid a wave of international art fair expansions in the Gulf region, including Art Basel's new fair in Doha.

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article policy schedule Oct 10, 2025 visibility 22 link 11 artists

cimam letter museum organization m hka closure flanders

Two leading museum organizations, CIMAM (International Committee for Museums and Collections of Modern Art) and L'internationale, have sharply criticized the Flemish government's decision to transfer the collection and mission of Antwerp's M HKA to a newly formed museum in Ghent by 2028. In a statement dated October 10, CIMAM's Museum Watch Committee expressed profound concern, calling the plan based on "false administrative logic" and urging the Flemish minister of culture to reverse the decision. L'internationale also published a statement condemning the lack of transparency and consultation, noting that the plan was announced without input from M HKA's leadership or stakeholders. The building housing M HKA will be renovated into a Kunsthalle, and the government has canceled a planned $151 million new building for the museum.

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article policy schedule Oct 9, 2025 visibility 21 link 8 artists

flemish government eliminates m hka smak museum controversy

The Flemish government has announced a plan to close the Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp (M HKA), Belgium's oldest contemporary art museum, and transfer its collection of around 8,000 objects to the S.M.A.K. in Ghent, which will be rebranded as the Flemish Museum of Contemporary and Current Art by 2028. The decision, part of a broader reform of Flanders' museum landscape, has sparked outrage: M HKA's board chairman Herman De Bode resigned, and staff published an open letter and launched a petition that gathered over 2,600 signatures, accusing the government of acting without transparency or consultation.

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article news schedule Oct 8, 2025 visibility 19 link 6 artists

admiral nelsons sexuality in spotlight once again after war hero branded queer by british museum

The Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool, UK, has included British naval hero Horatio Nelson in a "Queer relationships" collection, citing his contested final words "Kiss me, Hardy" as evidence. The museum added Daniel Maclise's *The Death of Nelson* (1859-1864) and Benjamin West's 1806 painting of the same name to an online article about LGBTQ+ love. This follows a similar move by London's National Maritime Museum, which examined Nelson through a "queer lens" during a "Queer History Night" event last year.

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person people schedule Oct 6, 2025 visibility 18 link 4 artists, 3 galleries

rowena chiu appointed gallery director of perrotins new london operation ahead of frieze week

Rowena Chiu has been appointed gallery director of Perrotin's new London operation, which opened in March at Claridge's hotel in Mayfair. Chiu previously served as director of museum and institutional relations at Stephen Friedman Gallery for four years and spent six years at Hauser & Wirth across London, Zurich, and New York. Her first exhibition at Perrotin London will be a solo show by Laurent Grasso, winner of the 2008 Marcel Duchamp Prize, opening October 14.

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article policy schedule Oct 2, 2025 visibility 13 link 2 artists

saudi arabia deutsche bank ink cultural partnership

Saudi Arabia announced over 5 billion Saudi riyals ($1.3 billion) in new cultural funds and agreements at the first Cultural Investment Conference in Riyadh, held under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Key initiatives include a partnership with Deutsche Bank for training and cultural exchanges, and the immediate establishment of the Riyadh University of Arts, set to open in 2026 with courses in film, performing arts, and theater. The Ministry of Culture also signed a memorandum of understanding with the Royal Commission for AlUla to boost cultural infrastructure in the AlUla oasis.

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person people schedule Oct 2, 2025 visibility 24 link 4 artists

sculptor petrit halilaj wins 2027 nasher prize

The Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas has awarded its 2027 Nasher Prize to Petrit Halilaj, a Kosovo-born sculptor known for works addressing his country's history and sociopolitical realities. At 40, Halilaj is the youngest recipient of the prize since its 2015 inception. The award, now given biannually, includes $100,000 and a future exhibition at the Nasher. In an unusual gesture, Halilaj will donate the entire prize purse to the Hajde! Foundation, a Kosovo-based nonprofit he co-founded in 2014 to support Kosovar artists.

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

british museum ball international partnerships

The British Museum in London has announced a new fundraising event called the British Museum Ball, scheduled for October 18, with a pink theme inspired by the colors and light of India, tied to its exhibition 'Ancient India: Living Traditions.' The gala will be co-chaired by Isha Ambani, a patron of the Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre in Mumbai, and will feature a silent auction, music by Anoushka Shankar and Jules Buckley, and a guest list including Zadie Smith, Naomi Campbell, Idris Elba, Miuccia Prada, and others. Proceeds will support the museum's international partnerships and its goal of making its collection more accessible worldwide.

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article news schedule Sep 29, 2025 visibility 25 link 7 artists

solange art book library saint heron

Solange has launched the Saint Heron Community Library, a new initiative making rare and out-of-print art books available to the public for free borrowing. The digital library, run through her Saint Heron platform, includes exhibition catalogs for artists such as Barbara Chase-Riboud, Henry Ossawa Tanner, Martin Puryear, Gary Simmons, and Pope.L, as well as texts like Cedric Dover's 1960 book *American Negro Art*. Books are loaned for 45 days, though most are already checked out. The collection also features works by Black thinkers and writers including Audre Lorde, Ntozake Shange, Octavia Butler, and Wanda Coleman.

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trending_up market schedule Sep 26, 2025 visibility 18 link 8 artists, 1 gallery

perelman art insurance ruling

A New York judge has ruled against billionaire investor and art collector Ronald O. Perelman in his attempt to collect $400 million from insurers for five paintings allegedly damaged in a 2018 fire at his East Hampton estate. Justice Joel M. Cohen of State Supreme Court in Manhattan found no visible damage to the works—two by Andy Warhol, two by Ed Ruscha, and one by Cy Twombly—and nothing traceable to the fire that would reduce their value. Perelman claimed the fire robbed the paintings of their 'spark' and 'oomph,' but insurers including Lloyd's of London, Chubb, and AIG countered that the works were unscathed and accused Perelman of filing claims under severe financial pressure after a collapse in Revlon stock.

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museum exhibitions schedule Sep 26, 2025 visibility 17 link 9 artists

lawrence abu hamdan munch museum exhibition golan heights

Lawrence Abu Hamdan's exhibition "Zifzafa" has opened at the Munch Museum in Oslo, featuring a politically charged exploration of sound as both a celebration of life and a tool of displacement. The show centers on a forensic audio investigation into the impact of 31 wind turbines planned for the Israeli-occupied Syrian Golan Heights, or Jawlan. Key works include the video projection *Wind Ensemble* (2024) featuring saxophonist Amr Mdah, CGI animations *Tilting at windmills i, ii & iii* (2024), and the 45-minute film *Zifzafa: Livestream Audio Essay* (2025), which uses a video game walkthrough format to simulate the sonic pollution that will affect local homes—some as close as 115 feet from the turbines. The game incorporates field recordings by local composer Busher Kanj Abu Saleh and turbine noise from Germany, highlighting the sounds of daily life and resistance.

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person people schedule Sep 25, 2025 visibility 22 link 7 artists

lisa phillips steps down new museum

Lisa Phillips, director of New York's New Museum, will retire after more than 25 years in the role, as reported by the New York Times. The museum is currently in the midst of a 62,000-square-foot expansion expected to open this fall, though no date has been set. Phillips, 71, oversaw the museum's relocation to the Bowery in 2007, launched the influential New Museum Triennial in 2010, and added initiatives like New Inc and Rhizome. Her tenure also included controversies, such as criticism over a 2010 show of works owned by a trustee, staff complaints about her $900,000 salary, and tensions around the museum's unionization in 2019.

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article culture schedule Sep 23, 2025 visibility 19 link 10 artists

john giorno dial a poem online

John Giorno's 1969 conceptual artwork "Dial-A-Poem," originally a phone-based poetry service featured in MoMA's landmark 1970 exhibition "Information," has been relaunched as an online platform. The new version, created by Giorno Poetry Systems, presents randomized readings of both historic and contemporary poems, including contributions from Laurie Anderson, William S. Burroughs, and Gary Snyder. International editions have been added for France, Mexico, Thailand, Italy, Hong Kong, Switzerland, and Brazil, with poems recited in their native languages.

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museum exhibitions schedule Sep 23, 2025 visibility 22 link 7 artists

turner prize reactions 2025 mohammed sami

The Turner Prize 2025 exhibition has opened at Cartwright Hall Art Gallery in Bradford, England, featuring four nominated artists: Mohammed Sami, Nnena Kalu, Rene Matić, and Zadie Xa. Critics have largely rallied behind Sami, a Baghdad-born, London-based painter whose large-scale works obliquely address war and memory, with several reviewers calling him a shoo-in for the award. The only major dissenter is Adrian Searle of the Guardian, who favors Kalu's sculptural works made from tape, fabric, and cable ties. The show has received mixed to positive reviews, with some critics noting the shortlist's focus on identity and diversity.

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gavel restitution schedule Sep 22, 2025 visibility 15 link 5 artists

heirs of jewish collector urge appeals court to reconsider claim to van goghs sunflowers

Heirs of German Jewish banker and art collector Paul von Mendelssohn-Bartholdy have urged the US Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago to revive their lawsuit seeking the return of Vincent van Gogh's *Sunflowers* (1888), which they claim was sold under Nazi duress. The lawsuit, filed in 2022 against Japanese insurer Sompo Holdings, argues that the painting was purchased at a 1987 Christie's auction by Sompo's predecessor, Yasuda, despite provenance indicating Mendelssohn-Bartholdy was a Nazi victim. A lower court dismissed the case in 2024 for lack of jurisdiction, but the heirs contend that the painting's exhibition in Chicago in 2001 establishes sufficient legal ties to Illinois.

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trending_up market schedule Sep 20, 2025 visibility 19 link 11 artists

sothebys karpidas sale white glove smashes estimate

Sotheby's achieved a white-glove sale of Pauline Karpidas's collection on Wednesday night, far exceeding its $53 million high estimate to reach $100 million. All 55 lots sold, with 70% surpassing their high estimates, marking the highest total for a designated auction held in London. Two additional sales from the collection are ongoing: a day auction of 193 lots and an online sale of 97 lots, with a combined presale estimate of $80 million. The auction featured 23 Surrealist works, including pieces by René Magritte, and replicated Karpidas's London home in the salesroom.

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person people schedule Sep 16, 2025 visibility 15 link 5 artists

palestinian artist samia halaby wins munch museum award

The Munch Museum in Oslo has awarded the second Munch Award to Palestinian artist Samia Halaby, recognizing her long-standing courage and integrity in artistic expression. The prize, worth 300,000 Norwegian krones (about $30,000), honors Halaby's decades-long commitment to protesting injustices related to class, gender, and race, as well as her vocal criticism of censorship in the arts. The jury included Munch director Tone Hansen, artist-curator Wanda Nanibush, Yvette Mutumba of Contemporary And, Cosmin Costinas of Haus der Kulturen der Welt, and Munch curator Tominga O’Donnell.

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article policy schedule Sep 12, 2025 visibility 19 link 6 artists

nicholas galanin pulls out smithsonian syposium

Artist Nicholas Galanin withdrew from a symposium tied to the Smithsonian American Art Museum exhibition “The Shape of Power: Stories of Race and American Sculpture,” alleging that organizers asked him not to record the event or share footage on social media. The symposium, a private event not publicly listed on the Smithsonian’s website, also included curator Hamza Walker, artists Titus Kaphar and Miguel Luciano, and critic Aruna D’Souza. Galanin stated on Instagram that the request effectively censored participants, though a Smithsonian spokesperson denied censorship, citing that not all participants consented to recording. The exhibition was previously singled out by President Donald Trump in an executive order criticizing the Smithsonian for promoting “divisive, race-centered ideology.”

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