Art News. Vasari Codex

article news schedule Oct 1, 2025 visibility 12 link 5 artists

judge denies motion to dismiss swizz beatz 1mdb case

A federal judge has denied a motion to dismiss music producer and art collector Kasseem Dean, known as Swizz Beatz, from a bankruptcy case tied to the 1MDB scandal. Dean and his two companies, Monza Studios and Swizz Beatz Productions, were named as defendants in a suit filed in October 2024 by joint liquidators Angela Barkhouse and Toni Shukla, seeking to recover $7.3 million allegedly transferred to Dean from entities controlled by Jho Low, the mastermind of the $7.65 billion 1MDB fraud. Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald ruled that the plaintiffs' claims are not time-barred, that they have standing, and that sufficient facts have been pleaded to proceed to discovery.

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article news schedule Sep 25, 2025 visibility 9 link 4 artists

french artist invader lawsuit julien auctions street art

French artist Invader, whose real name is Franck Slama, sued the parent company of Julien Auctions for copyright infringement, theft, and violations of the Visual Artists Rights Act. The lawsuit claims 15 of his original mosaic artworks were stolen from their installation sites worldwide—including Tokyo, Paris, and other French locations—damaged or distorted, and then offered in the auction house's "Street Art: Paint & Pavement" sale on September 25. Invader demanded the works be removed, and a U.S. District Court in California granted a restraining order halting the auction of those pieces. The auction house's co-founder Martin Nolan defended the sale, arguing that street art created in public spaces transfers ownership to those who lawfully acquire it.

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trending_up market schedule Sep 22, 2025 visibility 17 link 11 artists

frida kahlo auction record broken sothebys el sueno la cama

Sotheby's announced the consignment of Frida Kahlo's 1940 self-portrait *El sueño (La cama)*, estimated at $40–60 million, for a November 2025 single-owner sale titled "Exquisite Corpus." The work is expected to break Kahlo's auction record of $34.9 million set in 2021 and potentially surpass the $44.4 million record for a woman artist held by Georgia O'Keeffe. The painting depicts Kahlo lying on a floating bed with a skeleton above, created during a turbulent period following Leon Trotsky's assassination and her divorce from Diego Rivera.

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trending_up market schedule Sep 17, 2025 visibility 10 link 1 artist

josh baer collectors emerging artists prices first works

Art adviser and Baer Faxt founder Josh Baer has proposed specific price limits for works by "ultra-emerging" artists—those fresh out of school, such as an MFA graduate from Yale. In his No Reserve newsletter, Baer advises collectors to pay no more than $15,000 for a large work and $5,000 for a small piece at a first solo show in a reputable gallery. The advice comes amid ongoing debate about inflated prices for young artists, following a column by Artnet News editor-in-chief Naomi Rea that questioned the market's pricing logic. LA gallerist Charlie James endorsed Baer's thresholds, though some collectors argue that pricing cannot be so neatly codified.

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museum exhibitions schedule Sep 16, 2025 visibility 12 link 8 artists

nayland blake mathew marks dungeon studio duke

Nayland Blake, a conceptual artist known for blending cerebral ideas with visceral, queer sensibilities, is the subject of a major solo exhibition at Mathew Marks Gallery in New York, running through October 2025. Concurrently, a new book titled *My Studio Is a Dungeon Is the Studio: Writings and Interviews 1983–2024* is set for release next month, compiling decades of the artist's writings and interviews. The article explores Blake's unique approach to art, which combines psychoanalytic theory, queer aesthetics, and a critical stance toward institutional power, as seen in their analysis of figures like Judge Daniel Paul Schreber and artist Jack Smith.

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article news schedule Sep 15, 2025 visibility 20 link 5 artists

taylor swift ex neighbor sentenced selling fake picassos basquiats

Carter Reese, a 77-year-old former teacher and college admissions consultant from Reading, Pennsylvania, was sentenced to 60 days in prison, two years of supervised release, a $50,000 fine, and $186,125 in restitution for selling forged artworks attributed to Pablo Picasso, Andy Warhol, and Joan Miró. Reese pleaded guilty to wire fraud and mail fraud in May, admitting that from 2019 to 2021 he sold or attempted to sell counterfeit pieces using false affidavits and signatures, and claimed he acquired them from a supplier using the pseudonym 'Ken James'—who had previously been convicted for selling $1 million in fake art.

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article culture schedule Sep 15, 2025 visibility 17 link 4 artists

newly discovered snail named after picasso

An international team of malacologists has discovered 46 new species of Southeast Asian microsnails, all under the genus Anauchen. One of them, Anauchen picasso, is named after Pablo Picasso because the angular patterns on its 3mm-wide shell resemble Cubism. The findings were published in the peer-reviewed journal ZooKeys, based on fieldwork in Cambodia, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam, and comparisons with specimens from the Florida Museum of Natural History.

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museum exhibitions schedule Aug 19, 2025 visibility 14 link 1 artist

alexandria biennale returns 2026

The Alexandria Biennale will return in September 2026 after a 12-year hiatus, with its 27th edition curated by Egyptian artist Moataz Nasr under the title “This Too Shall Pass.” The exhibition will feature 55 artists from across the Mediterranean, with a main program complemented by smaller shows in Alexandria museums focusing on emerging Egyptian artists. Venues include the Roman amphitheater, the Alexandria Library, and the Qaitbay Citadel. The biennale was originally established in 1955 under Gamal Abdel Nasser, suspended in 2011 amid the Egyptian revolution, briefly reopened in 2014, and then shuttered again due to financial and political instability.

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museum exhibitions schedule Aug 11, 2025 visibility 16 link 6 artists

george lucas comic con panel lucas museum preview

George Lucas made his long-awaited debut at Comic-Con's Hall H to present a sneak peek of the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, set to open in Los Angeles next year. The panel, moderated by Queen Latifah, included filmmaker Guillermo del Toro and production designer Doug Chiang, and revealed details about the 300,000-square-foot building designed by Ma Yansong of MAD, with 33 galleries, two theaters, and 11 acres of green space. Lucas discussed his personal collection of over 40,000 works, emphasizing narrative art's role in shaping community and shared beliefs, and highlighted pieces by Norman Rockwell, Kadir Nelson, Beatrix Potter, and Frida Kahlo.

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article culture schedule Aug 8, 2025 visibility 18 link 14 artists

deleuze seminars painting

A newly translated English edition of Gilles Deleuze's 1981 seminars on painting, originally published in French as 'Sur la peinture' in 2023, has been released by the University of Minnesota Press. Translated by Charles J. Stivale, the eight lectures explore what concepts painting can offer to philosophy, rather than the reverse. Deleuze discusses terms like catastrophe, the diagram, and figure, focusing on artists such as Titian, Turner, Cézanne, van Gogh, Klee, Mondrian, Pollock, and Bacon, offering a chaotic yet magnificent counterpoint to his more systematic book 'Francis Bacon: The Logic of Sensation'.

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museum exhibitions schedule Jul 9, 2025 visibility 14 link 6 artists

ed sheeran paintings jackson pollock heni

Singer Ed Sheeran is presenting a series of abstract paintings titled the “Cosmic Carpark Paintings” at Heni Gallery in London, with the exhibition opening this Friday. The works, made by dripping and splashing paint onto canvases placed on the floor, closely resemble Jackson Pollock’s drip paintings. Sheeran’s foundation is selling prints for £900 each, with 50% of proceeds benefiting UK schools. Sheeran told the Guardian he painted in a disused Soho car park during tour downtime, and the gallery’s press release describes the works as “inspired by celestial patterns” without mentioning Pollock.

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trending_up market schedule Jun 17, 2025 visibility 12 link 3 artists

art market minute jun 16

Art Basel, the world's largest art fair, returns from June 17 to 22 amid ongoing market contraction and geopolitical instability. Meanwhile, Sotheby's London will auction the private collection of legendary art patron Pauline Karpidas in a 250-lot sale this September, estimated to fetch a record-setting $81 million. Additionally, Frieze will relocate to a new venue in Seoul for its fourth edition in the South Korean capital.

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trending_up market schedule Jun 17, 2025 visibility 11 link 3 artists

sothebys picasso ceramics

Sotheby's London held a 'white glove' sale of 126 one-of-a-kind ceramics by Pablo Picasso, all from the collection of his granddaughter Marina Picasso. The auction achieved a 100% sell-through rate, generating £12.3 million ($19.4 million), with the top lot—a painted goat-shaped vase titled *Cabri* (circa 1947)—selling for £485,000, nearly quadrupling its estimate.

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museum exhibitions schedule Jun 11, 2025 visibility 25 link 85 artists

2025 bienal de sao paulo artist list

The Bienal de São Paulo has announced the 120 artists for its 2025 edition, titled “Not All Travellers Walk Roads – Of Humanity as Practice,” opening September 6 at the Ciccillo Matarazzo Pavilion. Curated by Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung, the selection was inspired by bird migration patterns and rivers, aiming to avoid nation-state classifications. Notable participants include Isa Genzken, Firelei Báez, Wolfgang Tillmans, Forensic Architecture, and 19 Brazil-based artists, alongside 20 deceased figures such as Bertina Lopes and Ernest Cole.

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museum exhibitions schedule Jun 10, 2025 visibility 15 link 7 artists

the gates christo jeanne claude

Artist duo Christo and Jeanne-Claude developed 'The Gates' for New York City's Central Park in 1979, but the project faced over two decades of bureaucratic hurdles before finally being installed in 2005 under Mayor Michael Bloomberg. The work consisted of 7,503 steel gates with orange nylon fabric along 23 miles of pathways, using 5,390 tons of steel. Now, on its 20th anniversary, a comprehensive survey titled 'Christo and Jeanne-Claude: The Gates and Unrealized Projects for New York City' is being held at the Shed, accompanied by an augmented reality experience via the Bloomberg Connects app.

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trending_up market schedule Jun 9, 2025 visibility 22 link 16 artists

new york sales underperform may 2025

Christie’s, Sotheby’s, and Phillips collectively fell short of their spring auction expectations, bringing in just over $1 billion in evening sales against estimates of $1.2 billion to $1.6 billion. The hammer total of $837.5 million was down from $1.4 billion in the same week last year and $1.8 billion in 2022, with a notable drop in high-priced works and fading interest in emerging artists. The top ten lots generated $278.6 million, a 63 percent decline from 2022, and only a handful of artists under 45 appeared in evening sales, compared to previous years.

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article news schedule Jun 9, 2025 visibility 11 link 7 artists

citigroup mexico bank

Citigroup is selling its Mexican retail banking operation, Citibanamex, along with a collection of approximately 2,000 Mexican artworks dating from the 18th century to the present. The collection includes works by Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco, Leonora Carrington, and Remedios Varo, and is considered the most important private painting collection in Mexico. Citibanamex has stated the collection is an integral and indivisible part of the sale and will not be sold separately.

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museum exhibitions schedule Jun 9, 2025 visibility 14 link 6 artists

bode galerie the woman in art muse and creator

Bode Galerie in Nuremberg has opened a new group exhibition titled “The Woman in Art – Muse and Creator,” running through July 5, 2025. The show traces the representation of women across the 20th and 21st centuries, featuring works by artists such as Henri Matisse, Ida Kerkovius, Alain Clément, and Elvira Bach. It begins with early 1900s works where women were primarily muses for male artists, then moves through decades of reclamation by women artists, culminating in contemporary autonomous depictions of the female form.

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trending_up market schedule May 19, 2025 visibility 19 link 6 artists

cowley abbott spring auction 2025

Cowley Abbott's spring live auction, 'Select Masterworks of Canadian and International Art,' will take place on May 28, 2025, featuring over 90 lots. Highlights include works by Marcelle Ferron (Sans titre, 1964, est. $300,000–$400,000), Andy Warhol (Ladies and Gentlemen (Ivette and Lurdes), 1975, est. $70,000–$90,000), Emily Carr (Fir Trees, ca. 1935, est. $275,000–$375,000), Henri Le Sidaner (L’Escalier, Beauvais, ca. 1900, est. $100,000–$150,000), and Fernand Léger (Composition, 1950, est. $30,000–$50,000). The sale spans Pop art, Canadian Modernism, Post-Impressionism, and abstraction.

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article culture schedule May 16, 2025 visibility 13 link 9 artists

salvador dali mustache origin

Salvador Dalí's iconic mustache, voted the Most Famous Mustache of All Time in a 2010 Telegraph survey, originated in the 1940s after he initially sported a more subdued "Menjou" style in the 1930s. The artist developed his flamboyant upturned mustache, first appearing in his painting *Soft Self-Portrait with Grilled Bacon* (1941), and maintained it with meticulous daily grooming using date-based wax. Dalí treated the mustache as a personal logo and creative symbol, even co-authoring a 1954 book with photographer Philippe Halsman titled *Dalí's Mustache*, featuring 28 surreal photographs.

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

smith partner art investment firm 11m fraud

Smith and Partner, a London-based art investment firm, has been accused of defrauding over a thousand investors out of $11 million through a scheme involving high-pressure sales of limited edition art prints with promises of future returns that rarely materialized. The company, founded by Austrian citizen Peter Paul Adam in 2015, faced complaints from 2020 onward, leading to its bank freezing accounts and an investigation by British Trading Standards. Liquidators are seeking $17 million in compensation, and a High Court judge has upheld asset freeze orders against former director Luke Sparkes and his company Zeno Fine Art, which allegedly inflated print prices by nearly 500 percent.

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trending_up market schedule May 3, 2025 visibility 21 link 9 artists

how much should an art fair cost

Frieze, the international art fair group, has been sold to Ari Emanuel, the Hollywood power broker who previously owned it through Endeavor. Emanuel acquired Frieze via a new, unnamed company from his former entertainment conglomerate, which was recently taken private by Silver Lake. The deal, valued at approximately $200 million according to sources, includes all seven fairs, Frieze magazine, and the No. 9 Cork Street exhibition space. Simon Fox will remain CEO. The sale comes just days before Frieze New York’s 2025 edition and follows months of speculation about the fair's future ownership.

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article policy schedule May 1, 2025 visibility 15 link 15 artists

national garden of american heroes analysis

President Trump is moving forward with the National Garden of American Heroes, a monument featuring 250 life-size statues of American historical figures, to be built for the U.S. semiquincentennial in 2026. The project, first announced in a 2020 executive order, has released grant guidelines offering $200,000 per sculpture, with $34 million diverted from the NEA and NEH. The list of 244 subjects includes figures like Hannah Arendt, Neil Armstrong, and John Singer Sargent, with six remaining to be chosen by a presidential aide. The statues must be realistic, using materials like marble or bronze, and the location is still undecided, though South Dakota is a strong contender.

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article news schedule Apr 23, 2025 visibility 10 link 2 artists

barbra kruger to unveil new installation on ukrainian passenger train

Artist Barbara Kruger has created a new typographic installation, *Untitled (Another Again)*, for the exterior of a Ukrainian Railways Intercity train. The work will be unveiled on May 1 before the train's maiden voyage from Kyiv-Pasazhyrskyi to Darnytsia Station, with a future route spanning Ukraine including stops in Lviv, Kharkiv, and Kramatorsk. Commissioned by the nonprofit RIBBON International in collaboration with Ukrzaliznytsia, the text appears in Ukrainian and English, reflecting Kruger's signature style of bold, critical messaging.

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person people schedule May 12, 2026 visibility 13 link 6 artists

South Korean ceramic artist Jongjin Park wins 2026 Loewe Foundation Craft Prize.

South Korean ceramic artist Jongjin Park has won the 2026 Loewe Foundation Craft Prize for his piece "Strata of Illusion" (2025), a partially-collapsed seat-like form made from paper and coated in porcelain slip. The award comes with a €50,000 ($58,700) prize, and Park's work will be exhibited alongside other shortlisted entries at the National Gallery Singapore, opening tomorrow and running through June 14.

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museum exhibitions schedule May 8, 2026 visibility 21 link 12 artists, 2 galleries

Meet four artists behind the public art you'll see at L.A. Metro's new D Line stations

L.A. Metro opened the first phase of its D Line extension on Friday, May 1, 2026, adding three new underground stations connecting downtown Los Angeles to Beverly Hills: Wilshire/La Brea, Wilshire/Fairfax, and Wilshire/La Cienega. The stations feature nine site-specific public artworks by artists including Mariana Castillo Deball, Eamon Ore-Giron, Ken Gonzales-Day, Todd Gray, Karl Haendel, Soo Kim, Fran Siegel, Susan Silton, and Mark Dean Veca. The competitive selection process began a decade ago, drawing over 1,200 applicants, with finalists judged by a panel of art professionals including curators from Miracle Mile museums. Metro deputy executive officer Zipporah Yamamoto leads the agency's public art program, which is funded by a 0.5% construction budget set-aside.

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museum exhibitions schedule May 13, 2026 visibility 5 link 2 artists

Naufus Ramírez-Figueroa “Lugar de Consuelo (Place of Solace)” at MoMA, New York

MoMA's Kravis Studio is presenting Naufus Ramírez-Figueroa's multimedia work "Lugar de Consuelo (Place of Solace)" (2020), marking the artist's first solo presentation at the museum. The work, jointly acquired in 2022 through MoMA's Latin American and Caribbean Fund and Fund for the Twenty-First Century, includes prints, drawings, costumes, sculptures, videos, and a related performance that explore political and personal histories of Guatemala.

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museum exhibitions schedule May 21, 2026 visibility 3 link 15 artists, 1 gallery

MONET TO MATISSE: DEFYING TRADITION to Launch at Art Gallery of South Australia

The Art Gallery of South Australia is set to launch a new exhibition titled 'MONET TO MATISSE: DEFYING TRADITION,' which will feature works by iconic modern artists such as Claude Monet and Henri Matisse. The show aims to highlight how these artists broke away from conventional artistic norms to pioneer new movements in art history.

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trending_up market schedule May 20, 2026 visibility 3 link 9 artists, 2 galleries

Modern and Contemporary Middle Eastern Art: Online - Christie's

Christie's is presenting an online sale titled "Modern and Contemporary Middle Eastern Art: Online" from June 2–16, 2026, in London. The auction features 62 lots by leading modern and contemporary artists from the Gulf, the Levant, Iraq, Iran, and North Africa, including works by Samia Halaby, Saliba Douaihy, Baya, Parviz Tanavoli, Mohamed Melehi, and Abdul Halim Radwi. The sale marks 20 years since Christie's inaugural Middle Eastern art auction in the UAE in 2006.

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article policy schedule Feb 4, 2026 visibility 14 link 4 artists, 1 gallery

Open letter calls for ousting of Art Gallery of Ontario trustee who led vote against Nan Goldin acquisition

A major controversy has erupted at the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) following the revelation that trustee Judy Schulich led a successful effort to block the acquisition of a new work by photographer Nan Goldin. The museum's Modern and contemporary curatorial working committee voted 11-9 against jointly purchasing Goldin's video piece *Stendhal Syndrome* (2024) with two other institutions, after Goldin was reportedly labeled antisemitic and compared to Nazi propagandist Leni Riefenstahl for her criticism of Israel's actions in Gaza. The decision prompted the resignation of the AGO's curator of modern and contemporary art and two volunteer committee members.

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