Vasari Art Codex

museum exhibitions schedule Nov 25, 2025 visibility 16 link 27 artists

portland art museum expansion renovation 1234763067

The Portland Art Museum has completed a $116 million expansion and renovation, integrating two neighboring buildings and adding nearly 100,000 square feet of public and gallery space. The centerpiece is a 21,000-square-foot glass pavilion named after Mark Rothko, who grew up in Portland and attended the museum's art school. The project, largely privately funded, unites the original 1932 Belluschi building with the 1927 Mark Building (a former Masonic Temple) via a transparent, 24-hour pedestrian tunnel. Director Brian Ferriso led the capital campaign, which also raised $30 million for the endowment, and recruited Hennebery Eddy Architects and Vinci Hamp Architects as designers.

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article news schedule Oct 27, 2025 visibility 8 link 9 artists

german police bust forgery ring rembrandt picasso 1234759011

German police have dismantled an international forgery ring attempting to sell fake artworks attributed to masters including Rembrandt, Pablo Picasso, and Frida Kahlo. The suspected ringleader, a 77-year-old German man from Bavaria, was arrested after trying to sell two counterfeit Picasso paintings, one a portrait of Dora Maar. Investigators, who code-named the operation “Dora Maar,” conducted raids across Germany, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein, seizing 19 fake works with asking prices ranging from $460,000 to $16 million. A 74-year-old accomplice is accused of producing forged expert reports to authenticate the fakes.

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article news schedule Oct 22, 2025 visibility 11 link 7 artists

obama presidential center new york times interview 1234758401

Barack Obama discussed the Obama Presidential Center, set to open spring 2025 on Chicago's South Side, in a New York Times interview. The four-building complex will include a museum, library, auditorium, basketball court, gardens, and commissioned works by 25 artists, including Julie Mehretu, Maya Lin, Nick Cave, Jenny Holzer, Kiki Smith, and Richard Hunt. Designed by Tod Williams and Billie Tsien Architects, the centerpiece is an eight-story granite museum nicknamed "the Obamalisk," featuring an 83-foot-tall abstract glass work by Mehretu. Obama emphasized the center's role as a public space to inspire community action, not a presidential mausoleum.

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trending_up market schedule Oct 10, 2025 visibility 8 link 3 artists

frieze abu dhabi fair announced 1234756413

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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trending_up market schedule Oct 7, 2025 visibility 11 link 1 artist, 1 gallery

wade guyton artwork inigo philbricks flops at sothebys 1234755862

A Wade Guyton artwork (2007) that was forfeited by Inigo Philbrick's business partner Robert Newland failed to sell at Sotheby's New York in late March 2025, carrying an estimate of $200,000 to $300,000. The same piece had previously sold for $208,000 at a U.S. Marshals Service auction in Texas in August 2023, a steep decline from its $490,000 sale at Sotheby's in 2015. Another Guyton from the same forfeiture—a 2018 piece owned by Philbrick himself—sold for $215,100 at the Texas auction, representing a 65% drop from its 2018 Christie's Paris sale of €535,500 (about $625,000). The article also notes a curious discrepancy: the Texas auction catalog listed a Phillips auction house label on the 2007 Guyton, but Phillips does not appear in the work's provenance, and Philbrick was known to do business with Phillips.

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article policy schedule Oct 2, 2025 visibility 5 link 1 artist

saudi arabia deutsche bank ink cultural partnership 1234754701

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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trending_up market schedule Sep 26, 2025 visibility 10 link 8 artists, 1 gallery

perelman art insurance ruling 1234753886

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 8 link 8 artists

lawrence abu hamdan munch museum exhibition golan heights 1234753861

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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trending_up market schedule Sep 23, 2025 visibility 5 link 8 artists

leiden collection fractionalized thomas kaplan rembrandt 1234753075

Billionaire investor Thomas S. Kaplan, owner of the Leiden Collection—the largest private holding of Rembrandt paintings and other Dutch/Flemish Old Masters—has announced plans to fractionalize his art holdings, potentially offering shares on a public stock exchange. In an interview with the Art Newspaper, Kaplan cited his children's lack of interest in the collection and a desire to democratize art ownership, inspired by the NFT craze of the early 2020s. The collection includes Vermeer's *Young Woman Seated at a Virginal* (ca. 1670–75) and works by Frans Hals, Gerard ter Borch, and others, and is regularly loaned to major museum exhibitions.

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person people schedule Sep 18, 2025 visibility 6 link 7 artists

met museum maria castro curator hire 1234752618

The Metropolitan Museum of Art has hired Maria Castro as an associate curator in its modern and contemporary department, a role she will begin later this month. Castro joins from the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, where she served as associate curator of painting and sculpture and co-organized exhibitions including a current permanent collection hang and a show centered on Henri Matisse's "Femme au chapeau" (1905). Her appointment comes as the Met prepares for the opening of the Oscar L. and H.M. Agnes Hsu-Tang Wing in 2030, a major expansion that is driving departmental growth.

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article news schedule Sep 10, 2025 visibility 7 link 2 artists

jfk international airport terminal six art moma met 1234749449

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, along with JFK Millennium Partners, is investing $4.2 billion to bring art from four major New York cultural institutions—the American Museum of Natural History, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Museum of Modern Art—into the new Terminal 6 at John F. Kennedy International Airport. The terminal will feature loaned works from these institutions in the international arrivals corridor, plus 19 permanent site-specific installations curated by Public Art Fund and rotating local artwork curated by Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning. Highlights include a 140-foot mural from Lincoln Center, an installation by Yoko Ono inspired by her 2019 work *Peace is Power* for MoMA, and installations from the other two museums. The terminal is designed by architect Stanis Smith and will include 10 gates, with the first six opening this year and completion by 2028.

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article news schedule Sep 5, 2025 visibility 5 link 7 artists

giorgio armani dead 91 morning links 1234750979

An Argentine court has charged Patricia Kadgien, 58, and her husband, the daughter and son-in-law of Nazi official Friedrich Kadgien, with concealing looted artworks. The charges follow a police raid on their Mar del Plata home after a snapshot of a looted Baroque painting by Giuseppe Ghislandi appeared in an online real estate listing. The painting, once owned by Jewish collector Jacques Goudstikker, was recovered along with 22 works by Henri Matisse and others, whose provenance is under investigation. Separately, iconic designer Giorgio Armani has died at 91 in Milan; he was a noted contemporary art supporter, subject of a 2000 solo exhibition at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, and founder of the Armani/Silos cultural venue. The Louvre has appointed Bénédicte Savoy as its next "Chaire du Louvre," a position from which she will deliver lectures on the museum's collections, continuing her advocacy for repatriation of African art.

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article culture schedule Aug 18, 2025 visibility 8 link 11 artists

spike lee art collection highest 2 lowest 1234749536

Spike Lee's new film *Highest 2 Lowest*, an English-language reinterpretation of Akira Kurosawa's *High and Low*, prominently features artworks from Lee's personal collection—or replicas of them—as set decoration. Production designer Mark Friedberg used Lee's collection, previously surveyed at the Brooklyn Museum in 2023, as a reference to establish the character of music tycoon David King, played by Denzel Washington. Works by Jean-Michel Basquiat, Kehinde Wiley, Deborah Roberts, Gordon Parks, Henry Taylor, and others appear in the film, including Basquiat's *Horn Players* (1983) and *Now's the Time* (1985), Tim Okamura's portrait of Toni Morrison, and pieces from Andy Warhol's 'Muhammed Ali' series.

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trending_up market schedule Aug 4, 2025 visibility 9 link 12 artists

sothebys london to sell greatest collection of surrealism to emerge in recent history in september 1234744885

Sotheby's London will auction the collection of British socialite, collector, and arts patron Pauline Karpidas on September 17 and 18. Described as the 'greatest collection of Surrealism to emerge in recent history,' it includes masterpieces by René Magritte, Salvador Dalí, Leonora Carrington, and Max Ernst, along with works by Andy Warhol, Pablo Picasso, and others. The sale is expected to fetch £60 million ($81 million), the highest estimate ever placed on a single collection at Sotheby's in Europe. Karpidas, who began collecting 50 years ago after meeting gallerist Alexander Iolas, views herself as a 'temporary custodian' for the artworks.

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trending_up market schedule Jun 10, 2025 visibility 3 link 1 artist

mable auguste rodin sculpture despair auction rouillac 1234744744

A small marble sculpture by Auguste Rodin, titled *Despair (Le Désespoir)* (1892), that had been missing since 1906 was rediscovered and sold at auction for €860,000 ($1 million). The 11-inch figure of a seated woman was initially thought to be a copy but was authenticated by the Comité Rodin after a months-long investigation by auctioneers Aymeric and Philippe Rouillac. The sale took place on June 8 as part of the 37th Garden Party Auction at Château de Villandry in France.

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trending_up market schedule May 22, 2025 visibility 6 link 7 artists

fort worth kimbell art museum acquires chardin the cut melon 1234743207

The Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas, has acquired Jean Siméon Chardin's 1760 painting *The Cut Melon* directly from the descendants of Baroness Charlotte de Rothschild. The work had previously sold for $30.3 million at Christie's France in June 2024 to Italian investor Nanni Bassani Antivari, who failed to pay, leading Christie's to sue him. The museum, which was the underbidder at auction, announced the acquisition on Wednesday, and the painting goes on view Thursday in the Louis I. Kahn building.

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article policy schedule May 16, 2025 visibility 3 link 1 artist

smithsonian teams up with saudi arabias alula project 1234742505

The Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art (NMAA) has signed a formal partnership agreement with Saudi Arabia’s Royal Commission for AlUla (RCU), formalizing two years of behind-the-scenes collaboration. Signed by NMAA director Chase Robinson and RCU chief executive Abeer Al Akel, the deal covers joint archaeological research, exhibition loans, curatorial exchange, and professional development, with a focus on the ancient site of Dadan, a key stop on the Incense Road. The partnership is part of Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 plan to rebrand the kingdom as a global cultural destination.

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museum exhibitions schedule Apr 30, 2025 visibility 6 link 5 artists

kevin beasley storm king acoustic mirror 1234740204

Kevin Beasley has created a large-scale acoustic mirror for Storm King Art Center, opening May 7. The 11-foot-tall, 100-foot-wide four-part sculpture is inspired by World War I–era concrete acoustic mirrors used for detecting enemy aircraft. Unlike those obsolete relics, Beasley's work is made from recycled clothes cast in resin and will amplify visitors' voices and outdoor sounds. The piece engages with the history of the Hudson River School painters and themes of colonialism, Manifest Destiny, and contested land, while also celebrating agricultural cycles through its seasonal titles: Proscenium| Rebirth, Growth, Harvest, and Dormancy.

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article news schedule Apr 28, 2025 visibility 4 link 2 artists

fort worth police spent 7 k visiting new york for sally mann investigation 1234739998

The Fort Worth Police Department spent nearly $7,000 to send five officers to New York City to investigate child pornography allegations against photographer Sally Mann. The officers visited four major museums—the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, and the Whitney Museum of American Art—to examine Mann's photographs in their collections and speak with curators. The trip, which cost $6,988.77, came after Mann's works were seized from a group exhibition at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth following complaints from locals and elected officials who deemed the images "grossly inappropriate." The investigation was later dropped and the photographs returned.

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gavel restitution schedule Apr 25, 2025 visibility 4 link 3 artists

fort worth police return photographs seized from sally mann exhibition 1234739889

Fort Worth police have returned photographs by Sally Mann that were seized from the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth in January. The artworks were taken from the group exhibition “Diaries of Home” following complaints from locals and elected officials who characterized Mann’s work as “grossly inappropriate” and “child porn.” The seizure sparked national condemnation, with the National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC), the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), and the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas (ACLU of Texas) intervening to demand the works’ return. Charges against the museum were dropped, and the photographs have now been returned, bringing closure to the investigation.

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gavel restitution schedule Apr 25, 2025 visibility 2 link 1 artist

art institute of chicago nazi looted schiele drawing return 1234739791

A New York judge has ordered the Art Institute of Chicago to return Egon Schiele's 1916 drawing to the heirs of Fritz Grünbaum, an Austrian Jewish art collector persecuted during the Holocaust. The ruling, issued by Judge Althea Drysdale, determined that the work was looted by the Nazis and that the museum failed to properly scrutinize its provenance, relying on discredited records from Swiss dealer Eberhard Kornfeld. The drawing had been in the museum's collection since 1966 and was seized in 2023; the museum plans to appeal.

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museum exhibitions schedule Apr 28, 2026 visibility 12 link 10 artists

'It’s like the natural world. Nothing lasts forever': Tadashi Kawamata on creating his temporary sculptures

Japanese artist Tadashi Kawamata created a temporary wooden vortex sculpture titled "Tornado" inside the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, made from 5,000 individual pieces of wood and installed on the grand staircase for just two weeks in February. The work was commissioned by Ruinart as part of its "Conversations with Nature" series, which presents a piece in Paris before permanently installing it at the champagne house's headquarters in Reims. Kawamata, who has lived in Paris for 18 years, is known for using found materials and creating site-specific, temporary interventions on or inside architecture, emphasizing spontaneity and impermanence.

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article local schedule Apr 22, 2026 visibility 20 link 20 artists

From the World Cup and the Olympics to two new museums: upcoming cultural attractions in Los Angeles

Los Angeles is preparing for a major influx of cultural and sporting events, including hosting matches for the 2026 FIFA World Cup at SoFi Stadium and the 2028 Summer Olympics. The city is also enhancing its cultural infrastructure with new Metro stations featuring site-specific art commissions and the imminent openings of the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art and the David Geffen Galleries at LACMA.

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article news schedule Apr 20, 2026 visibility 19 link 4 artists

Recently restored castle in Norwich among five institutions shortlisted for UK's top museum prize

Five UK museums have been shortlisted for the 2026 Art Fund Museum of the Year prize. Norwich Castle Museum & Art Gallery, recently restored through a £27.5 million redevelopment, is nominated alongside the National Gallery in London, The Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, The Box in Plymouth, and the V&A East Storehouse in London. The winner, to be announced on 25 June, will receive £120,000.

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article culture schedule Apr 8, 2026 visibility 9 link 3 artists

A book exploring the evolution of J.M.W. Turner’s positions on slavery

Art historian Sam Smiles has released a comprehensive new book examining J.M.W. Turner’s complex relationship with the slave trade, expanding on his 2007 discovery of the artist's personal investment in a Jamaican cattle farm that utilized enslaved labor. The research traces Turner’s financial ties from his early patronage by wealthy plantation owners to his own speculative ventures, challenging the long-held perception of the artist as a straightforward abolitionist.

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museum exhibitions schedule Apr 20, 2026 visibility 21 link 17 artists

Thomas J. Price’s Monumental Sculpture Anchors V&A East’s Opening in London

The V&A East Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum's second site in East London, opened to the public on April 18. The inaugural presentation features new site-specific commissions by artists Rene Matić, Carrie Mae Weems, and Tania Bruguera, with Thomas J. Price's monumental sculpture serving as a key anchor piece for the new institution.

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trending_up market schedule Apr 15, 2026 visibility 30 link 8 artists

Billionaire Collector Ken Griffin’s Basquiat Buying Spree Continues

Billionaire collector Ken Griffin has significantly expanded his holdings of Jean-Michel Basquiat, notably acquiring the 1983 masterpiece 'In Italian' from the collection of Peter Brant. The acquisition came to light through press materials for an upcoming exhibition at the Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM) titled "Basquiat: Figures, Signs, Symbols," which will showcase nearly a dozen works from Griffin’s private collection. The show, curated by PAMM director Franklin Sirmans and Griffin’s curator Megan Kincaid, includes other high-profile acquisitions such as the 1982 'Untitled (Skull)' previously purchased from Yusaku Maezawa.

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article news schedule Mar 26, 2026 visibility 23 link 1 artist

Whitney Biennial Trends, a New Baroque Art Star, and Banksy Unmasked

The Art Angle podcast, hosted by Ben Davis and Kate Brown with guest Eileen Kinsella, recapped major art stories from March 2026. The discussion centered on three key developments: the opening of the 2026 Whitney Biennial, the rising art historical prominence of 17th-century Flemish painter Michaelina Wautier, and a new investigation claiming to have definitively unmasked the identity of the anonymous street artist Banksy.

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museum exhibitions schedule Mar 18, 2026 visibility 26 link 14 artists

7 museum openings of 2025 2605275

The global art landscape is set for a significant transformation in 2025 with the opening of several high-profile museum projects. These range from the long-awaited reopening of New York’s Frick Collection and the Studio Museum in Harlem to ambitious international debuts like the PoMo museum in Norway and the Fenix Museum of Migration Stories in Rotterdam. These projects feature designs by world-renowned architects including Annabelle Selldorf, India Mahdavi, and MAD Architects, often repurposing historic structures with bold contemporary additions.

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article policy schedule Feb 23, 2026 visibility 7 link 1 artist

saudi arabia scales back 2741687

Saudi Arabia is significantly scaling back its ambitious "Vision 2030" cultural and infrastructure spending due to falling oil prices and massive budget overruns. Major international projects, including a $200 million investment deal with the Metropolitan Opera in New York and funding for the Centre Pompidou’s refurbishment, are currently in limbo or facing payment delays. Reports of unpaid invoices to art service firms and the halting of "gigaprojects" like Neom suggest a period of financial retrenchment for the kingdom.

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