us venice biennale plans collapse gagosian and wes anderson join forces for joseph cornell show and more morning links for november 6 2025 1234760347

The US government selected artist Robert Lazzarini and curator John Ravenal to represent the United States at the 2026 Venice Biennale, coinciding with the 250th anniversary of America's founding. However, negotiations with a partner institution collapsed within three weeks, and the commission was withdrawn before any public announcement, leaving the international art world questioning who will ultimately represent the country. In other news, the original cover photograph for David Bowie's album *Aladdin Sane* sold for £381,400 at Bonhams London, setting a new auction record. Gagosian has teamed up with filmmaker Wes Anderson to recreate Joseph Cornell's New York studio in Paris for an exhibition titled "The House of Utopia Parkway: Joseph Cornell's Studio Reimagined by Wes Anderson." The long-anticipated opening of the Grand Egyptian Museum has reignited calls for the British Museum to repatriate the Rosetta Stone, and a Denver-based cryptocurrency entrepreneur has unveiled a plan to build a 450-foot-tall statue of Prometheus on Alcatraz Island.

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Dan Nadel, a curator recently hired by the Whitney Museum as curator of prints and drawings, is opening a new exhibition titled "Sixties Surreal" that aims to rewrite the history of 1960s art. The show, co-curated with Laura Phipps, Scott Rothkopf, and Elisabeth Sussman, features a wide range of artists from Luis Jimenez to Shigeko Kubota, alongside canonical figures like Andy Warhol and Yayoi Kusama. Nadel, known for championing marginalized and alternative figures in American art, previously curated "What Nerve! Alternative Figures in American Art, 1960 to the Present" at the Rhode Island School of Design and a Gertrude Abercrombie exhibition at Karma gallery. He is also the author of a recent biography of Robert Crumb.

Louise Nevelson Sculpture at Long Island Synagogue for Sale

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Temple Beth El, a synagogue in Great Neck, New York, has announced the sale of a monumental 55-foot-long Louise Nevelson sculpture titled "The White Flame of the Six Million." Commissioned in the 1960s as a Holocaust memorial and functional Torah ark, the white-painted wood installation has served as the centerpiece of the congregation's sanctuary for over 50 years. Due to dwindling membership and a decision to sell the synagogue property, the congregation is seeking a new home for the massive work.

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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.

an insiders guide to frieze seoul newly found nazi loot goes missing a look at the new national museum of uzbekistan and more morning links for august 28 2025 1234750337

A Nazi-looted painting, *Portrait of a Lady* by Giuseppe Ghislandi, was spotted in a house in Argentina via real estate photos, but vanished before police could seize it. The work once belonged to Jewish dealer Jacques Goudstikker and was linked to SS officer Friedrich Kadgien. Separately, Egyptian doctor Ashraf Eldarir was jailed in the US for smuggling 590 ancient artifacts, using fabricated provenance. Other news includes the upcoming National Museum of Uzbekistan designed by Tadao Ando, a Banksy work moving to London Museum, and an insider's guide to Frieze Seoul.

tate and national portrait gallery buy work by britains caravaggio banksys lighthouse mural defaced paris holocaust museum vandalized morning links for june 2 2025 1234744031

Tate Britain and the National Portrait Gallery have jointly acquired William Dobson's 1630s self-portrait for £2,367,405, far below the rumored £5 million. The painting will be displayed at Tate Britain this fall alongside Dobson's portrait of his wife Judith. Separately, the Mémorial de la Shoah Holocaust museum in Paris was vandalized with green paint, along with two synagogues and a restaurant in the Marais district; an investigation is underway. Other news includes the vandalism and swift restoration of a new Banksy lighthouse mural in Marseille, a warning about a 50,000-year-old rock art site threatened by a gas project in Australia, and the opening of the Naoshima New Museum of Art on Japan's Naoshima island.

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Major international museum projects are nearing completion for 2026, signaling a period of significant institutional expansion despite global economic and political pressures. Key highlights include the long-awaited Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, designed by Frank Gehry, which will finally open its doors on Saadiyat Island after two decades of planning. Meanwhile, Los Angeles is preparing for two major debuts: George Lucas’s $1 billion Lucas Museum of Narrative Art and Refik Anadol’s Dataland, a dedicated space for AI-driven digital art.

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The Golestan Palace, a UNESCO World Heritage site in Tehran, has sustained damage following US-Israeli airstrikes targeting the Iranian capital. According to Iran’s cultural heritage minister, Reza Salehi-Amiri, the Qajar-era complex suffered damage to its historic windows, doors, and mirrors due to blast shockwaves and debris. The escalation of the regional conflict has further impacted cultural hubs across the Middle East, with debris falling near Abu Dhabi’s Saadiyat Island and major institutions in Qatar and the UAE temporarily closing their doors.

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The article is a personal remembrance of artist Robert Grosvenor, written by a former student who encountered him as a visiting speaker at the Rhode Island School of Design in 1978. It recounts the profound impact Grosvenor's work and teaching had on the author's own artistic practice, describing his use of ordinary materials, his sculptural innovations like the cantilever and "hover," and his influence on her approach to art-making. The piece also references Grosvenor's 2025 exhibition at Paula Cooper Gallery and his earlier commission at Storm King Art Center.

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Abu Dhabi will host the most expensive art exhibition ever staged by Sotheby's in the Middle East on October 1 and 2, valued at approximately $150 million. The exhibition features six masterpieces by Vincent van Gogh, Paul Gauguin, Frida Kahlo, René Magritte, Camille Pissarro, and Edvard Munch, sourced from major private collections including those of Leonard A. Lauder, Cindy and Jay Pritzker, and Matthew and Kay Bucksbaum. It takes place at the Bassam Freiha Art Foundation on Saadiyat Island Cultural District and marks Sotheby's first public fine art show in the UAE, ahead of its Abu Dhabi Collectors' Week in November.

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Joel Shapiro, the acclaimed American sculptor known for his abstract wooden and bronze figures, died June 14 at age 83. In the weeks before his death, he gave a career-spanning interview to Max Norman for ARTnews, reflecting on his legacy. The article describes Shapiro's final New York show at Pace Gallery in fall 2024, which featured large works like "Splay" (2024), "Wave" (2024), and his largest wooden sculpture "ARK" (2020/2023–24), alongside small models and bronzes. It also offers a glimpse into his Long Island City studio, where he constantly experimented with form, material, and scale.

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A major survey of Donald Locke's work, titled "Resistant Forms," has opened at Spike Island in Bristol, England, in collaboration with Ikon Gallery in Birmingham and Camden Art Centre in London. Featuring over 80 works spanning five decades, the exhibition includes early biomorphic ceramics, monochromatic black paintings from the 1970s, collage paintings, mixed-media sculptures, and personal writings and photographs. Highlights include the black paintings series addressing colonial subjugation, such as "The Cage" (1976–79), and later whimsical works like "Reconstructed Bottle with Pearls #11 (Pearls for Mahalia)" (2008). The show traces Locke's journey from his birth in Guyana, his time in the UK as part of the Windrush Generation, and his eventual move to the US, where he lived until his death in 2010.

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Liz Collins created two monumental 16-foot-long tapestries for the 2024 Venice Biennale, titled *Rainbow Mountains: Moon* and *Rainbow Mountains: Weather* (both 2023). Initially conceived as a single 40-foot weaving, the project proved too ambitious and was split in two. Collins worked at the TextielLab in Tilburg, Netherlands, switching to a lighter yarn after a failed trial, and ultimately brought the finished works to New York in duffel bags before curator Adriano Pedrosa selected them for the Biennale. The textiles depict mountain ranges emitting rainbows through dark skies, exploring themes of duality—danger and joy, precarity and euphoria.

As Cuban crisis deepens, diaspora artists have a message of compassion

Artists Antonia Wright and Ruben Millares are showcasing a salvaged, bullet-ridden Cuban migrant vessel at Miami’s Piero Atchugarry Gallery. The exhibition, titled 'Exile', serves as a visceral focal point for the escalating humanitarian crisis in Cuba, where citizens face systemic collapse, starvation, and political imprisonment. Through the concept of 'embodiment' rather than mere empathy, the artists confront the harrowing 93-mile journey across the Straits of Florida undertaken by those desperate to escape the island's dictatorship.

Is Dubai’s loss Palma's gain? Newly revived Mallorca fair offers ’sun, sand and safety’ for wealthy Germans

The Art Cologne Palma Mallorca fair has been successfully revived at the Palau de Congressos, attracting 88 exhibitors with a heavy concentration of Spanish and German galleries. The event capitalizes on Mallorca's status as a premier second-home destination for wealthy Europeans, particularly Germans, and benefits from significant local government backing of €500,000. Early sales reports indicate strong performance in the lower and mid-market price brackets, with artists like Neo Rauch and Brian Eno finding quick buyers, though seven-figure works by Anselm Kiefer and Georg Baselitz moved more slowly.

Gullah artist Sam Doyle’s narrative portraits shine at Outsider Art Fair in New York

A series of 20 paintings by self-taught Gullah artist Sam Doyle are a highlight of this year's Outsider Art Fair in New York. The works, priced from $35,000 to $85,000, are presented by The Gallery of Everything and come from the collection of publisher and Intuit Art Museum co-founder Bob Roth.

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Emerging artist Aiza Ahmed, a 28-year-old Pakistani-born painter and sculptor who recently completed her MFA at the Rhode Island School of Design, is having a breakout moment in New York. Her first solo show, "The Music Room," is on view at Sargent's Daughters, while she participates in two prestigious residencies: Silver Art Projects at 4 World Trade Center and the Fire Station residency in Doha, directed by Wael Shawky. Ahmed's work explores themes of migration, belonging, and identity, drawing on her family's experience of Partition and her own upbringing across Dubai, London, and the U.S. She will also be the youngest artist at the inaugural Art Basel Qatar in February 2025.

Shreg the green ogre, a grey obsessive and Vermeer’s boiled egg – the week in art

This week's art roundup from The Guardian highlights a range of exhibitions across the UK, including Bruce Asbestos's 'Bootleg Shreg 2' at Exeter Phoenix Gallery, a playful show featuring a green ogre that parodies copyright rules. Other notable shows include Roy Oxlade's primitive paintings at Alison Jacques, May Morris's craft legacy at Lady Lever Art Gallery, a 30-year anniversary group show at Timothy Taylor, and Alan Charlton's monochrome grey works at Annely Juda Fine Art. The article also features an image of a naturally sculpted rock on Kangaroo Island, a review of the Turner Prize nominees, and a masterwork analysis of Vermeer's 'The Guitar Player' at Kenwood House, which was stolen in the 1970s and recovered with the help of a clairvoyant.

Local Resort Reportedly Pays $45 M. for Rauschenberg’s Famed Captiva Island Property

South Seas, a resort on Florida's Captiva Island, has purchased Robert Rauschenberg's 22-acre property, including his studio and beachfront, for $45 million. The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation sold the estate, citing unsustainable maintenance costs and the need to focus on its core mission, despite the property having survived Hurricane Ian.

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Lauren Haynes has been appointed as the new executive director of Atlanta Contemporary, effective March 16. She succeeds interim director Everett Long, who assumed the role last summer after Floyd Hall's resignation. Haynes joins from the Trust for Governors Island, where she served as vice president of arts & culture and head curator, and brings extensive experience from institutions including the Queens Museum, the Nasher Museum, Crystal Bridges, and the Studio Museum in Harlem.

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Art Basel has launched a new fair in Doha, Qatar, opening across the Msheireb district's M7 building, Design District, and other venues. The event coincides with significant cultural milestones for Qatar, including the 50th anniversary of the National Museum and the 15th anniversary of the Museum of Islamic Art, and represents a long-term commitment with plans to expand to Al Maha Island by 2029.

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Sotheby's held its inaugural Abu Dhabi Collectors' Week at the St. Regis Island Resort on Saadiyat Island, transforming the venue into a luxury showcase with handbags, diamonds, watches, a non-selling art display worth $500 million, and rare cars. The week culminated in open-air auctions under a full moon, netting $133 million—far exceeding the $17 million from Sotheby's first Middle East luxury sale in Saudi Arabia earlier this year. Highlights included a 1994 McLaren Formula 1 car sold for $25.3 million, a Jane Birkin Hermès handbag that fetched $2.9 million, and a 31.68-karat pink diamond called The Desert Rose that went for $8.8 million. A jewelry and timepieces sale achieved white-glove status, taking $25.4 million.

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

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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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Sotheby's has announced November 8 as the opening date for its new headquarters in the iconic Breuer Building at 945 Madison Avenue, New York. The auction house purchased the building from the Whitney Museum in 2023 and commissioned Pritzker Prize-winning architects Herzog & de Meuron, along with PBDW Architects, to renovate the landmarked structure. The opening will feature a blockbuster exhibition of modern and contemporary art, followed by major sales the week of November 17. The building, designed by Marcel Breuer and completed in 1966, previously housed the Whitney Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Frick Collection.

Dingo-related work at Sydney Biennale takes on new resonance following backpacker death

A new installation by artist Cannupa Hanska Luger at the 2026 Biennale of Sydney features seven ceramic dingo skulls with whistles that create a howling sound. The work, titled "Volume III White Bay Power Station," was created before the artist learned of the death of a Canadian backpacker, Piper James, on K'gari (Fraser Island), a ruling for which found she drowned after a dingo attack.

Sale of Robert Rauschenberg’s Captiva Compound to Developers Ignites Backlash

The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation has sold the artist’s 22-acre Captiva Island estate to South Seas, a neighboring resort developer, for $45 million. The sale includes Rauschenberg’s former home, studio, and several cottages where he lived and worked for decades. The Foundation defended the move by citing the prohibitive costs of protecting the site against rising sea levels and hurricane damage, confirming that the prestigious Rauschenberg Residency program will now come to an end.

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A herd of 100 life-size elephant sculptures, handcrafted by 200 Indigenous artisans from South India, has arrived at Art Basel Miami Beach as part of "The Great Elephant Migration," a global public art and conservation project. The sculptures are made from lantana camara, an invasive plant, and are modeled after individual elephants from the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve. Organized by Ruth Ganesh and the Coexistence Collective, the installation aims to promote coexistence between humans and wildlife, with proceeds from sculpture sales funding 22 conservation NGOs. The elephants have toured the U.S., appearing in Newport, Rhode Island, Manhattan's Meatpacking District, and now Miami Beach, where they have drawn enthusiastic crowds—and even a reported incident of a couple having sex on one of the sculptures, prompting police patrols.

Taiwan’s New Typologies

Taiwan is undergoing a significant cultural transformation with the opening of several major municipal art institutions, including the New Taipei City Art Museum, the Taoyuan Museum of Fine Arts, and the Taichung Green Museumbrary. The latter, designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architects SANAA, represents a new hybrid typology that merges a public library with an art museum within a sprawling urban park. These institutions are characterized by striking contemporary architecture and a mission to balance international prestige with deep-rooted local art histories.

Robert Rauschenberg Foundation Estate Sold to Florida Resort

The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation has sold the late artist’s twenty-two-acre estate on Captiva Island, Florida, to the neighboring South Seas resort for $45 million. The sale includes ten buildings, most notably Rauschenberg’s custom-built 8,000-square-foot studio and his historic "Beach House." While the resort plans to integrate the property into its operations and host art-related programming, the foundation cited escalating maintenance costs and environmental risks from climate change as the primary reasons for the divestment.