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At the VIP day of Frieze London 2025, Tate acquired three new works by female artists for its collection: Lubna Chowdhary's ceramic and wooden sculpture 'Assembly' (2025) from Jhaveri Contemporary, Barbara Walker's drawing 'End of Affair II' (2025) from Victoria Miro, and Madge Gill's 'Untitled (Venus Mid Heaven)' (1920-30) from the Gallery of Everything at Frieze Masters. The purchases were made through the Frieze Tate Fund, which provides £150,000 in philanthropic support, previously funded by Endeavor and now by Mari, Ariel Emanuel's newly formed company that recently acquired Frieze.

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Michael Rakowitz's survey exhibition "Allspice" at the Acropolis Museum in Athens explores themes of cultural displacement, looting, and historical narrative through works like his series "The invisible enemy should not exist" (2007–), which reconstructs looted artifacts from Baghdad's National Museum of Iraq using Arabic food wrappers and newspapers. The show also features his 2004 video "Return," documenting his effort to import Iraqi dates labeled as "product of Iraq" to the US after decades of sanctions, and includes interventions with the museum's own collection, such as a Cypriot head he linked to Assyrian art.

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Michael Rakowitz's survey exhibition "Allspice" opened at the Acropolis Museum in Athens in 2025, featuring works that explore Iraqi cultural heritage, displacement, and the politics of looting. The show includes his series "The invisible enemy should not exist" (2007–), which reconstructs artifacts looted from Baghdad's National Museum of Iraq after the 2003 US invasion using Arabic food wrappers and newspapers, as well as a video work documenting his effort to import Iraqi dates labeled with their true country of origin for the first time in three decades.

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Gabriel Chaile's adobe sculptures are currently on view at Marianne Boesky Gallery in New York, as part of a world tour that has seen his work exhibited across multiple continents. The artist, who draws inspiration from pre-Columbian communities in northwest Argentina, creates towering, creature-like forms coated in adobe that leave dust everywhere during installation. His career has expanded rapidly since his inclusion in Cecilia Alemani's 2022 Venice Biennale, with recent commissions in Montana, Uruguay, Spain, Saudi Arabia, and Berlin, and an upcoming participation in the Biennale of Sydney.

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Raúl de Nieves has transformed the industrial architecture of Pioneer Works in Red Hook into a luminous sanctuary through his solo exhibition, "In Light of Innocence." The installation features 50 handcrafted faux stained-glass panels made from acetate and aluminum tape, replacing traditional religious iconography with symbols from tarot, Mexican folklore, and personal text. The centerpiece is a large light box featuring a skeleton that symbolizes transformation and renewal rather than death.

Never-Before-Seen Stanley Kubrick Photos Debut in New York

A collection of 18 previously unseen photographs by legendary filmmaker Stanley Kubrick will make its public debut at the Photography Show in New York. Discovered by the Duncan Miller Gallery within a larger archive purchase, these images date back to 1945 when a teenage Kubrick worked as a staff photographer for Look magazine. The series captures candid, late-night scenes within the New York City subway system, utilizing a concealed shutter release to document commuters in their most natural states.

The Art Market Returns to Growth

Confidence in the art market is rising, with a significant increase in dealers expecting sales growth in 2026 according to the latest Art Basel and UBS Global Art Market Report. The report, authored by economist Clare McAndrew, notes that 43% of dealers anticipate improvement, a 10-point jump from the previous year, though recovery remains uneven due to high costs and trade barriers.

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Hollis Taggart is hosting a retrospective of Frank Diaz Escalet, a Puerto Rican-born artist whose unique practice involved creating intricate figurative compositions from inlaid leather. Raised in New York and later based in Maine, Escalet transitioned from a master leather craftsman catering to celebrities like the Rolling Stones to a fine artist focused on the lives of everyday people. The exhibition showcases his self-taught technique of cutting, dyeing, and conjoining leather shapes to create vibrant scenes of Puerto Rican culture and urban life.

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The Gochman Family Collection, a significant patron of Indigenous art, has announced plans to open two new exhibition spaces totaling 10,000 square feet in Katonah, New York. Scheduled to debut this fall, the venues will showcase selections from a rapidly growing collection of over 750 works by Native artists from the U.S. and Canada. To lead this expansion, the organization has appointed Laura Phipps, a former associate curator at the Whitney Museum of American Art, as its inaugural director.

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Sculptor Alma Allen has officially joined Perrotin, a move that follows his high-profile departure from former galleries Mendes Wood DM and Olney Gleason. The transition comes as Allen prepares to represent the United States at the 2026 Venice Biennale with the exhibition "Alma Allen: Call Me the Breeze," curated by Jeffrey Uslip. The artist reportedly split with his previous representation after they opposed his acceptance of the Biennale commission under the current political climate.

Italy Acquires Caravaggio's Barberini Portrait

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The Italian Ministry of Culture has acquired a rare Caravaggio portrait of Maffeo Barberini, the future Pope Urban VIII, for €30 million ($35 million). The late 16th-century masterpiece, which had been hidden in a private collection for decades, will now reside permanently at Rome’s Palazzo Barberini. The acquisition follows a successful short-term loan and extensive technical analysis that confirmed the work's authenticity.

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D Lan Galleries is returning to TEFAF Maastricht in 2026 following a landmark debut that generated nearly $1.4 million in sales. The Melbourne and New York-based gallery will showcase 13 masterworks by prominent First Nations Australian artists, including Emily Kam Kngwarray, Sally Gabori, Johnny Warangkula Tjupurrula, and Gordon Bennett. The presentation spans works from the 1970s to the present, highlighting the evolution of Indigenous Australian art on the global stage.

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Artist and activist Michele Pred has opened a solo exhibition at Nancy Hoffman Gallery in New York, showcasing a body of work that addresses the erosion of civil and reproductive rights. The exhibition features her signature electroluminescent wire-stitched vintage handbags, sculptures made from found objects like wooden gavels and disarmed bullets, and large-scale inflatable abortion pill sculptures. Pred’s practice, rooted in her upbringing between California and Sweden, utilizes approachable domestic objects to deliver urgent political messages regarding bodily autonomy and social justice.

Louvre Robbery: Security Overhaul and Investigation Update

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The Louvre Museum has announced a massive €80 million ($92 million) security overhaul following a brazen daytime heist on October 19, where thieves stole imperial jewels valued at €88 million. The investigation revealed significant institutional failures, including outdated software and weak passwords like "Louvre," allowing local thieves to enter via a movers' lift and escape on scooters in under seven minutes. While four suspects from the Paris suburbs have been charged, the majority of the stolen items remain unrecovered.

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Artist Claudia Bitrán has completed a decade-long project titled "Titanic, A Deep Emotion," a shot-by-shot remake of James Cameron’s 1997 blockbuster. Premiering at Cristin Tierney Gallery in New York, the film features a cast of 1,400 participants and utilizes a lo-fi, multidisciplinary approach involving painting, sculpture, and performance. Bitrán plays the role of Rose throughout, while the character of Jack is portrayed by a rotating cast of actors of various ages, genders, and ethnicities, with all special effects created by hand using recycled materials.

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The Italian Ministry of Culture has acquired a rare double-sided Renaissance painting by Antonello da Messina, 'Ecce Homo; Saint Jerome in Penitence,' for $14.9 million in a private sale with Sotheby's New York. The work was withdrawn from a planned public auction, and its final institutional home is now the subject of a heated debate among major Italian museums and the artist's hometown.

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Brooklyn-based artist Duke Riley has launched a public search for the remains of a goat named Skellig Mór, a former mascot of the USS Vermont battleship in the early 1900s. His campaign involves missing posters, a newspaper ad in the Boston Globe, and a dedicated hotline, forming the centerpiece of his new solo exhibition, "The Repatriation of King Skellig Mór," at Praise Shadows Art Gallery in Brookline, Massachusetts.

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Rebecca Manson has opened a new solo exhibition, "Rebecca Manson: Time, You Must Be Laughing," at Jessica Silverman gallery in San Francisco. The show features some of her most ambitious works to date, including the large-scale, four-piece ceramic and glass sculpture *Exploding Butterfly (2025)*, and continues her investigations into nature, materiality, and themes of time and change.

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The estate of movie poster artist John Alvin is seeking a single buyer for his entire archive of over 1,000 pieces, including original posters, sketches, and illustrations from the 1970s through the 1990s. The collection, stewarded by his widow Andrea Alvin since his death in 2008, features iconic work for films like E.T., The Lion King, and Blade Runner.

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Artnet News's Talentspotter feature profiles six emerging Asian artists shaping contemporary art. The artists, including Chen Ronghui, Steph Huang, and Cole Lu, explore themes of urbanization, migration, identity, and consumer culture through photography, sculpture, and installation.

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This edition of State of Play, part of Artnet Pro's The Asia Pivot newsletter, reports on multiple developments across Asia's art scene. Highlights include the launch of Art Fairs Pavilion Taipei, a new alternative art fair co-founded by Hong Kong dealers Willem Molesworth and Ysabelle Cheung, with 13 galleries for its inaugural edition. Galleries Antenna Space and Kwai Fung Hin Art Gallery are expanding into Hong Kong and Singapore respectively, while veteran Beijing gallery Long March Space has closed its physical venue. The Taipei Fine Arts Museum announced Taiwan's collateral exhibition at the Venice Biennale, and the Hong Kong Museum of Art named artists for its collateral show. The Asia Society Museum in New York will open a 70th-anniversary exhibition, and the H+ Museum in Suzhou, designed by Tadao Ando, officially opened with two inaugural shows.

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Ten years after London dealer Vanessa Carlos launched the gallery sharing initiative Condo in the East End, the collaborative model has become a key survival strategy for galleries of all sizes, especially smaller ones. The latest edition of Condo London runs from Saturday to February 14. Brunette Coleman, a photography-forward gallery launched in 2023 by Anna Eaves and Ted Targett in Bloomsbury, exemplifies this trend: it has grown quickly through cooperative exhibitions rather than costly fairs, participating in Condo for the second time this year by hosting Milan’s Zero gallery. The gallery represents six international artists, and its artist Nat Faulkner won Frieze London’s Emerging Artist Award in 2024, with a solo show opening at Camden Art Centre.

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The article examines the art market's struggle to attract new wealthy buyers despite a surge in global wealth. Marc Spiegler, former global director of Art Basel, argues that galleries have failed to recruit the newly wealthy, noting that inflation-adjusted art sales have declined over the past 15 years. He suggests the industry needs to reposition art as 'magical' and transformative to appeal to potential patrons.

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Artnet News profiles eight Gulf artists who are shaping the region's cultural renaissance, including Mohammad Alfaraj and Dana Awartani. The article highlights their growing international recognition, with Alfaraj winning Art Basel Emerging Artist and Gold Awards in 2025 and Awartani exhibiting at the 2024 Venice Biennale. It notes the expansion of major art fairs like Art Basel and Frieze into the Gulf, alongside new homegrown initiatives such as the Diriyah Contemporary Art Biennale and Rubaiya Qatar.

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Artnet News compiled a roundup of 2025 interviews with celebrities whose creative work intersects with the visual art world. Sharon Stone turned to portrait painting after her mother's death, creating a series of works channeling historical and personal figures. Adrien Brody exhibited new works at Eden Gallery in New York, discussing how his acting career supported his art practice. Director Yorgos Lanthimos held his first photography exhibition at Webber Gallery in Los Angeles, while Alejandro Iñárritu created a multisensory installation at Mexico's LagoAlgo to mark the 25th anniversary of his film *Amores Perros*. Actor Lili Taylor performed in an artist lecture by Suzanne Bocanegra centered on a Renaissance tapestry from the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

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A rare 17th-century still life by Dutch Golden Age painter Maria van Oosterwijck sold for €406,400 ($477,000) at Christie’s Paris, nearly three times its high estimate, during the auction of the Stern family collection. The painting, titled *A bunch of fruit, berries and flowers hanging in a niche*, achieved the second highest auction price ever for the artist, who is believed to have produced only about 30 works in her lifetime.

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Augustas Serapinas, a 28-year-old Lithuanian artist, is the youngest participant in the main exhibition of the 2019 Venice Biennale, curated by Ralph Rugoff. Known for site-specific, interactive works that blur public and private space, Serapinas creates installations like a functioning sauna and snowmen rescued from playgrounds. He famously hosts studio visits inside a drainage pipe along the Vilnia River, a practice that impressed Rugoff and other curators. Serapinas's work challenges traditional studio and exhibition formats, engaging audiences beyond the gallery.

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Artnet Pro's Talentspotter feature highlights seven Asian artists pushing boundaries in contemporary art through diverse media such as 3D printing, VR, photography, and large-scale installation. The artists include Hà Ninh Pham from Vietnam, who creates speculative topographical works and virtual games, and Heecheon Kim from South Korea, who examines digital cognition and reality using GPS, AR, and VR. The article provides critical and market insights into each artist's practice, background, and recent exhibitions, originally published in the Asia Pivot newsletter.

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The article analyzes the auction performance of Chinese artists born after 1990 (post-90s) in the first half of 2025, based on data from the Artnet Price Database and the Artnet Intelligence Report. It highlights a shift from short-term speculation to longer-term competition, with the market showing more robust structure including stratified pricing and wider transactional geography. Key figures include Li Hei Di, whose large-scale painting sold for HK$2.67 million at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, and other artists like Zhang Zipiao, Yuan Fang, and Wang Qianyao achieving consistent mid-range prices between HK$300,000 and HK$800,000. Sales in Hong Kong reached HK$12.4 million, while artists also entered Western markets in New York and London.

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A deadly fire in Hong Kong's Tai Po district, which killed at least 159 people and left 31 missing, has sparked an online battle over the role of bamboo scaffolding in the blaze. Photographer Elaine Li and other artists, architects, and cultural historians are defending the centuries-old craft against early news reports that implicated it, fearing it may be unfairly blamed and regulated out of existence. Officials have ordered all scaffolding mesh removed and arrested 21 people on suspicion of manslaughter, but the conversation has grown into a broader fight to protect a cultural symbol of Hong Kong's identity.