ARTFIXdaily News Feed - Breaking News from the Art World

California Wine Country Fires Engulf Historic Structures, Arts Center

SF Chronicle / October 9th, 2017

Fifteen wildfires raged through Northern California beginning Sunday night, destroying homes, schools, businesses, hotels, and multiple wineries in Napa and Sonoma Counties and the vicinity. Ten people were reported dead and dozens were missing as of Monday evening. While the massive and ...

After $3.5 Million Renovation, JMW Turner's Picturesque Cottage Opens to Visitors

Guardian / August 16th, 2017

In 1813 England’s great landscape painter JMW Turner built a small villa, Sandycombe Lodge, on a large plot near the Thames at Twickenham. Here, the painter became an architect, guided by the hand of his friend John Soane, notes the home's website. Now, a $3.5 million renovation has made ...

Zaha Hadid Architects Unveils Skyscraper Plans for Kushner Companies at 666 Fifth Avenue

Dezeen / March 28th, 2017

Zaha Hadid Architects has unveiled plans for a Kushner Companies skyscraper at 666 Fifth Avenue, four blocks from Trump Tower in New York. The plans calls for a rebuild of the 1950s office building with an addition of 40 stories hosting mixed-use space for offices, residential and hotel ...

National Academy Museum Buildings Return to Market in 3 Listings

Curbed NY / March 22nd, 2017

Financial needs placed the palatial Upper East Side mansions occupied by the National Academy Museum on the market last spring at $120 million. A buyer was not found and now Corcoran is marketing the properties differently, to be sold together for $78.5 million or as separate listings, reports ...

Jeff Bezos Buys Museum Building for Private Residence

Washington Post / January 16th, 2017

Amazon founder and Washington Post owner Jeffrey P. Bezos has bought the former Textile Museum, a 27,000 square-foot property, intending to convert it into a single-family home, reports the Washington Post. The property sold for $23 million in cash. It is in the same neighborhood as the ...

Germany Buys $13.25 Million Thomas Mann Home in California for Artist Residency

Los Angeles Times / November 22nd, 2016

To save a landmark from possible demolition, Germany has purchased the former Southern California home of Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Thomas Mann who fled the Nazi regime in the 1940s. The coastal Pacific Palisades residence was built in 1941 by modernist architect J.R. Davidson. It was ...

A Subterranean Museum in Poland Wins World Building of the Year 2016

Dezeen / November 20th, 2016

A museum built in precast concrete almost entirely underground with a vast public space above won the title World Building of the Year 2016 at the World Architecture Festival. Polish architect Robert Konieczny of KWK Promes designed the National Museum in Szczecin which ...

Denmark Plans Immersive Hans Christian Andersen Museum

VOA / November 2nd, 2016

A "magical" new museum based on the works of Danish fairytale writer Hans Christian Andersen will be built in his birthplace of Odense. City officials said Monday that A. P. Moller Foundation, main owner of the shipping and oil group A. P. Moller-Maersk, has donated $33 million for the ...

Lucas Museum Reveals Dual Designs for Possible LA and San Francisco Sites

ArtfixDaily / October 27th, 2016

Two designs from MAD Architects have been released for a museum to be built by filmmaker George Lucas for his collection of American art, illustration, and memorabilia. Months after the Chicago site was abandoned following opposition that stalled the project, San Francisco and Los Angeles are now ...

Court Rules Miami-Dade College to Pay Art Dealer's Legal Fees Over Disputed Museum Bid

Miami Herald / October 26th, 2016

Miami Herald reports that "Miami-Dade College must pay art dealer Gary Nader’s legal fees in litigation related to his frustrated bid to build a cultural center at the school’s downtown campus, a state appeals court has ruled." An unsolicited bid for a Latin American art museum topped with ...

Hala Wardé Chosen to Design Beirut Museum to Art

Guardian / October 13th, 2016

Situated on a historic and symbolic site across from the National Museum in the center of Beirut, BeMA, the new Beirut Museum of Art, will be conceived by Paris-based Lebanese architect Hala Wardé, who was revealed as the winner of an architectural competition on Thursday. The ...

Islamist Extremist Gets 9 Years in Prison for Destroying Cultural Heritage Sites

ArtfixDaily / September 28th, 2016

Judges at the International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague sentenced Islamic extremist Ahmad al-Faqi al-Mahdi to nine years in prison for destroying Muslim shrines in Timbuktu, Mali. The case represents the first prosecution for the destruction of a cultural heritage site as a war ...

Heatherwick's The Vessel to Rise Up in New York's Hudson Yards

ArtfixDaily / September 14th, 2016

It boasts 154 interconnecting stairways, 2,400 steps, and 80 landings comprising a mile's worth of walkways. And all of it will lead to nowhere on the Far West Side of Manhattan. New York Times reports that The Vessel is the much-debated, $150-million public landmark set to center the main ...

Finnish State Funding For Helsinki Guggenheim Gets Nixed

Reuters / September 11th, 2016

Finnish politics have sunk plans for 40 million euros in government funding to go towards a new Guggenheim branch. Reuters: A plan to build a Guggenheim museum on the Helsinki waterfront - joining the likes of those that grace New York, Bilbao and Venice - appears close to collapse because of a ...

Proceeds From Museum Visits in Italy on Sunday to Help Repair Quake Damage

ArtfixDaily / August 25th, 2016

The deadly magnitude-6.2 earthquake that struck central Italy on Wednesday devastated the medieval towns of Amatrice and Accumoli, the village of Pescara del Tronto, and the surrounding region. By Thursday, the death toll came to 250 with victims still being pulled from ...

Militant Who Destroyed Cultural Sites Pleads Guilty in War-Crimes Trial

NPR / August 23rd, 2016

A Malian Islamist militant who led the 2012 destruction of cultural heritage sites and ancient manuscripts in Timbuktu has pleaded guilty at the International Criminal Court.  Ahmad al-Faqi al-Mahdi faces a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison. His trial for destroying cultural ...

Magnificent Italian Castle to be Auctioned Fully Furnished

Concierge Auctions / August 14th, 2016

Castel Valer, a restored medieval fortress at the edge of the Dolomites mountain range in northern Italy, goes under the gavel on Sept. 8. The historic property has descended in the same family for about 650 years. Steeped in history while updated for the 21st century, the castle combines ...

Items From 'Modernist Icon' The Four Seasons Restaurant at Auction

Dezeen / June 15th, 2016

The Philip Johnson-designed The Four Seasons restaurant in New York is considered by many as "one of the rarest phenomena in Modernism." The restuarant is an unusual intact example of the International Style shown through its architecture and every element of decor. Wright will auction off ...

Italy Seeks Foreigners to Head Cultural Sites

Telegraph / May 30th, 2016

Italy has launched a global hunt for new directors to run high-profile museums and archaeological sites, in the latest bid to revive the country's moribund cultural heritage sector. Last year, Italian managers of world-class museums and art galleries, including the Uffizi in Florence, were ...

Road Trip: Explore the New Frank Lloyd Wright Heritage Trail

Map the Frank Lloyd Wright Trail on Curbed / May 5th, 2016

In March, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker signed a bill to create the Frank Lloyd Wright Heritage Trail. Several of the seminal architect's most renowned structures are on the route, including Taliesin -- his famed home studio in the Prairie School style, with a history both incredibly ...