ARTFIXdaily News Feed - Breaking News from the Art World

Resident Curator at the White House Will Leave His 'Dream Job' in June

ArtfixDaily / May 11th, 2017

White House curator William G. Allman will retire on June 1, as first reported by CNN and announced officially on Tuesday in a White House statement issued from the East Wing. The curator is among the White House resident staff positions that are considered non-political. First lady ...

Banksy Delivers First Anti-Brexit Mural on Dover Wall

BBC / May 8th, 2017

Street artist Banksy over the weekend left a new mural on a wall in the English city of Dover on the Channel. Posited overnight at the Dover ferry terminal, the image depicts a worker chiselling a star from the EU flag. Commentators pointed out on social media that the work is a bit late to ...

Man Slashes $3 Million Painting in Aspen Gallery

Aspen Times / May 4th, 2017

An unidentified man entered an art gallery in Aspen, Colo., and slashed a painting with a blade on Tuesday. Wearing sunglasses and a hat, the bearded vandal lingered outside the Opera Gallery before entering to specifically harm the artwork by contemporary abstract artist Christopher Wool. ...

Cab Driver Returns $1.6 Million Painting Left Behind in Paris Taxi

T+L / May 3rd, 2017

An unidentified art dealer on his way to visit a client in Paris left behind a $1.6 million painting in the trunk of a taxi cab. The work is by Argentina-born Italian sculptor and painter Lucio Fontana, from his famed series of pierced abstractions entitled "Concetto spaziale.” Distracted by ...

Spending Bill Proposes Uptick in Federal Arts Funding, For Now

Spending Bill / May 2nd, 2017

A newly drafted government funding bill released on May 1 includes a small increase in funds for federal arts agencies that faced elimination under President Trump's FY ’18 blueprint. Congress will vote on the bipartisan spending bill this week, and it includes funding through the end of the ...

Artist's WPA-Style Works of National Parks Imagine Effects of Climate Change in 2050

Hannah Rothstein / April 27th, 2017

Berkeley-based artist Hannah Rothstein has created a series of vintage-style posters illustrating the effects of climate change on National Parks by 2050. Her images evoke government-funded 1930s art posters for the national park system - just with bleaker renditions of the landscapes. ...

IBM Watson Becomes Museum Guide

Ad week / April 19th, 2017

Museum visitors can now talk to artificial intelligence and get real-time answers about the artwork they are viewing. IBM Watson has launched an interactive guide developed with Ogilvy Brazil that allows for speech recognition as visitors view art at Brazil's Pinacoteca de São Paulo Museum. ...

Lawsuit Settled Against Art Historian in Knoedler Case

Art Newspaper / April 12th, 2017

One of ten lawsuits filed against now-defunct Knoedler gallery in New York has been settled out of court, first reported The Art Newspaper. Terms of the settlement in Manhattan federal court on April 11 were not disclosed. The painting in the claim was a fake Mark Rothko, one of 40 known fakes ...

Tehran Gallerists Charged With Attempting to Overthrow Government

ArtForum / April 12th, 2017

The owners of Tehran’s Aun Gallery, Iranian-American Karan Vafadari and his wife Afarin Niasari, were arrested several months ago, jailed in the notorious Evin Prison and have now been formally charged with attempting to overthrow the government, along with other crimes, reports ...

'Pink Star' Diamond Fetches Record $71.2 Million in Hong Kong

ArtfixDaily / April 4th, 2017

Huge and rare, the 59.60 carat 'Pink Star' is the largest polished diamond ever to go under the auction hammer. It sold for a record-breaking price to a telephone bidder at Sotheby's in Hong Kong on Tuesday. The final price for the fancy pink diamond, the highest grade, was 553 million Hong ...

NEA Faces Threat of $15 Million in Budget Cuts For This Year

ArtfixDaily / March 29th, 2017

The Trump Administration released its budget plan for FY 2018 on March 16 with a proposal for eliminating the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and other agencies that serve the American people. On Monday, a further slashing was proposed to both the ...

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 ...

3 Museums Receive Gifts of Artwork from DuPont Collection

Philly / March 23rd, 2017

Prior to its merger with Dow Chemical, DuPont Co. is gifting nearly two dozen works by N.C., Andrew, and Jamie Wyeth as well as other Brandywine River Valley-based artists to museums, reports Philly.com. The artwork was selected from a collection at the company's former Wilmington, Del., ...

Art Basel's 2017 Global Art Market Report Released

Art Basel / March 22nd, 2017

In Hong Kong, Art Basel and UBS released The Art Market, a new annual global art market analysis available for free download. Authored by Dr Clare McAndrew, The Art Market covers all aspects of the international market and highlights the most important developments in the previous ...

U.S. Received Influx of $100 Million in Artifacts from Egypt and Turkey in 2016

Live Science / March 22nd, 2017

Live Science reports that about $50 million in artifacts were shipped from each Egypt and Turkey to the United States in 2016  — the highest annual value from each of those countries in at least 20 years, according to U.S. Census Bureau documents. Documents reveal that antique gold coins ...

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 ...

White Artist's Painting of Emmett Till at Whitney Biennial Sparks Protests

Guardian / March 21st, 2017

A painting at the Whitney Biennial in New York has caused controversy and anger since it went on view Friday. African-American artist Parker Bright stood in front the painting Open Casket for hours over the weekend wearing a T-shirt with the words “No lynch mob” on the front, and “Black ...

David Rockefeller, Philanthropist and Art Collector, Remembered

ArtfixDaily / March 20th, 2017

Billionaire banker David Rockefeller died Monday morning at the age of 101. The last living grandson of oil mogul John D. Rockefeller, David Rockefeller made his own reputation over several decades as a banker, philanthropist, art collector, world traveler and influencer in political and ...

Advocates Speak Up for Saving the National Endowment for the Arts

ArtfixDaily / March 11th, 2017

With Thursday's official White House release of a $1.1 trillion federal budget blueprint featuring $54 billion in cuts and increased defense spending, America's culture programs are among the many casualties in the proposal set before Congress. Proposed agency eliminations include the National ...

Versailles to Expand Contemporary Art Program With 10 Artists

Le Figaro / March 15th, 2017

Château de Versailles introduced its contemporary art program a decade ago with a solo exhibition of one artist each year. Director Catherine Pégard has announced that Versailles will this year expand the program to feature ten contemporary artists at a time in exhibitions. Massive ...