Louis Grachos had a two-year stint, including a year of pandemic shutdown marred by controversy surrounding the museum's response to George Floyd's killing and by the deaccessioning and sale of a massive Helen Frankenthaler painting. Grachos is returning to New Mexico, where he'll be ED of "the contemporary arts organization SITE Sante Fe, which he led from 1996 to...
The debate has grown heated in recent weeks, pitting museum against museum, and forcing the association — which serves as the industry’s referee and moral watchdog — to postpone talks about extending the change indefinitely. - The New York Times
"Following court filing in New York, the attorneys general from 23 states issued a statement calling for amendments to the plan, which they say does not offer sufficient concessions — including one that would protect non-profits that opt to remove the Sackler name from their spaces, regardless of gift agreements." - Artnet
"When Inuit enter the building, we want them to feel like this is a space for them, that the artwork to be curated for them and that they are the intended audience of the work, and up until now that hasn't necessarily been the case." - CBC
An antiques enthusiast came across the Ming Dynasty-era piece and thought it could be something special when browsing a yard sale in the New Haven area last year, according to Sotheby’s. The buyer later emailed information and photos to Sotheby’s asking for an evaluation. - HuffPost
"Douglas Baxter and Susan Dunne, who have worked at the dealership for decades, are leaving the gallery" in a restructuring of top management. "Their exits coincide with news that Pace has concluded its legal investigation into misconduct allegations facing the two gallery presidents." - Artnet
"The Council of State ruled that the Culture Ministry was correct in cancelling the concession it had given to the Dignitatis Humanae Institute," a conservative think tank whose stated mission is "supporting Christians in public life, … response to increasing efforts to silence the Christian voice in the public square." Bannon was leading an effort to establish a...
The two-month-long Coachella Valley biennial known as Desert X will not include a relocated Judy Chicago piece, the artist has told The Times, and the cancellation of the work is threatening a smoke sculpture planned for San Francisco’s de Young museum in mid-October. - Los Angeles Times
We seem to have an insatiable appetite for finding "masterpieces" and consequently may readily believe in "expert" judgment. But what is the value of expert opinion in the art world, anyway? And does it matter which expert’s view it is? - The Art Newspaper
For all the talk of robust online viewing rooms and hybrid auctions, with sales reportedly doubling in 2020, all market segments “experienced declines last year, creating the biggest recession in the global art market since the financial crisis of 2009,” Art Basel Americas director Noah Horowitz writes in the introduction to the study. - Artnet
"Museums have at times withheld information about thefts, fearing that revealing security weaknesses could make other institutions less likely to loan them art or that it could encourage other thefts, according to current and former museum officials. Art security experts say the failure to report thefts, particularly involving items stolen from storage, has prevented museums from recovering items." -...
"In an informal poll, members of the Association of Art Museum have voted 91-88 against asking its trustees to explore a controversial change in its deaccessioning policy to permit institutions to sell art to finance direct care of their collections." - The Art Newspaper
Oliver Wainwright: "It is a fitting moment for a prize once reserved for flamboyant sculptors of icons to be awarded to a practice that would prefer you didn't notice their presence at all. … In an age of demolishing public housing and replacing it with shiny new carbon-hungry developments in the name of 'regeneration', Lacaton & Vassal have worked...
More fully stated, the professional creed of Anne Lacaton and Jean-Philippe Vassal is "Never demolish, never remove or replace, always add, transform, and reuse!" The pair are best known for their innovative and economical work renovating public housing projects in France. - NPR
