THE HEADLINES

ASPEN’S GRASP. Known for winter sports and other outdoor recreation, Aspen, Colorado, has become increasingly celebrated as an art destination, reports The Art Newspaper. The Aspen Art Week brings together collectors, curators and artists in a culture festival co-ordinated by Aspen Art Museum. This summer, the Aspen Art Fair (29 July-2 August) joins in with a debut at the high-profile Hotel Jerome, in the city center. About 30 exhibitors and projects—from Los Angeles (Carlye Packer, Casterline Goodman), New York (Miles McEnery, Nancy Hoffman) and abroad (El Apartamento from Havana and Madrid, Galerie Gmurzynska from Zürich, Perrotin from Paris)—are in the art fair’s lineup. Admission to the event costs $30 per day, except for those statying at the hotel who get complimentary passes. “It’s really important to us to be part of the citywide cultural conversation year round,” said Becca Hoffman, the director of the fair.

TO RETURN OR TO LOAN? Objects from London’s British Museum and the Victoria & Albert Museum are on loan at the Manhyia Palace Museum in the center of Kumasi, Ghana, while Los Angeles’s Fowler Museum has transferred ownership of seven items, reports The Art Newspaper. The UK loans include gold items, soul-washers’ badges, a figure of an eagle and a symbolically charged peace pipe, as well as the important ceremonial sword known as the Mponponsuo. There are also seven items from the Fowler Museum on view. Most of the returned items are colonial loot, seized by British troops during the Asante wars. A few others were legitimately acquired, not in battle. Ownership of the seven Fowler items has been formally transferred to the Asantehene, who is now free to use the regalia for ceremonial purposes. The BM and V&A objects, however, are required to be treated as artworks. The UK museums are returning material as three-year loans, with the option of a three-year extension.

THE DIGEST

Dr. Robert Boulay, who devoted his life to identifying Kanak works for the world’s most prestigious museums, including Paris’s Quai Branly, has died at the age of 80 years old. [Le Quotidien de l’Art]

Collectors Andrée and Gérard Patt have given the town of Audincourt, in the Franche-Comté region, 236 works of modern and contemporary art. The retired couple, who started amassing their treasures in the early 2000s, aquired their first paintings from a gallery in Megève. Their donation includes pieces by Salvador Dali, Pierre Alechinsky, Roberto Matta, Lucio Fontana, Arman, Hervé Di Rosa, Jean Messagier… [Le Quotidien de l’Art]

Seven artists with connections to Los Angeles, including contemporary conceptualists Glenn Kaino (b. 1872) and Charles Gaines (b. 1944), were commissioned to bridge sports and culture, by creating works for the Intuit Dome, an indoor arena under construction in Inglewood, California. [The New York Times]

An extremely rare vinyl record by the Sex Pistols has been sold by record specialists Wessex Auction Rooms for a record-breaking price. The controversial single God Save the Queen was released in the 1970s. About 25,000 records were withdrawn from sale after a backlash to lyrics describing the monarchy as a “fascist regime”. A few copies remained in circulation, including the one that sold for £24,320. [BBC]

Linda C. Harrison got the profile treatment from Tiffany Dodson in Harper’s Bazaar, the director of the Newark Museum of Art’s, one of the few African-Americans leading a major art museum. She assisted the institution in becoming more inviting to residents of the New Jersey city. [Harper’s Bazaar]

THE KICKER

LOONEY TURN OF EVENTS. Sydney artist Philjames’ oil on lithograph “Jesus Speaks to the Daughters of Jerusalem”, depicting Christ overlaid with Looney Tunes characters, was removed from the Blake Art Prize exhibition at the Casula Powerhouse Arts Center, after fierce criticism hit the artist and gallery on Friday, just two days before the eight-week exhibition ended. The biennial award recognizes contemporary artworks that explore spirituality and religion, and draws talents from all beliefs and cultural backgrounds. However complaints suddenly broke out online. Some protesters, who see the work as an insult to Christianity, have threatened the museum and its staff, including volunteers, with violence. [The Guardian]

WAIT AND SEE. The cultural sector in France was relieved, when the final results of the parliamentary election were announced on Sunday, reports The Art Newspaper. The left-wing New Popular Front won 182 seats, the highest number, but failed to win an overall majority, leaving France to face a hung parliament. The threat lies in Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally, which came third after President Emmanuel Macron‘s centrist coalition. Before the election, one thousand doctors, scholars and researchers urged the public to “reject the obscurantism”, followed by 800 artists and culture leaders who called on voters “to preserve the France of the Enlightenment”. The French committee of art historians warned against the “xenophobic hold up of cultural heritage” and the union of art gallery owners said its “values are not those of the National Rally”. The art world, which is heavily dependent on public support, raised concerns about potential cuts to state subsidies by a National Rally government. For now, no-one really knows what will happen next.

THE TRUMAN SHOW. Actor Jim Carrey, known for his onscreen work in Truman Show, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, moonlights as an artist. As a collector, he has amassed some significant piece of fine art and modern design. On July 25 Bonhams L.A. will sell some of the items that Carrey has acquired over nearly 30 years. The 35 lots include Adam Kurtzman’s 2004 work Pair of Hands (estimate: $2,000–3,000) and Martin C. Herbst’s 1965 stainless-steel work, Sphere ($3,000–5,000), a lily pad-shaped coffee table by Paula Swinnen ($6,000–8,000), and a cloud-shaped table by Joris Laarman ($60,000–80,000), evocative of the actor’s taste for organic forms. There is also a group of 1960s designs by French sculptor Philippe Hiquily. A console co-designed with Jean-Claude Farhi ($20,000–30,000), an armchair crafted out of brass and steel ($20,000–30,000), and a rug dotted with hummingbirds, handwoven with metallic thread and silk by Alexander McQueen ($15,000–20,000).

THE DIGEST

Claudine Colin Communication, France’s leading arts and culture communication agency created 1990, has been acquired by the US-based marketing firm Finn Partners, joining the company’s Polskin Arts division in its art-related interests. Its team includes 25 people and its clients Les Rencontres d’Arles, the Louvre-Lens, Lyon’s Contemporary Art Biennial. [The Art Newspaper]

Ten duos, each formed by an artist and an art critic, have been awarded the Ekphrasis grant, including Nicolas Boulard & Camille Viéville, Lucie Douriaud & Hélène Meisel, Collectif Grapain & Jil Gasparina, Ludovic Landolt & Estelle Nabeyrat… The texts written on each artist will be published monthly in Le Quotidien de l’Art in 2025. [Le Quotidien de l’Art]

Christie’s has announced that an “emblematic work” by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, unseen in public since 1931, will be offered at auction this fall. The work, made with grease pencil and graphite on cardboard, is a preparatory study for the lithograph “Divan Japonais”, and is estimated to fetch between  $2.7 million and $3.8 million.” [Barrons]

Thomas Austin, a professional engineer and retired U.S. Army Colonel, recently began his appointment as Architect of the Capitol (AOC), taking over from interim AOC Chere Rexroat who took power in February 2023 after the 12th AOC, amid controversy over his personal use of a taxpayer-funded vehicle and questions about his adherence to agency policies. Austin is now responsible for preserving and maintaining 18.4 million square feet of buildings and 570 acres of campus grounds throughout Washington, D.C. [The Architect’s Newspaper]

At the Vatican Francesca Peacock came across a by the late 14th-century Florentine painter Cenni di Francesco di Ser Cenni featuring a pregnant Madonna, which seemed odd at first, because most familiar depictions of the Virgin don’t show her pregnant. Could this be because it doesn’t depict a clear biblical story? A couple of theories intertwine. [Apollo]

THE KICKER

ACTION! American actor Willem Dafoe has been appointed the Artistic Director of the Venice Biennale theater department for 2025 and 2026, which was founded in 1934 as an independent department of La Biennale di Venezia, following the departments for art (1895), music (1930) and cinema (1932). Its previous directors include Renato Simoni, Luca Ronconi, Franco Quadri, Carmelo Bene and Lluís Pasqual, and it is programmed yearly alongside major cultural events like the Venice Film Festival. “Theater taught me about art and life. I worked with the Wooster Group for twenty-seven years, and I have collaborated with great directors from Richard Foreman to Bob Wilson. The direction of my Theatre program will be charted by my personal development. A sort of exploration of the essence of the body.” [La Biennale]

YES OR NO? In The Guardian, Dalya Alberge wrote about Bonhams clarifying how it conducts its charity auctions, after complaints that it was taking a “buyer’s premium”—the charge added to the hammer price—from a good cause. At a sale in support of the Teenage Cancer Trust charity, that took place last month, art dealer John Bradley asked if the auction house included the buyer’s premium in “all [the] proceeds” mentioned in its catalogue. Bonhams’ sale coordinator replied “Buyer’s premium will be payable and 20% VAT.” On Friday, the auction house announced the opposite: “We will donate the buyer’s premium to the Teenage Cancer Trust”. Brandler said he was “thrilled” that the charity would receive all the money paid for the charity lots. He added: “Will other salesrooms follow suit and be more [transparent] in their descriptions?”

SAY CHEESE! The photography festival Les Rencontres d’Arles is doing well, despite the hectic context of France’s parliamentary elections, reports Le Quotidien de l’art. It’s 55th edition, titled “Beneath the Surface”, consists of 30 exhibitions (10 certified by the artistic direction). The event is always presented as an opportunity to discover Arles’s heritage in a new light, as well as unusual spaces, such as the second floor of the city’s Monoprix (the French equivalent of Target), which currently features the seven finalists of Fondation Roederer’s Découverte prize. The Henri-Comte gallery, adjacent to the town hall, is home to still lifes by Ishiuchi Miyako (winner of Kering’s 2024 Women in Motion prize) depicting objects that belonged to her late mother. The Chapelle de la Charité houses a spectacular cabinet of curiosities by Michel Medinger. Sophie Calle took over a damp underground space, called Cryptoportiques, to showcase a series of decomposing photographs. The idea is to speed up the decomposition process and help them disappear “on a high note”. The festival runs through September 29.

THE DIGEST

Tanzanian portrait artist Shadrack Chaula was arrested for recording a viral video, showing him burning a photo of President Samia Suluhu Hassan while verbally insulting her. The 24-year-old painter has been sentenced to two years in prison or a fine of $2,000 (£1,600) after being found guilty of cybercrimes. Some social media users have started an online drive to raise money to pay Chaula’s fine so he can be freed from jail. [BBC]

In an interview with The Asia Pivot, Artnet Pro’s biweekly members-only newsletter about Asia’s art markets, Alice Lung, who overseeing the Perrotin gallery’s operations in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Tokyo, Seoul, and Los Angeles stated: “From what I observed at the recently concluded Hong Kong auction sales, the Chinese contemporary art market appears particularly weak. Buyers in mainland China are not as active right now. […] When the market was strong, each artwork generated more interest. That has declined, but overall business activity remains similar. […] Meanwhile, collectors are becoming more careful, discerning, and selective about their purchases.” [Artnet Pro]

Worried that they would not have enough space to keep collecting, the Los Angeles-based couple Candace and Charles Nelson found a two-fold solution to their problem. One, learn to appreciate smaller, more intimate works. Two, team up with interior designer Sara Story to complete their modernist Beverly Hills home. Their walls boast works by contemporary artists with ties to California, including Ed Ruscha, Jonas Wood, and Brenna Youngblood. [Cultured]

The Lourdes Bishop Jean-Marc Micas has put off any decision on whether to remove mosaics by Reverend Marko Rupnik, who is accused of abusing women. The shrine will remain intact until a satisfying solution can be found for the victims. The art work was created while some abuses were going on. The ex-Jesuit artist was expelled last year, and the Vatican has been looking into him since last October.[Abc]

French lawyer and politician Roland Dumas has died at age 101. He was France’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, the President of the Constitutional Council, but also accused of defrauding the Giacometti estate. Lastly, he was known for playing a central role in the handover of Guernica to Spain after Franco‘s death. [Le Quotidien de l’Art]

THE KICKER

OLYMPIC SNEAK PEEK. The Olympics and Paralympics are right around the corner. One of the host city’s selling points was that it would primarily rely on existing or temporary structures for sporting competitions, such as the Grand Palais for fencing and taekwondo, the Stade Roland-Garros for tennis and boxing, and the Stade de France, the country’s national stadium, for athletics, rugby, and closing ceremonies. Only the Aquatics Center in the suburb of Saint-Denis has been built specifically for the Games. The new permanent sports facility has been co-designed by the Amsterdam-based firm VenhoevenCS and the French architects Ateliers 2/3/4. Here is a glimpse of it.  [AD]

THE HEADLINES

EARLIEST NARRATIVE PAINTING. New evidence backs findings that the earliest known cave paintings were not made in Europe, and reveals they were older than first thought. Thanks to new dating technology, researchers have determined that a newly discovered artwork in the Indonesian Leang Karampuang cave on the island of Sulawesi is now the world’s oldest-known cave art, reports Reuters. The dark red depiction of a large pig and three small, human-like figures was created a minimum of 51,200 years ago, according to researchers using new laser dating technology, which analyzes calcium carbonate crystals on top of the painting. This makes the image the oldest evidence of narrative storytelling in art. “There is something happening between these figures. A story is being told,” said Griffith University archeologist Adam Brumm, one of the study leaders who published their findings in the journal Nature. Another cave painting in Sulawesi was re-dated using the new technology to be at least 48,000 years old, all of which predate the earliest, undisputed European cave paintings. “This discovery of very old cave art in Indonesia drives home the point that Europe was not the birthplace of cave art, as had long been assumed,” said Brumm.

VIRGIN MARY VANDALISM. A new, wooden statue depicting Mary giving birth to Jesus, conceived by Esther Strauss and carved by Theresa Limberger, was beheaded with a saw on July 1, in Linz’s St. Mary’s Cathedral, not long after it was installed. Police have begun an investigation and are looking into an apparent letter of confession posted on the platform Telegram, signed “Catholic Resistance,” reports the dpa and the German Press Agency. The controversial statue was intended to encourage discussion, as part of a project about female roles and gender equality, according to the National Catholic Reporter. The vandalized art piece showing a Mary in labor, her full belly and spread legs exposed, will remain on display until mid-July, though it will now be kept in the dark and placed behind a glass door. “You shouldn’t see the image of the destroyed sculpture,” a spokesperson told dpa, adding no photos were published of the beheaded statue. “This violence is an expression of the fact that there are still people who question women’s rights to their own bodies. We must take a firm stand against this, said the Vienna-based Strauss in a statement.

THE DIGEST

Miami’s so-called “condo-king,” billionaire Jorge Perez, who has spent hundreds of millions bolstering Miami’s art scene, has blasted Florida Governor Ron DeSantis for axing all $32 million of a state funding program for the arts. Perez said defunding the arts pulls the rug out of efforts to make Miami an arts magnet, which has been pulling affluent powerhouses from places like New York and Chicago. “This is just a horrible message to send,” Perez said. “We were a society of fun and sun, but we’re no longer that — we don’t want that.” [Bloomberg]

Charges were dropped against dozens of pro-Palestinian protestors arrested for criminal trespassing at the Art Institute of Chicago in May. Illinois’ state attorney’s office said the peaceful nature of the demonstration led to dropping the charges, but some local leaders are concerned about the ruling. The decision sends the message that protesters can “do whatever they want, without regard to the damage that they cause,” said 2^nd Ward Ald. Brian Hopkins. [ABC7]

Many collectors were “jittery” about a Labour party win in the UK’s general election yesterday, which they expect will come at a price, via a possible hike in Capital Gains Tax. Meanwhile, the super-wealthy have been fleeing the country due to changes in the non-domicile tax rule, which had permitted no taxation on overseas income. [The Art Newspaper]

The Bangkok Art Biennale has announced the 45 artists from 28 countries, who will participate in its fourth edition, themed “Nurture Gaia,” to be held Oct. 24, 2024 – Feb. 25, 2025. Artists include Adel Abdessemed, Priyageetha Dia, duo Elmgreen & Dragset, Chitra Ganesh, and Dusadee Huntrakul, to name a few. [ArtAsiaPacific]

Art historian Joan Kee will become the next director of New York University’s Institute of Fine Arts, beginning August 19. [Artforum]

The taste making gallery 47 Canal is opening a new SoHo location today, but its co-founder, artist Margaret Lee will attend as a visitor, having retired from the gallery operations. She discusses the gallery’s adventurous beginnings with co-founder Oliver Newton, who remembers being asked, “who’s going to sell the art?” [Artnet News]

Yasmil Raymond, who is leaving her positions as rector and director of the Städelschule Academy of Fine Art and Portikus exhibition space in Frankfurt, looks back at her achievements in an interview, and said that as a newly selected member of the Documenta selection committee, she wants to help rebuild trust in the exhibition. “Documenta has taught me how art works, how to think with art,” she said. [Monopol Magazine]

THE KICKER

PUSSY RIOT TALKS. Nadya Tolokonnikova, co-founder of the Russian punk feminist collective Pussy Riot, is getting her first solo museum exhibition titled, “RAGE,” on view at OK Center for Contemporary Art in Linz, Austria. For the occasion, the exiled artist who was imprisoned for “hooliganism” by Moscow, met with Artnet News’ Jo Lawson-Tancred. “It’s very unusual for a museum to not try to censor the political content of art but actually encourage it,” Tolokonnikova observed of her experience at the center. The exhibit surveys the artist’s career and includes new pieces made in response to Russia’s war in Ukraine, among others. Under constant threat of persecution, Pussy Riot members train like a “military bootcamp” for their daring performances, as though “a superhero-type force,” explained the artist born in 1989. And as for setting up her first solo institutional exhibit, “it wasn’t extremely difficult … when you don’t have police trying to drag you away,” said Tolokonnikova, later adding: “I don’t want to give up on hope. My role in life is very simple. My goal is to always think about the future.”

THE HEADLINES

BANKSY UNDER SCRUTINY. British home secretary James Cleverly has said that a new Banksy artwork of a mock migrant boat, which was carried over the crowds at the Glastonbury music festival last weekend, is “not funny, it is vile,” and “a celebration of loss of life in the Channel.” Asked by Sky News how Cleverly could be so sure the artwork was meant to be funny, and whether it could be seen instead as commentary on his own inability to tackle the migrant situation, Cleverly evaded the question and said he was “determined” to stop migrant smugglers. He added that left-leaning politicians had hampered conservative attempts to secure UK borders, and insisted again the Banksy piece amounted to “joking about [the migrants] and celebrating,” the issue. Art is subjective, but blindness to it can also be a force of will.

EXHIBITION CANCELED. The St. Louis Craft Alliance art center has shut down an artist residency exhibition and fired its two participants from teaching classes after organizers accused the show of being antisemitic, reports St. Louis Public Radio. On Friday the pro-Palestinian exhibition “Planting Seeds, Sprouting Hope,” by artists Dani Collette and Allora McCullough, opened to the public, but shortly beforehand organizers had removed some pieces unbeknownst to the artists. The works removed included watermelon seed-shaped sculptures carved with the phrase “Land Back,” and title cards including the phrase, “From the River to the Sea.” Bryan Knicely, executive director of Craft Alliance, said the slogan was inciting violence, while Collette argued the phrase referred to “the positive way in which Palestinians/Gazans are using it.” By Monday, the center announced it was removing the exhibit entirely, due to “antisemitic slogan[s] and imagery” that called for “violence and the destruction of the Jewish state of Israel.” McCullough called the accusations “absurd,” and said organizers should promote conversation instead. 

THE DIGEST

Richard Brauer, the founding director of the Brauer Museum of Art at Indiana’s Valparaiso University, has hit back at the institution’s controversial, stated justification for deaccessioning key artworks from its collection. In a letter, Brauer told Artnet News that the institution’s claim he inappropriately influenced the acquisition committee to purchase a Georgia O’Keeffe and a Childe Hassam painting, despite the works not fitting the original intention of their financial donor, effectively “defames me.” [Artnet News]

The National Portrait Gallery has acquired a daguerreotype of the former first lady Dolley Madison, likely taken in 1846, which will be displayed in 2026 for an exhibition celebrating the museum’s photography collection and the 250^th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.  It is the earliest known photograph of an American first lady, and was purchased for $456,000, over six times its estimated price. [The New York Times]

A New York dance company has accused the Louvre in Paris of copying its traveling Museum Workout, a popular dance program by Monica Bill Barnes and Company, that debuted at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2017. The company’s artistic director, Robbie Saenz de Viteri said he was “shocked,” when first discovered the striking similarities between his work, and the Louvre’s new workout, called “Courez au Louvre” [a pun meaning “run to, or in the Louvre”] which doesn’t mention the NY company. [Artnet News]

In other Louvre-related news, the museum has published a positive, end-of-year report for 2023, with an over 19.5 million euros ($20.9 million) increase in ticket sales to its Paris and Abu Dhabi locations, compared to 2022. [Le Quotidien de l’Art]

The artist June Leaf has died at age 94. The painter and sculptor explored feminine power and paved the way for later generations, working outside prevailing trends with a playful blend of expressionism and primitivism. [The New York Times]

Taiwanese artist Shi Jin-hua has died in a scooter accident at age 60, announced Mind Set Art Center, which has represented him. Jin-hua was known for his acclaimed performances, such as “pencil walking” across a large piece of paper, and was regularly featured at Art Basel Hong Kong. He also  participated in the Taipei Biennale, and the Asian Art Biennial, among others. [Taiwan News]

Reviews are in for the blockbuster Paul Gaugin exhibition at the National Gallery of Australia, curated by former Louvre director Henri Loyrette, but they are mixed. The artist’s controversial depiction of “primitivist fantasies,” and his taking child brides “are handled with conspicuously light touch,” writes critic Tai Mitsuji, who adds that “curatorial texts acknowledge but do not substantively address the colonial or predatory legacies of the artist, leaving a viewer caught in the seductions of Gauguin’s paintbrush.” [The Guardian]

The 14^th century Ripley Castle and estate in England is up for sale. The historic building has hosted plotters of regicide against King James I in 1605, to serving as a set location for a Disney film. Flanked by a tower, it includes several lakes, a deer park, hothouses and a kitchen. [Heritage Daily]

THE KICKER

MUDLARKING ON THE THAMES. Lara Maiklem is a self-described “mudlark,” a centuries-old term used for impoverished Londoners who searched the banks of the Thames for items to sell. For Maiklem, however, this form of treasure hunting has become an obsession driven by a passion for archaeology and human history, which she has turned into a forthcoming book, A Mudlarking Year. On that occasion, she takes The Financial Times reporter Laura Battle down one of her favorite routes near the area where London was founded. In just a matter of steps, Maiklem manages to spot a timeline of artifacts that date back thousands of years. From some 18^th century blue-patterned Chinese porcelain, medieval pottery, to Roman blackware from a cooking pot, the detritus flung into and preserved in the mud along the Thames offers its own kind of journey back in time.

THE HEADLINES

SCRAPPED POMPIDOU X JERSEY MUSEUM. On Saturday New Jersey politicians pulled funding for the Centre Pompidou’s planned Jersey City museum, reports Alex Greenberger for ARTnews. The institution formally dubbed Centre Pompidou x Jersey City would have been the first North American satellite run by the Paris-based modern art museum. Others are already open in China and Belgium. Earlier this year, state entities began raising concerns about costs of running the center, in addition to the $50 million in taxpayer’s funds to open it, out of a total $200 million. “We have decided to pause this project indefinitely,” wrote Tim Sullivan, chief executive of the state’s Economic Development Authority, in a letter obtained by the New Jersey Monitor. His reasons included, “the ongoing impact of COVID and multiple global conflicts on the supply chain, rising costs, an irreconcilable operating gap, and the corresponding financial burdens it will create for New Jersey’s taxpayers.” The Jersey City Redevelopment Agency also said the Centre Pompidou must return $6 million in funding it already received.

GUERRILA ADS COMPETE AT WIMBLEDON. Artwork mimicking Barclay’s ads for the Wimbledon tennis tournament, which it sponsors, have been appearing around the club in a protest against the bank’s ties to fossil fuels and Israeli arms manufacturers, reports The Guardian. The group Brandalism has led the guerrilla action, displaying hundreds of spoof ads over commercial billboards, and posters in subways and bus stops. One piece by Anarcha Art shows two hands meeting, one of a tennis player and the other of a banker, with the caption: “Partners in climate crime and genocide.” Another one puns: “Balls deep in climate chaos.”

THE DIGEST

Theodore Roosevelt’s stolen, prized silver pocket watch has been returned to his former home, the national historic site, Sagamore Hill, in Long Island, New York. The watch given to Roosevelt by his sister and her husband was stolen in 1987 from an unlocked case at the Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural National Historic Site in Buffalo, where it was on loan. The Park Service and FBI did not release information on who stole the keepsake, and how. [Associated Press]

An unnamed, “mystery tax defaulter” in Spain’s Basque Country has settled a large chunk of their debt by forking over some 200 Francisco de Goya engravings, and 87 other art pieces, included Aurelio Arteta’s Triptych of War, all of which are estimated to be worth over $4.3 million. The art reportedly came from the private Juan Celaya Letamendia Foundation. [El Pais]

French auteur filmmakers Benoît Jacquot and Jacques Doillon were taken into police custody today, following accusations of sexual violence made against them by French actresses, including Judith Godrèche. [Le Monde and AFP]  

Praz-Delavallade gallery will shutter. The French gallery opened in 2010  in Paris, and opened spaces in Los Angeles, and briefly in Berlin and Brussels. Gallery owners René Julien Praz and Bruno Delavallade cited health reasons but also the challenges which “intermediary, independent” galleries face today. [Le Quotidien de l’Art]

Artists are among the 83 people Canada’s Governor General Mary Simon has named to the Order of Canada, one of the country’s top honors. They include artist and Aids activist Joe Average; artist and activist Christi Marlen Belcourt, and the poet, painter and musician Bill Bissett. [CBC and The Art Newspaper]

Qatar Museums and the city of Venice have signed a five-year agreement, which includes developing projects to restore monuments and structures around the water-bound city. Experts have warned that Venice must urgently address the problem of rising sea levels, which the city’s leading conservation architect says threatens its structural integrity. [The Art Newspaper]

Archaeologists have discovered the remains of an intricately decorated, 1,500-year-old ivory box known as a “pyx,” in an ancient settlement in an early Christian church located on the Burgbichl hill in southern Austria. The rare pyx, which depicts Biblical figures, is believed to have been used to hold the remains of saints. [Artnet News]

THE KICKER

MONUMENT SCRUTINY. The newly opened Stonewall National Monument Visitor Center in Greenwich Village, in time for Pride Week, attempts to commemorate the 1969 L.G.B.T. uprising against decades of police persecution. However, The New York Times’  Holland Cotter is left disappointed by the initiative and its reportedly mostly bland design, which he says fails to illustrate how fragile gay rights are today, giving the impression “the Stonewall rebellion and what it stood for is old history.” However, writes Cotter, “we can’t afford such softness in the present malignantly transphobic ‘Don’t Say Gay’ moment, when rightward politics is dragging us back, bill by legislative bill to the pre-Stonewall 1950’s.”

MARILYN MONROE’S MANSION in Los Angeles has been declared a landmark in a bid to save it from demolition by its owners, according to Variety. On Wednesday, the Los Angeles City Council designated Monroe’s 1929 Spanish Colonial house a historical cultural monument, in an unanimously approved decision. The actress lived in the home for about six months and died there of an apparent overdose in 1962. It was “the first place she sought out and bought for herself and on her own while actively working,” said the LA Conservancy in its proposal for landmark status. The home has been under threat of demolition by its current owners, Brinah Milstein and reality TV producer Roy Bank, who wanted to expand their property next door. They are suing the city over the issue.

DEACCESSIONING AND DEACTIVATION. The Brauer Museum of Art at Valparaiso University in Indiana has closed and dismissed its director amid controversy over plans to sell key artworks from its collection, Karen K. Ho reports for ARTnews. The dismissal of museum director Jonathan Canning was also part of a stated “administrative restructuring” to address a growing $9 million deficit, according to the school. Previously, the museum drew criticism for its decision to sell three of its most valuable paintings, among them Georgia O’Keeffe’s Rust Red Hills (1930), which is worth an estimated $15 million. The move to sell the paintings to fund renovations was denounced by the American Alliance of Museums and the Association of Art Museum Directors.

The Digest

Ghanaian artist Joseph Awuah-Darko, who earlier this year accused Kehinde Wiley of sexual assault, issued a statement responding tothe National Coalition Against Censorship concerns about three museums that canceled their Wiley shows. Awuah-Darko wrote that “artistic merit, while significant, should not take precedence over issues of moral injury and human dignity.” [Hyperallergic]

Marina Abramović will today ask hundreds of thousands of festival-goers in Glastonbury, England, to stay silent for seven minutes. The music festival doesn’t typically host visual artists, but Abramović said she hopes to “touch that moment in their soul and just for seven minutes stop everything. Can you imagine if we succeed? It will be an incredible moment.” [The Guardian]

The itinerant Manifesta biennial, this year taking place in Barcelona and the surrounding region, has named the 85 artists taking part in the exhibition, which opens in September. The themes this time around are “Balancing Conflicts,” “Cure and Care,” and “Imagining Futures.” [Artforum]

The National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C., has acquired what is believed to be the largest and most complete collection of Charleston slave badges. The set includes 146 badges dating back to 1904. [Art Daily]

A #MeToo petition published in Manifsto.XXI denounces sexual misconduct in the French art scene. So far, it has been signed by over 200 people, including art critic Elisabeth Lebovici and artists Lili Reynaud-Deward and Deborah De Robertis. [Le Quotidien de l’Art]

European comic-book makers are preparing litigation against potential AI-generated copyright infringement ahead of new EU rules due to take effect in mid-2025. The new AI Act will force tech firms to be more transparent about the images they are using to train AI-generated artworks, and will give artists tools needed to detect unauthorized use of their creations. [South China Morning Post]

The public has voted on a name for the 75-foot-long sauropod that will grace the soon-to-open new wing of the Los Angeles Natural History Museum. In reference to the overwhelming amount of gnats that swarmed around the fossil where it was discovered in Utah about 17 years ago, the dinosaur will henceforth be known as Gnatalie. [NBC 4]

The Kicker

HEAVY METALS. While Ludwig van Beethoven has gone down in history as a genius classical and romantic composer, his body, scientists now reveal, was “full of heavy metal,” according to NPR. Beethoven suffered from deafness, gastrointestinal troubles, and jaundice, eventually succumbing to liver and kidney disease. However, recently, researchers at the Metals Laboratory at the Mayo Clinic tested a few “independent and authenticated” strands of the composer’s hair, and found he was almost certainly exposed to lead, which may have contributed to his many ailments. The levels of lead in Beethoven’s hair tested 64 to 95 times more than normal amounts today. “This is so much more elevated than any other patient samples we’re seeing,” said Sarah Erdahl, Technical Coordinator at the Metals Lab. “This is extremely significant.”

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If connectivity between art, and business, can be enhanced, it should be possible to promote creativity and generate new value. Further, by extension, it should be possible to enrich Japan using the power of art. While the METI report examines these hypotheses from various angles, there is one company in Japan that over the course of several decades has taken the lead in establishing an impressive track record on these issues: Warehouse TERRADA, based in Tennozu, a waterfront district in Tokyo.

While the company may need no introduction, given its position as an indispensable player in the Japanese art world, to briefly review, Warehouse Terrada was founded in 1950 in Tennozu, a reclaimed land that grew into a distribution base during the Showa period. In the 1970s, the company launched a storage business for artworks and valuable goods and, in 2010, it began developing a broad range of art-related businesses that derive from, and are linked to, the storage business.

Those businesses include:  Pigment Tokyo: one of the world’s largest art-supply stores stocking rare art materials; Terrada Art Assist Co., Ltd. : a one-stop service providing transport, insurance, and restoration of artworks; the Terrada Art Complex: an art facility that houses a number of Japan’s leading contemporary art galleries and also features rental studios for artists and a bonded gallery; the WHAT Museum, which provides venues and opportunities for public viewing of artworks deposited with Warehouse Terrada by creators and collectors; and the WHAT Cafe, an art gallery cafe at which the works of younger artists can be enjoyed and purchased.

Warehouse Terrada has, with gathering pace, contributed to a new urban development built on a foundation of art. As a result, Tennozu, conventionally a functional district of warehouses and offices that was not known for promoting a cultural lifestyle, now has a reputation across Japan as an “art quarter.”

In 2023, Warehouse Terrada collaborated with the Tokyo Gendai art fair to bring the Japanese art scene to the wider world and to promote Tennozu by hosting the Tennozu Art Week, featuring the site-specific performance work figurante by Tomoko Mukaiyama, a pianist and artist based in Amsterdam. This illustrates the innovative example that represents the spirit of the Warehouse.

Warehouse Terrada will once again will be the official fair partner of Tokyo Gendai this year and, to coincide with the fair, it will again host Tennoz Art Week 2024. The event will feature a new work by Japanese contemporary artist Tabaimo, along with three animation artists in the Warehouse’s space, as well as a range of exhibitions introducing the works of contemporary Japanese craft artists and workshops using traditional art materials.

Kohei Terada, CEO of Warehouse Terrada since in 2019, described the company’s guiding principles.

“If we can fill in the gaps in the ecosystem of art in Japan, the art market will be further stimulated, and many more people than just the affluent will be able to enjoy art on a daily basis,” Terada said. “If we can support both the creation of an era in which the value of happiness is diversified and a society of abundance engendered thereby, even if the road ahead is long and rocky, the fruits of these efforts will ultimately flow back to the storage business that is our company’s mainstay. Based on this thinking, we have developed our business with the aim of supplying the missing pieces in the current ecosystem.”

While it does seem to be the case that the number of companies incorporating art as a part of their corporate social responsibility or via corporate patronage has been on the rise in Japan, Warehouse Terrada has made substantial efforts towards the establishment of an art-based economic sphere, using Tennozu as a testing ground to support artists. Such support is necessary when one considers that, according to the METI report, the average annual income for artists in Japan is 2.8 million yen, or approximately $17,700. As such, one of Warehouse Terrada’s flagship projects is the biennial Terrada Art Award.

Terada, who himself experienced both tribulation and success as a tech entrepreneur before taking on the family business, explained the unique nature of the award.

“What sets our award apart is that to each of five finalists selected via a lengthy screening process, we provide 3 million yen of funding and the opportunity to display their new work in a finalists exhibition,” Terada said.

“The reason that we decided against a format of awarding a prize to a specific piece of work is that we wanted the artists to be liberated from constraints on production funds, display venue and the like, to set their sights on a future they had yet to experience, and to make their breakthrough. We were also hopeful that the audience, including ourselves, would also be able to draw great inspiration from viewing works created under these conditions.”

In 2023, the Terrada art award finalists included Mitsuo Kim, Yuma Tomiyasu, Yuki Harada, Satoshi Murakami, and yang02. These five artists were unanimous in their positive appraisal of the novel challenge of both designing the exhibition space and producing artworks to fill it.

Another venture that merits equal attention to the award in terms of Warehouse Terrada’s efforts to support artists is the art supply store and laboratory, Pigment Tokyo, which opened in 2015. Just stepping into this shop and seeing the thousands of pigments arrayed on shelves across an entire wall, not to mention the numerous exquisite brushes made of various materials, should be enough to stir the heart of even the least artistically inclined. Terada is proud to relate that Pigment Tokyo, which also serves as a conduit between Japanese producers of rare pigments and the overseas market. Further, a team of young artists plays a crucial role in the day-to-day running of the business. As users of these art materials well-versed in their unique attributes, they make excellent salespeople, and this knowledge is also extremely important from the viewpoint of cultural preservation.

“We want them to keep discovering new avenues of expression using these materials, and to thereby further encourage the use of Japanese art supplies around the world,” Terada said.

Further, workshops and lectures are regularly held at Pigment Tokyo for children and companies utilizing their know-how on multicolor techniques and materials.

These endeavors by Warehouse Terrada on behalf of artists are also now reaching beyond Tennozu and Tokyo. The most recent example of this is a rental atelier and artwork storage repository due to open this year on the new campus of the Kyoto City University of Arts, following the university’s relocation in October last year.

Kyoto, of course, is already internationally renowned as Japan’s foremost historical city of culture and art, but it has also become a center for education in the fine arts, with twelve universities providing education in such disciplines, including Kyoto City University of Arts and the Kyoto University of the Arts. At the same time, this ancient city holds annual art events and fairs such as the Kyotographie international photography festival, the Art Collaboration Kyoto fair, and the Artists’ Fair Kyoto. It is now gaining worldwide recognition as a venue for the exhibition of contemporary art. Consequently, it is increasingly the case that artists graduating from Kyoto’s educational institutions choose to remain in and make Kyoto their professional base, in turn increasing the demand for creation space and storage facilities. It is in this context that Warehouse Terrada decided to set up the rental atelier Terrada Art Studio Kyoto, which offers artists a comfortable environment for creative work, and the repository Terrada Art Storage Kyoto.

“While we have hitherto been engaged in activities linked to the support of art collectors and galleries via various businesses, within our objective of vitalizing the art market, a central aim has been to give Japanese artists the necessary back-up to take flight in the world at large,” Terada said. “This new enterprise in Kyoto is an important next step in bringing us closer to this goal. By supporting artists working in Kyoto while strengthening links with universities and other research institutions and with local communities, we hope to make a significant contribution to the vitality of the Japanese art market.”

With a view to its ongoing evolution, how might the Japanese art industry take inspiration from Warehouse Terrada’s various art-related enterprises, including this establishment of a new center of operations outside of Tennozu? Observers and stakeholders in Japan and around the world will surely be following developments with great interest.

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Collaborations like this are why Knight Foundation is optimistic about technology’s potential for significant impact on the arts. Knight has made a commitment to invest in deepening the integration of art and technology including five years of funding to support a series of open calls for artists through the Knight Art + Tech Expansion Fund and Knight New Work. Knight New Work open call is for artists and arts organizations across all genres, aimed at deepening the creation, dissemination, and experience of art through the use of technology. The Knight Art + Tech Expansion Fund provides essential funding for the tools and infrastructure artists and arts organizations need to create and share their work. Eligibility is limited to those based in selected Knight cities (places that once hosted Knight newspapers).

Knight Foundation launched its inaugural Knight New Work open call in Miami in 2018. The response was remarkable, with winning projects including a theater production highlighting the Haitian immigrant experience; a nontraditional ballet blending Latin salsa, tango, and flamenco; immersive theater experiences; Afropunk aesthetics; and modern-classical fusions of song and dance. Beginning in 2023, Knight New Work expanded to include Detroit and Akron.

The Art + Tech Expansion Fund launched in Charlotte in 2022, and has since expanded to include Detroit, Akron, and Miami. The 2024 Art + Tech Expansion Fund launches this month in Charlotte, with Akron, Detroit, and Miami launching in the fall.

Artists and arts organizations interested in learning more about both open calls should visit kf.org/arts.

The foundation believes that arts and culture lie at the core of vibrant communities, connecting individuals to their surroundings and to one another. Investing in these areas is central to their mission to build stronger, better-informed, and more engaged communities, which are essential for a more effective democracy. Through its ongoing support, Knight continues to champion the integration of art and technology, fostering a future where innovation, creativity, and community thrive together.

MELTING LINCOLN. Jokes about a melting wax sculpture of the Lincoln Memorial, which has drooped into a “hot mess” amid record temperatures in Washington, D.C., are making waves online. The sculpture by Sandy Williams IV is part of a contemporary art installation at an elementary school. While the work was intended as a commentary on the permanence of monuments, it has since gained new meaning for online observers, the New York Times reports. As temperatures surged in recent days, Lincoln’s head, once flopped back across his chair, melted away almost entirely, leading some to suggest the President looked annoyed, was slouching, or was embodying a metaphor about current affairs in the country. Williams has said he knew that someday he would have to become concerned about what rising temperatures would do to wax art pieces like his, but, he said, “I didn’t expect that point to be this past weekend.”

MONA LISA MADNESS. If the Louvre in Paris decides eventually to go through with an idea to move the Mona Lisa to a separate, newly built gallery with its own entrance, the cash-strapped French government won’t foot the bill, the Art Newspaper reports. Louvre president Laurence des Cars confirmed this spring that she and staff were discussing plans to possibly move Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpiece, in hopes of stemming some of the overcrowding the painting regularly faces. The project would reportedly cost around €500 million ($535 million). A source at France’s culture ministry said, however, that “this is only an idea, put forward by des Cars. And if it ever becomes a project, the state will not participate in the funding.”

The Digest

The South by Southwest festival has cut sponsorship ties to businesses financing arms manufacturing after more than 80 artists withdrew from this year’s edition in protest against Israel’s military actions in Gaza. As a result, SXSW has discontinued its partnership with the defense contractor RTX Corporation and its subsidiary, Collins Aerospace, for the 2025 edition. [The Guardian]

An original watercolor illustration that appeared on the cover of the first edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone sold for $1.9 million at Sotheby’s New York on Wednesday, making it the most valuable Harry Potter item ever sold. The painted illustration by Thomas Taylor was estimated to sell between $400,000 and $600,000, and was first auctioned in London for $108,280 in 2001. [Forbes]

Entrepreneur Dave Werklund has donated $75 million to the Arts Commons and Olympic Plaza, a performing arts center in Calgary, Canada. So far, the renovation and rebuilding expansion project has raised $498.5 million of a $660 million goal. [Calgary Herald]

Chinese artist Ai Weiwei talks to Monopol in time for the publication of a new graphic novel about his life. “I’m not angry with Germany,” he said, in response to questions about his previous complaint that Germany is not an “open society.” [Monopol]

A curator at England’s Strawberry Hill House has uncovered a Roman bust of Emperor Caligula that had been lost for some 200 years. Silvia Davoli spotted the bust in the family collection of Sir John Henry Schroder, who purchased it in the 1890s, but thought it was a “possible Renaissance bronze of a youth,” not an ancient artifact. [Smithsonian Magazine and The Guardian]

The 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art in Kanazawa, Japan, reopened to the public June 22, following months of repairs to damage caused by the Noto Peninsula earthquake this past January that destroyed a glass ceiling. [ArtAsiaPacific]

In other earthquake-related news, Florence’s Jewish community has raised nearly all the €380,000 needed to repair a damaged 18th-century synagogue in Siena. In February 2023, a 3.5 magnitude earthquake destabilized the vault and roof of the building designed by Giuseppe del Rosso in 1786. [The Art Newspaper]

The exhibit “Draw Me Ishmael: The Book Arts of Moby-Dick,” at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts, thoroughly and engrossingly addresses how illustrators and publishers have approached the 1851 novel by Herman Melville, writes Laura Jacobs. Moby Dick is, after all, “the most persistently pictured of all American novels,” curator Dan Lipcan notes. [The Wall Street Journal]

The Kicker

AS THE FRENCH LEGISLATIVE ELECTIONS NEAR, with the populist far-right National Rally (RN) leading the polls, Le Monde has spoken to culture workers around the country about the potential impact of the party’s victory, which many fear might lead to a culture of conservatism like that in Italy right now. Some are concerned that key leaders at cultural institutions will be replaced with right-leaning figures, as Giorgia Meloni ’s government has done, and that institutions will face funding cuts and censorship. The RN’s current program would also favor funding for French heritage preservation over that for contemporary art. “The world of culture is in panic,” Roxana Azimi and Michel Guerrin note.