A Paul Gauguin painting from 1892 has reportedly been sold for close to $300 million, setting a new record for the most expensive work of art.  Rudolf Staechelin, a retired Sotheby’s executive, confirmed the sale with the New York Times, but the Qatari buyer’s identity has not been disclosed, nor has the official price.  “The real question is why only now?” Mr. Staechelin said of the Gauguin sale. “It’s mainly because we got a good offer. The market is very high and who knows what it will be in 10 years.” (more…)

Yael Bartana, Inferno (2013)

Yael Bartana’s new body of work, containing two video pieces, two photographs and a neon installation, is currently on view at Petzel Gallery. The Tel Aviv and Amsterdam-based artist has become one of the strongest artistic voices from her home in Israel, a territory Bartana, in her own words, aims to ‘treat as a social laboratory’. Living abroad gives the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design graduate the opportunity to maintain a neutral outside perspective towards her country that has always remained embedded in political, religious and social turmoil. (more…)

Following her arrest over a performance in Havana, Tania Bruguera has claimed that Cuban authorities are closely following her every movement.  “I can move around Havana, but I have a car following me everywhere I go,” the artist tells the Miami New Times. “I know they are listening to my calls, because recently, during a phone conversation with a friend, I mentioned I was going to pass out fliers that the government might find alarming. Then, 20 minutes later, a government blogger wrote, ‘Tania is on her way to distribute inflammatory leaflets here.'”  (more…)

The Stedelijk Museum has announced a major donation of 175 works from the collection of Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, featuring pieces by Lawrence Weiner, Anselm Kiefer, and Jeff Wall, among many others.  “The Stedelijk is deeply honored to receive such a generous, essential and wonderful gift, says Beatrix Ruf, director of the Museum.  “We are extremely moved about their decision to make the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam their collection’s new home. It reflects their deep engagement with the city as well as the Stedelijk’s relationship and engagement with the history of artistic exchange between the US and Amsterdam.”

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The Association for the International Diffusion of French Art has announced the nominees for the 2015 edition of the Marcel Duchamp Prize: Davide Balula, Neil Beloufa, Melik Ohanian, and Zineb Sedira.  The prize honors one French artist or artist living in France working in the plastic or visual arts. (more…)

A 1986 Ellsworth Kelly design for a free-standing building has been acquired by the Blanton Museum of Art in Austin, and will be constructed on the museum grounds this spring.  The building has some ties to the contemplative, spiritual air of the Rothko Chapel, as well as Matisse’s design for the Chapelle du Rosaire.  “I think people need some kind of spiritual thing because, as you can see, there are spots around the world that are blowing up and we don’t want that,” the artist says. “No one wants that.” (more…)

Adam Lindemann is opening a new gallery in Los Angeles, the aptly titled Venus Over Los Angeles, which will open downtown in April with a show of work by Dan Colen.  “I don’t know that I’m going to be the person to find the next great L.A. artists,” Mr. Lindemann tells the New York Times, “but it’s a great place for huge sculpture, huge paintings.” (more…)

A number of New York City art galleries and dealers have been subpoenaed in the past weeks by the Manhattan district attorney’s office, asking for a sales and shipping records for past sales.  Some speculate that the high prices paid at recent auctions have triggered a response by the DA to investigate possible fraud and tax evasion.  “I suspect they are looking at many. It is very rare they would go after a one-off unless it was someone who was very well known,” says tax specialist Ken Zemsky. (more…)

The 2015 Edition of Frieze New York will include a “Projects” section with works by Korakrit Arunanondchai, Pia Camil, Samara Golden, Aki Sasamoto and Allyson Vieira, the fair has announced.  The section is curated by Cecelia Alemani, and will include a series of massage chairs by Arunanondchai, and an intricate underground installation by Golden. (more…)

The recent decision of Marina Picasso, granddaughter of painter Pablo Picasso, to sell off her collection of her grandfather’s works has many market analysts worried about a “flooded” market, even though Picasso has been selling works one by one for some time.  “Instead of having a dealer show them, it’s been an open secret that there are works for sale and people have been asking other people if they would be interested,” says historian John Richardson. “I’ve been asked by odd people who tell me, ‘We are in on a great deal, and Marina is selling all her stuff.’ ” (more…)

Bloomberg takes a look at the current state of the Euro, and its effects on the series of auctions currently taking place in London, considering the ongoing economic crises from a variety of perspectives.  “The euro is just killing Europe, but it’s killing Italy more than anything else,” says dealer Otto Naumann says. “I haven’t seen any Italian collectors buying anything.” (more…)

Metropolitan Museum of Art curator Walter Liedtke was one of the victims of this week’s tragic MTA North crash outside of Valhalla, NY, the New York Times reports.  “He had a wonderful way with words and engaged people through those unexpected approaches in language,” says Arthur K. Wheelock Jr., curator of Northern Baroque paintings at the National Gallery of Art in Washington. “He had strong opinions about things, and he was not shy about expressing those opinions.” (more…)

Pierre Huyghe, Zoodram 5 (2011)

Following a year of strong solo exhibitions and special projects in the United States and abroad, Pierre Huyghe has opened a the first major retrospective devoted to his work at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, pulling together a combination of his most ambitious videos, sculptures and installation environments, allowing a broad few of the artist’s continued interests in fluctuations of time, space and matter as expressed within the gallery environment.  Huyghe’s retrospective, which first opened in Paris, early last year, finally makes it to U.S. soil, bringing with it a group of 50 projects culled from the artist’s 20 year career. (more…)

Paul Cézanne, Vue Sur L’estaque Et Le Château D’if (circa 1881-1885), via Christie’s

The Christie’s Impressionist, Modern and Surrealist Sales have concluded in London, bringing to close the week of auctions.  In comparison with Sotheby’s record-setting auction last evening, the Christie’s sale seemed content to rely on a strong selection of curated works, putting together a 44 lot auction that ultimately brought in a final sales tally of £80,375,000.  There were few blockbuster lots in comparison with Sotheby’s and its selection of Monets, but a steady stream of sales in the auction house’s surrealism sale kept the auction houses in close competition, bringing in sales of £66,656,000 in its own right.

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Printed Matter at LA Art Book Fair, via Art Observed

Last weekend, capitalizing on the high-profile proceedings of the Art Los Angeles Contemporary Fair across town, Printed Matter presented the third edition of its quickly growing LA Art Book Fair.  Held near MOCA’s Geffen Contemporary space in Downtown Los Angeles, the event gathered an impressive crowd to its over 40,000 square feet of exhibition space to browse homemade zines, printed editions and other limited works from a wide range of artists, writers and creators, including over 100 booths from California-based publishers and artists. (more…)

Leigh Morse, the former gallery director who was convicted of selling over 70 works from the estates of artists like Robert De Niro Sr. and never notifying the beneficiaries, is in the news this week, after failing to pay the $1.7 million in restitution ordered by the court. “Her restitution tab to date is over a million dollars. She has paid, to date, $22,000, in cash, 2.2 percent,” says Prosecutor Kenn Kern. “What’s so unbelievably upsetting and appalling is that every time you give very clear directions somehow we end up back here.” (more…)

New York Magazine columnist Jerry Saltz is the first art critic to receive a National Magazine Award for a Column, following the announcement of the American Society of Magazine Editors’s annual awards.   (more…)

Artist Nick Cave has announced plans for a parade utilizing the artist’s colorful and imaginative costumes through the underprivileged neighborhoods of Shreveport, Louisiana, thanks in part to a $40,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. (more…)

The New York Times takes a look at the growing number of services catering to financial investment and speculation in the art market, particularly the tech-focused art storage company Uovo, or the market insights platform ArtRank, both of which seem to prioritize contemporary art as a source of financial wealth over a source of intellectual edification.  These new companies demonstrate “something about the way art is functioning, which is less about the artwork saying something or doing something and more about the artwork representing a value,” says one artist, speaking anonymously. (more…)

Sturtevant, Duchamp Relâche (1967)

The Museum of Modern Art is hosting the first US exhibition focusing on the work of the late Sturtevant, one of the foremost artists to initiate conversations on commodification and appropriation of artworks, after the late artist was the subject of various solo shows in Europe. Born Elaine Horan in Ohio, Sturtevant always chose to remain discrete about her biography, so much that her year of birth is still a matter of discussion. (more…)

Berlinde de Bruyckere, 028 (2007), all images courtesy S.M.A.K and © Mirjam Devriendt

Currently on view at S.M.A.K. in Ghent, Belgium is the first mid-career presentation of the ouevre of Berlinde De Bruyckere (1964, Ghent) and the first solo exhibition of her work in Belgium since 2002. Entitled Sculptures & Drawings. 2000-2014, the exhibition is an interwoven series of associations of form and content, presented through the mediums of painting, drawing, and installation art.

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The New York Times takes a look at the collection of modern masterpieces soon to go on view at Paris’s Fondation Louis Vuitton.  The exhibition has been in the works for several years but was downplayed when the museum first opened its doors last year, and will feature a number of landmark works, including Edvard Munch’s The Scream on loan from Oslo, as well as Matisse’s The Dance, which has not been seen in Paris in 15 years.  “The foundation indeed aims to be contemporary,” artistic director Suzanne Pagé said. “But it doesn’t want to ignore the history of art, as it is seen in these major works of the 20th century, which continue to be a vital reference for artists today.” (more…)

A canvas by 17th Century French artist Claude Lorrain is the subject of a recent export ban placed by UK Minister of Culture Ed Vaizey, while the government seeks to find a buyer to keep the painting in the country.  “It is of outstanding beauty and it would be tremendous to see it permanently on display in a UK gallery where it can be appreciated by all,” Vaizey said. (more…)

A pair of classic bronze works have been revealed to be the work of Michelangelo, after an extensive research undertaking in Cambridge, a discovery that would make the sculptures the only surviving bronzes by the artist in the world.  “They are clearly masterpieces,” says Victoria Avery, keeper of applied arts at the Fitzwilliam Museum. “The modelling is superb, they are so powerful and so compelling, so whoever made them had to be superb.” (more…)