Marion Maneker has an in-depth breakdown of the Sotheby’s/Art Agency Partners deal today at Art Market Monitor, noting the Agency’s $52 million art fund, and the actual expectations of the company in the deal.  “So, for the record, the $50m being paid to AAP represents Sotheby’s estimation of the firm’s profits over the next five years. Sotheby’s believes that the additional revenue to the auction house from those profits will be accretive,” Maneker writes.  “That means revenues will increase more than the purchase price paid. Acting CFO Dennis Weibling made that point more than once on the company’s investor call yesterday.  Weibling is a board member, so his statement should hold extra weight.” (more…)

The Art Newspaper profiles Christo’s ongoing efforts to complete The Mastaba, a massive pyramid constructed from 410,000 barrels, which he has sought to install in the desert of Abu Dhabi.  “The engineering plan is almost finished,” he says.  “We need to have the land secure. That is the difficult part. It’s like the Eiffel Tower: it should remain a monument after I am gone.”  (more…)

Paula Cooper is interviewed in Art Newspaper this week, discussing her vision for her gallery, and her preferred modes of working.  “I could just send in a crew to hang everything eight inches apart, which would make things go faster, but where’s the fun in that?”  She says.  “And I’ve always thought that if you’re interested in making money, you’ll make money.” (more…)

Turkey has arrested two individuals accused of smuggling a 17th Century piece believed to be the work of Flemish master Anthony van Dyck.  The men were arrested in Istanbul after attempted to sell the work, which they purchased from a criminal organization. (more…)

Creative Capital has announced the recipients of its 2016 grants, totaling $4.4 million towards 46 different ventures, which are focused around current issues and events in American culture.  “Artists today are brave, bold and deeply engaged in the world,” says Ruby Lerner, Founding President & Executive Director, Creative Capital. “The 2016 class of Creative Capital awardees are creating important and deeply moving work, with immediacy and passion. This class is diverse, it is extraordinarily talented, and we believe the 2016 Creative Capital artists will shape their fields for decades to come.” (more…)

The Italian state has announced plans to spend over €300 million to restore restoring over 200 heritage sites around the country in the coming years.  The announcement came shortly after premier Matteo Renzi passed Italy’s 2016 budget. (more…)

Sotheby’s has purchased former Christie’s exec Amy Cappellazzo’s Art Agency, Partners, for $85 million (including potential performance earnings), the NYT reports.  “To the extent that they’re looking to other places to bolster income — to get more regular earnings — it makes sense,” says Steve Blitz of ITG Investment Research. (more…)

An article in the Art Newspaper notes increased calls for the availability of info on the pricing and sales of works, highlighted by Art Basel head Marc Spiegler’s argument that information accessibility increases engagement and transparency.  Spiegler points to auction houses as the most visible listings for art prices, which he feels allows them undue influence to “define what is and isn’t important.” (more…)

Tetsumi Kudo, Untitled (1971), via Hauser and Wirth

A key figure in the development of Tokyo’s Post-War, “Anti-Art” Movement, the work of Tetsumi Kudo explodes with a distinct sense of withered vibrancy: human body parts, plants and hulking, distending forms contend for space on what appear to be plots of earth, colored in sickening tones and rarely, if ever, clustering together beyond a few lilting stems.  The artist’s work, the subject of an exhibition at Hauser and Wirth Zurich (in collaboration with Andrea Rosen, which represents his estate), is a darkly realized challenge to the aftermath of nuclear war in Japan, and the artist’s disillusionment with the modernist notions of progress and “blind humanism.” (more…)

Anish Kapoor, Internal Object in Three Parts (detail) (2013-2015) © Anish Kapoor; Courtesy the artist & Lisson Gallery

Anish Kapoor & 17th century Dutch master Rembrandt van Rijn are placed into a neighborly conversation at the Rijksmuseum this month, as dualisms of flesh and meat, figuration and abstraction underscore the more nuanced connections between the pair, and illustrate the ever-changing focal points, yet unified interests in the shapes and forms of the human body and its depiction. (more…)

Pressure from Dublin continues to mount on London to return works from the collection of Sir Hugh Lane, works which were intended to go to the Irish nation, but which were held after his death in the National Gallery.  “I think it is important that the political representatives of the city of Dublin indicate that they believe the paintings should be returned to their rightful home,” says Fianna Fail councillor Jim O’Callaghan.  “Once the current agreement is up I think the fairest arrangement would be for the paintings to be returned to their proper home.”

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Collector Dorace Fichtenbaum has left an impressive gift to the Dallas Museum of Art, allowing the institution to make its own selections from her collection to strengthen its holdings as it sees fit.  “For us it was a sudden wealth,” says Olivier Meslay, “a changing gift.  The house was packed on the wall with works of art — all the big names of the German Expressionist period were there. “We picked the best of them.” (more…)

The Bruce High-Quality Foundation is moving out of the East Village, consolidating operations in its Sunset Park Studio.  The space will be hosting a new exhibition by House of Ladosha, beginning next week.   (more…)

LACMA has published an article on Frank Stella’s St. Michael’s Counterguard, a work from the museum collection currently on view at The Whitney’s Stella retrospective, documenting the challenges of transport and installation for the work.  “Yes, all the parts were there (with the exception of the original wall cleat), but could we put them together? The only way to make sure was to temporarily install the artwork ourselves at LACMA before repacking and crating it for transport to the Whitney,” writes lead conservator Mark Gilberg. (more…)

A group of artists including Anish Kapoor, Jasper Johns, and Cecily Brown are offering works for auction to benefit choreographer Stephen Petronio residency program in Pawling, N.Y.  Kapoor’s donation alone is anticipated to achieve $1 million in sales, covering a sizable portion of Petronio’s $3 million goal. (more…)

Urs Fischer, Bruno and Yoyo (2015), via Vito Schnabel Gallery

Vito Schnabel has taken over the lease at the former St. Moritz home of Bruno Bischofberger Gallery, marking the curator’s first permanent gallery space with an exhibition of new work by Urs Fischer, as well as a public installation at the nearby Kulm Hotel by Sterling Ruby.  The pair of exhibitions are a strong next step for the curator, paying homage to the history of Bischofberger’s space while emphasizing Schnabel’s vision for a gallery engaged with the broader landscape of his new home. (more…)

Ilya and Emilia Kabakov, The Two Times #3 (2015), via Rae Wang for Art Observed

Delving into fragmented, often confounding representations of history and identity, Ilya and Emilia Kabakov have brought a new body of works to Pace Gallery in New York City, continuing the couple’s unique vision in representing and reinterpreting their past in Russia and their challenging figurative work which ties into dualities and pluralized senses of time and space. (more…)

A large number of Los Angeles museums are offering free admission for all attendees on January 30th, part of the city’s annual Museums Free-for-All Program, including LACMA, MOCA, and the Hammer Museum.  (more…)

Robert Motherwell, Elegy to the Spanish Republic (1970), via Art Observed

Few series of work are as immediately recognizable as Robert Motherwell’s Elegies, his bold collection of compositions, inflected with broad strokes of black meant as a public lament to the bitter civil war that upended the Spanish Republic in the years leading up to World War II, and which saw the installation of fascist leader Francisco Franco.  The works, which Motherwell would continue until his death in 1991, are a striking visual critique, great swaths of black obliterating his spare compositions in white, blue and other subdued grounds, as if the war itself has overshadowed the artist’s own painterly hand blotting out his compositions with the tense, recurring figures of bars and blots of paint. (more…)

Mickalene Thomas offers Vogue Magazine a tour of her Brooklyn brownstone, which she shares with her daughter, Junya.  “She reminds me of the freedom of childhood,” Thomas says, “how to play with materials without being beholden to weighted ideas and theories. Her work is a reminder for my own practice.” (more…)

Dealer Guy Wildenstein’s fraud trial has been delayed, after judges referred a decision to a separate court on whether or not Wildenstein was being unfairly prosecuted for combined criminal and administrative tax charges.  A ruling on the matter is expected before May 4th. (more…)

Alexander and Bonin Gallery is moving into a new TriBeCa space this summer, Artforum reports.  The 47 Walker Street location was previously the hub for last year’s Performa Biennial, and will function as a multi-use space.  “The first floor galleries will incorporate natural light and the lower level will house a designated space allocated to video, sound work, and performance,” says partner Carolyn Alexander. (more…)

The New York Times profiles recent efforts to save the former country home of J.M.W. Turner, which has fallen into disrepair in recent years, and which is the subject of a £2.4 million restoration project.  “The house has very much reached the point where it needs a major overhaul,” said Gary Butler of Butler Hegarty Architects, who leads the renovation. “It’s not going to fall down in the next one or two years if you did nothing, but it’s dilapidated to the point where continued occupation would be difficult.” (more…)

The Evening Standard notes that of the number of new galleries popping up in the popular Mayfair district of London, a sizable portion are American, underlining the attractiveness of the city to gallerists from the States.  “London is a gateway to other European markets,” says Oliver Green, Savills central London retail director. (more…)