The art collection of the former Shah of Iran will travel to Berlin, the first time the collection, which includes masterworks by Joan Miró, Andy Warhol, and Jackson Pollock, among others, is shown outside the country since 1979.  “A collection unique for its composition and history will be shown for says Hermann Parzinger, president of The Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, which manages most of Berlin’s state museums.

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The Warhol Museum has purchased one of Andy Warhol’s rare Paint by Numbers works, a piece that has long eluded the museum’s collection.  “That was in my top three list, along with a 40 by 40 ‘Marilyn’ and an early comic book painting,” Eric Shiner, the museum’s director, told the NYT. (more…)

An engineer who plummeted through a ceiling at the Philadelphia Museum of Art has won a $7.25 million settlement from the institution.  “It was the most terrifying moment of his life,” attorney Larry Bendesky told CBS Philadelphia. “It’s a more terrifying moment than most of us would ever be able to come to grips with.”  (more…)

The Turner Prize shortlist has been announced for 2016, The Guardian reports, counting Anthea Hamilton, Michael Dean, Helen Marten and Josephine Pryde among those who will show at the annual Turner Prize exhibition in competition for the £25,000 prize. (more…)

UCLA is in the late stages of planning for a $31 million expansion to its arts school, funded in large part by dealer Margo Leavin.  “Artists are the backbone of the community, so I wanted it to be something that would have a real impact on that,” Leavin said of her donation. (more…)

The BBC has a profile on Japanese collector Yusaku Maezawa, who purchased over $98 million in art this week from both Christie’s and Sotheby’s, including the record-setting Jean-Michel Basquiat.  “Regardless of its condition or sales value, I was driven by the responsibility to acknowledge great art and the need to pass on not only the artwork itself, but also the knowledge of the artist’s culture and his way of life to future generations,” he said of the purchase. (more…)

The Wall Street Journal looks at the increased focus on African Contemporary art, including the recently concluded 1:54 Art Fair in New York.  “For years we didn’t have many galleries, but artists were still making work that was brave and experimental—and now everyone can see that,” says Azu Nwagbogu, founder of LagosPhoto in Nigeria. (more…)

Mike Cooter, MacGuffin: some archetypes towards a definition (2016)

Swiss Institute’s Fade In: Int. Art Gallery-Day is a group exhibition featuring an ambitious array of contemporary artists, including Cindy Sherman, Allan McCollum, Christian Marclay, Dora Budor and Jamian Juliano-Villani, interpreting the ubiquitous relationship of moving images to the field of visual art. Comprised mostly of commissioned works, the exhibition transforms the gallery’s spacious interior into a vigorous stage, expanding outwards from the gallery entrance towards a deep corner of the storage room on the lower level. (more…)

Francois Morellet, via Art Newspaper

François Morellet, the pioneering French artist who explored interrelations of optical phenomena, light, space and performance, has passed away at the age of 90.   (more…)

Jeff Koons has unveiled a collaborative technology project with Google, a smart phone case that plays excerpts from Swan Lake, and transmits new graphics to the user’s phone each day.  “I’ve always enjoyed ballet,” Koons says. “I think that dance really captures nature and culture together. You have the biological aspect between people, movement, and bodies, and at the same time you are completely referencing also the classical.” (more…)

Ugo Rondinone has installed a massive, $3.5 million sculptural work in the Nevada desert.  “Seven Magic Mountains elicits continuities and solidarities between the artificial and the natural, between human and nature. What centers this amalgam of contradictions is the spiritual aspiration; one that bruises, elevates and transcends,” said Rondinone.   (more…)

A new world record set for Sam Francis tonight, via Art Observed

Another night of sales has come and gone at Sotheby’s, with an unexpectedly robust outing from the auction house that moved quickly through the 44-lot sale to a final total of $242,194,000.  The sale was a short but impressive affair, as the auction house’s early lots consistently beat out estimates in the early lots, and ultimately saw only a small handful of lots go unsold.  The sale makes for an impressive response to market alarmists and critics of the auction house, showing there seems to still be strong enthusiasm in the contemporary market. (more…)

Following in the footsteps of its larger neighbors uptown, the New Museum is embarking on an ambitious expansion, having already raised $43 million towards its $80 million capital campaign goal.  “We’ve known for a long time that we wanted an expansion, but we’ve been thinking about what an expansion means for a museum like this,” says Director Lisa Phillips. “We own the building next door, and it just makes sense to use it. But it was also about thinking about ways to create a parallel structure there, to make something that’s different and a counterpoint to this building.” (more…)

Online retailer Yusaku Maezawa has been identified as the buyer of the record-setting Basquiat last night at Christie’s, Bloomberg reports.  “The moment I first saw the painting at the auction preview, the piece overflowing with his passion and technique, I felt shivers all over my body,” Maezawa says. “Regardless of its condition or sales value, I was driven by the responsibility to acknowledge great art and the need to pass on not only the artwork itself, but also the knowledge of the artist’s culture and his way of life to future generations.” (more…)

An unemployed French mechanic has purchased a painting that may well be a lost early Renoir composition.  Ahmed Ziani bought the work for about $700, when research helped him identify the piece as Soir d’Eté, which the artist created when he was 23. (more…)

The Art Newspaper takes a second look at La Bella Principessa, the work attributed to Leonardo Da Vinci that forger Shaun Greenhalgh claims to have executed, and which continues to confound experts to this day.  “The silly season for Leonardo never closes,” argues Martin Kemp, the Oxford professor who has attributed the work to the Renaissance master.  “The story satisfies the public taste for ‘experts’ and the ‘art world elite’ being made to look ridiculous, but it is low on credibility. We are asked to believe that a self-taught 17-year-old was capable of such refined pen work and chalk drawing. His drawing has some lightweight decorative charm, but nowhere suggests that he could achieve this tautly descriptive line and subtly blended modeling.” (more…)

Thaddaeus Ropac is preparing to open his first gallery in London, the Evening Standard reports, soon to take over the home of the Mallett antiques dealership in Dover Square.  The site will be Ropac’s first in Britain. (more…)

The Tate’s attempts to keep the figures behind its BP sponsorship concealed suffered a setback today after Peter Lockley, counsel for the information commissioner, stated that the museum had not used its confidentiality clause properly, but instead was using it to avoid scrutiny.  “If this is not contracting out [responsibility] to [the Freedom of Information Act], it is only a hair’s breadth away from it,” Locksley said. (more…)

Jussi Pylkkanen and Brett Gorvy in front of the Record-setting Basquait, via Art Observed

Christie’s has wrapped its Post-War and Contemporary auction last night in New York, continuing a strong performance that contrasted sharply with the lackluster sales last night at Sotheby’s, including an impressive new record for Jean-Michel Basquiat.  All told, the sale saw 9 unsold lots out of a total 61 (counting a single withdrawn lot), and a final total of $318,388,000. (more…)

The New York Post has some fun speculating on the buyer for the Maurizio Cattelan Hitler sculpture that sold Sunday at Christie’s, listing François Pinault, Qatari Sheik Khalifa Al-Thani and Peter Brant as the most likely buyers.  “There are clues [as to who the winning bidder is] that aren’t obvious,” an unnamed consultant tells the reporter. “All three of the bidders who were taking instructions over the phone have connections to Christie’s.” (more…)

The Met has placed its $600 million expansion project on hold, following reports of a $10 million deficit in the museum budget, and its restructuring program.  The current cutbacks are in part attributed to the expenditures over the Met Breuer expansion, and its new branding campaign. (more…)

Martine Syms is interviewed in The Guardian this week, as the artist opens her exhibition at ICA London.  “I have said it before and I will continue to say that I don’t think art is the most effective form of protest,” she says.  “I don’t think it changes policy, I think it changes discourse, and discourse can change ideas, and for me that’s what it’s about: having that space for conversation.” (more…)

Paul Signac, Maisons du Port, Saint-Tropez (1892), via Sotheby’s

Having just announced a loss of over $25 million for the first quarter of 2016, Sotheby’s needed a strong performance this evening to alleviate concerns over its recent shakeups and acquisitions, but there were few reassurances in sight for the house’s New York Impressionist and Modern Evening Sale tonight, as it concluded a 62 lot outing with almost a third of the works going unsold, bringing a final sales tally of $144,434,000. (more…)

Sotheby’s has posted a $25.9 million loss for the first quarter of 2016, a figure attributed to its expenditure to buy out Amy Cappelazzo’s art advisory business, and the staff buyouts that it launched simultaneously.  “The days of the two major auction houses making big losing bets on guarantees just to gain market share may be behind us, but many other challenges face both houses in a choppy market,” says lawyer Thomas C. Danziger. “The next two weeks may well be a watershed moment for Sotheby’s.” (more…)