The Andy Warhol Museum’s director, Eric Shiner, will join Sotheby’s as a Senior Vice President, one of Amy Cappellazzo’s first major hires.  “There is probably not a greater Warhol expert on the planet,” Ms. Cappellazzo says. (more…)

The German government has passed its Cultural Property Protection Law, which puts strict limits on artworks and antiques that can be moved outside of the country.  “Germany spends billions in tax money to promote culture,” says culture minister Monika Grütters.  “It is therefore a matter of course that we should protect and keep our own cultural heritage—including the few cultural objects that are deemed to have national value.” (more…)

The New York Times looks at the ongoing trend for large-scale real estate projects to incorporate some sort of public art into its building plan, and maps out some of the more recent additions to the city’s selection of publicly accessible, large-scale pieces.  “We’ve always thought about the collection as a cultural investment, and there’s never been any kind of easy-listening quality to it,” Lisa Erf, the chief curator of the JPMorgan Chase Art Collection, says. “That’s the point of the collection — the importance of art as an extension of daily life.” (more…)

Jussi Pylkkanen is interviewed in Forbes this week, as he recaps the last year of Christie’s sales, and reflects on the impact of Asian collectors in the current market.  “They’re now buying great European furniture, great American pictures by post-war artists, Picasso, Monet, and now moving into other areas where they’ve not been before-European porcelain, works like Meissen porcelain and even works by English manufacturers,” he says. (more…)

Martha Rosler, If You Can’t Afford to Live Here, mo-o-ove!! (Installation View), all photos by Osman Can Yerebakan for Art Observed

Adopting its title from Ed Koch’s response to complaints regarding New York’s rising housing concerns, Martha Rosler’s current Mitchell-Innes & Nash exhibition If You Can’t Afford to Live Here, mo-o-ove!! promises a compact look at the artist’s influential 1989 exhibition If You Lived Here…, which was exhibited at Dia Foundation as a three part show.  Similarly, this current interpretation is a trilogy, culminating in this grand finale at the Chelsea gallery and proving the relevance of issues raised almost thirty years ago in the original version. (more…)

The New York Times details a strange lawsuit surrounding Peter Doig, who is currently being sued by a Canadian corrections officer.  The officer claims he purchased a work by the artist while he was staying in a Toronto detention center, yet Doig asserts he was never imprisoned, and points out that the work is signed by a one “Pete Doige.”  “This case is a scam, and I’m being forced to jump through hoops to prove my whereabouts over 40 years ago,” he says. (more…)

Jeffrey Deitch will inaugurate his return to 18 Wooster Street this September with a trio of performances by Eddie Peake.  “Inspired by Eddie Peake’s project for Performa hosted by the Swiss Institute in the Wooster Street space in November 2013, Jeffrey Deitch invited Eddie Peake to inaugurate his new program,” the gallery said in a release. (more…)

The New York Post’s Page Six reports on the $31 million lawsuit filed by dealer Alex Komolov, owner of the Alskom Gallery, against former colleagues for allegedly selling him fake Monet and Renoir pieces.  “My client’s business has been damaged by going out of pocket $40 million to obtain items that are essentially worthless,” his lawyer, Phil Chronakis added. “My client does a lot of business in Europe, specifically in Eastern Europe and now parts of Asia, he’s had a concern that this would affect his reputation, which is of course very valuable in business.” (more…)

Writer Anthony Haden-Guest has a short piece on Artnet this week, responding to rumors that his interview with artist Jean-Michel Basquiat was in part responsible for the artist’s drug overdose.  “I had a first interview with him in his studio on Great Jones. He was open to difficult subjects, such as his family, and told me that he was “controlling” his heroin use. I set off to do the other stuff one does before getting back to him for a second interview. But then the collector Ethel Scull telephoned. ‘Anthony,’ she said. ‘You are putting Jean-Michel under a lot of pressure…’  No problem, I said. I would take care of it. I called Basquiat and told him I would put the story off until he was up for it.” (more…)

New York Magazine has a humorous piece on a selection of artists responding to the campaign of Donald Trump, and the reception that each of them has received through their work.  “His ascension from tycoon caricature to viable presidential candidate sends very real chills up my spine,” artist Eric Yahnker says.  “I still have considerable faith in my fellow Americans, but the whole thing is beyond dangerous.” (more…)

Gagosian Gallery is now representing Katharina Grosse, according to a recent announcement by the gallery.  Grosse, who unveiled her sculptural intervention in the Far Rockaways this past weekend, will have her first show with the space in 2017. (more…)

The South China Morning Post reflects on the use of art as a cultural meeting point between China and Africa, as wealthy Chinese businessmen and collectors are increasingly drawn to the continent’s thriving art market.  “The relationship between China and African art makes a lot of sense once you think about it. Firstly, I would say the biggest demographic buying contemporary African art is sophisticated, knowledgeable collectors who purchase for aesthetic pleasure,”says Giles Peppiatt, director for African art at Bonhams. “They are people who look at an El Anatsui [sculpture] and think, ‘That would fit with the rest of my collection’, no matter whether they own any other art from the region.” (more…)

The Art Newspaper speaks with a number of British, European and American art world figures, discussing their opinions and views of the Brexit vote.  “We think about where we come from—and what this museum has achieved at the heart of this nation and of Europe,” says Hartwig Fischer, the German-born head of the British Museum. “We all know that we have to continue to share this future.” (more…)

The Victoria and Albert Museum has been awarded the UK’s prestigious 2016 Museum of the Year award.  “The V&A experience is an unforgettable one,” says Art Fund Director Stephen Deuchar.  “Its recent exhibitions, from Alexander McQueen to the Fabric of India, and the opening of its new Europe 1600-1815 galleries were all exceptional accomplishments – at once entertaining and challenging, rooted in contemporary scholarship, and designed to reach and affect the lives of a large and diverse national audience.” (more…)

Antony Gormley is interviewed in the Guardian this week, as he opens a new show at White Cube.  “We are living in a really strange time,” he says. “Yet we are all sleepwalking through it. And it is urgent we wake up. We are sort of aware the centre cannot hold, that 250 years of industrial activity has undermined and fundamentally disturbed our world – yet we feel somehow not responsible.” (more…)

Downtown Los Angeles is set to open another new arts space, The Main Museum, which will focus almost exclusively on local art and artists.  The space will be housed in a series of buildings in the Old Bank District.  “This is an adaptive re-use project, so we wanted to take a look at the possibilities related to that and start using some spaces sooner rather than later,” Agsten says. “It’s in the spirit of what’s ahead for us … it’s about experimenting and trying things.” (more…)

Artist Sophia Al-Maria is profiled on CNN this week, as she prepares to open an exhibition at the Whitney Museum at the end of this month, and reflects on her generation’s experience of digital technology.  “A few years ago I had a real feeling of heaviness through things like Facebook, like I was dragging the ghost of every person I had ever met. Maybe it doesn’t create community in the way that people think because with the ability to post whatever you want at any time, you also get the ugly side,” she says. (more…)

The New Museum has announced a new residency partnership with China’s K11 Art Foundation, which will bring young, emerging Chinese artists to New York for an exhibition in the museum’s ground-floor project space.  “We are delighted to embark on this collaboration as part of our wider mission of incubating remarkable Chinese artists and bringing their work to the international stage,” K11 founder Adrian Cheng says.  (more…)

Reuters reports on the ongoing battle for a collection of 16 Giacometti sketches and over 100 photographs by the Swiss artist and his friends.  A lawsuit was filed by the Alberto and Annette Giacometti Foundation, claiming the works were stolen from its holdings.  “It offers a very important documentation of the artist and his private side,” says Katharina Ammann, a Swiss art expert.  “It is also the perfect accompaniment for the few Giacometti works already part of the Grisons museum’s collection.” (more…)

The New York Times writes on the recent sale of a pair of Rembrandt masterworks to the Rijksmuseum, formerly held by Éric de Rothschild, and hung in the bedroom of the French businessman’s Paris home.  “At home, they were part of the environment, and they rarely showed all their importance. They were now all of a sudden more official. At home, they were very much at ease,” de Rothschild says.  “Now, they were dressed up more in their evening clothes. They were on their best behavior.” (more…)

Vice Media has purchased Garage Magazine in a play to expand its arts, fashion and architecture coverage, Variety reports.  “Dasha and the Garage team have created an amazing product that melds the worlds of publishing and technology with art, design and fashion to create something totally unique,” says Tom Punch, Vice Media’s global executive creative director. (more…)

Sotheby’s is opening an exhibition in Montauk this summer, showing a series of works by Joel Mesler, former artist and current head of Feuer/Mesler.  “On view will be a selection of ten paintings by the artist-dealer, each of which responds to the cultural history of the sea, New York City’s annual migration to Long Island resort towns, and vacation-induced identity shifts,” the press release reads. “With his trademark wit and idiosyncratic figurative style, Mesler presents a body of work that is both as vacant and generous as a long weekend by the sea.” (more…)

A group of artists, including Rashid Johnson, Angel Otero and Marcel Dzama, are donating works to an auction benefitting Sandy Hook Promise, an organization founded by the parents of victims of the Connecticut school shooting.  “This isn’t a political issue, but something completely real,” says Enoc Perez, who organized the sale. “I can’t begin to imagine what those parents must have gone through. As a father of two kids, the Sandy Hook Promise mission touched me deeply.” (more…)

Katharina Grosse’s Rockaway! Installation at Fort Tilden, all photos via Rae Wang for Art Observed

Sitting at the edge of Fort Tilden, the former aquatics building marks the transition from the manicured lawns of the former U.S. Army base to the sandy expanse of the Far Rockaways’ beachfront.  Yet the prominently placed structure, which saw considerable damage during Hurricane Sandy, has been slated for demolition in the coming months, opening the door for MoMAPS1 to commission a temporary intervention by artist Katharina Grosse at the site. (more…)