Cheim & Read will host a fundraiser for NY gubernatorial candidate Cynthia Nixon on August 14, Art News reports. “We believe in Cynthia Nixon’s platform and would like to lend our support at this critical time in American politics,” the gallery told says. (more…)

Simon Shaw has been named vice chairman of Sotheby’s global fine art division, Art News reports. Shaw was behind the record $157.2 million sale of Amedeo Modigliani’s 1917 painting Nu couché (sur le côté gauche). (more…)

Shirin Neshat, Mickalene Thomas, and Carrie Mae Weems, among others, will create a series of video works for Planned Parenthood’s new campaign, Unstoppable. “In the darkest hours, the struggle is to keep on pushing, to keep on advancing, to rebel and to protest, to lift our voices against all forms of injustice as we attempt to address the wrongs of the past, to move to higher ground and to hold on tighter to hope, to one another and to love,” Weems said in a statement. (more…)

Moscow’s State Tretyakov Gallery has clamped down on “illegal” tours of its halls, with a side effect being museum guards reprimanding everyday visitors discussing the works. “We were exchanging views about the paintings, naturally we asked each other questions,” says University professor Maxim Shevchenko. “Suddenly we were approached by a guard who said it was prohibited to lead tours without accreditation.” (more…)

An artwork featuring a list of 34,361 refugees and migrants who have lost their lives trying to reach Europe has been destroyed in the city of Liverpool. Artist Banu CennetoÄŸlu has produced this list for several years, with this iteration installed for the Liverpool Biennial.  “It is timely and important to make The List public during a global refugee crisis,” the exhibition organizers said in a statement. “We were dismayed to see it had been removed on Saturday night and would like to know why. The List has been met with critical acclaim and we are doing everything we can to reinstate it.” (more…)

In a major announcement, Klaus Biesenbach will head west to serve as the next director of MOCA Los Angeles, the LA Times reports. “He’s a total visionary,” MOCA board president Maria Seferian said. “He’s an incredible museum executive. He’s innovative. He’s done it all.” (more…)

Robert Indiana’s estate is the subject of an in-depth piece in the NYT this week, examining the influence the late artist’s caretaker has exerted over the control of his works and images, and may have driven the production of a series of works attributed to the artist that have raised questions over their authenticity. “I would be surprised,” says scholar John Wilmerding, “if any serious and informed Indiana critic or writer would accept these works, in my opinion.” (more…)

The Guardian notes that the Trump Administration has still not named its pick for next year’s Venice Biennale, and looks at the consistently icy relationship between the President and the art world. “Trump seems utterly confused in even defining the word culture,” says Virginia Shore, former chief curator of the state department’s Art in Embassies program. (more…)

Los Angeles–based dealer and collector Stefan Simchowitz will open a semi-permanent exhibition space in a former newsstand in the city, Art News reports. “Newsstands are all going out of business,” Simchowitz says. “It’s kind of tragic, because a newsstand, if you think about it, is almost like the last holdout of cultural diversity and complexity. It’s an environment where you have special interests and different interests represented, different subcultures represented, and they’re just going out of business, effectively.” (more…)

The New York chapter of AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP) staged a protest at The Whitney this week, accusing the museum’s show on David Wojnarowicz of overly historicizing the AIDS Crisis rather than addressing it as an ongoing issue.  “The more this vital subject can be brought front and center, the better,” the museum said in a statement. “We completely agree that the AIDS crisis is not history.” (more…)

Marta Gili will resign from her position as director of Jeu de Paume in Paris, the institution announced. Gili will leave the museum to take on a “a large number of contemporary art projects” in Barcelona.  (more…)

Italian Police believe they have recovered works by Pierre-August Renoir and Peter Paul Rubens stolen in 2017 from an office in Northern Italy. “We now have to confirm that the attributions are correct,” said Major Francesco Provenza, commander of the Monza’s police unit for the protection of cultural heritage. (more…)

A committee report from the UK’s House of Lords has predicted substantial damage to the arts if a hard Brexit is pursued. “Should the exit be a chaotic one, it is hard to see global public opinion on the UK remaining buoyant,” the report reads. (more…)

A piece in The Atlantic this week looks at a young generation of Chinese artists, and their shifting stance towards political activism in their work. “In China, everything reflects the circumstances of Chinese society,” says Ai Weiwei. “But we need to be more thoughtful and flexible about it.” (more…)

Charles Saumarez Smith, the secretary and chief executive of the Royal Academy of Arts, is joining Blain Souther as its senior director. “I have known Harry Blain and Graham Southern ever since they took the lease on Burlington Gardens for Haunch of Venison,” he said in a statemnet. “I greatly respect their work and that of the artists they represent, several of whom are RAs.” (more…)

Art Dealer David Killen is claiming that the contents of a New Jersey storage locker he purchased for $15,000 includes works by Willem de Kooning and Paul Klee.  “Life is full of extraordinary discoveries, he says. “I’ve paid my dues. I’m ready for membership in the million-dollar club.” (more…)

The Tate Modern will offer a series of “slow looking” initiatives around its 2019 show on Pierre Bonnard, The Guardian reports. “Obviously one can’t force people to look slowly but one can encourage it,” Matthew Gale, the head of displays at the museum says. (more…)

Juergen Teller photographs of the pop star Rihanna are drawing criticism this week over their similarities to the work of artist Mickalene Thomas without giving her credit. “Mickalene has earned the right to be recognized and commended for her ground-breaking contributions to contemporary art and visual culture, and for a signature aesthetic that she has been cultivating for decades,” Thomas’s Gallery, Lehmann Maupin said in a statement. “As Mickalene’s long-time gallery and advocate, we vigorously stand by her in defending the originality of her work.” (more…)

Pace Gallery will represent the work of Mary Corse in Asia, Art News reports. “Very few artists have been able to express the breadth and depth of light through the medium of painting,” Marc Glimcher, the president and CEO of Pace, said in a statement. “Mary is one of those rare people who has the gift to contain that energetic field within the frame of the canvas.” (more…)

Christie’s International sold $4 billion of art during the first half of 2018, up 35% from the year-earlier period and setting a new record for the auction house. “I’m amazed at the depth of this global market right now,” says CEO Guillaume Cerutti. (more…)

Art dealers are mobilizing in earnest against President Donald Trump’s tariffs against China, which could see a tax of up to 10% on Chinese art and antiques. “Ordinarily, there are no customs duties on art or antiques. It is considered in the public interest to bring art and literature to the US, so in the past, no duties were imposed on foreign art or books,” the Committee for Cultural Policy says in a newsletter alert on Friday (20 June). “The Trump administration is changing that, at least for art and antiques from China. This is one of the more bizarre stories in the tariff saga, since a tariff on antiques will please the Chinese government and reinforce its global dominance and monopoly on Chinese art.”  (more…)

The new offer of free access to New York Museums granted by New York Public Library Cards caused sellouts for tickets to many museums this summer, the New York Times reports. “We knew that there was considerable need and demand for a program like this,” says Angela Montefinise, spokeswoman for the New York Public Library. “So while the overwhelming response hasn’t been surprising, it has been extremely gratifying to see a program designed to promote learning, culture and knowledge quickly become the hottest ticket in town.” (more…)

Artist Henry Taylor gets a profile in the New Yorker by Zadie Smith this week, spotlighting his life and work as a master portraitist. “First of all, I love other people,” he’s quoted as saying. “I love to meet them, and the fact I can just paint them.” (more…)

A group of protests occurred at the Harvard Art Museum this weekend, continuing a string of actions calling for the Sackler Family to dedicate resources to the war against opioid addiction.  “From our vantage point, being in medical school in the thick of the opioid crisis has been a defining experience,” says one organizer, medical student Leo Eisenstein. “We’re trying to end the stigma that surround opioid abuse disorder, and to promote the interventions that we know work at saving lives.” (more…)