Philanthropist Eli Broad has announced that he will step down from his public life, halting his work supporting museums and other public institutions. “I am retiring,” Mr. Broad said. “Now. Right now. I am just tired. I want to spend more time with my family. Catch up on my reading.” (more…)

Gagosian has taken over worldwide representation of artist Mary Weatherford, Art News.  Weatherford will show with Gagosian around the globe, except in Los Angeles, where she will continue to show with David Kordansky. “I first admired Mary’s work in MoMA’s ‘The Forever Now,’ and am thrilled she has joined the gallery,” Gagosian said in a statement. “It’s exciting to have her included with the roster of great artists in our ‘L.A. Invitational’ exhibition opening later this month in New York.” (more…)

Art Dealer Gary Nader has announced plans to sell off over $100 million in works from his collection to fund a museum for Latin American art. The institution is likely to open in downtown Miami.  (more…)

The New York Times reports on the maneuvering of auction houses in recent years to adapt to the changing landscape of both the information revolution and the ever-shifting art market. “I don’t know many industries that have been through so many structural changes in such a short period of time,” said Guillaume Cerutti, the chief executive of Christie’s. (more…)

Tobias Meyer, an art adviser and former auctioneer at Sotheby’s is currently advising the Newhouse Family on the collection of the late Si Newhouse. “Si Newhouse possessed an incredible eye, and with astuteness and passion assembled one of the greatest collections of 20th century art,” Meyer said in a statement. “He was my mentor and friend, and I am honored to now work with his family.” (more…)

The City of Kassel is in talks Nigerian artist Olu Oguibe to keep his immense obelisk on view at the city’s Königsplatz after Documenta. “We are in talks with the artist and will be ready to go with the campaign as soon as we have an agreement,” a spokesman for Kassel mayor Christian Geselle said. (more…)

Nicole Eisenman’s Sketch for a Fountain, erected in Münster for this year’s Skulptur Projekte, has earned the love of of the city’s citizens, who are currently rallying to keep the work in the city permanently. “We think this is great,” spokesperson Jana Duda says. “We never thought of keeping it permanently, but now there is interest and money.” (more…)

Desert X, the free exhibition of large-scale installations in the deserts of the Coachella Vallery outside Los Angeles has announced that it will return in 2019, the LA Times reports. “Desert X’s attendance in its first year exceeded all our expectations, in both scale and diversity,” returning curator Neville Wakefield says. “With our new co-curators, we’ll be exploring issues and ideas for the 2019 exhibition that I anticipate will draw far reaching audiences, hopefully expanding on that of 2017.” (more…)

Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts has received two major troves of of 17th century Dutch and Flemish paintings, drastically improving its holdings in the field. “Our wish is that the MFA will deal with our paintings the same way we have,” says one collector, Rose-Marie van Otterloo. “That means we want them to lend to other institutions, care for them the way we have and use them as a teaching tool for curators, conservators and all students studying art history or are interested in art.” (more…)

Artists Trevor Paglen and Njideka Akunyili Crosby have been awarded MacArthur Genius Grants in this year’s round of Fellowship Awards. The award recognizes individuals who have “shown extraordinary originality and dedication in their creative pursuits and a marked capacity for self-direction.” (more…)

Jessica Kreps has been named a partner at Lehmann Maupin, Art News reports. “I remember when Jessica first started working at the gallery—she was young and fresh, and I always saw extreme potential in her,” gallery cofounder Rachel Lehmann said in a statement. “Today—eight years later—I still find the same freshness and curiosity, and I trust her with what is most dear to me, which are our artists.” (more…)

Christie’s will offer the last Leonardo da Vinci painting in private hands, Salvatore Mundi in its November auctions in New York, part of a special sale that will look to earn upwards of $100 million for the piece.  The show is accompanied by Andy Warhol’s Sixty Last Suppers (1986), which carries an estimate of $50 million on its own. “We cannot comment about sellers, but it has every passport, every visa,” Loic Gouzer says of the work. (more…)

New York’s long-running non-profit exhibition space White Columns is moving to a new location near the Whitney, Art News reports. The move will place the exhibition space on Horatio Street, not far from the proposed David Hammons work commissioned by the Whitney. (more…)

Rachel Whiteread, Wolfgang Tillmans and Tracey Emin are among the artists donating works to benefit the victims of the Grenfell Tower fire in London.  Of particular note is Tillmans’s work, from his rare Freischwimmer series. “It’s from a very rare series of work, and he was incredibly generous,” says art consultant Katie Heller, who helped organize the show. (more…)

Rem Koolhaas and Shohei Shigematsu of OMA will design an expansion for the New Museum, building a new structure alongside its Bowery exhibition space. “I’ve admired Rem’s work and the firm for a long time — he’s a top thinker, he’s an urbanist, he’s got his finger on the pulse of the city and has thought about New York more than many people,” museum director Lisa Phillips says. (more…)

A group of Chinese investors have purchased Beijing’s Ullens Centre For Contemporary Art, the SCMP reports. “Our mission continues to be a desire to put Chinese art in a global context, to provoke and stimulate a discussion about a vital part of art history,” Director Philip Tinari said. (more…)

Laura Raicovich, the director of the Queens Museum, is profiled in the New York Times this week for her outspoken stance against President Trump, and her commitment to political agency and advocacy. “Neutrality is a fiction,” she is quoted as saying over her opposition to the President’s stance on DACA. (more…)

The Guggenheim’s Richard Armstrong is interviewed in the New York Times this week, discussing the ominous and occasionally violent threats staff members received over the recently pulled works from its show on Chinese contemporary art.  “I think one thing we weren’t prepared for, or were surprised by, was the ferocity of the reaction,” Armstrong says. “The issue ultimately became one of safety.” (more…)

Thomas Ruff is profiled in the New York Times this week, as the artist reveals a body of new work focused around the limits and structural networks behind the production of the modern image. “What I do is react,” he says. “I think, ‘Oops, this is strange, I have to make an investigation.’” (more…)

David Shrigley will serve as the guest director of the next edition of the Brighton Festival, Artforum reports. “The great thing about Brighton Festival is that you see things that are really thrilling and wonderful that you’ve never heard of before,” Shrigley said. “What I’m looking forward to about the role of guest director is having the opportunity to not only see a lot of stuff and program stuff but also make some artwork myself and have it presented in the place where I live.” (more…)

An article in The Guardian this week asks a group of artists and art professionals, among them Marina Abramovich, Tacita Dean and the ICA’s Stefan Kalmár, what the biggest question facing artists today might be, with a range of answers offering an interesting perspective on the field as a whole. “Just doing art, being in the studio, is not enough,” Abramovic says.  “You have to think about what you can do as a human being.” (more…)

Sotheby’s is boasting an impressive Alberto Burri from his Neo Plastica series for its November Post-War sales in New York, the Art Market Monitor reports. One of the artist’s most sought-after pieces, the work has long been considered among the most seminal of his early works. (more…)

The Whitney has unveiled plans for a David Hammons sculpture set to be built out into the water of the Hudson river on the land across the street from the museum. The piece references the work of Gordon Matta-Clark, serving as a ghostly monument to the creation of the artist’s Day’s End on the same site.  (more…)

The New York Times has a piece this week on the current crop of collectors opening private museums and exhibiting their collections across the country. “The interest in creating a private museum has increased as interest in art overall has increased. It runs from the very small to the very large. It’s not as narrow a topic as you might think,” says Mac MacLellan, president of the central region at Northern Trust Wealth Management.  (more…)