Antony Gormley is worried that a proposed upgrade to the A1 carriageway would threaten or obstruct views of his immense work Angel of the North.  “It would be heartbreaking to lose sight of the Angel of the North on the approach from the A1, and thus I am desperate to do all I can to protect these views,” he writes. (more…)

Citing the current uncertainty around the pandemic, the European Fine Art Foundation, which runs TEFAF will postpone its main fair in Maastricht until September, pushing its New York event until 2022.  “The unpredictability and endurance of the pandemic has cast a new light on our work and our lives over the past year. TEFAF looks with great enthusiasm toward the future,” says TEFAF chairman Hidde van Seggelen.  (more…)

A piece in Art Newspaper this week looks at Non-Fungible Tokens, a new crypto technology that represents digital works and proof of ownership, allowing the assets to be purchased and traded. “All the art I make is digital, in the form of videos or images—now I’m chomping at the bit to sell more works this way,” says dealer Kenny Schachter, who has been producing NFTSs for works he makes and sells. “I am convinced that the field will mushroom in the coming two or three years.” (more…)

A piece in Art Newspaper looks at Paris’s resurgent role in the art market, and asks if it might seize a leadership role in Europe over London. “Paris already has the infrastructure, the logistics, the know-how and in addition it’s centralized, whereas Germany has a number of regional centers plus its restrictive export law; Italy has dreadful red tape,” says Pierre Naquin, a French entrepreneur and tax specialist; “I don’t see any other European city being able to take over from London.” (more…)

Christie’s CEO Guillaume Cerutti speaks with Art News this week, as he contends with the new landscape of the auction market in the current days and months to come. “2020 was an unusual year: collector demand was resilient, but supply was more difficult [to obtain], with some consignors being concerned by the impact of the pandemic,” he says. “Private sales and guarantees have undoubtedly been a way to reconcile these two diverging trends. There are traditionally fewer guarantees in Asia than in Europe and in America, for various reasons. In any event, the decision to use a guarantee remains case by case, according to each consignor’s risk appetite.” (more…)

Georg Baselitz has donated six of his paintings from his holdings to The Met.  “He’s very interested in the context that the Met collection can provide,” says director Max Hollein. “I think he was very excited and pleased.” (more…)

A piece in Town and Country this week documents the Frick’s takeover of the Met Breuer building. Director Ian Wardropper says the exhibitions at the newly renovated space will “remind people that the Frick is not just a painting collection.” (more…)

A piece in the collection of Pennsylvania’s Allentown Art Museum has been firmly reattributed as an official Rembrandt.  “It’s very exciting,” says museum VP of curatorial affairs, Elaine Mehalakes. “It was a painting that had been in good standing for three centuries, and this is really a reassertion of the attribution.” (more…)

In a recent public appearance, Ai Weiwei called China “the greatest challenge the West has ever faced,” referring in particular to the current political state of Hong Kong and its relationship to mainland China.   “This is not just a struggle between Hong Kong and China. It is a struggle between freedom and a sectarian state. Hong Kong represents a value we should all protect,” he says. (more…)

A piece in the New York Times documents the recent efforts to clean and restore works and spaces in the Louvre while the museum is shuttered under Covid restrictions. “For some projects, the lockdown has allowed us to do in five days what would have previously taken five weeks,” says curator Sébastien Allard. (more…)

Two rare pieces by Arshile Gorky and Wassily Kandinsky from the collection of the same private European owner, not seen publicly since the 1970’s, will debut at Sotheby’s modern and contemporary art evening sale in London on March 25, and are anticipated to reach a shared total of £3.7 million ($5.08 million). (more…)

The Centre Pompidou in Paris will close for renovations in 2023 through 2027. “There were two options,” says French culture minister Roselyne Bachelot. “One involved renovating the center while keeping it open, the other was closing it completely.” Bachelot said that the latter option was ultimately more appealing because “it should be shorter and a little bit less expensive.”  (more…)

Leon Black, chairman of the Museum of Modern Art,  is leaving his role as CEO of Apollo Global Management, after news broke of his payments of over $150 million to the late Jeffrey Epstein. “I have advised the Apollo board that I will retire as C.E.O. on or before my 70th birthday in July and remain as chairman,” he said in a statement. (more…)

Around 700 artists are being evicted from their studios in Moscow following the announcement of a government renovation plan. “The lease contract drawn up by Moscow city has a clause stipulating that if the buildings are demolished, we cannot demand replacement studios,” says Yuri Kurshakov. “It’s hard to stomach because we’re not just talking about a few studios here, but entire clusters that will disappear.” (more…)

A piece in Town and Country documents the allegations against art advisor Angela Gulbenkian, who is alleged to have swindled dealers out of millions in sales, while spending the money. “I don’t think she was very active in the art market,” says Kenny Schachter. “It would be hard to find people who had dealings with her. She was more of an upstart.” (more…)

The collection of late Samsung Chairman Lee Kun-hee is currently being appraised after his passage last year. “Prices of some of the works have probably surged drastically since Lee purchased them,” says an anonymous source. (more…)

The Prado in Madrid will rehang its collection to focus more on non-Spanish artists and women. “There are artistic phenomena and artists who have been totally excluded until now – not just women but aspects as important as social painting, which hadn’t found a place in the 19th-century collection,” says director Miguel Falomir, “or painting from different parts of the world, such as the Philippines, whose art is finding itself more and more appreciated.” (more…)

A piece in the Architectural Digest this week takes a tour of artist Sarah Sze’s home with her husband, Dr. Siddhartha Mukherjee, who writes on the experience of viewing their personal art collection during the pandemic. “We learned to look afresh at Rauschenberg’s Hoarfrost—of a man caught in mid-dive, not knowing where he might land or fall;” he writes. (more…)

A piece in the Art Newspaper asks if Biden’s inauguration will finally galvanize the US art world to take action on climate change. “The arts sector is going to have to contribute and institutions are where you are going to start to see that more,” says Ellen Langan of the New York-based climate change and arts org Art to Zero. (more…)

The sale of a Botticelli estimated at $80 million this month at Sotheby’s has drawn speculation and questions over the attribution and origin of the work, Art Newspaper reports. “It is surprising how often scholars have questioned its attribution to the master,” says author David Alan Brown. (more…)

Critic Antwaun Sargent has joined Gagosian as a Director and Curator, the New York Times reports. “It’s a wonderful platform,” Sargent says. “It’s a place where you come and view art, but it’s also a place where discussion happens.” (more…)

Art Basel has once again been postponed from June to 23 to 26 September as the coronavirus pandemic continues to pose threats this year. “The decision was made after extensive discussions and analysis in consultation with gallerists and collectors, as well as external experts, putting foremost the health and safety of all concerned while aiming to achieve the broadest possible international attendance for the show,” a statement reads. (more…)

A piece in the NYT details the recent efforts of financier Roberto Polo to open a pair of museums, the Center for Modern and Contemporary Art of Castilla-La Mancha, in the Spanish city of Cuenca. “Spain has a particular talent to create public museums for private collections,” Polo says. (more…)

Dior and Peter Doig will collaborate for the brand’s AW21 Men’s line. “Paintings with fascinating colors condense and reflect powerful meaning with a singular, poignant vision, in particular in terms of the relationship between mankind and nature,” the brand said of his work. (more…)