Tracey Hejailan-Amon, the New York socialite suing her former husband Maurice Alain Amon after he moved his art collection to avoid her claims during divorce, has lost her case.  Amon’s art collection, including works by Basquiat and Warhol, was moved from the couple’s New York apartment shortly before filing.   (more…)

The New York Times recaps the current travel ban on seven predominantly Muslim countries enacted by President and how it may affect future exhibitions and plans for artists in the U.S. and abroad.  “We have no idea yet how this might affect us, but we do have at least one important exhibition of art mostly from Iran that would be impacted by travel restrictions that would make it difficult to do research and work with artists and authors, as well as borrow works of art that would require couriers from collections in Iran,” a spokesperson from LACMA says. (more…)

In the wake of Donald Trump’s increasingly hostile executive orders, the New York Times asks what might happen if the president’s intent to defund the NEA actually happens.  The article looks at a number of projects funded by the NEA, from major museum exhibitions to art therapy classes for American veterans.  “It is the mark of a great democracy to support the arts, which are an expression of what makes us human,” the piece quotes from a statement by the Association of Art Museum Directors. (more…)

The New York Times looks at the increasingly predominant conversations among older artists over the representation of their estates, as the artists of the baby boomer generation age.  “You have the greatest number of artists there has ever been who are wealthy from their own creative work and have to make provisions for the posthumous stewardship of that work,” said Christine J. Vincent, project director for the Artist-Endowed Foundations Initiative. “More and more entities are getting involved in servicing it.” (more…)

As the trial over the theft of €100 million in art from Paris’s Museum of Modern Art begins, one of the accused on trial has stated that he threw away the works after taking them, including pieces by Picasso, Matisse, and Modigliani, although authorities believe the works were actually moved outside the country.  “I threw them into the trash,” Yonathan Birn, the accused, said in tears during the court proceedings. “I made the worst mistake of my existence.” (more…)

The New York Times questions the ability to sell an earthwork, as a piece of land containing a Robert Smithson piece goes on the market.  “In a sense, a park is already a work of art,” the articles quotes Smithson. “It’s a circumscribed area of land that already has a kind of cultivation involved in it.” (more…)

Betty Mugar Eveillard will serve as the Frick Collection’s new board chair, Art News reports.  Eveillard has served on the museum’s board since 2017.  “I am thrilled to have the opportunity to build on the remarkable legacy of the Frick Collection as a haven for contemplative engagement with the arts,” she said in a statement. (more…)

Dina Amin, former senior director and senior specialist for post-war and contemporary art at Christie’s, is leaving the auction house for Phillips.  “Dina is a well-established and respected expert internationally and will be a transformative addition to our team,” CEO Edward Dolman says. “By expanding our specialist teams and building a global platform, we are uniquely positioned to work with collectors in a more comprehensive way across all of our company initiatives.” (more…)

NADA has named seven new member galleries to its organization, including Carbon 12 in Dubai, and Proyectos Ultravioleta, Guatemala City, underscoring its commitment to international exhibition spaces.  The organization also added Elyse Derosia of New York space Bodega as the new president of its board of directors.  “We can do a lot in a New York, but it’s always been our goal to find ways to be relevant to people outside of New York City,” Executive Director Heather Hubbs says. “That’s reflected in the growing numbers of galleries in Los Angeles and Chicago, and outside of that.” (more…)

Vjeran Tomic will go on trial this week over alleged art heists of over €100 million, including works by Picasso and Matisse, at the Modern Art Museum.  The thefts earned the thief the nickname “Spider-Man,” over the impressive acrobatic feats performed in the heist.   (more…)

A collaboration between the Musée National-Picasso in Paris and the Tate Modern will result in Picasso, 1932, a “once-in-a-lifetime” exhibition exploring the artist’s work over the course of his “year of wonders.”  “This exhibition will invite you to get close to the artist, to his ways of thinking and working,” says co-curator Achim Borchardt-Hume, “and to the tribulations of his personal life at a pivotal moment in his career.” (more…)

The Hammer Museum is planning a major expansion and renovation, which will add 40,000 square feet to its space on Wilshire Boulevard.  “This transformation will provide 60 percent more exhibition space including collection galleries and a works on paper gallery to highlight our growing collection of photographs and drawings,” Ann Philbin, the Hammer’s director, said in a statement. (more…)

LACMA has acquired Random International’s Rain Room, the popular installation where viewers can pass through a space filled with falling water.  “It is especially appropriate that the Rain Room is a gift to Lacma as we are near to marking the 50th anniversary of the museum’s landmark Art & Technology program,” director Michael Govan says.  “The response to the work in Los Angeles has been tremendous over the past year. The public here has come to ‘own’ the Rain Room , so it’s great that it will stay in the city.” (more…)

Tania Bruguera is asking that her work be removed from an exhibition at the Bronx Museum of Arts over the institution’s “reliance” on the Cuban government for its recent exhibition, a government which has long suppressed her work and even imprisoned her.  “We asked her but she never signed anything protesting what was happening to me or any of the artists in Cuba at the time who were being oppressed,” Bruguera says of Bronx Museum director Holly Block.  (more…)

Glenn Ligon is featured in the latest iteration of the New York Times’s “Show Us Your Wall” section, taking the paper on a tour of his TriBeCa apartment, and its impressive selection of works, including one of David Hammons’s bouncing basketball works.  “David is one of those artists who sparks the idea to come,” he says.  “That’s the reason to have a work of art. Besides the visual pleasure, it gives you ideas.” (more…)

Collector Henry Bloch has donated a considerable portion of his collection of Impressionist masterworks to Kansas City’s Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, and is now showing digital reproductions in their place.  “Every museum should be offering this service,” Bloch says, noting how difficult it is to note the difference between work and reproduction. (more…)

The New York Times reports on the growing potency of Hawaii’s contemporary arts community, as a group of young artists and galleries explore the island’s tropical climate and burgeoning resources.  “There’s energy here,” says collector Cristiano Cairati. “It’s the same energy of endless possibilities that New York had in the late ’80s and ’90s, when you could be and do anything.” (more…)

Simon Lee Gallery is opening its first show in the U.S. this week at its Upper East Side townhouse.  “We needed more energy really,” the dealer says. “This is the first relaunch, and it’s pretty fun actually. It’s a very sort of zeitgeist-y sort of show.” (more…)

Video artist John Akomfrah has won the 2017 Artes Mundi Prize, a $50,000 prize honoring artists dedicated to “addressing social and political issues.”  “You really have to consider the option that people are migrating literally to survive,” he says of his recent work.  “They come here to be able to live, because there isn’t an alternative anywhere else.’ And that seems to be an insight that has been lost.” (more…)

Another article looking at the future of U.S. arts is in the Art Market Monitor today, noting fears of a collapse in “cultural infrastructure” and how it may harm the lower end of the market.  “We’ve seen the art market plateau in 2014 and 2015, then pull back substantially in 2016,” Marion Maneker writes.  “By most accounts, prices remain strong—as does demand—but it is supply that is constraining the market.” (more…)

The Guardian looks at the threats of Donald Trump’s proposed plans for arts funding cuts, and the related program cuts he has that may affect artists in unforeseen ways.  “The general feeling is that we are moving into unknown territory,” says Robert Lynch, president and CEO of Americans for the Arts. “It’s changing before our eyes, so we don’t really know. We are in a mode of either assessing opportunity or assessing danger.” (more…)

The Financial Times looks at the increasingly strong market for Jean Dubuffet, as a number of the artist’s premier works head to the auction blocks this March carrying equally premier prices.  “Everything Dubuffet is being looked at afresh,” says Alex Branczik, Sotheby’s head of contemporary art, Europe. “He was a prolific artist and people are discovering new pockets of interesting work.” (more…)

The Swiss city of Geneva is taking an activist stances against illicit art market activity, working under the Responsible Art Market Initiative to advise and council on buying and selling art.  “The idea is to make sure people understand what the threat is, and it is a real threat facing the art market,” says Mathilde Heaton, a former legal director at Christie’s. “We want to play our role in also combating a much wider problem.” (more…)

The Art Newspaper looks at the shortlist for the directorship of the Musée d’Orsay, profiling each replacement for Guy Cogeval, who will step down in March.  Potential nominees include Sylvain Amic, the director of museums in Rouen, and Dominique de Font-Réaulx, the director of the Musée Delacroix in Paris.   (more…)