The Art Newspaper reports on Bjarne Melgaard’s recent customs problems in Norway, after a series of the artist’s works were held by the government as “not art.”  “We’ve been struggling with this problem for three months now,” says Gard Eiklid of Oslo gallery Rod Bianco. “It’s been an absurd fight where we had to ‘prove’ that Melgaard’s paintings are art.” (more…)

The Guardian looks back at the surrealist dinner parties hosted by Salvador Dali, which featured complex arrangements of foods and architecture.  “My edible, intestinal and digestive representations at this period assumed and increasingly insistent character,” he once wrote.  “I wanted to eat everything, and I planned the building of a large table made entirely of hard-boiled egg so that it could be eaten.” (more…)

The Park Avenue Armory has announced its 2017, including a rendition of Hansel and Gretel by Jacques Herzog, Pierre de Meuron, and Ai Weiwei, which will dwell on “the meaning of publicly shared space in the era of surveillance.”   (more…)

Andy Warhol’s original Factory location, in a rented firehouse at 159 East 87th Street, has sold for $9.98 million.  The seller of the property is Guy Wildenstein, the embattled French art dealer. (more…)

The court case between Alec Baldwin and Mary Boone drags on this week, after Baldwin filed a new request for New York State Supreme Court to punish Boone over the sale of an allegedly deceptive Ross Bleckner work.  “Dismissing [his] demand for punitive damages, and allowing defendants to pay nothing but compensatory damages (essentially a refund), would be akin to asking a bank robber to simply return the money if caught; it would tell New York’s art dealers that fraud pays,” the filing states. (more…)

Billionaire Len Blavatnik is suing the Wildenstein family over a soured £63 million real estate deal in New York, which he claims resulted in several million dollars in lost business.  “Defendants apparently believe they can do and say anything to suit their purposes,” Blavatnik’s suit states. “This suit seeks to end this heinous practice.” (more…)

The New York Times previews next year’s Whitney Biennial, the first in the museum’s new building, and the fraught political landscape that the show finds itself operating within.  “An election year prompts that questioning,” says Scott Rothkopf, the Whitney’s chief curator and deputy director for programs. “The discourse turns to who we are as a nation.” (more…)

Sotheby’s CEO Tad Smith is interviewed by CNBC this week, stating that Donald Trump’s election as President will help benefit the art market’s recovery over the next year.  “I think there’s been a fairly good feeling among the art collectors this week,” Smith says. “There’s just a lot of very wealthy people from all types of countries… and they have a lot of capital to deploy.” (more…)

Beijing’s Central Academy of Fine Arts Art Museum is moving forward with an exhibition of work by Anselm Kiefer, after the artist attempted to shut the show down over its organization without his consent.  “We deeply regret that Mr. Kiefer has not directly participated in the exhibition or came to China again to make this exhibition.” The Central Academy said in a statement.  “As an important art academy and art museum in China, we hope that we will have further cooperation and exchange with Mr. Kiefer in the future.” (more…)

Artist Helen Marten has won the Hepworth Prize for Sculpture in the UK, and has pledged to share the award’s £30,000 purse with her fellow nominees.  “To a certain extent I believe, as I said on stage, in the light of the world’s ever lengthening political shadow, that the art world has a responsibility, if not to suggest a provisional means forward, then at least show an egalitarian platform of democracy,” she said.  “I believe the hierarchical position of art prizes today is, to a certain extent, flawed.” (more…)

A teenager in Iraq is working to create replicas of a series of Assyrian sculptures destroyed by ISIS, creating meticulous replicas in his father’s workshop.  “In Iraq, there are people who are killed because they are sculptors, because they are artists. Continuing to sculpt is a message that we will not be intimidated by those devils,” seventeen year-old Nenous Thabit says.  “My dream is to become a prominent artist in Iraq to make my country proud and show the world that we in Iraq love life and cherish our heritage.” (more…)

Fernando Botero is profiled in W Magazine this week, as the artist prepares to release a new book, looking back on his early work and development as an artist.  “When I was very young, like 13 or 14 years old, I was fascinated by the [Alberto] Vargas girls I saw in an Esquire magazine,” he says.  “I did some copies in watercolor. Perhaps they were the first things that I did. Then I discovered real art and forgot about Vargas.” (more…)

The Italian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale next year will feature works by Giorgio Andreotta Calò, Roberto Cuoghi, and Adelita Husni-Bey, curated by Cecelia Alemani.  “These three artists were born in Italy between the mid-1970s and the mid-1980s, and came onto the domestic and international scene at the brink of the new century, each at their own level of fame: from Husni-Bey’s promising young talent, to Cuoghi’s more mature oeuvre,” Alemani says.  “While their art and their languages are global, their work is still closely tied to Italian culture.” (more…)

MoMA has revealed itself as the buyer of the seminal László Moholy-Nagy work EM 1 (Telephone Picture), which sold Monday at Sotheby’s.  “We have long aspired to add the third of Moholy’s Telephone Pictures to the two we have owned for many years,” says director Glenn Lowry. This acquisition allows us to present Moholy’s radical experiment in its full glory, and to tell the complete story of this remarkable moment in the history of the avant-garde.” (more…)

A Van Gogh expert is claiming that she has found a collection of 65 previously unseen drawings by Vincent Van Gogh, sparking a fierce dispute over its authenticity.  “The Van Gogh Museum has been aware for some time of the album of drawings that is now being presented as a lost Arles sketchbook by Vincent van Gogh,” the The Van Gogh Museum said in a statement.  “Our researchers and curators are happy about every new work that can correctly be attributed to Van Gogh, but on the basis of high-quality photographs sent to them of 56 drawings – out of 65 in total – they were of the opinion that these could not be attributed to Vincent van Gogh.” (more…)

The Art Newspaper reports on the ongoing plans for the LACMA expansion, as Peter Zumthor plans the $600 million project.  Construction is set to begin in 2018, and will feature a series of low, snaking buildings that will contrast with the landscape of Wilshire Boulevard around it. (more…)

Artist Gavin Turk sits down with psychoanalyst Darren Leader for an interview in the Guardian. The shape-shifting artist discusses his early work and the subject of his practice.  “I wanted to be able to sustain a critical distance from my art,” Turk says of his early practice.  “I would look at other artists and see that here was the work and here was the artist and there was sometimes not an obvious correlation. I realized that there was a separation between the person who’s making the art and the art itself. But I was interested in putting the artist’s name or signature or brand into the actual place of the artwork.” (more…)

Gerhard Richter is featured in an interview with Huffington Post this week. The artist discusses his view on the state of art, and how the art world will continue to change over the next decades.  “Art will shed all of its gravity and transform into something merry and democratic,” he says, referencing Thomas Mann. “It’s now more than merry. There has never been so much art … We don’t need it. We need entertainment. Sensations.” (more…)

Anne Barlow, the current head of New York’s Art in General, will head up the Tate St. Ives when the institution re-opens in 2017.  Barlow previously served as curator of education and media programs at the New Museum. (more…)

Albanian president and artist Edi Rama is profiled in The Guardian this week, as he prepares to open an exhibition at Marian Goodman Gallery.  “If art cannot make politics more sane,” he says, “politics, with its insanity, can sometimes make art even better.” (more…)

Collector and co-chair of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Elaine Wynn is interviewed in Forbes this week, discussing her motivations behind collecting art, and her decision to purchase Francis Bacon’s Three Studies of Lucian Freud for $142 million.  “First I was worried I’d want to buy it,” she says. “Then I was worried I might not get it.” (more…)

The MFA Boston is planning a $24 million renovation project, including a 22,000-square-foot conservation center that will expand the institution’s capabilities.  “It’s a very positive moment for us,” says MFA director Matthew Teitelbaum. “I think people will see it as a real affirmation of our core responsibilities, and I feel very good about that.” (more…)

The Art Newspaper profiles the ongoing struggles of digital art startups to effectively capture large portions of target markets, particularly given resistance from the tech-savvy under-35 demographic.  “True disruption doesn’t come from entrepreneurs. In the art world, it has always come from the artists. Anyone waiting for the internet to disrupt can keep waiting,” says Pace head Marc Glimcher. (more…)

Artist Richard Prince was commissioned to design the cover for the final A Tribe Called Quest record, out this month.  The artist’s design incorporates his own rugged hand into the group’s signature red, black and green color scheme.   (more…)