Former dealer and current Phillips director Martin Klosterfelde is joining Sotheby’s London office as senior director for Contemporary art, as well as serve as an auctioneer for the company. Klosterfelde’s eponymous gallery long served as a linchpin of the Berlin art scene, and was a founding member of both Art Berlin Contemporary and Berlin Gallery Weekend. (more…)

The New York Times has an in-depth piece on the protracted endeavor to complete construction for the National Museum of African American History and Culture on the Mall in Washington, D.C., detailing the decades-long efforts to secure land and funding for the institution, which opens this fall.  “There is no doubt that we knew you couldn’t build this with African-American money alone,” says  director Lonnie G. Bunch III, “but we also know that there was much more money in this community than most cultural institutions had ever tapped.” (more…)

The exhibitor roster for the 2016 edition of Art Basel Miami Beach has been announced, with an over 200-strong list of galleries included this year.  This year’s special sections include a survey of works by Anicka Yi at 47 Canal’s Nova booth, and Maggie Lee’s show of pieces at Real Fine Arts. (more…)

Turkey’s Ã‡anakkale Biennial, which was previously slated to open later this month, has been canceled in the wake of political instability and an increasingly hostile government stance towards journalists and artists.  “Exactly one year after Aylan Kurdi’s lifeless body was washed up on our shores, we would like to dedicate the unrealized 5th Çanakkale Biennial and the efforts of everyone involved to all the people who have been expelled from their homelands,” the organizers said in a statement. (more…)

Bill Viola will open a major retrospective of his work in Florence next year, the Art Newspaper reports, taking over the Palazzo Strozzi and filling it with both his own works and a “wish list” of Renaissance masterworks.  The show marks a significant return to the city, where Viola worked for over a year after finishing college.  “Every day, he walked past Michelangelo’s David—the replica, of course—in front of the Palazzo Vecchio in the Piazza della Signoria to go to work,” says his wife and collaborator, Kira Perov. (more…)

In more Brexit-related news, Victoria and Albert head Martin Roth is expected to announce his resignation this week and return to his home country of Germany, a decision many attribute to Roth’s disillusionment over the UK’s vote to leave the EU.  “For me, Europe is simply synonymous with peace,” Roth said. “I didn’t want to be a German. I did not want to grow up in a country that had killed a huge part of its population. So for me, Europe always gave hope for a peaceful future, based on sharing, solidarity and tolerance. Dropping out always means creating cultural barriers and that worries me.” (more…)

An article in the New York Times sees a number of galleries still planning exhibition spaces in London, despite the pending Brexit.  “Brexit is a technicality,” Thaddaeus Ropac says.  “It will be expensive and complicated, but London is London.  The museums are here. The auction houses are here. The best galleries in the world are here. I do not see another city taking London’s place. Madrid? Los Angeles? I just don’t see it.” (more…)

New York Central Art Supply has closed its doors after 111 years of operation.  The business was long a cornerstone of New York’s downtown arts community, and left a lasting imprint on many artists practicing today.  “I learned an enormous amount about being an artist from going there,” says Kiki Smith. (more…)

An article in the Financial Times this weekend notes the increased prominence of artist-curated exhibitions in recent years, and the motivations behind them.  “I’m not sure it’s the artists’ choice,” says Ryan Gander, who is currently presenting a show at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park. “There is such an over-saturation of biennials and exhibitions now, organizers and institutions are looking for new and exciting twists.” (more…)

The Wall Street Journal looks at the burgeoning gallery scene in Harlem, and the vision gallerists have for the neighborhood.  “There’s a long cultural history here, you won’t have the same situation where the galleries come and take over and gentrify everything into an art zone,” says Harry Schlieff of Rear Window Gallery. (more…)

Old Master specialist Cécile Bernard has been named general manager of Sotheby’s France, Sotheby’s reported in a statement this week.  Bernard has worked in the auction market for over 20 years, and was instrumental in building Paris’s market to its current stature. (more…)

Elissa Tenny, former provost and dean at Bennington College and dean at New School, has been named as the head of the SAIC.  “The School of the Art Institute of Chicago has been a leader in art and design education for more than 150 years, and I am humbled to have the opportunity to carry on the School’s legacy and help pave the way for the next generation of thinkers and makers,” she said in a statement.  “I have learned so much from our students, faculty, and staff over the last six years, and I am looking forward to leading the School as we head into our next 150 years.” (more…)

Researchers in Antwerp have identified a strange white marking on the surface of Edvard Munch’s The Scream as candle wax, disproving previous reports that the mark was a bird dropping resulting from the artist’s frequent practice of painting outside.  “Munch employed a cardboard substrate to paint the Scream, a material that is particularly fragile and hygroscopic and would have suffered severe damage when left outdoors,” a spokesperson said. (more…)

A coalition of Israeli artists, museum directors and art educators have filed suit against the Israeli government, the Art Newspaper reports, accusing the state of intimidating institutions and instituting policies the lawsuit calls a “death blow to culture institutions that rely heavily on public funding.” (more…)

The Guardian has a peculiar story on Facebook’s censorship of a drawing by Hans Holbein this week.  The work, a study of Erasmus of Rotterdam’s right hand, was pulled from the site after claims that it violated the site’s community standards, leading to renewed criticisms of the site’s stance toward great works of art. (more…)

The Art Newspaper reports on a major theft from the studio of Anselm Kiefer, a thieves broke through wire cages and stole a ten-ton lead sculpture valued at €1.3 million, as well as several tons of marble.  Two women were apprehended after the theft, but released on a lack of evidence in their connection to the burglary.   (more…)

The Bass Museum in Miami Beach has postponed its reopening until next year, following a series of delays in construction.  “Our primary concern is ensuring that we conduct a careful and courteous renovation to preserve this iconic piece of Miami Beach history,” says executive director and chief curator Silvia Karman Cubiñá. “The process of renovating historic landmarks differs greatly from that of modern structures, and we have needed to extend our construction deadline to accommodate these intricacies.” (more…)

Nancy Spector, the Brooklyn Museum’s Chief Curator, is profiled in New York Magazine this week, as she outlines her weekly routine, her attempts to gallery-hop each week, and the challenges of non-profit work.  “There’s all the essential work that we do to create our central product, and there’s all of the scholarship and thinking and educational components that are really critical to what we do, and then there’s the fact that you have to raise money for everything — absolutely everything. So that is just a parallel track that’s always there.” (more…)

The Tate was reportedly paid only of £350,000 a year for its partnership with British Petroleum, early figures released by the museum show.  “The company tried to buy public support by quadrupling the amount of money they gave the Tate,” says Emma Hughes of activist group Platform.  “As BP fought over compensation for Gulf of Mexico communities in the US courts they were throwing money at the Tate in an attempt to de-toxify their brand.” (more…)

NADA Miami Beach will return to the Deauville this December, after one year at the Fontainebleau further south on Collins Ave.  The move puts considerable distance between the main Art Basel event and NADA’s event.  The organization did not comment on the move. (more…)

Larry Gagosian is hosting a fundraising event for Hilary Clinton, the first time that the dealer has actively been involved in political campaigning, Art News reports.  Artists including Jeff Koons, Chuck Close, and Barbara Kruger have donated works for auction to benefit Clinton’s campaign. (more…)

An article in the New York Times this week questions the continued struggles of the Old Masters market, and the collector tastes that have led to a decline in buyer interest.  “We have no intention of selling old masters pictures or 18th-, 19th-century pictures, because these markets are now so small and dwindling,” says Phillips head Edward Dolman. “The new client base at the auction houses — and the collecting tastes of those clients — have moved away from this veneration of the past.” (more…)

Abraham Entertaining the Angels, a rarely exhibited work by Rembrandt, is set to go on view at The Frick in May of 2017.  “The show explores how, as an artist, you represent a confrontation between the earthly and the divine, the immaterial and material,” says Frick curatorial fellow Joanna Sheers Seidenstein. (more…)

The renowned art collection of Russian industrialist Sergei Shchukin is set to leave the State Hermitage for the first time in a century, showing at the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris.  The selection of 130 pieces traveling to Paris is considered one of the finest single collections in the world.   (more…)