A Lucian Freud self-portrait from the artist’s estate has been donated to the United Kingdom in lieu of an inheritance tax payment. “The acceptance in lieu scheme enriches our public collections and we are delighted that Lucian Freud’s estate has made this latest offer,” Edward Harley, the chair of the acceptance in lieu panel, says.  “Following the success of the National Portrait Gallery’s Lucian Freud Portraits exhibition in 2012, it is wonderful to see this exceptional self-portrait join its collection.” (more…)

Following several years of aggressive expansion, the Met is facing a $10 million deficit, which some project could increase to $40 million without changes and cuts to the institution’s structure.  “We’ve had increasing pressure on the budget and knew that we were going to have to take actions to get it back in balance,” says Director Thomas P. Campbell. (more…)

Douglas Chrismas, founder of Ace Gallery in Los Angeles, has filed for bankruptcy, sparking a rush by artists to get their works back from the gallery’s holdings before they are sold to pay off creditors.  “So many important artists have showed with Ace and deposited works with the gallery,” says lawyer Christine Steiner, “the gallery has made it very difficult for some artists to pick up their art. I think the fact that an accountant is taking over is going to be seismic.” (more…)

A scientific research team monitoring the Tate Modern’s Damien Hirst show in 2012 has reported that the exhibition had unhealthy levels of formaldehyde leaking into the air.  The readings come out to be ten times the 0.5 parts per million levels set by the EU, a charge that Hirst’s Science LTD. flatly denies.  “At five parts per million your eyes would be streaming and you would be in serious physical discomfort,” a spokesperson says. (more…)

Copenhagen’s Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek has placed a never-before seen brooch made by Paul Gauguin on view at its exhibition space.  The work, created from scrap metal, a watch case and a piece of hair, is being argued as one of the first historical readymades in existence.   (more…)

Yayoi Kusama is among TIME’s annual 100 Most Influential People List, celebrated by designer Marc Jacobs in a short profile piece.  “Her eyes never left mine, and she held my hand often as she talked to me,” Jacobs writes.  “She kept repeating certain phrases: ‘We must create, we must create, it’s important that we create.’ We spent a few hours together, and every time I tried to leave, she’d pull me back in. It made perfect sense with the art she creates—the intensity, the repetition. She just felt like the embodiment of what she makes.” (more…)

James Franco is interviewed by Jerry Saltz this week in regards to his ambitions and work as an artist, and makes his case for his own work to be considered away from his fame as an actor.  “I’ve done everything that I can to respect these professions that I’m interested in,” he says.  “I’ve gone to all these schools. I went to the art school that so many of my favorite artists have gone to. But when an actor goes into music, when an actor writes a book, when an actor goes into the art world — before it even is made, people are considering it bad.” (more…)

The New York Times notes the installation of James Rosenquist’s work at Donald Judd’s former SoHo home, and the conversations between pop art and minimalism that has resulted from the show.  “There’s this myth that the two movements were against each other somehow, and it’s complete nonsense,” Judd’s son Flavin says. “Don and James were good artists. And I think that’s the only required commonality.” (more…)

Artist Maurizio Cattelan has come out of retirement, and is planning to install a a solid gold toilet in the rotunda bathroom of the Guggenheim as his first new work since his 2011 exhibition at the museum.  “There’s the risk that people will think of it as a joke, maybe, but I don’t see it as a joke,” he says. (more…)

A replica of Palmyra’s ancient Arch of Triumph has been built in London’s Trafalgar Square, part of a joint venture by researchers at Oxford, Harvard, and Dubai’s Museum of the Future called the Institute of Digital Archaeology.  “The Trafalgar Square project is a celebration of the heritage of the Middle East and an optimistic response to the ongoing destruction of cultural sites,” says Alexy Karenowska, director of technology at the IDA. (more…)

The Tate has announced its 2017 exhibition plans, including an exhibition marking the 50th anniversary of the UK decriminalizing male homosexuality in Britain, and featuring works by John Singer Sargent, David Hockney and Francis Bacon, among others. (more…)

Alexis Rockman is interviewed in the New York Times this week, and breaks down his influences in the natural world, and his frequent attempts to incorporate its materiality into his works.  “Once, I was making this series of pieces about the history of the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles,” he says.  “I asked the director of the museum there to send me a canister of tar. If I could make the tar fluid enough, I thought, I could use it draw the creatures of the Tar Pits.  Well, to do that, I had to find the right solvent. As I experimented, all I got was a congealed mess that ate the paper.” (more…)

Mark Bradford will represent the U.S. at the Venice Biennale next year, curated by Christopher Bedford, director of the Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University.  “The black body is always a heavy politicized body, in America in particular, and so carrying that burden is kind of a birthright for me,” he said, adding: “I’m thinking a lot about what matters to me right now. And I think this is a time to put that on the table.” (more…)

The Brooklyn Museum has its own collection engagement, allowing visitors to pose questions about works in real-time to an Audience Engagement Team, and receive quick answers on the history and background of each work.  “ASK uses a very simple mechanism of asking a question and leveraging engagement, so we can learn more about how visitors are experiencing the Museum. This is helping our curators see what’s working and where we could be making refinements for better clarity,” says Shelley Bernstein, Vice Director of Digital Engagement and Technology. (more…)

A survey article in Financial Times sounds the warning over abuses in the art market, citing Clare McAndrew’s annual report to TEFAF as indicative of increasingly lax regulations over provenance and ethical standards for the sale of work.  “Large sums are involved and are often negotiated through agents without the ultimate purchaser being known, for an asset that is easily portable,” adds Robert Barrington, executive director at Transparency International. (more…)

Ann Freedman has broken her silence on the charges and accusations over the Knoedler Gallery fraud scandals, giving a lengthy interview with The Art Newspaper, including speculations on how she may have been manipulated by Galfira Rosales.  “I asked her questions that made her figure out [a credible name to include in the provenance],” Freedman says. “I was a perfect mark, so I’m told, and my research helped them figure out their own scheme.” (more…)

Mona Hatoum is interviewed in The Guardian this week, reflecting on her views of the artoworld, her own practice, and her career.  “I don’t really understand what ambition means. I take things one piece at a time,” she says.  “I’m excited about working on something, that’s all. I didn’t know what was going to happen next, and I still don’t.  I don’t know if I think in terms of a career. I don’t have a strategy. It’s just the next show.” (more…)

Hollywood Agent Ari Emanuel’s WME-IMG has confirmed that is investing in the British art fair and publishing brand Frieze, and will advise on more effectively incorporating digital strategies into their offering for clients.  “We will be able to create better value not only for our galleries but also for our sponsors and their broader business goals,” says co-founder Amanda Sharp. (more…)

David Hammons’s Stone Head has been removed from the artist’s Mnuchin Gallery exhibition for Christie’s May 8th curated sale in New York, estimated at $800,000 to $1.2 million.  The move is “nothing very unusual, the Mnuchin show is a commercial show,” says sale curator Loic Gouzer.   (more…)

The WSJ looks at artist Cornelia Parker’s Transitional Object (PsychoBarn) installation on the roof of The Met, a careful re-creation of the house from the Hitchcock classic Psycho, built from materials harvested from a barn upstate.  “It’s two objects together. One is a fictional object, which is the ‘Psycho’ house, and the other is a real thing, which is the barn,” Parker says. “It’s all fake but all real at the same time.”

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Massive renovations to the Pergamon Museum has sent a selection of 73 Hellenistic artworks and artifacts to The Met for a rare exhibition set to open next week.  We lent very, very liberally, “ says Dr. Andreas Scholl, the director of the Staatliche, which oversees the Pergamon. (more…)

The U.S. Senate has voted to ban the importation of any Syrian art and artifacts, following months of delay and debate on U.S. action.  “The lack of action has kept the United States market open to the import of Syrian antiquities, making it a potential source of funding for extremist organizations,” a task force report on the issue reads. (more…)

As the Art Cologne fair opens today in Germany, The Art Newspaper looks at the shadow cast by The Kulturgutschutzgesetz (Cultural Assets Protection Law), which will make the sale and export of high-valued art works from Germany increasingly difficult. (more…)

The Art News notes Christie’s sales announcement for Basquiat’s Untitled (Devil) 1982, a work the publication speculates may smash the artist’s $48.8 million auction record, and which is likely being sold from the collection of Adam Lindemann.   (more…)