Vincent Van Gogh’s Night Cafe will remain hanging at Yale University, after the US Supreme Court rejected an appeal over its ownership by Pierre Konowaloff, who claims the work was stolen from his family during the Russian Revolution.  “This is the end of the road,”Konowaloff’s lawyer, Allan Gerson says. “There is not much I or anyone can do except respect the rulings of the court, but I do believe there has been a miscarriage of justice.” (more…)

The WSJ notes the increased use of irrevocable trusts as a way for art collectors to transfer their holdings while still maintaining them in their personal collection.  “Basically, you are sheltering the appreciation,” says Michael Kosnitzky, a tax lawyer at Boies, Schiller & Flexner. (more…)

Asad Raza, who previously hosted the Home Show in his Manhattan apartment late last year, has announced a selection of exhibitions at Brussels’s Boghossian Foundation that will negotiate and “an analogous dialogue between the intimacy of the private home and the democratic spirit of the public space.”  One highlight is Répétition, a “choreographed” exhibition featuring works by Shannon Ebner, Robert Rauschenberg, Rirkrit Tiravanija, and many others. (more…)

Alex Da Corte is interviewed in the New York Times this week, as the artist opens a major exhibition at Mass MOCA.  “If taste is the thing that guides you, then how can you step outside that and try to look at everything every day as if it’s new? To live somewhere up here?” he says.  “I always like to hope that I have no taste, which is not the same thing as tastelessness.”

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Continued Protests have led The Frick Collection to reconsider its approach to a renovation project that would have destroyed its garden space.  “We’re looking at existing subterranean spaces and nonpublic spaces that could be utilized,” says director Ian Wardropper. “We’re at the point now where we want a fresh approach.” (more…)

Anri Sala is interviewed in the New York Times this week, where he discusses Hu  his exhibition at the New Museum, and his relationship to both classical and pop music.  “The detachment from today’s culture is something that interests me. We love many classical pieces, but they are far enough away that they have become like archaeological objects we can approach with some form of objectivity,” he says.  “That wouldn’t be the case with pop music. It’s too recent, and manipulates us in ways that we have not yet completely decoded.” (more…)

Dealer Yvon Lambert is profiled in W Magazine this week, as he opens a show of his collection at a new exhibition space in Avignon, a gift to the French nation.  “Often, the collection of an art dealer is mostly the pieces he wasn’t able to place,” he says. “But I chose these works from the beginning. It was very easy to say to a client, ‘That one’s already taken,’ without mentioning that it was sold to me.” (more…)

Copenhagen research group Freemuse has found an increase in the rate and degree of art censorship around the globe, the Art Newspaper reports.  “Artistic creativity demands an environment free from fear and insecurity,” says Freemuse researcher Magnus Ag. “I think we should learn from journalists and make sure any artist facing hardship around the world knows that, if she is being silenced by censorship, threats or imprisonments, the international arts community will stand behind her and fight those who fear the power of creative expressions.” (more…)

Ellsworth Kelly and Yo-Yo Ma have been awarded the J. Paul Getty Medal for their contributions to the arts.  “With this medal we honor two of our nation’s greatest artists: Yo-Yo Ma for his distinguished contributions to the conservation and understanding of the world’s many and diverse cultures, and Ellsworth Kelly for his mastery in paintings and sculptures of the highest quality and originality,” says board of trustees chair Maria Hummer-Tuttle. (more…)

The Park Avenue Armory will play host to Martin Creed’s first U.S. retrospective this June, titled The Back Door.  The planned installation will take up both the Armory’s Wade Thompson Drill Hall, as well as a number of other spaces in the building.  Creed will also be presenting an installation of his Work No. 2630, UNDERSTANDING concurrently at Brooklyn Bridge Park.  A collaboration with Public Art Fund, the massive red neon piece will be viewable from both sides of the river.  (more…)

Art Basel has announced a new initiative, titled Art Basel Cities, which is targeted towards developing connections with local artistic communities worldwide, forging links between regional events and the flagship Art Basel fair events.  We are excited to bring our expertise and network to new partner cities, and to work with them to amplify their commitment to arts and culture,” says Patrick Foret, Director of Business Initiatives with Art Basel. (more…)

Damien Hirst is curating an exhibition of Jeff Koons works at his Newport Street Gallery, featuring more than 30 works from the range of the artist’s career.  “I believe art should be experienced by as many people as possible and I’ve felt guilty owning work that is stored away in boxes where no one can see it, so having a space where I can put on shows from the collection is a dream come true,” Hirst has said of his gallery. (more…)

The Wall Street Journal profiles a recent growth of San Francisco’s arts scene, charting a number of important projects that are cultivating a new generation of artists in the city.  Performance art space The Lab and Jessica Silverman Gallery are listed among the chief players. (more…)

CNN looks at the recent crop of new, private Chinese art museums, and the motivations behind the sudden explosion in construction.  “In a culture that has been suppressed for so long, when things start opening up, you’re liable to get a sort of burst of energy and momentum. This generation of private collectors in China, the big ones at least, they’ve had a couple of decades to make their fortunes and it’s natural they’re now spending it on artists and art collections,” says Aric Chen of the M+ Museum. (more…)

The Canadian government has earmarked a major cash injection for national arts organizations, including the CBC, and a near doubling of the Canada Council’s $182 million budget.  “It’s a game changer,” says Simon Brault, director and CEO of the Canada Council. “We can begin writing a new chapter on the artistic and cultural history of this country.” (more…)

Performance artist Ulay has announced his first performance in New York City in 30 years, breaking his long absence with a performance in Brooklyn this coming May during Frieze Week.  The work, titled Cutting Through the Clouds of Myth, will combine an “intimate happening, an experiential installation, a language of communication, a provoking exploration of dualities, a setting of madness and tranquility, mockery and admiration,” according to curator Mitra Khorasheh. (more…)

Anton Kern and Andrew Kreps are teaming up for a temporary, joint gallery in downtown San Francisco, joining Larry Gagosian across the street from the newly renovated SFMoMA.  The galleries will take up residence at the Minnesota Street Project, a recent real estate project featuring artist studios and exhibition space. (more…)

The Art Newspaper interviews Tracey Emin this week, as the artist discusses her recent marriage to a stone outside her studio in the south of France.  “It just means that at the moment I am not alone; somewhere on a hill facing the sea, there is a very beautiful ancient stone, and it’s not going anywhere,” she says.  “It will be there, waiting for me.” (more…)

With the slowing of the Asian economy, Reuters notes a distinct cooling-off of the secondary auction market. “Things were in a heated upward spiral for some time and there’s no question it has come off the boil,” says gallerist John Berwald. (more…)

The LA Times notes the sizable percentage of young visitors to The Broad Museum in downtown Los Angeles, and examines why millennial museum-goers might be drawn to the space in particular, with particular emphasis on the museum’s prominence on social media.  “I have a lot of artist friends and they’re all talking about it,” says on interviewee. “It’s pretty much what everyone’s been posting.”  (more…)

Mitchell-Innes & Nash is now representing artist Mary Kelly, whose work during the 1970’s was conceptual bedrock for the decade’s feminist art practice.  Kelly is concluding a Guggenheim fellowship for work researching shared threads of the London blitz, Paris’s 1968 student protests, and the dawn of the Arab Spring. (more…)

The Guardian interviews Ann Hirsch this week, as the artist opens an exhibition of her work at the Zabludowicz Collection in London, and discusses projects like her performance as a contestant on a VH1 reality dating program, and her views on the culture of digital video as a mode of positive female representation.  “I had these utopian notions that now women can broadcast ourselves instead of relying on TV and film, we can portray ourselves and this is going to be great for women and minorities – we get stereotyped all the time,” she says.  “But the reality of what happened isn’t what I thought.” (more…)

Two artists that installed a guerrilla art exhibition in the stairwell of the Whitney this weekend have been slapped with a lifetime ban by the museum.  “It’s just exploring different sites, contexts, and receptions, and exploring the viewers since the viewers are what activated the sites,” says Ki Smith, one of those caught deinstalling the work. (more…)

Tom Sachs is profiled in the Wall Street Journal this week, discussing his recent work on a Tea House for the Noguchi Museum.  “I’m not a tea master in a traditional sense, though I’m a master in this environment because it’s a clear expression of my history of making stuff,” he says. (more…)