Two paintings, including a classic Roy Lichtenstein held at the Sam Simon Foundation, an organization established by Simpsons co-founder.  The pair of works are valued at $400,000.   (more…)

Collector Bob Rennie is interviewed in Bloomberg this week, offering his reflections and tips on starting a dedicated art collection, including his takes on art as investment.  “We can’t pretend that art is not an asset,” he notes. “It has to be managed.” (more…)

Early estimates claim that the Giacometti sculpture Looking Forward to the Past may smash its just recently set record of over $100 million next month at Christie’s Modern Sale in New York, with speculation that the work may achieve a final price of at least $130 million.  “It’s Giacometti saying: ‘Move forward! The war is behind us,’” Jussi Pylkkanen says of the work. “It’s the sculpture that symbolizes the future.” (more…)

The soon-to-open new home of the Whitney Museum was the site of a protest last night, which sought to illuminate the museum’s location above a massive fossil fuel pipeline and vault operated by Spectra Energy.  “Today we are asking: How can a museum that literally covers up the dirty fossil fuel industry be a beacon for the future of art and culture?” an open letter from the protesters read. (more…)

A Los Angeles Times article charts the success of LACMA curator Stephanie Barron, who has helped grow the museum and its collection into an international powerhouse of modern and contemporary art, as well as a growing Korean, Islamic and Latin American collections.  “I’ve had the amazing good fortune,” Barron says, “to work for an institution that has unconditionally supported the seriousness of the work that I want to do.” (more…)

An article in the Wall Street Journal this week notes the details and contractual clauses that accompany sales at the higher end of the art market, often in an attempt to prevent speculation.  “I don’t want to see my clients gambling at auction,” says gallerist Renato Danese. “What if the work doesn’t sell, or sells below the low estimate? That will hurt the artist in terms of current and future sales, and it will hurt my clients.”  (more…)

The New York Times profiles Joanne Heyler, the leader of Los Angeles’s Broad Foundation, and her role in establishing Eli Broad’s vision for his soon to open museum.  “She’s thinking about how to nest this institution in the community, how to engage the broader culture, how to broaden its audience and what the experience is going to be like for someone going to this museum,” says Lisa Dennison, former Guggenheim director and a chairwoman of Sotheby’s. “The book shop, lighting, conservation, storage, the plan for the opening show — it’s all Joanne.” (more…)

Downtown non-profit Art in General has decided not to renew its lease for the Soho/Tribeca space it has occupied for the last 34 years.  “We’ve occupied the space for quite some time,” board president Robert Ferguson says. “Our lease is now coming to an end in December of this year, and we’ve decided to embark on the process of finding a new space.” (more…)

A Cy Twombly blackboard painting may have sold for $60 million in a private sale, Marion Maneker of the Art Market Monitor reports, taking the news from active Twombly collectors.  If confirmed, the price would come close to the record-setting sale of a similar work last year by Nicola Del Roscio, Twombly’s former assistant and head of his foundation. (more…)

With renewed diplomatic activities between Cuba and the United States this year, the Independent forecasts massive interest in this year’s Havana Biennial.  “Most of us are expecting that for the Biennial there will be an explosion of American collectors coming to buy,” says artist Mario González. “It should be a stampede.” (more…)

Sotheby’s will bolster its May 12th Contemporary Evening Auction in New York next month with a brilliant, 1954 Mark Rothko, the New York Times reports.  Untitled (Yellow and Blue), which formerly sat in the collections of both Bunny Mellon and François Pinault, is estimated to achieve between $40 and $60 million. (more…)

Next month, Christie’s will lead its May 13th contemporary auction with one of Lucian Freud’s iconic portraits of former postal worker Sue Tilley, which will carry an estimate of $30 million to $50 million.  “This will be a good test of where his market is going,” says dealer James Holland-Hibbert. “It will be interesting to see if this style of painting appeals to the buyers who support these sales. Is Freud still a big enough brand?” (more…)

An article in the New York Times notes an increasing trend towards museums deaccessioning parts of their collection in order to cover budget gaps, even in the face of staunch opposition from critics and board members.  “If you want to safeguard cultural identity, you cannot sell the best pieces of your collection,” says  Marilena Vecco, an assistant professor of cultural economics at Erasmus University in Rotterdam. “This is the challenge for all museums.” (more…)

A crane crashed onto the roof of the Dallas Museum of Art this week, just missing a Mark Di Suvero sculpture atop the institution. The south end of the space are currently closed for repairs, while the rest of the building remains open. (more…)

NADA Miami Beach is moving locations this December, leaving its long-time home at the Deauville Beach Resort in North Miami Beach for The Fontainebleau Hotel further south.   Founder Heather Hubbs notes that the new location will see a fair of “the same exact size or a little smaller, but it won’t be bigger and we’re not looking to expand.” (more…)

Artist Cao Fei is interviewed in the New York Times today, underlining her work in recent years, and her move to Beijing from Guangzhou in 2006.  “In the beginning I felt like I couldn’t connect to the city,” she says.  “A lot of artists from southern China have that feeling when they come here. Take, for example, my husband, who is a Singaporean artist. For him to come here, the whole history and context is different. It’s not that easy.” (more…)

Curator Piper Marshall is profiled in W Magazine this week, as she begins her run of exhibitions in conjunction with Mary Boone Gallery, and documents her ongoing focus on female artists.  “I love female artists so much that someone recently called me an ‘international womanizer,’” Marshall jokes. (more…)

The Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas has announced a major new art prize, to be awarded to “a living artist in recognition of a significant body of work that has had an extraordinary impact on the understanding of the art form.”  The winner receives a $100,000 prize, and will be selected by an impressive jury that includes Phyllida Barlow, Okwui Enwezor, and Nicholas Serota, among others. (more…)

The Art Newspaper reviews the Whitney’s soon to open, Renzo Piano-designed space in the Meatpacking District, reviewing its tripled floor space and focus on every aspect of the museum’s presentation.  “We conceptualized [the building] as a total work of art,” says Donna de Salvo, the museum’s chief curator.  (more…)

An article in The Economist this week revisits the frequently noted boom in the art market, taking an extended perspective on the practices of private sales, institutional investment and consulting over the past thirty years.  “People buy art when they’re confident about their future wealth,” says economist Clare McAndrew. (more…)

Anish Kapoor has contributed to Artforum’s “500 Words” section this week, describing his recent work with the pigment Vantablack, and its capabilities for absorbing light to create a sense of infinite depth on a flat surface.  “I’m absolutely sure that to make new art, you have to make new space,” he writes.  “Malevich’s black square doesn’t just make a proposition about non-images or black as an image; it suggests that space works in a different way than previously conceived.” (more…)

An article this week in the Financial Times forecasts a “grim” outlook for UK Museums in the face of harsh budget cuts and austerity measures.  Those in the field note that while museums seem to be at a stronger state than ever within the British Nation, operational budget cuts threaten to hamper continued development and harm future plans.  “Museums are ironically better than ever before, better presented, better run and in better condition,” says  Stephen Deuchar, chief executive of the Art Fund.  “It’s just at the point where we ought to be reaping all the benefit from that investment that revenue funding is being cut back at a worrying pace.” (more…)

Yayoi Kusama has earned the hyperbolic title of the “world’s most popular artist” following the release of Art Newspaper’s annual survey.  “Kusama is the only one of our artists who sells on every continent.  “She’s very rare in that she has this kind of credibility within the art world establishment, but she also has a very broad popular appeal,” says Glenn Scott Wright, co-director of Victoria Miro. (more…)

The Dia Art Foundation has acquired composer LaMonte Young and Marian Zazeela’s famous Dream House installation for its permanent collection, and will recreate the work at its 545 West 22nd Street Chelsea location this summer and fall from June 17 through Oct. 24.    They’ve made this incredible contribution to music that I think is still very underappreciated nationally and even internationally,” says Dia head Jessica Morgan.  “He should be understood as a John Cage of our era.” (more…)