Prominent German dealer Helge Achenbach has been sentenced to 6 years behind bars for his role in 20 counts of art fraud, allegedly overcharging clients on a number of sales.  The dealer also currently owes over €20 million to the Albrecht family in damages, but is unlikely to pay after his companies insolvency. (more…)

Ebay has launched a new section of its website this week, making good on its long-hinted-at art sales collaboration between the auction giant and Sotheby’s.  The site will stream all sales from the auction house save its major biannual sales.  Early highlights include an offering modern and contemporary photographs by Man Ray, Paul Strand and László Moholy-Nagy on April 1st. (more…)

Economist Clare McAndrew gave her annual report on the art market this week at TEFAF, noting an all-time high €51 billion in art changing hands last year, and an increased focus on an ever-smaller number of works dominating these sale figures.  “It continues to be a highly polarized market, with a relatively small number of artists, buyers and sellers accounting for a large share of value,” McAndrew says.  (more…)

The Met has announced a major redesign plan, with David Chipperfield Architects developing a new design for the museum’s southwest wing, housing its modern and contemporary collections.  “The project will run concurrent with the Met’s installations in the Marcel Breuer-designed building that formerly housed the Whitney,” says current director Thomas P. Campbell, “allowing us to regenerate our permanent spaces in the Met’s main building while maintaining a vibrant program for modern and contemporary art just blocks away.” (more…)

This fall MOCA in Los Angeles will play home to the traveling exhibition focusing on the work of Matthew Barney, as well as a screening of the artist’s most recent film River of Fundament, marking the only time the show will take place on U.S. soil.  “I thought it should be seen in America,” says MOCA head Philippe Vergne. (more…)

Photographer Laurie Simmons is interviewed in Art News this week, as she prepares to open her exhibition of new work this week at The Jewish Museum, and continues production on her first feature film.  “My goals are twofold: to present an accurate picture of a 60-something woman—somebody who isn’t either a teenager or on the verge of dementia, which are the two Hollywood polarities” Simmons says, “as she lives in the world and, at the same time, to realistically convey how that somebody might go about making her work.” (more…)

The Art Newspaper notes the developing challenges for museums and curators as video installations and video pieces get longer in length and greater in quantity.  The article points to last year’s Turner Prize exhibition in particular, where three of the four nominees presented video works, and some noted a cramped nature to the works’ presentations. (more…)

Mark McGuire, head of Marcato Capital, was on CNBC this week, d for the disclosure of court documents from the case between Third Point and Sotheby’s last year.  “We want to make sure that the decisions that are being made at Sotheby’s are decisions that are in the best interest of the company and the shareholders, and not being driven by other motivations that should not be factors in board level decisions,” he says.  “The litigation uncovered a significant amount of correspondence and deliberation on behalf of the board, so it’s a unique opportunity to get a real window into the logic and motivations of the board members. (more…)

Untitled Gallery and Zach Feuer will merge to form two similarly titled spaces sharing resources and artists in the L.E.S. this May, Art News reports.  The two spaces, Feuer/Mesler and Mesler/Feuer, continue previous collaborations, including 2013’s Jew York show, which was on view at both dealers’ respective spaces.  “It’s an interesting time for galleries on the Lower East Side,” says Untitled’s Joel Mesler says. “It’s become an establishment in and of itself.”  (more…)

The Metropolitan Museum of Art has named Daniel Weiss, the current head of Haverford College in Pennsylvania, as its new president and COO.  “The Met is a place that strives in everything it does to set a world standard, including its administration,” Weiss said of the opportunity. (more…)

Two separate directors for major UK museums have spoken out this week in the run-up to the country’s general elections, condemning current cultural funding cuts, and its effects, describing them as “severe.”  “Austerity is killing many local museums,” says David Anderson, director general of National Museum Wales.  “There is an urgent need for additional funding. The cultural funding model we have is failing.” (more…)

Lynda Benglis is interviewed this week in The Art Newspaper, as she opens an exhibition of works spanning her career at the Hepworth Wakefield.  “I’m excited because it’s a huge amount of works, 50 in all, and the works are educating me,” she says.  “They remind me of the baby steps that I first took and that you can’t just jump into ideas, you have to slowly develop them.” (more…)

Hans Ulrich Obrist is the subject of a recent interview in The Guardian this week, exploring his view of his work in terms of the long scope of history, his recent publishing endeavors, and his relentless work ethic.  “The film director Tarkovsky once lamented that in our society, ritual has disappeared,” Obrist says.  “He said we need to invent our own. I thought that was stimulating, and I have always tried to do that.” (more…)

A Mark Rothko painting from 1958 will lead Christie’s Contemporary and Post-War Auction in New York this coming May, the New York Times reports.  Estimated at $30 to $50 million, competition is expected to be fierce, and initial indications hint that the work may near the artist’s $87 Million record.  “There’s a perception that these kinds of paintings come and they come regularly, but in reality they’re becoming more and more rare,” says Christie’s Contemporary and Post-War Chairman Brett Gorvy. “The year 1958 was probably Rothko’s all-time high as a recognized artist.”  (more…)

The Wall Street Journal notes a growing trend towards participation in art funds, where a group of investors pool money to buy art, and split the profits from the work’s sale years later.  This method of investing dates back to 1904, when Paris-based financier André Level pooled a group of investors to buy a selection of classic works by Picasso, Matisse and others, selling them several years later at a major mark-up. (more…)

New research confirming the painting Moulin d’Alphonse as the work of Van Gogh has led to its exhibition for the first time in 100 years, The Guardian reports.  The piece, identified by a series of small numbers on the back of the work (traced to Van Gogh’s sister in law, Johanna), will be unveiled at TEFAF Maastricht, and is for sale for around $10 million.  “Johanna was left with the life’s work of this artist, her brother-in-law who, in theory, she had mixed emotions about. But she set about trying to build a legacy for him,” says lead researcher and art dealer James Roundell.  “She could have just burned the lot because, at that point, Van Gogh had no real market.” (more…)

The artist roster for the 2015 edition of the Venice Biennale has been announced, featuring a diverse group of artists selected by curator Okwui Enwezor, and featuring Marlene Dumas, Theaster Gates, e-Flux Magazine, and and many others , as well as a special theatrical performance directed by Kara Walker, and a marathon reading of all three volumes of Marx’s Das Kapital.  “Here, Das Kapital will serve as a kind of Oratorio that will be continuously read live, throughout the exhibition’s seven months’ duration,” the curator says. (more…)

A recent chemistry study by scientists at the University of Antwerp has uncovered evidence showing that the paintings of Vincent Van Gogh have slowly but surely been changing colors over the course of a century due to a rare lead pigment used for red paints that gradually fades when exposed to light.  “Normally, the idea is these paintings are there for a hundred years, or five hundred years, and they’re static – nothing really changes,” says researcher Koen Janssens. “But the opposite is actually true when you look in detail.” (more…)

Critic Jerry Saltz has reportedly been banned from Facebook, over what he says were complaints received by the website over Classical and Renaissance images he had posted featuring gruesome and sexualized scenes.  “It’s a cumulative thing,” Mr. Saltz says.  “The posts are called sexist, misogynistic and abusive, and then I’m called sexist misogynistic and abusive.” (more…)

A self-portrait attributed to Van Dyck has been reconfirmed as a work by the master painter, after a study of the work uncovered a gold watch that was the property of the artist himself.  The work is currently held at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minnesota, and was confirmed by four separate experts on the painter.  It is considered particularly relevant as it was a work the artist had intended to complete as his ideal portrait, and was documented as an etching for his book Iconography. (more…)

Banksy recently traveled to the war-torn Gaza Strip, where the artist has created a new series of works, documented on his website.  Pieces include an immense kitten drawn on the wall of a demolished building, and a crying figure inside the doorway of another leveled site, both documented in a video made during the artist’s time in Palestine.   (more…)

A collection of more than 200 prints by Jim Dine have been gifted to the British Museum, The Guardian reports.  “It is very exciting,” said Museum Curator of Modern Prints, Stephen Coppel.  “It was a very generous offer, given that he has made over a thousand prints.  Choosing was fun. It took some time and there was a lot of backing and forthing, but it is a really great group of things.” (more…)

Marina Abramovic has announced that she is preparing to publish her memoirs, due for the fall of 2016.  The book will be released in conjunction with the artist’s 70th birthday.  “My experiences have always been a big part of my work — they’re the source of everything I do, they’re my inspiration,” Abramovic said in a statement. “I hope that by sharing my story, I can give people the courage to do the things they’re afraid to do in their own lives.” (more…)

Donald Fisher, the founder of Gap clothing, is preparing to unveil a sizable portion of his collection publicly for the first time next month at Paris’s Grand Palais.  The collection of 20th century works will be shown next year at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, which is currently undergoing major renovations to prepare for it.  “I think we will have more works by artists including Richter and Calder on view at one time than anywhere else in the world,” says curator Gary Garrels. (more…)