Dr. Oetker, a German food company, has returned a painting by Carl Spitzweg to the heirs of a Jewish tobacco dealer killed at Buchenwald concentration camp. “This settlement with a private collection on the basis of a solution that is both amicable and equitable is exemplary,” Gunnar Schnabel, the lawyer representing the heirs of collector Leo Bendel, said in a statement. “Unfortunately such solutions are still the exception to the rule.” (more…)

Barbara Kruger has moved to David Zwirner, Art News reports.  “Her work has become even more essential in the decades since, speaking truth to power and transitioning from the museum into mainstream culture,” Zwirner says. “We are honored to represent her and look forward to exhibiting her work.” (more…)

New court filings alleged that London dealer Inigo Philbrick could hold upwards of $70 million in assets. Philbrick is accused of failing to deliver works he sold and inflating the prices of other pieces. “We have only seen the tip of the iceberg; there’s no question that this has impacted far more people than simply those who already have filed suit,” says lawyer Judd Grossman. (more…)

Jeremy Corbyn has promised £1 billion in arts funding if Labour is elected to lead the U.K., Art Newspaper reports.  The party’s plan calls for a Cultural Capital Fund  “to transform libraries, museums and galleries across the country.” (more…)

Amid escalating protests, Hauser & Wirth has postponed shows in Hong Kong, while Art Basel HK is planning to remain open.  “Some of you might be wondering if Art Basel is making an unconsidered decision by continuing to plan on holding an art fair in March amidst the unrest that we are witnessing in Hong Kong,” says Adeline Ooi, the director, Asia for Art Basel Hong Kong. “The answer is: we are not. The decision to continue with the show is made in support of everything you, we, our partners, the local art scene, art collectors from Asia and beyond have invested into Hong Kong, our fair and Asia in general over the years.” (more…)

The New York Times has a piece on the theft of Maurizio Cattelan’s gold toilet, noting that the work is still missing, and spotlighting a number of locals’ thoughts on just where the work might be.  “It’s on a building site,” says taxi driver Susan Hughes, “that’s my theory.”  (more…)

Oscar Tuazon’s “hippie outlaw architecture” gets a profile in the LA Times this week, and how he has applied his work towards conversations and critiques of current policy around water and other environmental issues.  “Ideas and conversations around water rights and indigenous histories is also this really powerful part of the story,” he says. “And it shapes the way the design is evolving now — to take this structure and break it into its constituent parts and think about how it could work in different landscapes. It’s trying to kind of absorb and learn from those places.” (more…)

A piece in the LA Times showcases the challenges MOCA in Los Angeles is facing over offering free admission. “It’s as much about philanthropy as it is about a financial transaction for member benefits,” says Asa Hursh, MOCA’s membership and annual fund manager. (more…)

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Techno artist Carl Craig has been commissioned to create a new work in the spacious basement of Dia:Beacon. “The kind of space we’re working with at Dia, there are tons of abandoned spaces I’ve been working with my whole lifetime,” Craig says. “The fall of the automotive industry in Detroit left all these factories that turned into party spaces—and a lot of them are still there.” (more…)

The Manchester Museum has repatriated 43 objects considered sacred to four indigenous groups in Australia, Art News reports, making it the first institution in the UK to embrace a repatriation program.  “We’ve always known that during the process of colonization, which is continuing today in various respects, that our cultural heritage items were removed from us, were stolen from us and taken from us,” says Mangubadijarri Yanner, who received the objects in Manchester for the Gangalidda Garawa people. “With these specific items, I can say with authority that they were taken without permission.” (more…)

Christie’s will look to sell the first mixed-reality artwork at auction next year, offering Marina Abramović’s The Life, which was on view at The Serpentine earlier this year.  “As the technology around AR and VR evolves at an incredibly fast pace, the market is evolving and adapting to the demand,” says Christie’s specialist Stefano Amoretti. “Christie’s is in an avant-garde position by offering this to the market and we look forward to the response.” (more…)

Lisson Gallery will represent the estate of Hélio Oiticica estate worldwide. “My father, Nicholas, saw his show at Whitechapel [Gallery in London] in 1969, two years after the gallery opened,” Alex Logsdail says. “He was somewhat intimidated by him at the time—he was a wild guy. So, it’s been a long time.” (more…)

France‘s top appeals court has upheld a two-year suspended jail sentence for the former electrician of Pablo Picasso and his wife, who kept 271 of the painter’s works in a garage for upwards of 40 years.  “It is a triumph of truth and marks the end of a cover-up”, said Jean-Jacques Neuer, the lawyer for Picasso’s son Claude Ruiz-Picasso. (more…)

The UCCA in Beijing has cancelled a show of work by Hung Liu over increased political tensions in the country.  “Topics that were once relatively open for discussion are now increasingly scrutinized,” says director Philip Tinari. (more…)

A collection of works by Anselm Kiefer, Renate Graf, and Markus Lüpertz, said to be worth €300 million, has disappeared somewhere in China, according to a report by Art News.  “This is unique to the art market,” says Wenzel Jacob, curator and former artistic director of the Bundeskunsthalle in Bonn. “I have not encountered such a criminal case in my career.” (more…)

The Met has hired Denise Murrell as associate curator of 19th and 20th Century Art. Murrell gained recognition for her show “Posing Modernity: The Black Model From Manet and Matisse to Today,” which re-centered black subjects in modern painting.  “If you have one of the greatest collections you almost have an obligation to recontextualize it in regard to the narratives it provides,” says museum head Max Hollein. “I want to make sure it’s not only one voice but multiple voices.” (more…)

KAWS has purchased a 10,000 square foot building in Williamsburg for $17 million, which he will use to expand his current studio.  (more…)

Banksy’s The Drinker, a piece removed from the street by artist Andy Link, has been withdrawn from sale at Sotheby’s after Link complained of the work’s theft from his garden.  The work had been in storage for several years prior. (more…)

Ai Weiwei pens a piece in the Art Newspaper this week, reflecting on the protests in Hong Kong and on the future of the city.  “At this point, who cares about art and images? The art will come out eventually, but there is no reason to assume governments like China, North Korea, or Saudi Arabia care about their global image anymore,” he writes. “They do whatever they want, and nobody can stop them.” (more…)

The Hugo Prize shortlist has been announced, with artist Nairy Baghramian, Kevin Beasley, Deana Lawson, Elias Sime, Cecilia Vicuña and Adrián Villar Rojas all up for the award.  “After a rigorous examination of today’s artistic landscape, the jury identified a group of artists whose practices are beacons of cultural impact,” says Nancy Spector, the Guggenheim’s artistic director and chief curator. “While diverse in their approaches and themes, they each exemplify the spirit of experimentation and innovation that the prize has always championed.” (more…)

The Guggenheim Museum has hired its first full-time black curator: Ashley James. “Her work complements the Guggenheim’s mission to present the art of today,” says Nancy Spector, the Guggenheim’s artistic director and chief curator, “which we understand as a deep and expansive view of art history.” (more…)

Following layoffs at the Marciano Art Foundation, former workers are protesting at LAXArt, which currently counts Olivia Marciano as a board member, as a way to force a public comment.  “I can’t say I’m not sympathetic,” says LAXart Director Hamza Walker. “I run a nonprofit art space, just trying to keep it afloat and keep a hospitable back of the house.” (more…)

Two landscapes by Peter Paul Rubens intended as companions will be reunited for public display for the first time in more than 200 years, after the Wallace Collection decided it would begin lending works for the first time. “We are hugely supportive of this because the general public is the beneficiary,” says National Gallery director Gabriele Finaldi. “Things can happen now that couldn’t happen before that will be extraordinarily interesting and exciting for the public and scholars.” (more…)