The Municipality of Amsterdam has appointed four new supervisors to the board of the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, including Carla Aalse, Henriëtte Prast, Maarten Doorman, and Homme ten Have. “In the best interests of the museum, it is time to bring the recent turmoil to an end and start afresh,” interim board chair Madeleine de Cock Buning and Jos van Rooijen said in a letter, referring to the departure of former director Beatrix Ruf.  (more…)

A long-running legal battle in France over artist resale royalties has been decided in favor of Christie’s efforts to shift responsibility for payments to the buyer, after the Supreme Court allowed the auction house to charge the buyer of paintings at auction for the royalty rates.  “The Cour de Cassation handed down its decision on 9 November 2018 regarding the SNA case,” says a Christie’s spokesperson. “It agrees with the Christie’s France reasoning and overturns the judgments of the Court of Appeal of Versailles in this case.”  (more…)

The New York Times has a piece on the collection of Harlan and Olivia Fischer, which focuses heavily on the use of glass in sculpture. “When Olivia and I started collecting glass, the feeling was similar to how I felt in high school when I discovered jazz,” Harlan says. (more…)

The New York Times profiles Italy’s new, nationalist Government and its aggressive stance on promoting and defending its culture. “Being from the League, it’s our way of seeing the country, the society and the world,” Lucia Borgonzoni, Italy’s under secretary for culture, says. (more…)

The Art Newspaper profiles Hermitage Museum head Mikhail Piotrovsky and his efforts to spearhead cultural diplomacy through his museum.  “The last bridge to be blown up should be a cultural one,” he says. (more…)

Sister Wendy Beckett, the formerly cloistered Roman Catholic nun who became an international star for her BBC documentary series on art and art criticism, has passed away at the age of 88.“Nothing is more humiliating than being on television,” she said of herself, underscoring her humility and charm even in the face of her widespread recognition. “You make such a fool of yourself.” (more…)

One of Louise Bourgeois’s first large-scale Spider sculptures will leave its home in the atrium of the Museum of Modern Art in São Paulo for a tour of Brazilian art museums. The tour is designed as an effort to “democratize” the museum’s holdings, according to Eduardo Saron, the institute’s cultural director. (more…)

A group of four independent art dealers are opening a collaborative space in Brussels, Art News reports. La Maison de Rendez-Vous, as it is called, will be operated by LambdaLambdaLambda,  Lulu, Misako & Rosen and Park View/Paul Soto. “The project began with Paul [Soto, owner of Park View/Paul Soto] wanting to open a second space in Brussels, and then just developed momentum out of our time together in Buenos Aires and other cities,” the group said in a statement. “We also have similar approaches to programming which tends to be more curatorial than commercial. The fact that we all inhabit such different geographies and times zones is a bonus in terms of the diversity that we’ll naturally bring to the table.” (more…)

Patrick Charpenel, executive director of El Museo del Barrio in New York, and Franklin Sirmans, director of the Pérez Art Museum Miami, will curate two new themed sections at its 2019 New York Frieze fair. “It is an honor to collaborate with these institutional leaders who are at the forefront of shaping the art and ideas of today,” says fair creative director Loring Randolph. With their contribution, Frieze New York 2019 will offer an experience that is both dynamic and challenging—pushing the boundaries of what an art fair can be.” (more…)

The Rijksmuseum’s 24-hour branch at Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport is due to reopen in late January, Art Newspaper reports. The branch had previously been closed over fears of leaking water that may damage works. (more…)

Moscow citizens are calling for the Garage Museum of Contemporary Art to end its sponsorship agreement with the Russian real estate developer the PIK Group over unsavory business practices and corruption.  An open letter alleges the developer “does not aim at improving the environment and people’s lives, but rather at obtaining super profits and enhancing its own image through the patronage of cultural projects.” (more…)

Brazil’s Ministry of Culture, and Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Fundação Bienal de São Paulo have selected Bárbara Wagner & Benjamin de Burca to represent the nation at the 2019 Venice Biennale. Gabriel Pérez-Barreiro, who curated this year’s edition of the Bienal de São Paulo, will curate the pavilion. (more…)

A partnership with the Smithsonian Institution and Fulbright Commission will allow researchers from Brazil’s destroyed National Museum to continue their research. “We have lost part of our collection but not our ability to produce knowledge,” the museum’s director, Alexander Kellner, said in a statement. (more…)

New York Magazine profiles 15 Orient, the living room gallery opened by Michel Gondry’s son Paul in their Brooklyn home. The space has already hosted a number of exhibitions in the past year. (more…)

The New York Times spotlights a push for a museum dedicated to Judy Chicago in her home city of Belen, New Mexico, and the controversy her work has raised in the city. “If Judy Chicago wants to be successful in a museum, well bless her little heart,” says John K. Thompson, a resident and retired stockbroker. “But not in a sleepy little town in the middle of New Mexico. A lot of her art is very sexual, more fitting for some liberal city far from here.” (more…)

The trailer for Mapplethorpe, the biopic of the life and work of Robert Mapplethorpe, has been unveiled, starring Matt Smith as the photographer. The film explores the intersection of his art and his sexuality along with his struggle for mainstream recognition. (more…)

Tate Britain will rehang the last 60 years of its gallery displays with only female artists including Bridget Riley, Rachel Whiteread, and mroe the Guardian reports. “This presentation, 60 Years, will offer a significant moment to recognise and celebrate a selection of Britain’s most important artists working from the 1960s to the present day,” says Tate Britain director Alex Farquharson. (more…)

European biennial Manifesta has named the artistic team for its 13th edition, comprised of Katerina Chuchalina, Stefan Kalmár, Marina Otero Verzier, and Alya Sebti. The event will open in Marseille in 2020. “Marseille, with its great port city multiculturalism, and all its complexities and struggles, is for us maybe the ultimate test of how Marseille, France and Europe are facing the most important conflicts of our time,” says Manifesta’s director, Hedwig Fijen. “The appointed artistic team has our confidence to create a critical response to the current state of affairs in Europe and an artistic vision how we can look at global issues through the spectrum of Marseille.” (more…)

Loic Gouzer, who has served as Christie’s co-chairman of postwar and contemporary art for the past seven years, has announced he will depart from the auction house at the end of the year. “Those who know me best know that my two great passions in life have always been art and the environment,” he said in a statement. “I intend to spend the next few months concentrating on conservation and climate issues before coming back to the art world with a new project.” (more…)

Salvador Dali’s Lobster Telephone will remain in the UK after being purchased for £853,000 by the National Galleries of Scotland (NGS). “This major acquisition cements our position as one of the world’s greatest collections of surrealist art,” says Simon Groom, NSG’s director of modern and contemporary art. “Before this acquisition we had nothing of this kind.” (more…)

The full Egon Schiele Catalog Raisonné has been digitized, and is now available online for search adn exploration. “Several hundred works have been authenticated since the publication of the last print edition of Egon Schiele: The Complete Works in 1998,” says resarcher Jane Kallir. “So an update was long overdue.” (more…)

The Economist has a piece on auction guarantees, and how their use in major auctions has an impact on prices and market perceptions. “If enough leave what they see as a tilted playing field, the auction ends up being a “private sale in public’,” the piece reads. (more…)

Christie’s is planning to sell another high-profile David Hockney work this month, “Henry Geldzahler and Christopher Scott,” a 1969 piece from the collection of Barney A. Ebsworth next March in London. The work is expected to carry an estimate of £30 million. “David Hockney’s double portraits are undoubtedly some of the finest paintings the artist ever realized,” says Katharine Arnold, Christie’s head of the evening sale of post-war and contemporary art in London. (more…)

The WSJ profiles Muzeum Susch, an ambitious modern and contemporary art institution in the remote Swiss town. “There were these rural, industrial buildings, unlike anything in the region,” says founder Grażyna Kulczyk. “I very much liked them, and I looked into buying them because in my mind, of course, I still had an ambition to finally build this museum.” (more…)