As part of the recent National Defense Authorization Act passed in Congress, greater oversight will be applied to the Antiquities trade. “We believe this type of legislation is long overdue,” said John Byrne, a lawyer specializing in anti-money-laundering rules. “This is an area where clearly organized crime, terrorists, and oligarchs have used cultural artifacts to move illicit funds.” (more…)

Reclusive fashion designer Martin Margiela is staging a Paris exhibition of his artworks this year, The Guardian reports. “This exhibition celebrates the idea that Martin Margiela has always been an artist, whose work has played out since, within and outside the art world,” says a statement by exhibitors Lafayette Anticipations. “[He] has always made us look at things with fresh eyes. Going against the grain he cultivated an obsession for discreet people, abandoned objects and forgotten places and events, bestowing on them a new dignity.” (more…)

The SF Chronicle notes that Gagosian Gallery seems to have abandoned its outpost in San Francisco, noting that gallery signage has been removed and phones disconnected.  The company has done little to publicize any such change in strategy at the museum. (more…)

A piece in the New Yorker this week documents the U.S. Army’s holdings of Nazi art and sculpture, rarely seen outside of its storage facility in Virginia’s Fort Belvoir. “It’s Hitler as a Teutonic knight,” says Sarah Forgey, the Army’s chief art curator of one work. “It’s showing there’s a connection between the Third Reich and Germany’s feudal past.” (more…)

A painting of Jesus Christ has been authenticated by a work by El Greco.  “It has been more than two years of exciting work, studies and analysis,” says art professor and researcher Ximo Company. (more…)

Bendor Grosvenor has a piece in Art Newspaper this week, praising the efficiency and appeal of online auctions by the major auction houses. “For the first time, we can begin to imagine a purely online auction world, with no need for printed catalogues, in-person auction views, or expensive premises in central London,” he writes. (more…)

A piece in the Art Newspaper looks at how the new Brexit deal will affect the art market.  “This is a dismal deal for the UK art market,” says Bendor Grosvenor.  “It is now more difficult and expensive for UK companies to trade in art in Europe than at any time since the 1970s. In fact, thanks to the Northern Ireland Protocol, it is also more difficult for UK companies to trade in art within the UK.” (more…)

The UK’s Royal Collection Trust will lay off the curators tasked with managing the Queen’s art collection. “Following a restructure that was necessary due to the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic, 130 roles at Royal Collection Trust are to go by the year, including that of the Surveyor,” says a RCT spokeswoman. (more…)

A piece in Art Newspaper documents US Museums continuing to add to their collections during the pandemic thanks to restricted acquisition funds. “It is imperative to reiterate that these acquisition funds cannot be used for other purposes,” says Thomas Campbell, the director of FAMSF. “We are doing everything in our power to retain as much of our full staffing as possible during these trying times, so I want to avoid any confusion on that front.”  (more…)

A piece in the New York Times details non-profits continued attempts to cover funds lost due to Covid with donations. “It’s a long way to make up for the gap, and I think we should all be realistic about the fact that this is nowhere near a substitute,” said Henry Timms, the president of Lincoln Center. (more…)

Critic Barbara Rose has passed away at the age of 84, an important voice in the early years of minimalism and conceptual art. “I don’t invent art movements,” she once said. “I just notice coincidences, and those coincidences began to make sense to me as a worldview, which the Germans call weltanschauung.” (more…)

The recently deceased Ulay gets a profile in the NYT this week, after the artist’s expansive career retrospective at the Stedelijk opened this year. “Till the last, we were working,” says his wife, Lena Pislak. “He was really enjoying the process.” (more…)

The Met has reopened its European Paintings wing, after renovating and replacing the wing’s skylights.  (more…)

Anne Imhof and Patti Smith will take part in a special New Year’s event in London’s Picadilly Circus. “The opportunity to take over Europe’s largest advertising display and open a portal to hope in the final moments of 2020 is humbling,” Imhof says. “Peace, freedom and respect for everyone in 2021.” (more…)

Dava Newman, MIT professor of aeronautics and astronautics and former deputy administrator of NASA under Obama, will take the helm at the MIT Media Lab, known for its fusions of art and architecture.  “In a field of outstanding candidates, Professor Newman stood out for her pioneering research, wide range of multidisciplinary engagements, and exemplary leadership. She is a designer, a thinker, a maker, an engineer, an educator, a mentor, a convener, a communicator, a futurist, a humanist and, importantly, an optimist,” says Dean Hashim Sarkis. (more…)

Josh Smith gives a direct interview with Art Newspaper this week, remarking on his views on art and culture. “Art should be sharp, timely and timeless,” he says. “It should provoke something within the viewer. If they do not like it, then that’s OK. At the very least it should make people think.” (more…)

Sotheby’s set a new price for the work of photographer Ansel Adams this week, after a work from the collection of Texas oil executive David Arrington netter $988,000.  (more…)

A piece in the NYT this week asks what will happen to collection of the recently passed Sheldon Solow, which the paper estimates could infuse $500 million into the market.  “He was definitely of a generation who started when the art world was much smaller,’’ says David Norman, chairman of the Americas at Phillips. “They made their own choices and spoke with the great dealers of their era, but relied on themselves.” (more…)

Art News has an excerpt from collector Leonard Lauder’s new book The Company I Keep: My Life in Beauty, and his takes on his collection.  “I’ve always had the soul of a collector,” he says. “Ask any collector how it all began, and you’ll hear stories about childhood fascinations ranging from bottle caps to beetles to baseball cards. I was no different. I started early and have been building collections ever since.” (more…)

A piece in the Guardian this week documents Ai Weiwei’s newest film, Cockroach, which documents last year’s fierce protests in Hong Kong, and how the city has changed. “They are heroes because they were fighting for democracy and civil society with no real hope that they would achieve their aims. They are clear, well educated and above all sincere,” he says. “They were fighting not for jobs or money but things that seem to be abstract. It is about human dignity. I really think I am one of them.” (more…)

France’s National Assembly has passed a unanimous vote to return 27 colonial-era artifacts to Benin and Senegal, Art Newspaper reports. “France supports the initiatives of these two countries in favor of heritage, well beyond just restitution,” says French culture minister Roselyne Bachelot. “This text is a true act of friendship. It will allow the Beninese and Senegalese peoples to reconnect more directly with their past and access the constituent elements of their history, as our own collections allow us to do.” (more…)

A piece in Bloomberg this week asks if 2020 has actually changed the art market for the better. The piece notes that the pandemic “has accelerated changes in every industry, and maybe the art market more than any other,” according to Christie’s CEO Guillaume Cerutti. “The speed and magnitude of changes we’ve seen—no one could have predicted it.” (more…)

A New York Court has dismissed a court case over a Rudolf Stingel that never went to auction at Phillips due to cancelled sales during Covid-19. “It cannot be seriously disputed that the COVID-19 pandemic is a natural disaster,” the ruling reads, pointing to the auction house’s force majeure clause. “One need look no further than the common meaning of the words natural disaster.” (more…)

The private art collection of artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude will go on sale next year at Sotheby’s, the WSJ reports. “It’s the intimate universe the artists lived in, not their public persona,” says Sotheby’s expert Simon Shaw. “Every wall of their studio refracts elements we see in their practice.” (more…)