The University of Iowa is moving forward with a $60 million plan to build a new art museum complex on its Des Moines campus, which will house its collection, including Jackson Pollock’s iconic Mural from 1943.  “This project would bring the art collection back on campus by constructing a new museum building coupled with the renovation of existing space within the UI Main Library,” the construction proposal reads. “Given the importance of access to the collection for students, faculty and the university community, locating a new and permanent facility on or near the main campus core is an important feature of the proposed site.” (more…)

Ugo Rondinone’s Seven Magic Mountains installation in the Las Vegas desert has been vandalized, the city’s local news reports.  “Yes, we are very upset about this vandalism,” says Amanda Horn, the director of communications at the Nevada Museum of Art. “It is something we knew was a risk when we installed an art display on public lands.” (more…)

Martin Creed is interviewed in the NYT this week, as he opens his retrospective at the Park Avenue Armory.  “I feel bad to say I’m an artist, because I don’t really know what art is,” Creed says. “I would say I’m a person who tries to do things and work in a field that is commonly known as art. I try and do things because I find life is difficult and I want to make it better. More bearable.” (more…)

Sotheby’s has added a $40 million Amedeo Modigliani to its upcoming Impressionist and Modern sale this month in London.  The work is a portrait of Jeanne Hebuterne, the artist’s lover during his last years, who committed suicide after his death.   (more…)

A visitor to the SFMoMA this week tripped and fell into a an Andy Warhol Triple Elvis, resulting in the painting’s removal from the gallery for inspection and repairs.  The damage reported to the painting was noted as “minimal,” by conservators. (more…)

Lehmann Maupin is planning to open a new Chelsea exhibition space on 10th and 24th, Artforum reports, a three-floor, 8,500 square foot space designed by Peter Marino.  “West 24th Street will be the primary location of our business,” founder David Maupin says. “Chelsea remains an important hub of the New York contemporary art scene. We represent a growing roster of renowned international artists, and it is important for us to be able to offer additional exhibition options and exposure within the area.” (more…)

Wolfgang Tillmans is interviewed in the Financial Times this week, as he continues his campaign against the pending Brexit vote.  “I see myself as a product of the European postwar history of reconciliation, peace and exchange,” he writes. (more…)

Kenny Schachter is quoted in The Telegraph this week, claiming extensive corruption, money laundering and insider trading among the higher ends of the art market.  “Any time a lot of money crops up, hideous behavior follows too,” he says. (more…)

Paris’s current flooding has led to the evacuation of artworks from the Louvre and Musée d’Orsay, the WSJ reports.  The Seine has already crested at over 15 feet above its normal level, and water levels are not expected to recede until after the weekend. (more…)

Over the past decade, the FBI has recovered more than 2,650 missing pieces of art or historical artifacts, according to an NBC Washington report, which also reviews the complex network of intermediaries that often move the work around the globe.  “There is a vast network of middlemen, international brokers and looters,” Investigator Martin Licciardo said. (more…)

Vito Acconci is profiled in the New York Times this week, as he prepares a career retrospective at MoMA PS1.  “I hated the word artist,” he says. “To me, even in the years when I was showing things in galleries, it seemed to me that I didn’t really have anything to do with art. The word itself sounded, and still sounds to me, like ‘high art,’ and that was never what I saw myself doing.” (more…)

Artist duo Gilbert & George have announced plans to open a gallery in London’s East End, The Guardian reports.  The Spitalfields space is touted as “a non-profit foundation for contemporary art that operates purely for the public benefit with the aim to promote the education of the public in the arts by exhibiting contemporary art in its exhibition spaces, benefiting both the local community as well as the wider community attracting visitors from other locations.” (more…)

Dominique Lévy is expanding into the ground floor of her current location at 909 Madison Ave, filling up the space formerly occupied by Galerie Perrotin, which is moving to a new, unannounced location.  “It gives us even more flexibility,” Lévy says, “and allows us to expand our passion for sculpture.” (more…)

William Eggleston is now represented by David Zwirner, the New York Times reports, ending a five-year partnership with Gagosian Gallery.  “Eggleston is really a living legend of American art,” Zwirner says. “And it’s important for us — and for the artist — that he is contextualized as an artist and not just as a photographer.” (more…)

The Financial Times examines the “wow” factor, that has come to define the Tate Modern’s programming in the past decades, going deep into the museum’s curatorial focus and exploratory, often sensational exhibition plans to understand the museum’s impact on curatorial and exhibition practice in that time frame.  “Tate Modern’s thematic displays not only revolutionized how museums tell — or don’t — the history of art; they also promoted a reversal of power between artist and curator,” author Jackie Wullschlager writes.  “Chronological arrangements more or less protect art from curatorial interference. Thematic ones put a curator’s theoretical agenda first, prejudging and predetermining our responses, and selecting work by content or ideology rather than quality. (more…)

The Senate Finance Committee has sent its investigation findings in its review of a group of private art museums to the IRS this week, noting a number of practices that raise issues over the use of these museums as tax havens rather than public services.  “Despite the good work that is being done by many private museums, I remain concerned that this area of our tax code is ripe for exploitation,” says Senator Orrin Hatch. (more…)

Lia Gangitano, the founder of seminal downtown space Participant Inc, is interviewed in the New York Times this week, as she discusses her drive to foster an arts community independent of the city’s commercial gallery scene.  “It’s very much a labor of love — and a vow of poverty,” she says. “I have a lot of teaching jobs.”  (more…)

The New York Times is discontinuing its ArtsBeat blog, announcing its decision in a lighthearted post on its site.  “The features that made the blog such an appealing alternative to our traditional publishing tools — agility, the ability to embed digital content and a chance to use a livelier voice — have largely been absorbed into the rest of our work,” Daniel McDermon writes. (more…)

Anton Kern Gallery is leaving its Chelsea location for Midtown, where it will open shop on 55th Street.  The gallery’s current home had been sold in 2014 to the development group DDG for more than $24 million.   (more…)

The Art Newspaper reviews artists’ oppositions to an EU exit for the UK, speaking with Tacita Dean about recent work inspired by the referendum vote.  “I am making the largest blackboard drawing I have ever embarked upon,” Dean says. “It is based on The Tempest and is 32-foot long. As I often write on the boards things that come into my head as I draw, I’ve been extremely conscious of Brexit since beginning work on it. The Tempest is a manufactured storm, as is this EU Referendum, but unlike Prospero, [David] Cameron cannot control it and Caliban is loose on the island.” (more…)

The New York Times looks at a series of buildings making space for artist studios in Manhattan’s increasingly priced-out neighborhoods, speaking with a number of the artists working in them.  “I spent my whole career moving north,” says Fred Brathwaite, the famous graffiti artist and filmmaker. “In the ’80s, it was the Lower East Side, then Midtown in the ’90s. Now, I’m back home, in the kind of space I never thought I’d find.” (more…)

More accusations have come to light this week in the case between Dmitriy Rybolovlev and Yves Bouvier, as the Russian billionaire accused the dealer of overcharging him on a number of deals taking place over the course of the last decade.  “The level of art expertise of any of the victims of this massive fraud is irrelevant,” a spokesman for Rybolovlev says. “The underlying dishonesty resides in the structure of the hidden margins amounting to $1 billion, and how the victims were made to believe that these secret margins were part of the purchase price.” (more…)

A Spanish court has denied the U.S.’s extradition request for José Carlos Bergantiños Díaz, citing poor health.  Bergantiños Díaz is wanted in connection with the Knoedler Gallery sales of fraudulent works, with some believing he masterminded the deal. (more…)

The Guardian looks at a recent series of artists’ works looking at real estate inequality, and exploring the social conditions, government policy and wealth that often shape urban development.  “You don’t see the people making your shirt or picking your food,” says artist Rosten Woo, who is developing a project in LA’s Skid Row neighborhood, “but you can see inequality really clearly when your neighbors change, or you yourself having to leave your apartment. It’s not the worst aspect of our particular moment in capitalism, but it is the most visible. People want to talk about it, but it’s not where I think the conversation should end. I think it does suggest it’s a way into a much larger phenomenon.” (more…)