Olafur Eliasson has successfully crowdsourced a new installment of his Little Sun project, an affordable, solar-powered mobile phone charger that will be available in several African nations.  “Every time we were in sub-Saharan Africa people would say the Little Sun is amazing but a mobile phone charger would be much better,” Eliasson said. (more…)

The BBC notes that only 3% of the UK’s £3.5 billion collection of work remains on public view.  “Public bodies and local authorities should make an effort to display more of their art for people to enjoy, and they also need to take a good, hard look at their art portfolio and think about what does and does not need to be retained,” says Jonathan Isaby, chief executive of the Taxpayers Alliance. (more…)

Ai Weiwei gave his first public talk in Berlin last night since 2011, appearing at the Berlin Philharmonic to discuss his work, and his takes on the state of politics in China.  “When you live in a centralized regime, people feel powerless,” he said. “They feel they don’t have the possibility to change things; that is the intention of the regime.” (more…)

Phillips and Ebay have announced a new partnership to improve the auction house’s live online auctions.  The partnership begins with a sale online September 17th.  “We’re excited to partner with such a well-respected international auction house specializing in contemporary art, underscoring our commitment in the art and collectibles space,” says Linda Campbell, divisional merchandise manager for Art & Collectibles at eBay. “Founded over 200 years ago, Phillips is a dynamic auction house that sells some of the world’s most important contemporary works of art, which we’re thrilled to make more accessible to our global eBay community and Phillips clients alike.”  (more…)

Both Sotheby’s and Phillips have announced major steps this to strengthen their respective business plans, with Phillips appointing a new worldwide head of 20th century art, Hugues Joffre, and Sotheby’s announcing its previously reported first office in India.   (more…)

Researchers in Germany have developed an algorithm capable of recreating the style of famous artists, including Van Gogh and Picasso, in under an hour.  “The key finding … is that the representations of content [the foundation image] and style [of specific artworks] in the convolutional neural network are separable,” says lead author Leon Gatys.  “That is, we can manipulate both representations independently to produce new, perceptually meaningful images.” (more…)

Christie’s has announced an ambitious follow-up to its successes earlier this year with another full week of auction sales this November in New York.  At the top of the sales will be an Amedeo Modigliani painting estimated at around $100 million, a price that would easily top the artist’s $70 million record.  “This is quite simply one of the most important paintings I have handled in my long career at Christie’s,” states Jussi Pylkkänen, Christie’s Global President and Chief Auctioneer. “There are a very small number of masterpieces that we dream of handling: this magnificent Modigliani has always been one of them.” (more…)

Camille Henrot has unveiled a series of drawings inspired by Nicki Minaj, taking scenes and ideas from the artist’s “Anaconda” video and interpreting them into her signature style.  “Nicki Minaj is a feminist icon,” she says.   (more…)

As part of the Florence antiques biennial, Jeff Koons will install his sculpture Pluto and Prosperina in Piazza della Signoria, placing his work face to face with a replica of Michelangelo’s David.  The installation will parallel a similar exhibition at the Galleria dell’Accademia pairing classic sculpture with modern artists. (more…)

With the commencement of the school year, USC’s controversial recent decisions for its MFA Program has resulted in only one student returning for class this fall.  The absent students have garnered the support of the school faculty, which has criticized the USC administration for “shifting resources and focus away from the execution of our core educational mission and towards bloated administrative salaries, lavish infrastructure projects, and a business model of education.” (more…)

Sotheby’s is reportedly opening a new office in India, based in Mumbai, and headed up by chairman Edward Gibbs, and regional director of India Priyanka Mathew.  “By opening an office in India, the company will be able to increase the scale and scope of its activities in the country and support a full calendar of events, talks, exhibitions, and charity sales,” the auction house said in a statement. (more…)

Cooper Union has settled its court case with the Committee to Save Cooper Union and the Office of the Attorney General of the State of New York, the school announced late yesterday, signaling a resolution to increase transparency and involvement in the school’s governance.  “Under the agreement, which must be approved by the court, The Cooper Union will increase transparency and participation by broadening the involvement of its students, alumni, faculty and staff in the school’s governance,” the school said in a statement. (more…)

The Broad Museum’s online ticketing system has crashed on its first day of operation, following overwhelming traffic to the site for museum reservations.  “It isn’t that much fun to be in an overcrowded gallery,” Director Joanne Heyler had previously noted. “We’re going to watch very carefully to strike the right balance, with access for as many as we can, but not an uncomfortable experience. We want to keep artworks safe from accidental bumping that can happen when there’s overcrowding.” (more…)

A nearly 100-foot deep tunnel discovered by Israeli police in East Jerusalem may have been intended for a museum heist at the Rockefeller Archaeological Museum, Reuters reports.  The hole had been dug in an elderly woman’s yard, possibly by a group of men reportedly checking a water leak there.  “This is the work of a criminal gang that wanted to gain access somewhere – whether to the museum or the bank, is still being checked,” says police spokeswoman Luba Samri. (more…)

Crain’s has a summary of the ongoing migration out of Chelsea by small and mid-level galleries, as rents continue to spike, and those who don’t own their buildings are slowly forced out.  “Just like in SoHo, galleries are the victims of their own success,” says Stuart Siegel, senior VP at CBRE Group Inc., who has specialized in Chelsea for years. “The galleries put Chelsea on the map. Then the world followed them.” (more…)

Following the unfreezing of his assets last week, Yves Bouvier has given an aggressive interview with a Swiss newspaper, vowing revenge against former client Dimitri Rybolovlev for his accusations of fraud.  “They deceived justice and destroyed my reputation,” he says. “I will destroy the only thing that affects the Russian billionaire in Monaco: his fortune.” (more…)

Artist Olafur Eliasson is designing a special waterfall installation for “an art pool,” where viewers can dive underwater to see works by a group of artists.  “I have wanted to construct a waterfall in Copenhagen for a while,” he says.  “I’m keen to participate in this project as it’s a work of art.” (more…)

With the conclusion of a conference at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in Geneva, a coalition of art world professionals, government workers and copyright experts have placed a call for an international review of artist copyright law, particularly in consideration of resale royalty inequity in nations like the U.S. and China.  “So many sales take place in countries that don’t recognize the right, such as the US or China,” says artist Gordon Cheung, who supports the measure.  “This unfairly disadvantages artists based in these countries, as well as artists whose work sells in these countries.” (more…)

Four artists working at Los Angeles’s MAK Center have recreated the famous Vienna hotspot, Loos Bar (named for its designer, Adolf Loos), recreated in miniature with cardboard, glue and sawdust.  “We wanted all the clichés of a European bar. You can smoke inside. It’s loud. It’s nasty,” says collaborating artist Christoph Meier.  (more…)

Takashi Murakami has announced a surprise exhibition of his personal collection of art, toys, antiques and other objects this fall at the Yokohama Museum of Art, the Art Newspaper reports, interviewing the artist on his collection and his love of Anselm Kiefer’s work.  “When I first came to New York, I finally saw a real Kiefer in a show at the Museum of Modern Art,” he says. “When I stood in front of it, I cried. The work was Osiris and Isis (1985-87), a painting of a step pyramid, and I was awestruck.”    (more…)

The Metropolitan Museum of Art has announced its renovation plans for the repurposed Breuer Building, former home of the Whitney Museum, set to open in March 2016.  The plans for the space will include a “book bar” and restaurant.  “Our approach to inhabiting and interpreting the building honors Breuer’s intent for the space, highlighting its unique character as an environment for the presentation of modern and contemporary art,” says Thomas P. Campbell, the director and CEO of the Met. “The wonderfully scaled galleries and interior spaces of The Met Breuer provide a range of opportunities to present our modern and contemporary program, in addition to our galleries in the Fifth Avenue building.” (more…)

Palestinian artist Shadi Alzaqzouq has been thrown out of Banksy’s Dismaland installation following a protest against Israeli artists included alongside his work in the exhibition.  “I found out when I arrived at the show that three Israeli artists were taking part, one of whom served in the IDF,” the artist says.  “I decided I had to protest in some way so I went and got a bed sheet from my hotel room and wrote ‘R.I.P Gaza: Boycott Israel’ on it in coal and hung it over my artwork and laid down like a corpse in front of my two paintings on display.” (more…)

Following the massive market rout earlier this week, Bloomberg notes a number of collectors already trying to squeeze liquidity from their art collections.  “Ten years ago no one in the art market paid close attention to these corrections in the stock market,” said Elizabeth von Habsburg, managing director of advisory firm Winston Art Group. “Now clients respond immediately.” (more…)

A 12-year old boy in Taiwan accidentally punched a hole in Paolo Porpora’s Flowers, after tripping and falling towards the painting this week.  “The painting’s bottom right is damaged,” says exhibition organizer, Sun Chi-hsuan. “The boy’s hand made contact with the artwork and left a hole the size of a fist.” (more…)