Ai Weiwei’s iconic bicycle installation Forever will be installed in front of the Gherkin in London next week, as part of the city’s “Sculpture in the City” event, running from Sept. 4th-13th.  “The Forever bicycles were a brand from when I was growing up. In our village there were no real roads and we always had to ride bikes to carry things,” Ai says.  “I thought they would be a good public sculpture because people relate to bikes. They’re designated for the body and operated with your body. There are a few things today that are like that.”  (more…)

Singapore’s highest court has unfrozen the assets of Yves Bouvier, locked down earlier this year following the Swiss dealer’s lawsuit with Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev over mark-ups on the work Rybolovlev purchased that tallied over $1 billion.  “I am happy that my position has been vindicated,” Bouvier said. (more…)

Ghanaian artist Ibrahim Mahama, whose stretched jute sack are a highlight of this summer’s Venice Biennale, is the defendant in a lawsuit brought by Stefan Simchowitz and Dublin dealer Jonathan Ellis King, after the artist emailed them disowning 294 pieces by the artist.  “I was really left with no choice,” Simchowitz said, noting that the act has cost the dealers over $4.45 million. (more…)

William Kentridge has planned a massive installation, Triumphs and Lamentations on the banks of the Tiber in Rome, power-washing its embankments to create a series of monumental images of war and its aftermath.  “Everyone’s triumph is someone else’s disaster,’ Kentridge said at a presentation of the frieze he would use as his plan for the work. “If you’re returning in triumph from a war, it means that other people are returning as slaves.”  (more…)

The New York Times notes a new wave of young, dynamic, and often privately-affiliated art advisors working in the burgeoning market for art.  “There is a new breed,” says Wendy Cromwell, former president of the Association of Professional Art Advisors, “an independent contractor — kind of like black ops, like a hired gun — who can get you what you need in a tough, changing environment.” (more…)

Miuccia Prada is taking an active role in strengthening diplomatic relations between Iran and Italy, lending works from the Fondazione Prada’s current exhibition Serial Classic, on ancient sculpture, to an exhibition starting next month at the National Museum of Iran in Tehran. (more…)

Tania Bruguera has returned to the United States, following 8 months of detainment in Cuba for her protest work, Tatlin’s Whisper #6.  The artist’s arrest for the work had evoked fears that she may be placed in detention for “disturbing the public order.”
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LA’s The Broad is set to open September 20th with a vast exhibition of its permanent collection.  “This installation is an incredible opportunity to highlight the collection’s breadth and demonstrate in full force the Broads’ nearly five-decade engagement with art,”Founding Director Joanne Heyler. “We are not only able to present exciting moments of the collection’s well-known depth in artists like Twombly, Lichtenstein, Koons, and Warhol, but we also have explored interconnections between artists, and are showing works not previously associated with the collection and shared for the first time with Los Angeles audiences, including many of our most recent acquisitions.”  (more…)

An article in NPR this week questions the oft-praised attendance records and audience engagement implying the strength of the art world, and examines the quality of evaluation that visitors to museums are currently practicing.  “The art world can survive anything from the public — hostility, ignorance, even fanatical prudishness — but the art world cannot survive an indifferent public,” says Michael Lewis, an art history professor at Williams College. (more…)

Dutch police have arrested a man accused of trying to sell a counterfeit Van Gogh painting for â‚¬15 million, claiming the piece was an early study for the artist’s work The Harvest.  Several buyer had expressed interest in the work, which had forged papers claiming authenticity by the Van Gogh Museum. (more…)

The LA Review of Books examines the career Peter Zumthor this week, and the Swiss architect’s plans for the extended design of LACMA, which boasts one of his signature, stark towers and will connect the museum with the existing Broad Contemporary Art Museum, the Resnick Pavilion, the Pavilion for Japanese Art, the Page Museum and the La Brea Tar Pits. (more…)

Marketplace has an article on Arthena, the startup aiming to encourage investment in fine art through an equity share purchase of a curated art collection.  “I’m part of this generation that they’re trying to reach out to, and I realized that this generation looks at art not only from a cultural perspective, but also a financial perspective,” says founder Madelaine D’Angelo. “And it makes sense, because if you look at how many kids my age have student loans, if you put $10,000 into something, you want to make sure it’ll be worth $10,000 the next day.” (more…)

UK Culture Minister Ed Vaizey has placed an export bar on the 1762 study of Niagara Falls by military artist Capt. Thomas Davies, the first eyewitness artwork depicting the natural wonder.  “I hope that the temporary export bar I have put in place will result in a UK buyer coming forward and that the watercolor will be available for all to better understand Britain’s global role in the 18th century,” Vaizey said. (more…)

Four stolen Andrew Wyeth paintings have been recovered from a pawn shop featured on reality TV, NBC reports, worth about $1 million to $2 million each.  The paintings were stolen from a home in Maine in 2013, and traveled cross-country before ultimately being sold at the Beverly Hills Pawn Shop, subject of a program on cable channel Reelz.  Two paintings from the collection are still outstanding.  “I’m optimistic that one day soon the paintings will be returned to their rightful owner and we’ll bring those responsible to justice,” says Vincent B. Lisi, special agent for the FBI’s Boston Division. (more…)

The Kansas City Art Institute, which has trained or employed a number of major artists, including Robert Rauschenberg and Nick Cave, has received an anonymous gift of $25 million to its endowment, one of the largest gifts ever to an American art school.  “I hate to use the word ‘transformational,’ because it’s bandied about so much these days,” says interim president Tony Jones said, “but it’s true in this case. It’s literally a make-the-difference gift in terms of scholarships.” (more…)

NPR has an in-depth profile in Paul Durand-Ruel this week, the 19th century Paris art dealer who first fostered the market for Impressionist works, and the story of his rise to success.  “One of his artists came in one day with a young French painter, introducing him and saying, ‘This artist will surpass us all’ — and that artist was Claude Monet,” says curator Joe Rishel, who organized a show on the dealer at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. (more…)

Forbes has published an eye-opening profile on Elisa Stephens, head of the for-profit Academy of Art University, and her struggles to keep the university’s national chain of schools (which have drawn criticism for poor graduation rates and job placements) afloat.  “This industry was the darling of Wall Street,” says Trace Urdan, a research analyst for Credit Suisse. “But you have a federal government that for the last six and a half years has been very hostile to this sector. The re-regulation of this space has depressed valuations.” (more…)

German art historian Eike Schmidt has been appointed director of the Uffizi Gallery, one of seven foreigners heading up some of Italy’s top museums and exhibition spaces, part of a reform program for the nation’s public museums.  “The promise held out by autonomy, is that you can do simple things to make the museum more accessible without too much fuss,” James Bradburne, the Canadian-born former director of the Palazzo Strozzi in Milan just appointed as head of Milan’s Brera Gallery. (more…)

Michael Govan has been awarded the Independent Curators International Leo Award for “extraordinary commitment to artists and pioneering contributions to the field of contemporary art.” “It’s an honor to be part of an ICI event,” Govan said.  “ICI’s exhibitions and support for independent curators have helped shape the field over many years. And ICI often gives art and artists exposure ahead of the curve.” (more…)

Artist Charles Pétillon has been commissioned to fill London’s Covent Garden market with 100,000 balloons, the first installation the artist has created outside of France.  “I want to change people’s point of view, their perspective of a place they see every day and never really look at,” he says. “A swimming pool, a field: if I suddenly put something strange in it like these balloons you will see it differently. I don’t want my works to be seen just as decoration, there is always something they are trying to draw out or question.” (more…)

This year, the Turner Prize is taking to the road in Scotland, with an art gallery on wheels transporting the shortlist exhibition through Scotland.  The exhibition also features past winners of the prize, and begins in Edinburgh this Sunday.   (more…)

The New York Times looks at the ongoing competition between Sotheby’s and Christie’s, and recent strategy changes that each have taken to gain the upper hand in their decades-long competition.  We have been recruiting talent as well as exploring bolder ideas designed to substantially improve our performance in contemporary,” says Sotheby’s CEO and President Tad Smith. (more…)

An article in The Guardian this week looks behind the veneer of Andy Warhol’s New York cool, showing an artist who loved weightlifting, jewelry and his family life.   “When we were all together as a family, my mom would sometimes question Uncle Andy about his art,” says nephew James Warhola.  “You know, ‘What’s that meant to be?’, or even ‘Why are you wasting your time on this?’ And he would give as good as he got – not in a hostile way, but saying that this was his work, it had value and importance for him. He had studied art and was very knowledgeable.” (more…)

Melva Bucksbaum, the vice chairman of the Whitney Museum, and a trustee of the Aspen Institute, the American friends of the Israel Museum, the Hirshhorn Museum, and the Museum of Modern Art, has passed away.  Bucksbaum had a reputation for her charitable support of artists and institutions. “They support artists, even new ones. They buy according to their hearts, and they have good ones,” artist Pat Steir said of Bucksbaum and her husband. (more…)