Some of the paintings allegedly stolen from Picasso’s stepdaughter, Catherine Hutin-Blay, were found in the collection of Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev, who purchased them through art broker and adviser, Yves Bouvier (currently under investigation for fraud).  Bouvier’s lawyer denies any knowledge of the works’ stolen status.  “For all the paintings he acquired, he asked for a certificate from the Art Loss Register, demonstrating that it has not been registered as missing or stolen,” says Bouvier’s attorney, Luc Brossollet.   (more…)

The court case over the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice has begun, a lawsuit by the collector’s grandson to prevent the Guggenheim Foundation from showing any works not in the collection within the museum space, “alleging it breaks with the original arrangement that Peggy wanted and which should be respected after her death,” according to plaintiff Sandro Rumney. (more…)

The Whitney Museum has launched a new program for emerging and young artists, giving them access to the spaces of the new downtown location to put on their first U.S. solo exhibitions.  The first artists selected for the project are New York-based artists Jared Madere and Rachel Rose, as well as Qatari-American writer and artist Sophia Al-Maria.   (more…)

The Guardian has an article this week looking at composer Arvo Pärt and Gerhard Richter’s early careers under communism, and the pair’s respective pieces dedicated to the work of the other, to premiere at this year’s Manchester International Festival this month. (more…)

Continuing her fundraising quest through the sale of her grandfather Pablo Picasso‘s estate, Marina Picasso is selling her inherited villa in Cannes, La Califnornie, a space she has already seen a €150 Million offer for. “Of course I’m selling,” she says. “But it’s also a way to share.” (more…)

The Guardian takes another look at Grayson Perry’s recently completed home design in Essex, the fittingly-titled A House for Essex, which he calls a monument to “thwarted female intelligence,” and executed as a sacred communion with an imagined Essex woman named Julie May Cope. (more…)

A piece in the Financial Times notes that the value of the global art market topped €51 billion last year, an astounding figure that comes as Christie’s topped a $1 billion in sales this week alone.  Featuring in-depth analysis, the article notes the U.S. and China as the top shareholders in market value, and as well as the interesting detail that most dealer inventory rarely moves in under 6 months, despite that current clamor for works on the market.    (more…)

NPR has a profile on painter Elaine de Kooning (wife of Willem de Kooning) this week, focusing on the artist’s interest in portraiture as a retrospective of her work opens at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., including her famous depiction of John F. Kennedy.  “The idea of a man who happens to be president of the United States — well, that’s already, right there, he’s bigger than life,” de Kooning said in 1976. “I was scampering up and down the ladder to do this painting.” (more…)

With Dasha Zhukova’s Garage Center for Contemporary Art set to open on June 12th in Moscow, the museum has released a video offering a preview of both its impressive architecture and its world-class collection, including a colorful mural unearthed during renovations of the site, previously a Soviet-era restaurant.   (more…)

Art Basel’s Popular large-scale installation section, Unlimited, has released a 74-artist roster for its upcoming edition next month in Switzerland, including work by Martin Creed, Olafur Eliasson, Jeppe Hein, Robert Irwin, and many more.   (more…)

In a perhaps unprecedented move, the entire first year class at USC’s Roski School of Arts MFA Program have dropped out of the program, protesting moves by Dean Erica Muhl to overhaul the department’s structure and funding models.  “Whatever artistic work we created this spring semester was achieved in spite of, not because of, the institution,” the seven students wrote in an open letter announcing their withdrawal.  “Because the university refused to honor its promises to us, we are returning to the workforce degree-less and debt-full.” (more…)

In a single week, Christie’s has sold over $1 billion in art, a daunting feat that signals a new level for the global market perhaps never seen before.  “It’s a spectacle of excess at the highest level,” says Abigail Asher of Guggenheim Asher Associates Inc. “The last few years have been building up to this moment. A new class of buyer has entered the market and they’re prepared to pay staggering sums for trophy pictures.”   (more…)

Two of the most valuable works from the Cornelius Gurlitt collection, Woman with a Fan, (1923) by Henri Matisse, and Two Riders on a Beach (1901) by Max Liebermann, will be returned to the families of their original owners.  “Thankfully Gurlitt liked our Liebermann and kept it prized on his wall,” says Mr. Matteis, the lawyer representing David Toren, heir to the Liebermann work. (more…)

Painter Zeng Fanzhi is the subject of a video profile on Nowness this week, shot in Paris and exploring his work and stance towards creating.  “An artist should follow his heart, create, then keep moving,” he says.  “If you keep repeating yourself than that’s a waste of the artistic life.” (more…)

The Shortlist for the 2015 Turner Prize has been announced, featuring a diverse body of artists and practices that diverges wildly from last year’s heavily video and film-centric affair.  The 2015 Prize exhibition will be staged this year at the Tramway arts venue in Glasgow.  The Turner Prize, a £25,000 award, is Britain’s most prominent recognition in the arts, and this year will go to either London artist Bonnie Camplin, German-born artist Nicole Wermers, London-based arts collective Assemble (which adopted an abandoned housing estate and converted it into a new community space), or artist Janice Kerbel.  Working in a wide variety of media, social practice and community milieu factor heavily into the pieces on view this year.

The Turner Prize exhibition will open this October in Glasgow. (more…)

W Magazine takes a look inside the home of Frieze director Victoria Siddall and her partner, gallerist François Chantala this week, just in time for the opening of the organization’s New York edition.  “Our work and social lives are totally continuous and intertwined,”Siddall says.  “But when we’re in the same city, it means that at least we get to see each other in the evenings. The art lot always knows how to put on a great party.” (more…)

The New York Times visits Michael Heizer at his Nevada ranch and studio, and explores his ongoing project City.  “It epitomizes a fusion of ancient and modern forms,” Heizer says.  “It’s huge in size, but antimonumental in its relentless horizontality and its sinuous, continuous curves. It’s also unphotographable and impossible to capture in its totality. It has to be experienced in time and space — over time, and distance.” (more…)

Artist and dealer Dorothee Fischer, who headed the Konrad Fischer gallery in Düsseldorf, and advocated for artists like Carl Andre, Joseph Beuys, and Blinky Palermo, has passed away at the age of 78.  Fischer’s tireless, focused work in conceptual and minimal art built a dedicated group of artists around her, and she in turn built an impressive collection of 250 works, alongside her gallery archives, both of which were purchased by the Kunststiftung Nordrhein-Westfalen for over $1 million.   (more…)

Bloomberg takes a look at the vast number of fairs and auctions taking place this month, and the growing move by these sellers to diversify as the art fair model matures.  “The best collectors don’t just buy contemporary art,” said Michael Plummer, whose New York-based consultancy Artvest Partners owns the Spring Masters fair. “They might have Renaissance painting and antiquities and modern art.” (more…)

The endlessly prolific Hans Ulrich Obrist has a new book out this week, titled Lives of the Artists, Lives of the Architects, tracing a series of the artist’s ongoing conversations with artists and designers over the course of his career, including pieces with David Hockney and Marina Abramovic. (more…)

An article in The Guardian looks at the current art community in Los Angeles, and asks if perhaps the Californian metropolis now offers better opportunities for artists than New York City’s vaunted art scene.  There’s a lot of people helping each other out here,” says artist David Flores. “And there’s a lot more room to play with, more elbow room.”  (more…)

French art dealer Olivier Thomas is under investigation after Catherine Hutin-Blay, the step-daughter of Pablo Picasso, filed charges accusing him of allegedly stealing artworks he was meant to be transporting and storing for her.   (more…)

Leo Fitzpatrick, the former star of Larry Clark’s film Kids, and longtime director of the Nate Lowman project space Home Alone 2, will join Marlborough Chelsea as a gallery director.  “I’m very proud of what I was able to accomplish with Home Alone over those three years, but generally it was me taking art on the subway, trying to put on these shows,” Fitzpatrick says. “I’m really excited about having help, and people to bounce ideas off of. We can really do big things. If I was able to do so much with so little, imagine what I can do here.” (more…)

London’s Royal Academy of Art has unveiled a £50 million expansion plan that will link the institution’s two buildings in the British capital’s Mayfair district.  “You will be able to go from an exhibition in Burlington House to a lecture in Burlington Gardens through the vaults of the building,” says Sir David Chipperfield, who designed the project.  “You will see the cast corridors, you will see where the schools have been all this time. It’s a small amount of architecture for a profound result.” (more…)