Banksy recently traveled to the war-torn Gaza Strip, where the artist has created a new series of works, documented on his website.  Pieces include an immense kitten drawn on the wall of a demolished building, and a crying figure inside the doorway of another leveled site, both documented in a video made during the artist’s time in Palestine.   (more…)

A collection of more than 200 prints by Jim Dine have been gifted to the British Museum, The Guardian reports.  “It is very exciting,” said Museum Curator of Modern Prints, Stephen Coppel.  “It was a very generous offer, given that he has made over a thousand prints.  Choosing was fun. It took some time and there was a lot of backing and forthing, but it is a really great group of things.” (more…)

Marina Abramovic has announced that she is preparing to publish her memoirs, due for the fall of 2016.  The book will be released in conjunction with the artist’s 70th birthday.  “My experiences have always been a big part of my work — they’re the source of everything I do, they’re my inspiration,” Abramovic said in a statement. “I hope that by sharing my story, I can give people the courage to do the things they’re afraid to do in their own lives.” (more…)

Donald Fisher, the founder of Gap clothing, is preparing to unveil a sizable portion of his collection publicly for the first time next month at Paris’s Grand Palais.  The collection of 20th century works will be shown next year at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, which is currently undergoing major renovations to prepare for it.  “I think we will have more works by artists including Richter and Calder on view at one time than anywhere else in the world,” says curator Gary Garrels. (more…)

Artists Elmgreen and Dragset will install a commissioned sculpture on the High Line next month, a “dysfunctional” telescope that plays on lines of site for New York landmarks.  “The telescope will be located at a point where it is possible to see with the naked eye landmarks such as the Statue of Liberty,” Elmgreen says. “It is an oversized black structure with very thin legs; it looks a little like an insect.” (more…)

The Guardian traces the career of Richard Diebenkorn, and his frequent oscillations between abstract figuration and more concrete landscapes during his lifetime in California and New Mexico.  The article comes in conjunction with Diebenkorn’s recently opened exhibition at the Royal Academy of the Arts.  “I want painting to be difficult to do,” he once stated, revealing his commitment to pushing his work into new territory. (more…)

Artist Hans Haacke’s commission for London’s Fourth Plinth is the subject of an article in The Guardian this week, examining the work’s ties to money, power and speculation in the arts.  “The reason I thought it would not be accepted was that I knew what would have happened in New York,” Haacke says. “There is no way that something that plays with Wall Street in this fashion would ever be approved under the auspices of the mayor.” (more…)

Jeff Koons has reportedly been given an $8 million commission from the government of Sacramento to build one of his Coloring Book works at the city’s new basketball arena.  This is the most the Californian capital has spent on a public work of art to date. (more…)

Marina Abramovic is in Bloomberg this week, reviewing her current market value, and the difficulties in selling her works despite her immense recognition as an artist.  “There is this contradiction,” says Abramovic. “I’m very high on every art list or whatever, but as for market value, I’m less than any mediocre, how do you call it, young art.” (more…)

La Coiffeuse, a 1911 Pablo Picasso painting stolen from a Centre Pompidou storage room in 2001, has been recovered, after customs officials at the Port of Newark found it in a package marked with the words Merry Christmas.  “A lost treasure has been found,” said US Attorney Loretta Lynch.  “Because of the blatant smuggling in this case the painting is subject to forfeiture to the United States. Forfeiture of the painting will extract it from the grasp of the black market in stolen art so it can be returned to its rightful owner.” (more…)

A Swiss Businessman was arrested in Monaco this week, on charges of reportedly manipulating art prices and money laundering.  Yves Bouvier, the owner of several “freeports,” where art is often sold without duties, was detained this week, after authorities uncovered an alleged plot to defraud several clients, including Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev. (more…)

A banner placed in an Oscar Murillo installation was forcibly removed by a museum security guard at the Centro Cultural Daoiz y Velarde in Madrid this week.  The sign, which Murillo had taken from protestors against the museum’s high price tag and public funding, was installed in a work playing on the intersection of aesthetics and protest, and was eventually placed back on view after the artist complained.  “This is a work in motion,” the artist said. “What I do depends on the things happening around me.” (more…)

The New York City Ballet has noted a marked uptick in young attendees in recent years, an indication that their efforts and commissions, like Dustin Yellin’s current project with the institution, are seeing successful returns.  “We had a hypothesis that there might be a crossover interest between the visual arts and dance, particularly the kind of repertoire that we have — which have an abstract and contemporary feeling,” Katherine E. Brown, the company’s executive director said. (more…)

The annual figures by Artprice have placed 2014 as another record year in the art market, with $15.2 billion in works sold at auction in the past year, including a record 1,679 sales worth $1 million or more.  “More museums were created between 2000 and 2005 than during the entire 19th and 20th centuries,” says Wang Jie, president of Artprice.com and Artron group.  “A museum needs a minimum of 3,000 to 4,000 quality works to be credible… (and) is not meant to get rid of its acquisitions.” (more…)

The Museo Jumex in Mexico City is facing criticism after canceling an exhibition on the work of Hermann Nitsch, the Vienna Actionist painter whose frequent use of blood and animal viscera led to the institution calling off the show.  “This is a different kind of shocking,” Nitsch said.  “They wasted a lot of money. They wasted my time.  I was very, very sad.” (more…)

A pair of brothers have been arrested in Spain following the sale of a fake Goya painting.  The brothers’ attempts at selling the fraudulent painting was rewarded with more trickery by their customer, reportedly a sheikh who  paid them 1.7 million in fake, photocopied Swiss Francs (€1.5 million).  The brothers were arrested after the smuggled counterfeits were discovered in Avignon. (more…)

The Art Market Monitor has published the letter from investor Mike McGuire of Marcato Capital to Sotheby’s, in which he lays out a plan for a stock dividend and increased returns.  “Despite our dialogue with you and other members of the board, a substantial portion of Sotheby’s invested capital continues to earn a poor return or worse yet, earns noreturn at all,” he writes. (more…)

The Telegraph profiles the immense demands that the month of March place on art dealers and gallerists each year, with three major fairs (TEFAF, The Armory Show and Art Basel Hong Kong) sending them on a tour to cater to buyers around the globe.  “Fairs are a necessary evil,” says dealer Ben Brown. “I prefer the quieter contemplation of the gallery, but I sell more at fairs, and I make more contacts.” (more…)

The Guardian has published an article examining the comic sensibilities of René Magritte, and his deliberately succinct style of painting that some liken to its own brand of a visual punchline.  “Magritte always claimed he was against interpretation,” says Professor Elsa Adamowicz. “His images suggest narratives or meaning, but that meaning is suspended, as in our dreams.” (more…)

A group of heirs to a Jewish art dealer have sued the German government over a collection of Renaissance-era artworks valued at $226 million.  The works were reportedly sold under duress during the Nazi rise to power, although hard details about the sale are somewhat murky.   “Any transaction in 1935, where the sellers on the one side were Jews and the buyer on the other side was the Nazi state itself is by definition a void transaction,” says Nicholas O’Donnell, the lawyer representing the plaintiffs in the case. (more…)

The Guardian traces the controversy surrounding Constantin Brancusi’s The Wisdom of the Earth, a sculpture that has long sat at the forefront of the Romanian consciousness as a national treasure, but which is currently being put up for sale by its owners.  “The truth is that it is an iconic sculpture for Romanians; it’s an iconic image that is present in all the books about our national identity. The state used it a lot in its cultural propaganda and transformed it into an icon of the Romanian soul,” says Alexandru Baldea, managing partner of auction house Artmark, which is selling the piece.   (more…)

Despite improved relations between the United States and Cuba, the Art Newspaper notes that the island’s government still refuses to return art seized by the government from exiles during the 1960’s.  “In most of the articles you read about missing art in Cuba, the question is—where is the piece? That’s not my issue. I know where it is, I just can’t get to it. There’s no method of my claimed ownership being adjudicated,” says Javier Garcia-Bengochea, who claims Francesco Guardi’s View of the Lagoon between the Fondamenta Nuove and Murano was seized from a family member’s home.  The painting now sits in the National Museum of Fine Arts in Havana, with no success in getting the Cuban government to return it. (more…)

Rothschild heiress Bettina Burr and her family, holders of a sizable collection of artworks once looted by the Nazi’s during WWII,  have donated a sizable portion of her works to the MFA Boston.  “I always felt in the back of mind that the thing I would love the most would be if these pieces came here,” says Burr, currently vice president of the museum board of trustees. “I think my mother felt that it would be a homecoming for these pieces.” (more…)

Hedge Fund CEO Ken Griffin has gifted $10 million to the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, a donation that will help construct the museum’s new gallery wing which will now bear his name.  “Ken has been a consistent and generous supporter of the arts in our community,” says Director Madeleine Grynsztejn.  “We are extremely grateful for this important gift, as it will support our Vision Campaign and bring exciting, innovative exhibitions to diverse audiences in Chicago and beyond.” (more…)