Photographer Dawoud Bey gets a profile in the New York Times this week, as he looks at his body of work and the violence against black bodies endemic to the United States.  “What underlines and underpins all of this are these places, and what these places are and what they were and what they represent in our collective history,” he says. “You can either tie an enslaved person to a tree and whip them until they pass out or you can put your knee on their neck and wait until they die.” (more…)

The New York Times this week describes a protracted battle to reclaim the looted collection of Baron Mor Lipot Herzog, and the collectors’ descendants who have taken up the cause.  “It’s the third generation and fourth generation who is actively pursuing the quest to restitute the memory of the Herzog family, to right the provenance of the looted artworks,” said Agnes Peresztegi, a lawyer who has represented parts of the family for 20 years. (more…)

Sotheby’s will sell the collection of New York collector, art dealer, and interior designer Hester Diamond, featuring a range of both Old Masters and Contemporary works, valued at $30 million. “Her taste and her visual sensibility were so strong, it ran through everything, the modern and the old,” says Diamond’s Stepdaughter, dealer Rachel Kaminsky. (more…)

Artist Howardena Pindell has readied a new body of work at The Shed, and speaks with the New Times about her life and work.  “Every day I live, I seem to forget all that I’ve done, and I’m amazed when I think about it,” she says. “I don’t know how I did it. I really don’t. I mean, I don’t know how I survived.” (more…)

A piece in the NYT this week visits Beirut-based artist Maya Husseini, chronicling the destruction the city’s explosion wreaked on her works, and the countless pieces destroyed by the blast. “Thirty years of my professional life were gone,” she says. “Dust!” (more…)

Rachel Whiteread has an interview in The Guardian this week, encouraging young artists to hold on to their dreams and hopes in this challenging time. “I really want people to carry on doing what they were doing. It is important they don’t give up on their dreams, and they follow through with what they have trained for,” she says. (more…)

The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA) has tapped Stéphane Aquin as its new director, taking over from Nathalie Bondil, who was forced out last summer amid allegations. “It is with great pride that we announce the return of Stéphane Aquin to the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. His impressive track record, combined with his knowledge of the MMFA, has made him an obvious candidate to fill the role of director,” said MMFA board chair Pierre Bougie in a statement. (more…)

The Brooklyn Museum is expanding its rounds of deaccessioning, selling off another set of works October 28th at Sotheby’s.  “This effort is designed to support one of the most important functions of any museum–the care for its collection–and comes after several years of focused effort by the museum to build a plan to strengthen its collections, repatriate objects, advance provenance research, improve storage and more,” says director Anne Pasternak. (more…)

John Hatfield, Executive Director of Socrates Sculpture Park since 2012, has announced his plans to step down after nine years leading the outdoor sculpture park.  “It has been my great privilege to lead such an extraordinary organization over the last nine years,” he said. (more…)

Art in General will permanently shut down operations as of October 31 due to the challenges posted by Covid-19.  The organization plans to donate its archives to the Smithsonian. (more…)

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The New York Times has a piece this week culling together a list of the “25 Most Influential Works of American Protest Art Since WWII,” and exploring how various works, from signs, to installations, to active participations in physical space, have affected and changed discourses on art and politics. (more…)

Lévy Gorvy has opened a new location at a former Pret a Manger in London. “When times are difficult, people get creative,” says Victoria Gelfand-Magalhaes, Lévy Gorvy’s president in Europe. (more…)

Brazilian mining magnate and art collector Bernardo Paz, has been prevented from selling works from his collection at Inhotim Institute in Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte to subsidize the more than $110m that his former iron ore mining company, Itaminas, owes to the state of Minas Gerais. The Brazilian court ruled the decision to sell the works did not prioritize the public interest. (more…)

The Ford Foundation and Andrew W. Mellon Foundation have joined forces on a grant fund for disabled artists and activists, the Disability Future Fellows. “Institutional structures have not served disabled artists in the past,” said Emil Kang, Program Director for Arts and Culture at the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. “Disability Futures is the result of listening, collaboration, and humble engagement and we at Mellon are pleased to recognize and support these outstanding artists.” (more…)

A Detroit Institute of Arts investigation into a whistle-blower complaint has concluded on the ruling that the museum did not breach conflict of interest loans after borrowing a $5 million El Greco painting owned by the director’s father-in-law. “There was no finding of any intention to mislead or hide information, nor was there any finding of any conflict of interest, violation of DIA policy or violation of applicable law,” says reviewing law firm Crowell & Moring. (more…)

The Nordic Pavilion at the Venice Biennale will renamed will be renamed to the Sámi Pavilion for the exhibition’s 2022 edition, acknowledging the Sámi artists, Pauliina Feodoroff, Máret Ánne Sara, and Anders Sunna, showing there.  “The global pandemic, the impact of climate change, and worldwide calls for decolonization are leading us all to focus on alternative possibilities for our future and that of our planet,” says Katya García-Antón, the director of the Office for Contemporary Art Norway and the lead commissioner of the pavilion. “At this pivotal moment, it is vital to consider Indigenous ways of relating to the environment and to each other.” (more…)

The curators at the Baltimore Museum of Art have responded to criticism over the deaccessioning of works by Clyfford Still, Brice Marden and Andy Warhol from its collection in Art Newspaper this week. “These curatorial decisions reflect the same values we seek institutionally: equity and diversity make history fairer, more accurate and more meaningful in the present,” they write. (more…)

Simone Leigh will become the first black woman to exhibit as the U.S. choice for its Venice Biennale pavilion in 2022, the NYT reports. “I feel like I’m a part of a larger group of artists and thinkers who have reached critical mass,” Ms Leigh, 52, said. “And despite the really horrific climate that we’ve reached, it still doesn’t distract me from the fact of how amazing it is to be a Black artist right now.” (more…)

Over 1,300 arts orgs in the U.K. will receive a share of £257m government funding to help them survive the next six months.  The funding was announced this week in an effort to maintain British arts venues and institutions during the challenging late months of COVID-19. (more…)

The US Supreme Court has declined an appeal by developer Jerry Wolkoff’s G&M Realty to reverse a decision awarding $6.75m to 21 street artists whose works were destroyed when Wolkoff whitewashed the exterior of his 5Pointz warehouse.“The significance of this decision is that federal law now protects not only artwork exhibited in MoMA or the Louvre but also public murals, created with permission,” says Eric Baum, a lawyer for the artists. (more…)

A piece in Art Newspaper this week asks why certain works of art are stolen multiple times, and looks at the reasons thieves continue to steal works with a questionable resale value. “One thing I’m seeing more of is the use of such stolen works as a bargaining chip for [reducing] sentences,” says Robert Read, the head of art and private clients at Hiscox. “This trend was noted about a decade ago, but as sentencing gets more creative in the courtroom, it would appear that criminals are viewing it as more of an opportunity—in this case the more publicity and better known a work, the better.” (more…)

Vinci Chang, head of Sotheby’s Asia modern art department, is leaving the company.  Chang was on the ground floor through the department’s impressive last few years of growth, and hands the reins off to Felix Kwok, Head of Modern Asia Art Sales at Sotheby’s Hong Kong. (more…)

Deutsche Bank is planing to sell off around 200 works from its art holdings, Bloomberg reports.  The sold works focus in particular on pieces and objects outside the collection’s main focus, including paintings, sculptures, drawings and prints. (more…)