A new effort against money laundering in the UK is threatening the business of art galleries, Bloomberg reports.  “Some galleries may be blissfully unaware that this happened,” says Kenneth Mullen, a partner in intellectual property and technology at law firm Withersworldwide. “It’s given organizations very little time to react.” (more…)

Pace Gallery now represents the work of Beatriz Milhazes. “She’s a very strong and important artist who pushes the boundaries of art-making as we know them in the 20th and 21st centuries,” says Pace vice president Adam Sheffer. “Not unlike some other pioneers, like Robert Ryman and Agnes Martin, she works in her studio, quite focused on her technique and her imagery.” (more…)

Paris’s Musée d’Orsay has launched an Instagram artist-in-residence program, inciting illustrator Jean-Philippe Delhomme to take over its account every Monday during 2020.  “It’s like doing the Instagram of Mount Olympus,” he says of the project, which depicts famed Parisian artists on social media. “Artists want to be seen – even the most serious ones. Why wouldn’t they show off like everyone else? That element was always there, but with these social platforms it’s just irresistible.” (more…)

Art Newspaper notes calls for the Palais de Tokyo to cancel a show sponsored by Qatar over the nation’s stance against homosexuality. “This is part of the Qatari government’s shameless and long-term strategy to bribe French society and soften its stance on human rights issues in the Persian Gulf region,” says philosopher Yves Michaud. (more…)

A group of art world figures, including leaders at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York have criticized Donald Trump’s threats to destroy cultural sites in Iran.  “The targeting of sites of global cultural heritage is abhorrent to the collective values of our society,” they write. “Our world knows precisely what is gained from protecting cultural sites, and, tragically, what is lost when destruction and chaos prevail. At this challenging time, we must remind ourselves of the global importance of protecting cultural sites—the objects and places by which individuals, communities, and nations connect to their history and heritage.” (more…)

Art Newspaper has a piece this week on the future of art auctions, and the category’s gradual folding into the broader luxury goods market, and new approaches to technology. “The fundamentals of auctions should be conducive to new technology… it is not the silver bullet,” says Bonhams Chief Marketing Office Marc Sands, “but to deliver technological change, you need someone who understands it.” (more…)

Arts Professional looks at a proposed â‚¬17.9m cut to European Union (EU) culture budgets proposed by the Finnish leadership, a point that could seriously impact the organization’s culture-making activities.  “We have been crunching the numbers and the picture is bleak,” says European Parliament’s Culture and Education Committee’s Chair Sabine Verheyen.   (more…)

The Foundation for Contemporary Arts has set up a new $40,000, annual prize, named after Helen Frankenthaler.  “Helen would like nothing better than to see us supporting artists who carry on her pioneering approach to art making—and her adventurous spirit,” says Clifford Ross, board chair of the Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, which underwrites the grant. “FCA gives us the perfect opportunity to support new generations of visual artists.” (more…)

A piece in The Guardian this week charts the challenges of moving the collection of the V&A Musueum, from the heaps of paperwork to the difficulties in handling older items, to the odd bombshell. “I got a text last week saying we’ve found a bombshell,” says Ruby Hodgson, the collections move team manager. “My immediate thought was: ‘Oh God, are there explosives still in it?’” (more…)

The National Gallery of Australia in Canberra has closed its doors due to poor air quality caused by the bushfires that have devastated the country. “Due to an increase in smoke in the Canberra area the National Gallery of Australia will be closed today,” a statement reads. “Closing our doors allows us to mitigate any risk to the public, staff and works of art on display.”  (more…)

The last major auction of assets belonging to Johnson Publishing Co., a sale of the company’s impressive art collection, including a series of works by Carrie Mae Weems, will take place later this month. “The collection represents the stature and history of Johnson Publishing,” said Nigel Freeman, director of the African-American Fine Art department at Swann Auction Galleries in New York. “And it’s never been seen before by the public.” (more…)

A piece in Arts Professional this week notes a distinct drop-off in direct funding to artists, as it studies the impact of lottery funds on the art world and the artists benefitting from its program. (more…)

John Baldessari

Artist John Baldessari, who pioneered a uniquely humorous and challenging approach to painting and conceptual art making over the past half century, has passed away at the age of 88.  A leading voice in the development of conceptualism, his interest in ideas and their functioning over the image itself would make him an influential and dynamic voice for post-war art. (more…)

Art News has a piece on modern art works that entered the public domain this year, among them Joan Miró’s Head of a Catalan Peasan, Madonna with Begonia by Emil Nolde, and Portrait of the Art Dealer Johanna Ey by Otto Dix. (more…)

Russian collectors Igor and Olga Toporovsky, have been arrested on suspicion of fraud and money laundering. “The Toporovskys were arrested early last month by the Belgian federal police after a criminal complaint deposited 18 months ago by our clients. Both are held in custody; the criminal court prolonged their arrest for one month on Friday 20 December,” says lawyer Geert Lenssens. (more…)

Researchers think they have uncovered the story behind the strange orb in Da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi, noting that the object would be a hollow glass ball. “Our experiments show that an optically accurate rendering qualitatively matching that of the painting is indeed possible using materials, light sources, and scientific knowledge available to Leonardo da Vinci circa 1500,” the report reads. (more…)

Officials at St. Mark’s Basilica in Venice want to build flood-proof perspex barriers for the walls of the Cathedral, warning that the structure cannot take another damaging flood like the one last year in the city. A statement from the Prosecutoria states it hopes the plan “will have the support of everyone—Venetians, Italians and the whole world—to whom the great cultural and spiritual heritage of St Mark’s basilica belongs.” (more…)

Collectors Sandy and Louis Grotta are featured in NYT’s ‘Show Us Your Wall’ section, spotlighting their collection of furniture and sculpture. “When the pieces all have the same vocabulary, you can move something from room to room, and as long the scale’s right, it’ll work,” Mr. Grotta says of showing his works in his home. “And things tell you if they don’t belong. We’ve given a lot of thought to having a foreground, middle ground and background, too. If we had Mount Fuji outside, then we’d be perfect.” (more…)

A young man, Shakeel Ryan Massey, has been arrested for allegedly ripping a £20 million Pablo Picasso, Bust of a Woman this past week at the Tate Modern. (more…)

Roger Brown, Runaway (1968), via Venus Over Manhattan

Counted among the ranks of the Chicago Imagists, Roger Brown possessed a unique sense of figuration and composition. Celebrated for their use of imagery, figuration, narrative, and patterning, this group of artists pulled from idiosyncratic sources to produce deeply personal and visually diverse work, shirking the cool, stylistic orthodoxies that dominated on the coasts in favor of a fluid, colorful style that mixed together disparate styles and techniques. (more…)

Art News has a piece on the late Donald Marron, a passionate art collector who spent his life befriending artists. “I’m not a scholar,” he once said. “I can’t explain art. It was the power of the composition, and the feeling that you were seeing something that hadn’t existed before.” (more…)

The LA Times has a piece on Assembly Bill 1482, a new law that may provide relief for artists seeking to protect rents at spaces like the Santa Fe Artist Colony.  “The city deemed us eligible for 1482 at the old rent, and they told the owner that,” says Sylvia Tidwell, the head of the Santa Fe Art Colony Tenants Assn. “The tenants need to be prepared for a fight.” (more…)

Yinka Shonibare is planning an artist residency at two sites in Nigeria, split between Lagos and Ijebu in Ogun state.  “Unfortunately, there aren’t many opportunities for artists to develop spaces in Africa,” he says. “Artists want to share ideas and have galleries and studios. But if that’s not provided, it’s left to the artists to fill that gap and take that [responsibility] upon themselves.” (more…)

A piece in Art News charts the last ten years in the art market, and how the landscape has shifted towards a broadened collector base and more distributed competition for works.  (more…)