The UCCA in Beijing has cancelled a show of work by Hung Liu over increased political tensions in the country.  “Topics that were once relatively open for discussion are now increasingly scrutinized,” says director Philip Tinari. (more…)

A collection of works by Anselm Kiefer, Renate Graf, and Markus Lüpertz, said to be worth €300 million, has disappeared somewhere in China, according to a report by Art News.  “This is unique to the art market,” says Wenzel Jacob, curator and former artistic director of the Bundeskunsthalle in Bonn. “I have not encountered such a criminal case in my career.” (more…)

The Met has hired Denise Murrell as associate curator of 19th and 20th Century Art. Murrell gained recognition for her show “Posing Modernity: The Black Model From Manet and Matisse to Today,” which re-centered black subjects in modern painting.  “If you have one of the greatest collections you almost have an obligation to recontextualize it in regard to the narratives it provides,” says museum head Max Hollein. “I want to make sure it’s not only one voice but multiple voices.” (more…)

KAWS has purchased a 10,000 square foot building in Williamsburg for $17 million, which he will use to expand his current studio.  (more…)

Banksy’s The Drinker, a piece removed from the street by artist Andy Link, has been withdrawn from sale at Sotheby’s after Link complained of the work’s theft from his garden.  The work had been in storage for several years prior. (more…)

Ai Weiwei pens a piece in the Art Newspaper this week, reflecting on the protests in Hong Kong and on the future of the city.  “At this point, who cares about art and images? The art will come out eventually, but there is no reason to assume governments like China, North Korea, or Saudi Arabia care about their global image anymore,” he writes. “They do whatever they want, and nobody can stop them.” (more…)

The Hugo Prize shortlist has been announced, with artist Nairy Baghramian, Kevin Beasley, Deana Lawson, Elias Sime, Cecilia Vicuña and Adrián Villar Rojas all up for the award.  “After a rigorous examination of today’s artistic landscape, the jury identified a group of artists whose practices are beacons of cultural impact,” says Nancy Spector, the Guggenheim’s artistic director and chief curator. “While diverse in their approaches and themes, they each exemplify the spirit of experimentation and innovation that the prize has always championed.” (more…)

The Guggenheim Museum has hired its first full-time black curator: Ashley James. “Her work complements the Guggenheim’s mission to present the art of today,” says Nancy Spector, the Guggenheim’s artistic director and chief curator, “which we understand as a deep and expansive view of art history.” (more…)

Following layoffs at the Marciano Art Foundation, former workers are protesting at LAXArt, which currently counts Olivia Marciano as a board member, as a way to force a public comment.  “I can’t say I’m not sympathetic,” says LAXart Director Hamza Walker. “I run a nonprofit art space, just trying to keep it afloat and keep a hospitable back of the house.” (more…)

Two landscapes by Peter Paul Rubens intended as companions will be reunited for public display for the first time in more than 200 years, after the Wallace Collection decided it would begin lending works for the first time. “We are hugely supportive of this because the general public is the beneficiary,” says National Gallery director Gabriele Finaldi. “Things can happen now that couldn’t happen before that will be extraordinarily interesting and exciting for the public and scholars.” (more…)

The Baltimore Museum of Art will only collect works by women in 2020, Art News reports. “You don’t just purchase one painting by a female artist of color and hang it on the wall next to a painting by Mark Rothko,” says director Christopher Bedford. “To rectify centuries of imbalance, you have to do something radical.” (more…)

Calvin Marcus gives the NYT a tour of his studio in LA, and talks about his wide-ranging practice.  “Each painting comes from a very different place,” he says. “Sometimes I have these ideas for pictures that I want to make, and then I’ll draw it, or take a picture and then draw from the picture. From these sketches I move into a color-study process where I figure out how to build the rest of the picture.” (more…)

The Saul Steinberg Foundation has given 64 of the artist’s drawings to the Parrish Art Museum. “Saul Steinberg is someone who is a major figure not only for the East End of Long Island but is also a national treasure,” says Terrie Sultan, director of the Parrish. “One of the things we really hope to do at the Parrish is to collect in depth [the works of] many artists who are part of the national story of visual art, especially if they have relationship to East End of Long Island.” (more…)

David Turner, one of the suspects in the famed art heist at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, has been released from prison, Art News reports. “They think that I was the person who committed the robbery, which is false,” Turner once said  of the heist. “They thought that if I was facing serious charges, I would be motivated to help facilitate the return of the paintings. Well, they got the serious charges against me, and now I am going to die in prison.”  (more…)

Nan Goldin staged another “die-in” with the Pain Group this week in London, protesting the V&A’s Sackler Courtyard. “Tristram Hunt needs to be re-educated about the fact this is not history,” Goldin says. “These deaths are happening now. And when it comes to the money donated, the V&A did not need this fancy, chic courtyard. It should concentrate on the exhibits and art inside the museum and stop this expansion.” (more…)

The Keith Haring carved from the walls of a New York Youth Center has sold at Bonhams for $3.86 million. “The mural was not intended for someone that could pay nearly $4m for it,” says Gil Vazquez, the acting director and president of the Keith Haring Foundation. “It was meant for the kids that lived there once upon a time to enjoy. Context is important but so is history. Time will tell if this sets a bad precedent.” (more…)

Formerly deputy director at the Whitney, Donna De Salvo has joined the Dia Art Foundation as senior adjunct curator of special projects. “For me, it’s a continuation of the work I’ve been committed to my whole career,” she says. (more…)

A break-in at the Dulwich Picture Gallery has Scotland Yard looking into the the attempted theft of two Rembrandt paintings.  “The intruders were detected by the gallery’s robust security systems and, thanks to the immediate intervention of security staff and the swift response of the Metropolitan Police, the paintings were secured at the scene,” a statement says. (more…)

The Chicago Tribune spotlights artist Theaster Gates‘s Black Monastic project, and the artist’s aims at exploring the history of black sound and how it is present in today’s contemporary music. “There’s been those types of songs you hold on to no matter what. And you’re like, this is so good, and I don’t know what to do with it,” says music director Peter CottonTale. “If you can relate in that aspect, I took all those songs … and I just finished all of those.” (more…)

The Monnaie de Paris has nixed its contemporary art program after only five years, Art Newspaper reports. “Through its programming of exhibitions, events and meetings, it will be a natural space of sharing, creation and innovation,” says Marc Schwartz, the director general of the Monnaie. (more…)

The LA Times has an exposé on the stalled funding for LACMA’s new expansion, noting ballooning costs and a drop off in donation pledges following an impressive start to its fundraising campaign. “I can’t say it strongly enough: It’s not a question of whether there’s money in L.A for such a project: There is,” says director Michael Govan. “The question is, will people decide that’s what they want to do with it.” (more…)

George Soros’s Open Society Foundations has pledged $15 million towards cultural repatriation efforts.  “The legacy of colonial violence has deep implications for the ways that racism and imbalances of power are perpetuated today,” says Patrick Gaspard, the president of the Open Society. “This isn’t just about returning pieces of art, but about restoring the very essence of these cultures.” (more…)

The Rio Art Museum may close after delays in funding by the city’s prefecture for payroll. The prefecture “has been working incessantly to circumvent Brazil’s crisis,” the Rio de Janeiro municipal secretariat of culture said in a statement, “which affected economic activities, and thus the collection for the municipal coffers, and resulted in high unemployment rates”. (more…)

MoMA’s Glenn Lowry and artist Nan Goldin have ranked as #1 and #2 on ArtReview’s Power 100 list.   (more…)