A hidden Cupid has been discovered underneath Vermeer’s Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window, Art Newspaper reports. “This is the most sensational experience of my career,” says Uta Neidhardt, the senior conservator at Dresden’s Gemäldegalerie. “It makes it a different painting.” (more…)

Christoph Buchel will stage a show in Venice this year, showing a fishing boat that sank in the Mediterranean, killing 800 people. The artist has frequently courted controversy with his work, challenging nationalist and right-wing politics with pieces based around the plight of migrants and other marginalized peoples.  (more…)

Financier David Martinez is selling Andy Warhol’s Double Elvis [Ferus Type] and Frank Stella’s Point of Pines from 1959 at Christie’s in New York this month, anticipating sales of $100 million for the two pieces. The Warhol is already carrying a third-party guarantee. (more…)

The Saatchi Gallery has covered up two paintings in a show by the artist SKU that incorporated the text of the shahada, one of the five pillars of Islam following protest from visitors.  “It seemed a respectful solution that enables a debate about freedom of expression versus the perceived right not to be offended,” the artist said in a statement. (more…)

The Association of Art Museum Curators (AAMC) and has named its list of curators receiving 2019 Awards for Excellence. “For 15 years, curators have recognized the trailblazing achievements of their peers through our annual Awards for Excellence,” Judith Pineiro, executive director of AAMC and AAMC Foundation, said in a statement. “It is a privilege to celebrate this year’s awardees who, through their work, have fostered dynamic dialogue and broader engagement in the arts.” (more…)

Artists Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Helen Cammock, Tai Shani and Oscar Murillo have been tapped for this year’s iteration of the Turner Prize, a group of artists marking a challenging continuation of the prize’s engagement with politically active work. (more…)

Maurizio Cattelan’s America (2016), an 18-karat-gold toilet, will be shown at the Blenheim Palace later this year. “Maurizio Cattelan has been producing groundbreaking work for decades, so it is a proud moment for us to present his first UK solo show in twenty years,” says Michael Frahm, the director of the Blenheim Art Foundation. “As the first artwork to be announced, America sets the tone for what should be a bold, exciting and thought-provoking show.” (more…)

After a public outcry, the Turner prize and its 2019 sponsor, Stagecoach, have parted ways.  The deal had come under fire over Stagecoach head Sir Brian Souter’s campaigns against gay marriage.  “Turner Contemporary and Tate’s highest priority is to show and celebrate artists and their work,” a statement reads. “The Turner prize celebrates the creative freedoms of the visual arts community and our wider society. By mutual agreement, we will not proceed with Stagecoach South East’s sponsorship of this year’s prize.” (more…)

Trevor Paglen has penned a piece on his Orbital Reflector project, which will no longer be tracked in outer space. “If the project’s goal was to provoke a conversation about the politics of space, it has been nothing less than a stellar success,” he says. “And the story of OR has become an embodiment of those politics: the Trump administration’s insistence on building a wall between the United States and Mexico led to the demise of a spacecraft whose purpose was to questions these very kinds of politics.” (more…)

A sketch of a bearded man from the collection of the Royal Family has been identified as a rare portrait of Leonardo Da Vinci, Art Newspaper reports. “It is hard to avoid the conclusion that [the ink portrait] is also an image of Leonardo, sketched rapidly by a pupil while Leonardo was in France in the last couple of years of his life,” says Martin Clayton, the head of prints and drawings at the Royal Collection Trust. (more…)

Manifesta 2022 has been announced, and will take place in Prishtina, Kosovo. “The cultural, legal, and political paralysis of the 1990s resulted in a loss of sense of public space and a lack of recognition for what is common,” says Hedwig Fijen, Manifesta’s director. “I wish Manifesta can provide Pristina the means to reconstruct, redefine, and reclaim a radicalized and diverse public space, which still seems to be today regarded as a cultural subversive act, which can become a call for change.” (more…)

The Harvey Quaytman Trust is now represented worldwide by Blum & Poe Gallery, in collaboration with Van Doren Waxter, Art News reports. The Los Angeles headquarters of the gallery will stage a show of the artist’s work this fall. (more…)

Jutta Koether is will now be represented by Lévy Gorvy.  The news came from Koether’s previous gallery, Bortolami, which sent out an announcement this week.  “We are inspired by Jutta Koether’s unique approach to painting,” Dominique Lévy said in a release. “She is a rare artist who has her roots in a deep European tradition and yet profoundly belongs to a very meaningful group of American artists.” (more…)

The estate of Chris Burden has named Yayoi Shionoiri as its first executive director. She will also work as the executive director of the studio of Nancy Rubins, the late artist’s wife. Shionoiri previously worked at Artsy as general counsel and head of Asia strategy.  (more…)

Artists Space has named Miriam Katzeff as its new deputy director as it prepares to open its new location. “I have known Miriam for many years, and it’s a real coup to have her joining Artists Space as we prepare for our imminent next chapter,” says Jay Sanders, Artists Space’s executive director and chief curator. (more…)

The Turner Prize has announced it shortlist, but the announcement has been overshadowed by the institution’s accepting of sponsorship from the bus operator Stagecoach, the founder of which has previously campaigned against gay marriage.  Victoria Pomery, director of the Turner Contemporary in Margate, where the Prize show will be held, commented on the selection: “we have to take on board a whole range of issues when deciding our sponsorship. In this instance we decided that the role that the company plays in the area is very important.” (more…)

Alex Da Corte is profiled in the Washington Post this week, as he prepares new work and gives the paper a tour of his massive studio in Philadelphia. “The studio is bubbling,” he says. “I am currently in the midst of making a large Gesamtkunstwerk, made of many moving threads — video, kinetic sculpture, textile, furniture, neon and sound. At the moment, though, I am boiling shampoo for a painting.” (more…)

Artist Dawoud Bey’s photos of David Hammons gets a profile in NYT this week, as the artist’s work goes on view at Frieze. “Between David and I there’s always been an agreement: don’t talk about it,” he says. “That’s part of the aura of the work. And because David still probably doesn’t have a telephone, and probably wouldn’t answer it if he did, it’s up to me to at least put that much out there, to be accountable to and for that history.” (more…)

Jean Cooney, the current deputy director of Creative Time in New York, has been appointed director of the Times Square Arts.  “I am thrilled to take on the unique opportunity of presenting public art in one of New York City’s most iconic, history-rich, kinetic, and complicated spaces with Times Square Arts,” Cooney said in a statement.  (more…)

Phillips’s worldwide head of design and deputy chairman in Europe, Alexander Payne, has stepped down.  “I am immensely grateful for the loyalty and friendship of my wonderful colleagues, and for their dedication to, and belief in, the Design team,” he says. “I will look back on my time at Phillips with much gratitude, and enormous pride in what my team has achieved.” (more…)

Phillips has hired David Norman from Sotheby’s, as chairman of the Americas. “While consulting for Phillips during the past few years, I realized that I love being part of a team—and this is the team I’d love to be a part of,” Norman says. “Phillips is a 220-year-old company with the spirit of a start-up, and I couldn’t be more excited to be a part of the next chapter in the company’s growth story.” (more…)

Venice Biennale curator Ralph Rugoff is interviewed in Art Newspaper this month, discussing his perspectives on the show he has organized, and which he will open next week. “It seemed open-ended in what it might mean and might be a way to frame an exhibition that hopefully is reflecting on this time, but also offered the possibility that you might find a perspective of living in this time where you could see it as an interesting time, rather than a dangerous, hair-raising, horrific period of human history,” he says. (more…)

Art News profiles a group of Whitney Biennial Artists calling for Warren Kanders’s departure from the Whitney Board. “The stakes of the demand to remove Kanders are high and extend far beyond the art world,” an open letter reads. “Alongside universities, cultural institutions like the Whitney are among the few spaces in public life today that claim to be devoted to ideals of education, creativity, and dissent beyond the dictates of the market. Yet, these institutions have been historically entwined with the power structures of settler colonialism, white supremacy, heteropatriarchy, and capitalism.” (more…)

Ron Nagle gets a profile in the NYT this week, as the artist takes the newspaper on a walk through his day. “My main part of the day, my peace of mind, my ‘this is what I do because I gotta do it’ is being in the studio as much as I can,” he says. (more…)