The US Government could introduce legislation next week to more aggressively regulate the art market, Art Newspaper reports. “If the legislation is passed, the Treasury Department will draft regulations making art dealers subject to an anti-money-laundering compliance and reporting regime, and will possibly require documented provenance and electronic publication of sales,” lawyer William Pearlstein says. (more…)

Dealer Ezra Chowaiki has pleaded guilty to wire fraud after allegations that he fabricated sales of works at his Manhattan gallery. “As he admitted today in federal court, Ezra Chowaiki ran a multimillion-dollar fraud on art dealers and collectors around the country,” says attorney Geoffrey S. Berman of the Southern District of New York. “In some instances, Chowaiki sold artwork, purportedly on consignment, without the owners’ authorization. In other instances, he took money from clients purportedly to purchase artwork, and kept the money but purchased no art.” (more…)

Ralph Ziman with The Casspir Project, via 1-54

Walking up to the open doors of the 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair a Pioneer Works in Brooklyn this weekend, visitors were promptly greeted by a massive military vehicle called a Casspir.  An icon of political repression in South Africa during the apartheid era, the truck’s presence as a colorfully-adorned place-marker, painted over with striking new patterns by artist Ralph Ziman, made for a fitting first note of the works on view inside, images from a thriving circuit of galleries and artists looking both to Africa’s past and future for inspiration. (more…)

Mingus in Mexico (1990). © David Salle, VAGA, NY courtesy of Skarstedt, NY.

Now through June 23, 2018, Skarstedt Gallery presents David Salle: Paintings 1985-1995, a selection of some of the artist’s most significant bodies of work highlighting a particularly prolific and experimental period of Salle’s career. The celebrated master of postmodern composition is known especially for his use of photography and collage in his paintings to deconstruct existing imagery, integrating everything from advertisements to post-war American art into his work, earning his classification among other artists of the ‘70s and ‘80s “Pictures Generation”, whose concerns largely centered on the changing status of the image in the era of mass media. (more…)

The Dia Art Foundation has added six new trustees to its board, including artists Will Ryman and Lorna Simpson.  “We are in an exciting new phase at Dia where we are reinvigorating our founding principles and enhancing our collection and program strategically to reflect more diverse and international perspectives,” says director Jessica Morgan. “We are thrilled to be adding a diversity of leading voices in the fields of art, philanthropy, and business to our board.” (more…)

Collector Hubert Neumann is suing Sotheby’s over an allegedly “botched” sale of a Jean-Michel Basquiat, which the auction house has slotted a major sale in its upcoming auction.  “This is a case about a broken promise, a family disagreement, and an art masterpiece that, if this Court does not step in now to save it, will be lost to the people who love it, and to New York, forever,” a court filing reads. (more…)

TEFAF NY, via Art Observed

Taking over the cavernous halls of the Park Avenue Armory, The European Fine Art Fair, better known as TEFAF, has returned to the Big Apple for another year, bringing a sense of balance and focus to the broad selection of fairs spread across the city.  The fair, which is now in its second year in the city of New York, has become one of the more noteworthy additions to an already crowded week of sales and fairs, with its focus towards high-end blue chip artworks in conjunction with classic design, artifacts and other fields, a focus that makes it both a concentration of the focus of many fair proceedings around town, and an elaboration, seeking buyers new to the field of collecting fine art, furniture, or otherwise, through a more organic mode. (more…)

White Cube has opened an office on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, Art News reports. The appointment-only space is the gallery’s first step into the city, a plan that had been pursued for several years.   (more…)

The Art Newspaper looks at the recent expansions of the Centre Pompidou, and the museum’s seeming aims to become a global art brand akin to the Guggenheim. “These outposts will help to reshape our collections,” says PresidentSerge Lasvignes. “We have to be in China, so we can follow the living arts and collect works before they reach the international market. And what is true for Asia is also true for the Arab world and other continents too.”  (more…)

Njideka Akunyili Crosby and Rafa Esparza are the newest members of the Hammer Museum’s Artist Council, the museum announced today. “The Artist Council is a crucial guiding voice within the Hammer Museum, and I’m delighted to see Njideka and Rafa join their ranks,” director Ann Philbin said. “We rely on the Artist Council to challenge and enhance the Hammer’s standing as an intellectual and cultural laboratory of ideas. Njideka and Rafa are valuable additions to this esteemed group.” (more…)

Frieze, via Art Observed

As the sun beat down on the ferries making their way up the East River this morning, Frieze New York opened its doors on the early hours of its first preview day, offering an opportunity for collectors and dealers to take a first stroll through the fair without the bustling crowds of the later fair days.  Celebrating its seventh year on Randall’s Island, the fair’s early previews saw a first look at a fair that has come into its own as an anchor of New York’s already packed art scene, and which has become a much-anticipated first hint of the summer months in the city, a first opportunity to get outside and into the greenery of the slender island just north of Manhattan. (more…)

The New York Times has a piece on Sotheby’s Scientific Research Department, where the auction house does its deep delving into works’ authenticity using state of the art technology. “I like living within the four corners of what’s right and what’s wrong.” says researcher Jamie Martin. “  (more…)

An Aspen judge has issued an arrest warrant for the 2017 slashing of a Christopher Wool painting, stating that the work was likely attacked by the owner’s son.  Its owner originally did not seek insurance damages on the painting, and attempted to clear up the matter privately. “We could even put it up for sale now for $3.5m on the basis it is ‘famous,'” owner Harold Morley wrote in a prior letter. “Since we are not making an insurance claim there is no reason why the recollection of the incident should not be eliminated as quickly as possible from staff and public. (more…)

A piece in Bloomberg this week notes that the sale of the building shared by Andrea Rosen and Luhring Augustine Gallery earned 1,650 percent return on the approximately 10,000-square-foot former garage.  The sale was financed by a $25.5 million loan from a fund administered in part by the family company of Jared Kushner. “It feels like it’s time to make the change,” Roland Augustine says. (more…)

Houston’s log-awaited Menil Drawing Institute has an opening date, and will open to the public November 3rd. The new expansion of the museum will feature work by Jasper Johns in its inaugural show.  (more…)

The Art Newspaper took to the aisles of Frieze this week to ask small dealers their opinions on a proposed “robin hood” tax for mega-galleries at fairs. “We mustn’t fool ourselves: we live in a neoliberal world and work in a hyper-capitalist industry, and things won’t actually change until the major powers truly understand and see actual value in changing the system from within,” says says Stefan Benchoam of Guatemala City’s Proyectos Ultravioleta. (more…)

David Zwirner will now represent the work of Joan Mitchell, and will represent her estate exclusively worldwide.  “The gallery is proud to be entrusted to help with the extraordinary legacy of Joan Mitchell, one of the most important and original American painters to emerge in the second half of the twentieth century,” Zwirner said in a statement. “Mitchell forged her own unique path, in life and in art, and her groundbreaking work remains unparalleled and relevant today.” (more…)

Former Walker Museum head Olga Viso has a piece in the New York Times this week, as she reviews the current state of the decolonization movement in the art world, and her own efforts with Sam Durant’s controversial Scaffold work. “I believe that museums must embrace this form of dialogue if they are to remain relevant,” she says, referring to open conversations with diverse groups of community members. “To do so requires radically different models of leadership than we’ve had until now. Yet it is hard to resist entrenchment, and difficult to take a risk. It is even more difficult to fail. But I believe that proceeding with empathy and humility are worth everything.” (more…)

The Art Market Monitor notes increasing focus and interest in the Impressionist and Modern End of the Market, as auctions in New York boast particularly strong prices for works by Picasso and Modigliani. “The balance of excitement this season continues to lean heavily toward the Modern market,” says Marion Maneker. (more…)

A Dutch golden age painting by Jacob Ochtervelt looted by the Nazis will go to auction at Sotheby’s after its repatriated owners decided to sell the work. “This painting is an eloquent manifesto of his genius, and shows us so clearly why he was a genre painter of the first rank alongside Johannes Vermeer, Pieter de Hooch and Gabriël Metsu,” says George Gordon, the co-chair of the auction house’s Old Masters paintings and drawings department. (more…)

Artist Zadie Smith writes on the work of Deanna Lawson in the New Yorker this week, spotlighting the artist’s powerful portrait photography. “Deana Lawson’s work is prelapsarian—it comes before the Fall,” she writes. “Her people seem to occupy a higher plane, a kingdom of restored glory, in which diaspora gods can be found wherever you look: Brownsville, Kingston, Port-au-Prince, Addis Ababa.” (more…)

Anna Coliva, director of Rome’s prestigious Galleria Borghese is facing charges of absenteeism and defrauding the public purse, Art Newspaper reports. She is accused of frequently clocking in to work before leaving to go to the gym or other outings, according to court filings. (more…)

David Hockney’s Pacific Coast Highway and Santa Monica is set to hit the auction block at Sotheby’s in New York next week, carrying an estimate of $20 million–$30 million that will easily beat the artist’s auction record. The sale will take place May 16th. (more…)

Katerina Stathopoulou has joined the Public Art Fund as assistant curator, Art News reports. “Her international perspective, wide-ranging experience, and deep connections with artists make her a perfect match for our program,” says director Nicholas Baume. “We look forward to working with Katerina to develop and present exhibitions that transform the urban environment and engage diverse audiences through powerful works of public art.” (more…)