A piece in the Wall Street Journal notes that da Vinci‘s Salvator Mundi was stored on Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s 439-foot yacht Serene until late last year, following a dispute that kept it out of The Louvre’s landmark show. A source who saw the work was “very surprised it was not in Switzerland as others believe.”  (more…)

A string of American fairs have been cancelled this week, with Expo Chicago joining the list of events postponed for the near future. “We gauged the global re-emergence of fairs, gatherings, and exhibitions and felt strongly that our commitment to April of 2022 allows us a strong chance to open where we left off after the 2019 exposition, respecting the impact and numerous considerations that dealers and collectors are making in 2021,” says founder and director Tony Karman. (more…)

Cairo’s Mr & Mrs Mohamed Mahmoud Khalil Museum has reopened after a ten year closure, which followed the theft of a Van Gogh from the museum. (more…)

Crystal Bridges Museum in Arkansas is planning a major expansion that will add almost 100,000 square feet to its footprint. “With the number of visitors we welcome annually, it’s timely to enlarge our building and make sure more people can access these offerings,” says founder Alice Walton. (more…)

Yayoi Kusama, Cosmic Nature (Installation view), via Art Observed

After several delays caused by the Covid-19 virus, the long-awaited exhibition of Yayoi Kusama’s work at the New York Botanical Garden has finally opened. Planned for exclusive exhibition at NYBG, the show sees Kusama reveling in a lifelong fascination with the natural world, beginning with her childhood spent in the greenhouses and fields of her family’s seed nursery. Giving her voice and works ample space to evolve and envelop the lush grounds of the Botanical Garden’s diverse selection of plants, the show is a fascinating embellishment of both artist and nature, speaking, and working, in unison.   (more…)

Pace Gallery is expanding its footprint in South Korea, as it moves to a larger space in the Hannam-dong neighborhood of Seoul. “We’re growing, but I like to think we grow very carefully and thoughtfully,” says Marc Glimcher. “We start really small in a city and see if it’s successful. It’s about the people first, not the space. We are really interested in going to cities where we really add to the equation and that city can have an interesting impact on us.” (more…)

Art Basel Hong Kong will return next month, and has just announced its exhibitor list for the next edition of the fair, welcoming 104 exhibitors to the space.  (more…)

The Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, MI has received $30 million by Jennifer and Dan Gilbert to promote diversity in students and faculty. “Our ultimate goal is to drive lasting financial stability while creating a more diverse and equitable community,” Jennifer Gilbert said in a statement. “We know it’s not a silver bullet, but a step in the right direction. Dan and I hope that the gift grants the Academy space to develop long-term solutions, and that it encourages others to join us in giving.”

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James Lee Byars, The Milky Way (Installation View), via Michael Werner

Currently on view at Michael Werner Gallery in New York, artist James Lee Byars’s nuanced and minimalist sculptural project The Milky Way goes back on public view, showcasing one of the artist’s more intriguing and ambitious two-dimensional works. This will be the first time the work is on view to the public.  (more…)

Alex Da Corte gives the NYT a tour of his studio this week, as he prepares to complete a large-scale sculpture of Big Bird for his coming Met Rooftop Installation. “There’s something beautiful about wondering what Big Bird is looking for,” Da Corte says. “Maybe the sunset.” (more…)

A new rule in Venice will block temporary and pop-up exhibitions from running the full length of the Venice Biennale, Art Newspaper reports. (more…)

A Boston man has admitted to stealing several Andy Warhol works and selling fake versions online. “The buyer removed the paintings’ frames and found no Warhol Foundation authentication stamps and noticed that the canvasses and staples looked new,” prosecutors said. (more…)

The NYT visits The Met’s Alice Neel exhibition this week with Jeff Neal, who the artist painted as a child for a work now on view in the show. “I always thought it was going to come back to me,” Mr. Neal said. “I would dream about it, and then I would ask Allen about it. He said, ‘No, hadn’t heard anything.’ I would see her on the news and say, ‘Wow, I wonder what happened to my painting.’” (more…)

Oscar Tuazon, Natural Man (2015/2021), via Luhring Augustine

Currently on view at Luhring Augustine’s Tribeca exhibition space, artist Oscar Tuazon has compiled a presentation of all new sculptural works, united under the title PEOPLE. Continuing Tuazon’s investigation of hybridized forms and construction through fusions of natural material and human technological developments, the show pushes fusions of minimalist abstraction and natural elements, making up a series of constantly changing morphologies and addressing notions of the natural systems of growth and decay. (more…)

The New Museum has announced the latest iteration of its Triennial, postponed until October due to the pandemic. Organized by Margot Norton, the Allen and Lola Goldring curator at the New Museum, and Jamilah James, the senior curator of The Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, the show is titled Soft Water Hard Stone, borrowed from a Brazilian proverb about perseverance: “soft water on hard stone hits until it bores a hole.” (more…)

After years of complaints and critiques, the city of Venice has finally banned cruise ships from docking in the lagoon. “It’s a fair decision that has been awaited for years: the Council of Ministers approves a decree that establishes that the final landing of big ships in Venice must be outside the lagoon, as requested by Unesco,” says culture minister Dario Franceschini. (more…)

John McCracken, Untitled (Red Block) (1966), via David Zwirner

Currently on view at its uptown exhibition space, David Zwirner is presenting an exhibition of works by William Eggleston and John McCracken, the first time the artists have been featured together, through a selection of works that explore color and light in their respective artistic visions. Expressing a natural interest in the forms and lines of the American landscape through documentation and precise geometries, the show is a fascinating exploration of the pair’s respective aesthetic visions.

William Eggleston and John McCracken, True Stories (Installation View), via David Zwirner

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The NYT visits the Canal Street Research Association this week, a project on Canal Street that has served as a home for a series of exhibitions and performances during its short run. “When we first walked past, we were like, oh my God, there’s a Relational art project,” said Tom Finkelpearl, the city’s former commissioner of cultural affairs. (more…)

Cory Arcangel, /roʊˈdeɪoʊ/ Let’s Play: HOLLYWOOD (2017-21), via Greene Naftali

Over the past two decades, few artists have taken such a continuously engaging pathway through the history and culture of digital media in all of its forms in the same manner as Cory Arcangel.  Hacking into the systems and software that define our networked lives, he introduces glitches and misfires that reveal the perils of technological dependence. For his debut solo exhibition at Greene Naftali, he continues this practice, amplifying and enhancing themes he has honed over two decades, using the structures and social mores of digital platforms as his primary artistic material.

Cory Arcangel, /roʊˈdeɪoʊ/ Let’s Play: HOLLYWOOD (2017-21), via Greene Naftali

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A piece in the NYT this week asks if the current fascination with NFTs is actually a bubble ready to burst. “We’re in a frenzy of speculation. I don’t know how long these prices will be sustainable,” says Robert Norton, head of blockchain art company Verisart. “We’re living in a moment of collective hysteria.” (more…)

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The Getty Museum announced that it has acquired a painting by Artemisia Gentileschi from an undisclosed seller. The work will go on view when The Getty reopens to the public. (more…)

Showing the stark drop in attendance caused by Covid, the annual Art Newspaper museum attendance report shows a 77% drop in attendance at the world’s 100 most- visited art museums. (more…)

The US 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on Friday that Andy Warhol did not make fair use of a Lynn Goldsmith’s portrait of Prince when he produced his own series of images of the musician. “The Prince Series retains the essential elements of its source material, and Warhol’s modifications serve chiefly to magnify some elements of that material and minimize others,” wrote Judge Gerald Lynch. “While the cumulative effect of those alterations may change the Goldsmith Photograph in ways that give a different impression of its subject, the Goldsmith Photograph remains the recognizable foundation upon which the Prince Series is built.” (more…)