Bloomberg looks at the sale of a Botticelli work in the upcoming January Old Masters Sales at Sotheby’s, expected to fetch $80 million, and how the owner’s private foundation has saved him tens of millions in capital gains taxes.  “He donated it and got a large deduction which sheltered his income,” says Ralph Lerner, co-author of Art Law – The Guide for Collectors, Investors, Dealers and Artists. “And now his foundation will have all this money tax-free while satisfying its charitable purpose.” (more…)

Artist Charles Gaines has created a fellowship for black MFA Students at CalArts, where he has been a longtime member of the faculty. “I have spent my whole teaching career at CalArts working—not alone but with others—on diversity and inclusion in order to increase the presence of the minority voice in society,” Mr. Gaines says.  (more…)

TEFAF has extended the delay for its 2021 edition, moving it once again from March to May as COVID-19 concerns continue to mount. “It is our hope that by pushing the dates of TEFAF Maastricht to later in the spring, we make physical attendance possible, safe, and comfortable for our exhibitors and guests,” says chairman Hidde van Seggelen. “The safety of our TEFAF community is our utmost priority as we fulfill our commitment to inspiring art lovers, collectors, and institutions, while simultaneously doing our part to cultivate an adaptable art market in which our dealers can thrive.”  (more…)

London’s Cromwell Place, a new, customized arts venue for exhibitors and arts professionals, gets a spotlight in the NYT this week.  “I like the built-in industry flexibility,” says David Maupin, co-founder of Lehmann Maupin. “It provides a space we can do a multitude of things with.” (more…)

Marina Abramovic has an interview in The Guardian this week, showcasing her small home upstate and speaking on a range of topics, including her relationship with the late Ulay, her longtime collaborator. “It’s really easy to say you can forgive someone, but to really forgive with your whole heart is the hardest thing in the world,” she says. “But truly, I forgave him in the deepest way. We had made some incredible, important work. When it was wonderful, it was wonderful; when it was hell, it was hell.”  (more…)

Following multiple delays, Berlin’s long-awaited Humboldt Forum museum complex will open in December.  Its main program will launch a few months later. (more…)

Dana Schutz is now represented by David Zwirner Gallery, moving on from Petzel Gallery to join the mega-gallery.  She will continue to show with Thomas Dane in London. (more…)

Architect Peter Zumthor gets a profile in The New Yorker this week, as discussions continue over his controversial redesign of LACMA. “You can feel I am alone, with very few people supporting me,” he says. “I don’t have the right education, or I refuse to have the right education.” (more…)

Pieter Schoolworth, Shifted Sims #9 (Eco Lifestyle) (2020), via Petzel

Currently on at Petzel in New York City, painter Pieter Schoolwerth brings a collection of new canvases to bear, exploring a series of psychoactive tableaus and surreal depictions of humanity, a body of work that feels particularly apt in the strange landscape of a post-lockdown COVID-19 world.  Drawing on a range of signifiers and image sets for his works, the artist swirls his illusory, dream-like landscapes through the halls of the gallery. (more…)

Dealer Linda Givon, the founder of Johannesburg’s Goodman Gallery, has passed away at the age of 84. “She was a rock in her championship of liberated voices, pens, cameras, pencils, and brushes, and the role of art in a new South Africa,” says Neil Dundas, senior curator at the gallery. “Her influence will be felt for a very long time and her legacy is enormous and shall be treasured by many.” (more…)

A piece in the NYT this week reports on a challenging work at the New Museum, noting low pay, low morale, and questionable ethics in major decisions. “There was very much an ends-justify-the-means approach to what staff were asked to do in the name of realizing some very ambitious exhibitions,” says former director of exhibitions management director Sam Rauch. “And there is no question it takes a toll.” (more…)

Kaywin Feldman, director of the National Gallery of Art, Washington DC, speaks up on the delay of the Philip Guston show announced this past month, noting a focus on including black voices in the planning of the show’s new form. “Number one in today’s America—because Guston appropriated images of black trauma—[is that] the show needs to be about more than Guston. And we weren’t prepared for that. And that’s one of the reasons why I just want to pause and just think about what that means. Also, related [to this], an exhibition with such strong commentary on race cannot be done by all white curators. Everybody involved in this project is white,” she says. “We definitely need some curators of color working on the project with us. I think all four museums agree with that statement.” (more…)

Ai Weiwei is interviewed in The Guardian this week, discussing new work and the public reaction to Donald Trump’s contraction of COVID-19. “People were just laughing and celebrating on social media,” he said. “The attitude was, ‘You lose, Trump!’ It is so sad that a nation has been brainwashed to that degree. They take the relationship with America so personally, and yet they have no understanding left about common human feeling. That is what an authoritarian regime can do by limiting the information the public get: brainwash people so they do not feel that way any more.” (more…)

In an effort to maintain solvency, London’s Royal Opera House will sell a David Hockney portrait of the late Sir David Webster at auction. “This was a really tough call,” says Alex Beard, the ROH’s chief executive. “But we have to face the situation we are in and if we can remain viable and get through this, then we can get back to employing people in the future.” (more…)

In a first major test, the Venice flood barriers were able to hold water from flooding during “acqua alta.” “We found a difficult situation and slowly, slowly we’ve been able to resolve things,” says Giuseppe Fiengo, one of the commissioners who have overseen the project since 2014. “The important thing is that today, for the first time, with high water, Venice didn’t flood.” (more…)

Bruce Nauman, Two Leaping Foxes (2019), via Sperone Westwater

Welcoming Bruce Nauman back to New York City as the artist prepares to open his retrospective survey a the Tate Modern this month, Sperone Westwater’s SoHo Gallery plays home to a series of imaginative, surreal sculptures.  Marking his thirteenth solo at the gallery, his first 45 years ago in 1976, the show presents a set of new sculptures, underscoring the artist’s continued practice across a wide range of diverse mediums, including his own body, language, sound, film, video, neon, holograms and 3D technology. Once again reflecting on the perceptions, preconceptions and contradictions which characterize our existence in the world, the series of works on view underscores Nauman’s capacity to expand and elaborate on the capacities of art in the 21st Century.

Bruce Nauman, Walking a Line (2019), via Sperone Westwater

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The Whitney has postponed the next edition of the Whitney Biennial to 2022. “We wanted to make sure artists had the space and time they needed to do their best work,” says chief curator Scott Rothkopf. (more…)

Lucia Nogueira, Mischief (1995), via Art Observed

Touching down in Tribeca this fall for the first show in its newly opened space, New York’s Luhring Augustine opens its new doors with an illuminating show of works by the late Lucia Nogueira, a London-based, Brazilian-born artist whose brief but remarkable career saw her explore a range of captivating formal iterations and exploratory projects.  Marking her first solo exhibition in the United States, the artist’s work is quite at home in the classic New York architecture of the new space, and invites an intriguing first entry both for her work in the US, and for the gallery’s new home.   (more…)

The Centre Pompidou is facing a possible three year closure for essential maintenance. “No substantial work has been done on the building since it opened in 1977,” says president Serge Lasvignes. “There are two hypotheses: either we do [the refurbishment] by closing it completely and it will last three years. [Or] we stay open and it will last seven years. But this poses additional problems, including that of asbestos removal.” (more…)

MoMA PS1’s chief curator Peter Eleey will step down at the end of the year.  “The many impacts of the pandemic—on the museum, on the city, and on all of us—have moved me to think about the next chapters in my work and my life, and I have decided to step down as Chief Curator at the end of the year,” he says. (more…)

VP candidate Kamala Harris spoke last night at a benefit for Joe Biden yesterday, outlining her experiences with the arts at the Studio Museum and SFMoMA as a child.  “All of those experiences through my childhood, and as I was growing up, really reinforced for me the importance of giving children, and as we go on, giving artists,” she says, “the ability to have these vehicles where they can not only express themselves and their feelings, but also build their confidence.” (more…)

London’s Victoria and Albert Museum will cut 103 jobs, 10% of its workforce, Art Newspaper reports. “Final decisions will be made once the consultation is complete,” says a museum statement. (more…)

A new study of the Mona Lisa has revealed a charcoal underdrawing, indicating a sketch of the work before its completion. “These discoveries increase and increase the mystery of its creation, in the end we understand that it is the work of a very long ‘creative act’—which spans more than a decade and in several stages,” says researcher Pascal Cotte. (more…)

A new study into the work of Edward Hopper by a doctoral candidate at the Courtauld Institute in London shows that some of the artist’s early works are copies of works from a magazine for amateur artists.  (more…)