The U.S. Justice Department has struck a deal with financier Jho Low, in which it will recover over $1 billion taken from the 1MDB in investment fund.  “We were pleased to help negotiate this historic resolution in order to preserve the tremendous value of assets involved,” says Chris Christie, the former governor of New Jersey said in a statement. “It is one of the largest civil forfeiture settlements in U.S. history and represents a voluntary return of each and every asset claimed by DOJ.” (more…)

The city of Paris is preparing to construct a temporary venue to host exhibitions and events while the Grand Palais undergoes its three-year renovation. “We are going to work with Unesco run by Audrey Azoulay [the former French culture minister], which is one of Paris’s most beautiful and little-known buildings. It was designed by Marcel Breuer, Bernard Zehrfuss and Pier Luigi Nervi and houses the best work by Takis [Aeolian Signals, 1993],” says Culture Chief Chris Dercon. (more…)

LACMA and the Yuz Museum in Shanghai have teamed up with Qatar Museums (QM) in Doha as part of a new arts collaboration and exchange, which will develop exhibitions and curatorial projects between institutions. “Together, we are experimenting with new and innovative ways to share the collections and programs from Lacma, Yuz, and QM with a larger global audience,” LACMA Director Michael Govan said in a statement.  (more…)

An unsigned painting discovered in a French chateau have led to speculations that the work is a depiction ofItalian philosopher Niccolo Machiavelli, painted by Leonardo da Vinci. “Just because it says so in the archives does not mean it’s true” cautions Anne Gerardot of the local archives office. (more…)

A nearly identical copy of Da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi has been placed on view on at the Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea in Turin, Italy.  The copy was painted by painted by the German-Turkish artist Taner Ceylan. “Re-creating another Salvator Mundi in a slightly different size gave me the opportunity to dive into the technical qualities and spiritual layers of this controversial painting,” the artist said. “This was not easy. This process of painting gave me the chance to come very close to the Renaissance era.” (more…)

Mona Hatoum, Hot Spot (stand) (2018), via Chantal Crousel

Currently on at Chantal Crousel in Paris, artist Mona Hatoum continues her incisive, challenging work reflecting on world conflicts, migrations, and surveillance, using materials as varied as steel, brick, concrete, and human hair to create spaces of tension, paradox, and ambiguity. Using these materials as a way to explore and elaboration on political systems of oppression and destruction, the artist’s work is a poetic and often startling challenge to power. (more…)

Artist Hito Steyerl has lodged a protest against the German government’s support and sale of arms to Turkey, calling for all institutions receiving state funds to no longer show her work. “I am sick of my work being deployed to detract attention from the German state’s tacit agreement with displacement, ethnic cleansing, and warfare, and to lend it an aura of tolerance and inclusivity,” she said in a recent performance. (more…)

Critic Christopher Knight of the LA Times has called out the Desert X Biennial’s partnership with Saudi Arabia as “morally corrupt” in a new piece for the paper. “A diverse cosmopolitan culture cannot function without free expression,” he writes.  “In Saudi Arabia, however, apostasy is punishable by death. Unless artists are willing to make their host’s state control of expression an explicit subject of their work, those who participate cannot escape compromise from the polluted context.” (more…)

The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in Los Angeles has named Sandra Jackson-Dumont, current chairman of education and public programs at the Met as its new director and CEO. “We want the Lucas Museum to be a vital resource for our community and we believe Sandra will help us achieve that goal,” says founder George Lucas. (more…)

Fashion designer Marc Jacobs will have a number of works from his collection on sale at Sotheby’s in New York next month, as the designer looks towards a new era in his journey as a collector. “I’m not Marie Kondo,” he says. “I didn’t decide everything must go. I thought about my role as an art collector…and I just felt it’s time to give myself this window to start again.” (more…)

Artist Phil Collins has pulled his work from a show at MoMA PS1 in solidarity with protests against mass incarceration. “This decision is an expression of solidarity with the millions of human beings currently held in cages in U.S. prisons and jails, with their communities and loved ones, and with friends, colleagues, organizers, and campaign groups working tirelessly to call out, resist, and counter the social violence perpetuated by the prison system,” he said in a statement. (more…)

Urs Fischer, Leo (George & Irmelin) (2019), via Gagosian

With the opening of FIAC this past month, Gagosian Gallery filled its ground-floor space in Paris with new work by Urs Fischer, including an impressive new candle work by the artist depicting actor and activist Leonardo DiCaprio. Continuing the artist’s enigmatic engagement with the aura of fame and fortune, his new candle sculpture marks a return to his interest in collectors and art world influencers, turning their visages into slowly melting piles of wax. (more…)

Director Martin Scorcese discusses a project he never realized during the 1980’s in the most recent episode of the Director’s Guild podcast, a biopic based on the life of Amedeo Modigliani.  “It never came off,” he says. “I couldn’t get the financing in the 1980s. Then he went with [directors Brian] De Palma and [Sidney] Lumet, so it’s a whole other thing.” (more…)

The Guardian has a piece this week on the fires threatening the Getty in LA, and how the museum now prepares for the possibility of a nearby blaze. “We think about fire prevention 24/7,” says Communications VP Lisa Lapin. (more…)

Pace has hired Amelia Redgrift as the gallery’s first senior director of global communications and content, marking its own attempts to enter the world of editorial. “Through direct access to artists and in-depth research projects, Pace’s curators—alongside the gallery’s longstanding directors—have become experts on the program and are in some cases the living authority on individuals within the roster,” she says. “We want to leverage this knowledge base to produce engaging editorial with and on behalf of our artists.” (more…)

Marina Abramovic gets an interview in The Believer this week, speaking on her work and her experience of Slavic culture in her home country and abroad. “Don’t have nostalgia. Don’t ever look the past. We only have to live in present and for future,” she says. “Especially if you’re an artist—you grow up there with restrictions, then you come somewhere else and there’s no restrictions and you become kind of lost because you don’t know how to deal with freedom.” (more…)

A long-running lawsuit over cardboard frames on a Martin Kippenberger triptych has ended after an LA court rejected an almost $100 milllion bad faith claim against insurance company XL Specialty.  “I think what you are looking at here is an attempt to use an insurance policy like an ATM machine,” says defense lawyer Gregory Michael MacGregor. (more…)

Henry Taylor, NIECE COUSIN KIN LOOK HOW LONG IT’S BEEN (Installation View), via Blum & Poe

Los Angeles-based artist Henry Taylor touches down at Blum & Poe in New York this month, bringing with him a body of new portraits and large-scale compositions under the title NIECE COUSIN KIN LOOK HOW LONG IT’S BEEN, his sixth exhibition with the gallery.  (more…)

MOCA’s Geffen Contemporary space is set for a re-imagination, with a focus on performances and installation, as well as “festival-like open events such as conventions, summits, readings, idea fairs, concerts, screenings, dance, as well as group, family, and community oriented activities.” “We can at once pay homage to uniqueness of MOCA’s foundation and the routes of the building as The Temporary Contemporary, while also pivoting towards the future and providing a space for cutting-edge contemporary art,” Klaus Biesenbach says. (more…)

Bunny Rogers, A Very Special Holiday Performance in Columbine Auditorium (2017), via Performa

With the turning of the seasons and the first tastes of brisk fall weather, this year’s edition of the Performa Biennial is set to open in New York.  Marking the 8th edition of an event founded by art historian and curator RoseLee Goldberg, Performa is dedicated to exploring the critical role of live performance in the history of twentieth-century art and to encouraging new directions in performance for the twenty-first century.  A favorite among the New York art world, the fair offers a deep look at a range of performing practices and perspectives spread across the city, inviting adventurous art lovers to dive into the fabric of the city to seek out inspiring and energetic new work.

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A painting recently attributed as a work by Cimabue sold this week in France for $26.8 million, with gallerist Fabrizio Moretti winning the work. “I bought it on behalf of two collectors,” he said of the purchase. “It’s one of the most important old master discoveries in the last 15 years. Cimabue is the beginning of everything. He started modern art. When I held the picture in my hands, I almost cried.” (more…)

Gallerist Ronald Feldman, an early champion of artists like Joseph Beuys and Chris Burden, has left his position as director of his gallery for health reasons. “He is so passionate about championing ideas-based work, and advancing and creating platforms for artists that truly engage with the widest range of social issues and political causes in our world,” says his son, Mark Feldman. “He supported artists who were really groundbreaking and willing to take risks.” (more…)

The influential Shane Campbell Gallery in Chicago is closing, Art News reports. “After 18 years as art dealers, we’re retiring,” the gallery announced in a statement online. “It’s voluntary and positive and we’re ready to take on fun and creative projects whatever they might be.” (more…)

Charles F. Stewart has been named the new CEO of Sotheby’s, with Tad Smith taking a role as senior adviser, Art News reports. “I have known him for many years and have been impressed by his appetite for innovation, taking smart risks, and challenging the status quo,” says Sotheby’s new owner Patrick Drahi. “He has a proven record of driving growth and is ideally positioned to create value for Sotheby’s clients and our outstanding team.” (more…)