Longtime auction market veteran Edward Dolman is returning from a three year stint at the Qatar Museums Authority to head Phillips, the perennial third-place auction house, and to challenge the long-running dominance of Sotheby’s and Christie’s.  “It’s certainly been tried before,” he said in a telephone interview with the New York Times. “I’ve always thought it would be good for everyone to offer clients more options, especially with the significant growth in the number of collectors there are now from all over the world.”    (more…)

Hauser and Wirth has opened its newest gallery this spring in an unexpected location, an 18th-century farmhouse in Somerset, England.  Just outside the town of Bruton, the gallery space underlines the gallerists continued commitment to museum-quality spaces, similar to its renovated space on 18^th Street in New York. (more…)

The Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami has filed suit against North Miami for breach of contract, claiming that the city has allegedly ceased funding and maintenance to the museum as it pursues a merger with the Bass Museum in Miami Beach.   “The city’s neglect has put the very existence of our institution at risk,” says MOCA NoMi trustee Irma Braman. “And our current building has been an impediment to our services and mission for too long. We are dedicated to serving our public and we hope the city will move forward with us in a collegial and productive conversation so that MOCA can maintain a vibrant presence in North Miami and throughout the region.” (more…)

The Museum of Modern Art has officially filed its $1.6 million plan to demolish the former home of the American Folk Art Museum to expand its midtown campus.  The announcement comes almost a year after the Museum announced its initial plans to raze the building, after purchasing the building in 2011 for $31.2 million. (more…)

The plans seem to be moving forward for the Helsinki branch of the Guggenheim Museum, as the institution is reportedly launching an open competition to design the new space, co-organized with the Finnish Association of Architects. (more…)

Over the past year, the Metropolitan Museum of Art has sold off nearly $5.4 million in art, with another $3 million in paintings expected to sell this year, the New York Post reports, including a series of pieces donated by former Met president George Blumenthal.  “The museum is perpetually engaged in assessing its own collections, refining them, and making room for new acquisitions that merit display,” says spokesman Harold Holzer. “The Met owns more than 1.5 million works of art in all, and even in this vast building, storage space is finite.” (more…)

Hans Ulrich Obrist has published an essay in The Guardian this week, discussing the current state of curatorial practice, and the importance he sees for curators in contemporary arts.  “When I became a curator,” he writes, “I wanted to be helpful to artists. I think of my work as that of a catalyst – and sparring partner.” (more…)

The New York Times reports on the growing practice for museums to live-stream and archive lectures online, allowing interested parties to view them around the world.  The article also explores MoMA’s recently initiated online tours and courses, and a recent collaboration by the Metropolitan Museum of Art with the TED lectures brand. (more…)

New research has shown that a set of watercolors by J.M.W. Turner, previously thought to depict the burning of Parliament, are in fact paintings of a fire at the Tower of London.  The note was discovered by Matthew Imms, a cataloguer at the Tate.  “We could tell that the works were fairly late in Turner’s career so I cast around for other events at that time, and came across various images, popular prints and so on of the Tower of London fire in 1841,” Imms says. “It immediately clicked, because the various uncertain features of the architecture and so on matched quite well.” (more…)

The investigation into a stolen Gustav Klimt painting nearly 17 years ago has been reopened, with authorities using sophisticated DNA testing technology to try and find a match with evidence found on the work’s frame.  Portrait of a Woman was stolen in 1997 from the Ricci-Oddi Gallery in Piacenza, with police unable to find any prior evidence able to track down a suspect.   (more…)

The Wall Street Journal takes a look at Gaugin’s travels to French Polynesia later in his life, and his search “for the childhood of mankind,” a series of travels covered in MoMA’s current show Gaugin: Metamorphoses, curated by Starr Figura, with assistance from Lotte Johnson. (more…)

A long rumored merger between MOCA North Miami and the Bass Museum of Art in Miami Beach is moving forward, the Miami Herald reports.  MOCANoMi officials are apparently in the final stages of talks over moving the museum collection to Miami Beach.  “At this time, we feel confident that a collaboration with the Bass could make a lot of sense,” says MOCANoMi curator and interim director Alex Gartenfeld. (more…)

The Wall Street Journal reports on musician and artist Charlemagne Palestine’s special sound installation in the stairwell of the Whitney Museum for this year’s Biennial.  Featuring a set of speakers ascending the museum staircase, covered in stuffed animals and fabric, the work plays off the reverberant nature of Eli Breuer’s concrete architecture.  “I’ve been coming to the museum since it was built, and I’ve always loved the staircase,” says Palestine. “This particular kind of concrete has a fantastic resonance. It’s Taj Mahal-esque.” (more…)

Jonathan Meese, Selbstportrait mit eisernem Kreuz (2001), all images courtesy MdM

On view at the Museum der Moderne Münchsberg is a unique exhibition of paintings by contemporary German artist Jonathan Meese, whose works are mainly focused on controversial issues within contemporary German history.

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ArtNews has published a profile on Michelle Grabner, the sculptor and curator tapped to curate this year’s Whitney Biennial.  “One of the interesting things about including an artist is that they really understand process from within, and I think that affects how Michelle approaches the works of art she selects and the exhibition itself,” says Whitney chief curator Donna De Salvo. “She has been a curator at a pioneering gallery, but also she is incredibly well published and has engagement with artists across the country. A mix of all those aspects were needed for participation in the Biennial.” (more…)

Mayor of London Boris Johnson is actively courting the Guggenheim Foundation to open a location on the grounds of the 2012 London Olympics, the Art Newspaper reports.  The area, which has already been earmarked as a new cultural quarter called E20, will be home to a new location for the Victoria and Albert Museum, and Johnson wants the Guggenheim to set up shop as well.  “We are in talks with other global cultural brands, as we will need at least one more cultural institution to achieve the critical mass and very high visitor numbers the site deserves,” Johnson says. (more…)

YaÅŸam ÅžaÅŸmazer, via Osman Can Yerebakan for Art Observed

The winter conditions in the Turkish metropolis of Istanbul often border on excessive damp and gloom, but the coastal city’s burgeoning art scene maintains the city’s status as a location for adventurous art-lovers year-round, particularly given the strength of several shows currently on view across the city.  Mostly located around the Taksim area of the city, art spaces in Istanbul have been popping up at a remarkable pace, marking the city as a destination for the global art cognoscenti, while introducing young Turkish artists to the wider market. (more…)

The LA Times takes a look at the Menil Drawing Institute, set to open in 2017.  The new museum, designed by Johnston Marklee & Associates, will sit at the southern edge of the Menil Campus, and boasts a number of striking features, including a thin, plate-steel roof and a special public space shaped by illusory curves in the shape of the building.   (more…)

The Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, DC has announced that it will be taken over by the National Gallery of Art and George Washington University, part of a new plan for the longstanding arts institution.  The plan would see the Corcoran School of Art and Design made part of George Washington University, with the University covering the millions of dollars in much-needed renovations.  “There is no way to continue the Corcoran as we knew it or as we know it,” said Peggy Loar, interim director and president of the Corcoran. “That’s going to be the kernel of pain for some people.” (more…)

An article in The Art Newspaper analyzes the potential vote on Scottish Independence this year, and the potential impacts an independent Scotland may have on the nation’s art collection.  If Scotland changes its tax structure to more heavily impact the wealthy, some are worried that lending collectors are likely to remove their works from Scottish museums, moving them south.  The National Galleries of Scotland board chair Ben Thomson, however, is more optimistic. “We are extremely confident that we will continue to enjoy very positive support from the Scottish government for our ongoing collaborations with private collectors,” he says. (more…)

A new venture by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art is looking to launch a new examination of conservation in technology, part of a Andrew W. Mellon Foundation-funded project called The Artist’s Initative.  Examining technological leaps in design, tech and the work of various artists that drive these media forward, the project will embrace a broad series of concerns facing the modern museum.  (more…)

The Musée Marmottan-Monet, the private museum holding the largest collection ofClaude Monet paintings in the world, will look to relaunch itself this week alongside its more well-recognized Parisian contemporaries.  “Many of our paintings are well known but the museum is less well known,” says museum director Patrick de Carolis. “We have to change that. We are private and entirely funded by the money we earn for ourselves. We hope that the exhibition, which starts this week will encourage people to come to the Marmottan.” (more…)

The Museum of Modern Art has hired Fiona Romeo as the head of the museum’s Digital Content and Strategy, a new position that will place her at the head of the museum’s digital media department.  “Fiona’s appointment builds upon the Museum’s pioneering work in the digital realm, and is a reflection of the dynamic and vital role that digital content plays in the way people can participate in the life of the Museum,” said MoMA director Glenn Lowry in a release. (more…)

The New York Times writes on the efforts of Crystal Bridges Museum to establish itself as a leading contemporary arts institution, and the planning underway for a show of young and underestimated artists from around the United States.  “There have been times over the past few months,” said Don Bacigalupi, an employee of the museum currently leading the hunt. “When I wake up and literally have no idea what city I’m in.” (more…)