A strange disagreement has arisen over the authenticity of a site-specific Damien Hirst spot painting, after a homeowner has attempted to remove the work from its location and sell it.  Jess Simpson purchased the home where the work was installed, and attempted to mount the piece on aluminum to resell it, but was met with a statement by Hirst’s Science LTD. which stated the work no longer could be considered authentic as Simpson did not own the certificate, and could not remove a site-specific work to profit from it: “The ownership of a wall painting in the series titled Wall Spots always resides with the owner of the Wall Spots signed certificate, which accompanies the art work.” (more…)

Korakrit Arunanondchai has unveiled the trailer for his newest exhibition Letters to Chantri #1, opening this Friday at The Mistake Room.  Arunanondchai’s trailer continues his engagement with a cinematic approach to his work and his own artistic narrative, and features shots of him creating several of his body paint canvases, as his denim-clad assistants look on.  “Those paintings that you make,” the video text says, “they suffocate you.”  (more…)

Sterling Ruby has launched his collaborative fashion project with designer Raf Simons this week, with an online store titled inthenameof.be.  The site will look to launch weekly products, starting this week with a  work shirt and jeans spattered with typically messy splashes by Ruby. (more…)

The costs and logistics of the Guggenheim’s Helsinki expansion plans are causing a backlash against the museum in the Finnish capital, the New York Times reports.  “I felt some defensiveness and some very developed hostility to us, a fear which I was empathetic toward,” says Guggenheim director Richard Armstrong, “that the distinct local character of Helsinki would somehow be amalgamated into some sort of gigantic industrial apparatus.” (more…)

The final valuation of the Detroit Institute of Arts has topped $4.6 billion, the Wall Street Journal reports, a figure that could create notable complications for the city in bankruptcy court.  The report also notes that the immediate sales of these works does not appear to be a feasible method of raising funds.  “The report makes it abundantly clear that selling art to settle debt will not generate the kind of revenue the City’s creditors claim it will,” says Bill Nowling, spokesman for Detroit Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr. (more…)

The New York Times has published another survey on the contemporary auction market, focusing on the gradual concentration of collectors at the highest tiers of art collecting towards blue-chip artists and trusted names, making competition for these works all the more fierce, and the prices that much higher.  “The sleepy days of collecting are over,” says Amy Cappellazzo of the New York-based Partners agency. “The wealthiest of the wealthy now view art as an alternative currency. It’s become a very big business.” (more…)

A recent Wall Street Journal interview with Agnes Gund reveals the former MoMA President’s views on the current state of the art world, and its movement towards greater accessibility and access.  “The market will start to correct as more collectors, in it for the game, will drive the prices of women artists up as will buyers recognizing the talent that has been there all along,” she says. (more…)

The dispute surrounding Aby Rosen’s display of a Damien Hirst sculpture on the grounds of his Old Westbury, home in Long Island, has reached a resolution, with Rosen agreeing to position the statue in a place that will prevent neighbors from seeing its partially exposed skeleton.  Rosen will also employ a landscaping scheme to further shield the statue from view outside his estate.  “They were very cooperative,” says Mayor Fred J. Carillo. (more…)

Several artists have redesigned classic British battleships in London and Liverpool commemoration of the 100 year anniversary of the start of WWI.  The designs pay homage to the practice of “dazzle” paint jobs on battleships, designed to confuse attacking German U-Boats.  (more…)

A lawsuit seeking to block the takeover of the Corcoran Gallery of Art has been filed in D.C., brought forth by a group of museum donors, students, and faculty, saying the takeover would go against the institution’s 1869 deed.  The suit also complains that the institution suffered from “self-dealing, conflicts of interest, hiring unqualified management and profligate spending on consultants whose advice was ultimately ignored.” (more…)

A trove of artworks valued at over $4.5 million has been discovered in Brazil, hidden away in shipping crates sent over from the United States.  The works, among them pieces by contemporary artists Os Gemeos and Sergio de Camargo were among the possessions of a Brazilian woman who authorities believe was seeking to avoid export taxes. (more…)

W Magazine has published a power list of 60 luminary artists, collectors, gallerists and other art world leaders, including among them, Michael Slotover and Amanda Sharp (co-founders of Frieze Art Fair), Larry Gagosian, and Kara Walker.  “The weirdest thing I get all the time is ‘I thought you’d be shorter,'” Walker says. “I think it’s because I put a lot of small, childlike bodies in my work: not-quite-to-scale caricatures enacting terrible power games. Some folks see the figures and assume they’re based on me.” (more…)

A recent Financial Times article notes the continually shifting state of the contemporary art market, and the changes in gallery representation, points of sale, and dominant art buying countries that are currently shaking up the art world and in correlation, notes the skyrocketing rents felt by many galleries in hot art neighborhoods like New York’s Chelsea and Mayfair in London.  (more…)

Architect Peter Zumthor has altered his plans for the expansion of the LACMA campus, taking into account its close proximity to the La Brea Tar Pits, and instead has shifted the design to snake around the museum campus, avoiding the pits altogether.  “The original design would have severely impacted six of the nine active tar pits,” said Jane Pisano, director of the Los Angeles Natural History Museum, which oversees the tar pits. “We are so pleased, I do believe this design direction preserves and protects the tar pits.” (more…)

Over 60 artworks at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf have been destroyed, allegedly by janitorial staff, who slashed artworks with a knife and stomped the works’ stretchers to pieces before leaving the destroyed pieces in the school’s yard.  “It’s just terrible for the students,” says Director Rita McBride. “The works are irreplaceable.”  (more…)

Jenny Saville is interviewed this week in The Telegraph, discussing her painting techniques, and love of the human form.  “I paint flesh because I’m human,” she says. “If you work in oil, as I do, it comes naturally. Flesh is just the most beautiful thing to paint.” (more…)

Ai Weiwei is set to launch a new project in Poland next month, consisting of three pits filled with broken crockery and covered over.  Installed in Brodno Sculpture Park, the hidden crockery are replicas of vases from a previous project made in 2005.  “In reaching out to the history of this precious object, Ai was interested in the fetishisation of certain artefacts and their complex history encapsulated in the colonial logistics of robbery and appropriation,” says park curator Sebastian Cichocki. (more…)

MoMA has announced an upcoming career retrospective for Björk, spanning the artist’s work across a broad expanse of fields including sound, film, visuals, instruments, objects, costumes, and performance.  The show will also feature a brand new music and film experience  made in collaboration with director Andrew Huang and 3-D design leader Autodesk. (more…)

The New York Times writes on the state of the art market, noting the risks inherent in a market that relies partially on taste and the opinions of art advisors to determine market value and success.  “Art is an asset, not an asset class,” said Luke Dugdale, a private client wealth management director for the Royal Bank of Canada.  “If it were an asset class, the F.C.A. would regulate it, and that would kill the art world. It’s a market in which everyone can be an adviser.”  (more…)

The New York Times takes a look at the fading presence of art galleries in the Central London neighborhoods of Mayfair and St. James’s, as increasing rents push dealers from an area they have traditionally occupied for decades.  The article also cites the challenges associated with the state of the current market.  “Modern art is not 500 weeks old — it’s 500 years old,” says dealer James Mayor. “London’s pre-eminence in art dealing and connoisseurship comes from that fact. The perception is that the only art that exists is new art sold in supermarket-type galleries. That doesn’t give the public a chance to develop a taste for anything that’s not force-fed them by the supermarkets. We need diversity.” (more…)

The Musée Picasso in Paris has announced Laurent Le Bon, currently a the head of the Centre Pompidou-Metz, as its newest director, following the dismissal of Anne Baldassari earlier this year.   (more…)

The New York Times profiles the work of the overlooked New York School painter Raymond Spillenger, who passed away last year at the age of 89, leaving behind a massive collection of paintings and drawings that speaks to the artist’s long and often unacknowledged career.  “Was it fear of failure?” says his son Clyde. “An unwillingness to be self-promoting? Some of the others had big personalities, but our father was quiet and diffident, not the type to compete.” (more…)

Writer Georgina Adams takes another look at the thriving auction market in The Financial Times this week, and questions just how long the currently astronomical prices at auction for contemporary works can sustain themselves.  Adams, the author of Big Bucks – The Explosion of the Art Market in the 21st Century, offers a cohesive study of the current state of the market, from the art fair explosion to the influence of powerful new international economies, not to mention the role of the new independent curator.  “Their influence on what is good art today has to an extent replaced the artistic agenda once set by museums and art critics,” she writes.

Preorder Here: “Big Bucks – The Explosion of the Art Market in the 21st Century” by Georgina Adams
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The New York Times profiles a series of outdoor installations and sculpture projects outside New York City, including Fujiko Nakaya: Veil a new installation by the Japanese artist in which she has surrounded the iconic “Glass House” in New Canaan, CT with a wall of dense mist.  “The house has a kind of timelessness,” says director Henry Urbach, “and of course it’s all about transparency. We are confronting that with something that is ephemeral, constantly changing and often very opaque and mysterious.” (more…)