People The Disturbing Paintings of Werner Büttner, Forgotten Bad Boy of German Art, Are Starting to Look Alarmingly Good. The Market Has Noticed The German painter recently opened a career-spanning solo exhibition in Berlin. By Kate Brown, Feb 18, 2020
Galleries Posh Contemporary Art Gallery Blain Southern Is Closing Its Doors Amid Financial Troubles The news comes as multiple artists say they are working to reclaim art or money from the gallery. By Kate Brown, Feb 12, 2020
Art World Ai Weiwei Is Selling New Sculptures at a German Home-Goods Store—But You Have to Assemble Them Yourself The Chinese artist's low-cost, readymade work comes in a range of sizes and two different configurations. By Kate Brown, Feb 11, 2020
Shows & Exhibitions German Institutions Are Spending More Than $3 Million on Programming That Addresses Berlin’s Sordid (and Long Glossed-Over) Colonial Past The five-year program examines how the city benefited from Germany's expansions abroad. By Kate Brown, Feb 5, 2020
Art Fairs The Fair Unseen Amsterdam Declares Bankruptcy After Key Backers Pull Out The international photography fair had boasted of the success of its last edition. By Kate Brown, Jan 31, 2020
Politics After Beating Back a Populist Surge, Italy’s Leaders Will Again Allow Foreigners to Apply for Museum Directorships Thirteen posts are now open to those wishing to apply from abroad. By Kate Brown, Jan 30, 2020
Art World The Getty Bought an ‘Exceedingly Rare’ Gauguin Sculpture for a Reported $5 Million. There’s Just One Problem: It’s Fake The sculpture was thought to be the largest and most unusual of Paul Gauguin's sculptures, of which he made very few. By Kate Brown, Jan 28, 2020
Art World Watch Mick Jagger Play an Evil Art Dealer in the Trailer for His Upcoming Art-World Thriller ‘The Burnt Orange Heresy’ Donald Sutherland and Claes Bang co-star as a reclusive artist and critic in the neo-noir thriller. By Kate Brown, Jan 27, 2020
On View On the 75th Anniversary of the Liberation of Auschwitz, 75 Moving Portraits of Holocaust Survivors Are Going on View in Germany Photographer Martin Schoeller has captured the portraits of survivors of the World War II atrocities. By Kate Brown, Jan 27, 2020
Politics Documenta Curator Adam Szymczyk Distances the Organization From Patron Sindika Dokolo, the Target of an International Fraud Investigation Sindika Dokolo's foundation pumped €340,000 into Documenta's coffers for its 2017 edition. By Kate Brown, Jan 24, 2020
Art World Two Wealthy Women Staged a Photo Shoot With Their Mercedes-Benz in the Forbidden City, Sparking Outrage in China Over Wealth Inequality The director of Beijing's Palace Museum has apologized and two senior managers have been suspended amid a social-media firestorm. By Kate Brown, Jan 21, 2020
Art World Five Old Master Paintings Stolen 40 Years Ago in a Notorious Art Heist Have Been Recovered Thanks to a German Mayor’s Ingenious Plan The paintings are returning to a Baroque palace having been smuggled into West Germany in the 1980s. By Kate Brown, Jan 20, 2020
On View A Revealing New Exhibition in Germany Delves Into the Archive of a Top Art Dealer From the 1960s to Show How Female Artists Were Kept Out The show brights together early letters, notes, and artworks that document the careers of first-generation conceptual women artists. By Kate Brown, Jan 17, 2020
Market Frieze Hires Media-Industry Veteran Simon Fox, Its First CEO, to Expand the Company’s Publishing and Fair Empire Fox will fill in duties previously overseen by Amanda Sharp and Matthew Slotover. By Kate Brown, Jan 15, 2020
Shows & Exhibitions An Eccentric Italian Collector Commissioned Famous Artists to Transform Pianos Into Weird and Wonderful Sculptures—See Them Here "Prepared pianos" by Dorothy Iannone, Carolee Schneemann, and Nam June Paik will be activated during an exhibition in Berlin. By Kate Brown, Jan 15, 2020