Art Industry News is a daily digest of the most consequential developments coming out of the art world and art market. Here’s what you need to know on this Friday, February 10.

NEED TO READ

V&A Head Urges Museums to ‘Share’ Cultural Treasures – Tristram Hunt, director of London’s Victoria & Albert Museum, writes that museum trustees’s hands are tied as the law bans national institutions from de-accessing any objects, and such political reality is unlikely to change in the foreseeable future. Instead, he says a cultural partnerships program involving the sharing of objects, skills, and touring exhibitions will be the way forward. (The Spectator)

In a Blue-Chip Gallery Shake-Up, Harmony Korine Heads to Hauser & Wirth – The filmmaker and artist has left Gagosian, the mega-gallery that’s been seen as a competitor of Hauser & Wirth. The director of Spring Breakers (2012) and writer for Kids (1995) is the second renowned filmmaker to join a top gallery recently after David Lynch getting snapped by Pace. (ARTnews)

How Lapis Lazuli Is Being Militarized – The “stone from heaven” from which the color ultramarine is derived (it is applied in Johannes Vermeer’s paintings currently on show at Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum) has a dark side. While the mining of lapis is difficult and dangerous, the trading of this stone has provided an important source of income for the Taliban in Afghanistan. (Telegraph)

Man Arrested for Doodling ‘Freedom’ in Hong Kong – A 39-year-old man who allegedly painted graffiti resembling the Chinese characters for “freedom” has been arrested on suspicion of criminal damage. The signs, which see the strokes of the characters replaced by dollar signs, were seen in 130 locations across the city. Some of them have now been covered in pieces of white paper. (InMedia)

MOVERS & SHAKERS

Photo London Announces New Head – Kamiar Maleki is the new director of the photography fair, which returns to Somerset House this May. Previously, Maleki was the director of VOLTA art fairs in New York and Basel. (Press release)

Pace Gallery to Represent John Wesley Estate – The mega-gallery is taking over exclusive representation of the pop artist, who died last year, and plans to show his work at Frieze in Los Angeles next week. New York’s Fredericks & Freiser gallery and London’s Waddington Custot previously repped Wesley. (ARTnews)

New Museum Names Director of Education and Public Engagement – Althea Rockwell has been appointed the director of education and public engagement at the museum after seven years at MoMA. (Press release)

Malin Gallery Expands West – The New York gallery is putting down roots out west with a permanent location slated to open on February 27 in Aspen, Colorado. The gallery was one of nine that staged pop-ups in the ski resort town back in 2021. The new space is a stone’s throw from Christie’s outpost in the town. (ARTnews)

FOR ARTS SAKE

Frieze Impact Prize Winner Announced – The California-based artist Narsiso Martinez has been named winner of the Frieze Impact Prize, presented in partnership with Define American ahead of Frieze Los Angeles, which will run from February 16 to 19. The artist will present a solo project at the upcoming fair. (Press release)

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An Amateur Metal Detectorist in the U.K. Has Struck History-Lover’s Gold: A 16th-Century Pendant With Links to King Henry VIII

‘It’s Now or Never’: The Rijksmuseum’s Hotly Anticipated Blockbuster Vermeer Show Is Finally Here—and It’s Unmissable

LVMH Shelled Out $47 Million to Keep a Caillebotte Masterpiece in France. So Why Are People Complaining?

Rising Photographer Dannielle Bowman Wants to Make Images That Function Like Memories

A Prized Kandinsky Painting Recently Restituted to the Heirs of a Jewish Collector May Fetch $45 Million at Sotheby’s

Emily Sargent, Not Just a Sister to John, Was a Serious Painter in Her Own Right. Her Watercolor Landscapes are Finally Entering Museums—and the Spotlight

Hermès Wins Its Lawsuit Against the Digital Artist Who Made ‘MetaBirkins,’ Setting a Precedent for NFT Copyright Cases

See Inside Actor Jim Carrey’s Art-Filled Home, Now on the Market for $29 Million (Art Not Included)