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 this Monday, December 18.

NEED-TO-READ

Beth Rudin DeWoody on Her New Palm Beach Museum – The American collector has opened the Bunker Artspace, a 20,000-square-foot museum in West Palm Beach, just two miles from Mar-a-Lago. The appointment-only space showcases art from her 10,000-work-strong collection, which includes provocative pieces by Paul McCarthy, Cindy Sherman, and Nick Cave. (NYT)

Jerry Saltz on the Balthus Fiasco – The critic stands by the Met for standing by Balthus’s “creepy” painting after 11,000 people signed a petition asking the museum to remove it from public view. “In the long run,” Saltz writes, “if we remove the Balthus because it offends in the current climate, we pretty much have to remove whole wings of art from the Met.” (Vulture)

Steve McQueen to Film Grenfell Tower Tribute – The artist and Oscar-winning director is working on a “lasting memorial” to the Grenfell Tower fire in London, which took 71 lives. He is using a helicopter to film the charred remnants of the tower block before it gets covered up by a white plastic screen to temper the psychological trauma for those living and working near the site. (The Times)

Missing Monet Found Thanks to Google – An upcoming show at London’s National Gallery will include a painting, Monet’s Effet de Brouillard, which experts had long believed to be missing. The curator tracked it down with a simple strategy: Googling. The work happened to have just been sold in New Orleans, and the new owners were happy to lend it to the exhibition. (The Guardian)

ART MARKET

James Cohan Adds Two Artists to Its Roster – The New York gallery has announced that it will represent sculptor Kathy Butterly, known for her boundary-pushing ceramics, and Grace Weaver, a 28-year-old figurative painter. (Press release)

TEFAF Champions Conservation – The European Fine Art Foundation’s executive committee has awarded €50,000 ($59,000) to Portugal’s National Museum of Art and the MFA Boston to fund conservation projects. The former will use the funds to restore a 16th-century chapel on its premises while the latter will conserve a pair of oval portraits by Rembrandt. (Press release)

COMINGS & GOINGS

New Orleans Museum to Expand Sculpture Garden – The museum is breaking ground on the project this month and expects to complete it next winter to coincide with the city’s 300th anniversary celebrations. The privately funded expansion will add new sites for outdoor artworks as well as an amphitheater. (Artdaily)

NEON Curatorial Award Winner Announced – Caterina Avataneo supplied the winning proposal, which allows her to create a show with works from the D.Daskalopoulos Collection at the Hepworth Wakefield Gallery. Her proposed exhibition addresses anxiety, death, and paradox through the work of 13 artists. The award was founded by the Athens nonprofit NEON and the Whitechapel Gallery. (Artforum)

Art Institute of Chicago Gets Photography Endowments – David W. “Buzz” Ruttenberg and Roger F. “Biff” Ruttenberg have endowed a curator position in the photography department and an exhibition series dedicated to emerging photographers at the Art Institute of Chicago in honor of their parents, the collectors David C. and Sarajean Ruttenberg. (Artdaily)

Director of Florence Griswold Museum Appointed – Rebekah Beaulieu will take up the new post in February, joining the Connecticut institution from the Bowdoin College Museum of Art in Brunswick, Maine. Beaulieu succeeds Jeffrey Anderson, who has led the museum for the past four decades. (Artdaily)

FOR ART’S SAKE

What the Repeal of Net Neutrality Could Mean for Art – The US Federal Communications Commission’s vote to cut back on Obama-era net neutrality regulations could spell the end of the “golden age” of the internet. Moving forward, providers could charge for high-resolution museum images and educational resources and create an increasingly corporate internet for artists. (Artspace)

Hito Steyerl’s Quest to Change the Art World – The German artist, who is trying not to talk about the fact that she recently topped ArtReview’s Power 100 list, talks to the Times about the visual language of her films, her hypnotic “lecture performances,” and her new book, Duty Free Art. (New York Times)

Serpentine Pavilion Heads to Kuala Lumpur – Architect Francis Kéré’s Serpentine Pavilion has been snapped up by the Ilham Gallery in Malaysia for an undisclosed amount and will be transported to Kuala Lumpur in early 2018. The Berlin-based architect’s commission is the 17th design in the popular series of temporary pavilions in Kensington Gardens. (The Star)

Check Out Jemima Kirke’s New Paintings – Enjoy our latest Show of the Day spotlight, featuring the Girls star’s new depressed-bride canvases at Sargent’s Daughters gallery. (artnet News)

Jemima Kirke
Self-portrait as a Bride #1 (2017). Photo: courtesy of Sargent’s Daughters.