Art Industry News: Italian Museums Will Raise Ticket Prices to Help Fund Flood Relief Efforts + Other Stories

Floods were caused by heavy rains across Italy's Emilia Romagna region in late May 2023. Emilia Romagna, Italy. Photo: Antonio Masiello/Getty Images.

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 Tuesday, May 30.

NEED-TO-READ

At 99, Richard Mayhew’s Not Slowing Down – Following up the success of his solo exhibition at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in 2023, the California-based artist has a new show, “Natural Order,” on at the new Venus Over Manhattan gallery on Great Jones Street. A larger retrospective of the Afro-Native American’s decades-long painting career is set to open at the Sonoma Valley Museum of Art this fall. (New York Times)

Protesters Charged Following Climate Action in DC – A pair of climate protestors who smeared paint over the display case containing Degas’ famous Little Dancer Aged Fourteen sculpture last month, have been indicted for conspiracy to commit an offense against the U.S. and injury to museum property. Additionally, the duo allegedly caused the National Gallery of Art around $2,400 of damages. The maximum possible punishment would be a five year prison sentence and a hefty fine of $250,000. (ARTnews)

Italian Museums to Increase Admission Fee – Scrambling for a quick way to fundraise towards a $2 billion fund for conservation work in the wake of disastrous floods in Emilia-Romagna, the Italian government has decided to increase the price of museum admission across the country by €1. This short-term levy has proven controversial among government ministers and other commentators, but will go into effect from June 15 to September 15. (The Art Newspaper)

Artist Charged After Clash with Reporter – Shellyne Rodriguez faces misdemeanour charges for menacing and harassment after a video published by the New York Post appeared to show her threatening the paper’s reporter Reuven Fenton with a machete last Tuesday. She has also been fired from her role as an adjunct professor in the art department at Manhattan’s Hunter College. (ARTnews)

MOVERS & SHAKERS

Mirela Baciak to Lead Salzburger Kunstverein – The Warsaw, Poland-born curator will leave her post at the Steirischer Herbst Festival to helm the Austrian museum beginning in July. Baciak says her vision “is that of a dynamic, responsive institution that reflects societal challenges in the continuously changing world, and considers and expands contemporary art discourses.” (Artforum)

Peace Protester to Be Immortalized in Sculpture– A permanent tribute to the activist Brian Haw will be stationed outside the Palace of Westminster where he set up a tent and campaigned for a decade over U.K. and U.S. foreign policy issues. Haw also campaigned in Northern Ireland and Cambodia, and his camp outside of Parliament became a tourist attraction and was painted by Turner Prize-winning artist Mark Wallinger. (Guardian)

Ramsay Prize Awarded – Artist Ida Sophia won one of Australia’s most august prizes, which includes a $100,000 award. Sophia’s 12-minute film titled Witness centers on the artist herself being repeatedly dunked into the water of the Pool of Siloam in a baptismal loop. “My medium is the body and time,” the artist explained. (Guardian)

FOR ARTS SAKE

Leighton’s Original Flaming June Returns Home – A study of the famous image depicting a fiery-red haired woman draped over a chair in a form-fitting orange gown is returning to the London museum named for Frederic Leighton. (Guardian)