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 Tuesday, May 9th.
NEED-TO-READ
The Met Is Organizing the Biggest Michelangelo Exhibition in its History – Curated by the museum’s Italian Renaissance specialist Carmen C. Bambach, the show opens November 13 and includes 150 drawings, three marble sculptures, and more from Europe and the US. (NYT)
De Blasio Plans New Cultural Funding Policies – As the New York City mayor turns his eye to smaller cultural institutions in out-of-the-way neighborhoods, bigger ones fear they may lose their current support—but, as Karen Brooks Hopkins of the Citizens’ Advisory Committee says, “It’s not about fighting over crumbs; it’s about expanding the pot.” (NYT)
Buyer Sues Toll Brothers Because Her Artwork Won’t Fit Inside Her New Luxury Condo – Salespeople at a new development in New York’s Flatiron neighborhood assured Marjorie Levine and her husband that their artworks—some more than nine feet tall—could be accommodated inside the $10.5 million condo. Turns out, they can’t, and now Levine wants her deposit back. (LLNYC)
ART MARKET
Is Harry Macklowe Secretly Selling Off Artwork to Keep it From His Soon-to-Be Ex-Wife? – A source outed the billionaire real estate developer as the seller of Lichtenstein’s Red and White Brushstrokes, which hits the auction block at Christie’s next week with a $35-million estimate. (Page Six)
Leo Takes Home a Jonas Wood for Charity – While his doppelgängers were walking around Frieze New York, the real Leonardo DiCaprio was bidding at Sean Penn’s J/P Haitian Relief Organization gala at Sotheby’s last week. The actor took home Jonas Wood’s Yellow Clipping 2 for $180,000. (Page Six)
COMINGS & GOINGS
Musée de l’Orangerie Appoints Cécile Debray as Director – On the recommendation of Laurence des Cars, who formerly held the directorship at the Impressionist and Post-Impressionist museum, Cécile Debray is taking the helm, and will begin her tenure with shows on Dada and African art. (Artforum)
Tufts Names Dina Deitsch Director and Chief Curator of University Art Galleries – Coming from Harvard’s Carpenter Center, Deitsch will help the university to collaborate with the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. (Artdaily)
FOR ART’S SAKE
Association of Art Museum Curators Names Winners of 2017 Awards for Excellence – The annual awards recognize “groundbreaking new scholarship,” and this year, 26 curators are honored for notable catalogues, exhibitions, essays, or digital publications. (ARTnews)
Collector Bob Rennie Gifts the National Gallery of Canada $9 Million in Art – In honor of the country’s 150th anniversary, the real estate magnate gave the museum 197 works by Canadian artists like Ian Wallace, Rodney Graham, Damian Moppett, and Brian Jungen. (The Art Newspaper)
And Nathalie du Pasquier and George Sowden, of Memphis Group fame, collaborated with Valentino for the fashion house’s Fall/Winter 2017 collection:
Memphis x Valentino. Photo courtesy of Valentino
Memphis x Valentino. Photo courtesy of Valentino