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 Friday, November 10.
NEED TO READ
Mugrabi Family Gets Their Art Back – A judge has ordered Mana Contemporary, a New Jersey storage facility, to turn over more than 1,300 works owned by the Mugrabis, a family of prominent collector-dealers. The family said that Mana had been holding their works “hostage” in a dispute over payment and that their business had come to a screeching halt as a result. The dispute over back storage fees will continue in court. (Bloomberg)
Executor Sold $165 Million de Kooning for $2,000 – Willem de Kooning’s Woman Ochre (1954–55) was sold in a $2,000 house clearance deal by a Houston man who was overseeing the estate of his uncle and aunt, retired schoolteachers in New Mexico. A few days later, the nephew was surprised to learn the abstract painting had been stolen from the University of Arizona Museum of Art in 1985 and was, in fact, worth around $165 million. The painting was recovered this summer. (Glasstire)
Chloë Sevigny to Star in Pussy Riot Video – The Russian band has released their new music video “Police State,” remembering the 1917 Russian revolution. Sevigny stars as a baton-wielding riot police officer. In the video, the group criticizes “autocratic, conservative, right-wing leaders” who are “spreading around the world like a sexually transmitted disease.” Get a peek behind the scenes on Instagram. (Pitchfork)
V&A Acquires Chunk of Brutalist Building – London’s Victoria and Albert Museum has acquired a three-story section of Robin Hood Gardens, an east London tower block designed by architects Alison and Peter Smithson that is due to be demolished. The museum now owns the front and back facade and a section of the walkway; it is—perhaps unsurprisingly—by far the largest piece of social housing in the museum’s collection. (Press release)
ART MARKET
Gagosian and Deitch Team Up in Miami (Again) – The next Gagosian-Deitch production during Art Basel Miami Beach will be “Abstract / Not Abstract” at the Moore Building in Miami’s Design District. The show—conceived this year by Larry Gagosian—will include recent paintings by Josh Smith, John Armleder, Sterling Ruby, as well as Tauba Auerbach woven works. (ARTnews)
New $3 Million Record for Man Ray – Man Ray’s Noir et Blanche (1926), a classic image of his lover and muse Kiki de Montparnasse holding an African mask, sold at Christie’s Paris for $3.1 million. A record for Man Ray, it is also a new high mark at auction for a classic photograph. (Art Market Monitor)
Frieze New York Adds VIP Day – Can’t get enough Frieze? Now there is more to love. The fair has added a second VIP day to Frieze New York on Randall’s Island next year. The event will be open to invited guests on Wednesday and Thursday, May 2–3, followed by three public days. (ARTnews)
COMINGS & GOINGS
University of Chicago Museum Gets New Curator – Dieter Roelstraete has been named the incoming curator of the University of Chicago’s Neubauer Collegium for Culture and Society. Roelstraete previously served on the curatorial team that organized documenta 14. (Artforum)
Studio Museum in Harlem Names Artists-in-Residence – Allison Janae Hamilton, Tschabalala Self, and Sable Elyse Smith have been announced as next year’s artists-in-residence for the Studio Museum’s prestigious program. From April to December 2018, the women will work in the museum’s 127th Street building. (ARTnews)
Creative Capital Adds Five Members to Its Board – The New York-based nonprofit, which supports experimentation in the arts, has added Jane Brown, Michelle Coffey, Hasan Elahi, Bill Foulkes, and Penny Lane to its board of directors. (Artforum)
FOR ART’S SAKE
Rutgers Acquires Legendary Collection of Soviet Art – The collector Nancy Ruyle Dodge has given Rutgers University in New Jersey its largest single gift ever: a trove of 17,000 works of Soviet nonconformist art worth an estimated $34 million. The gift to the school’s Zimmerli Art Museum—which is already known for its strength in Soviet art—includes work produced throughout the USSR over four decades. (Wall Street Journal)
Getty Gets $5 Million Gift for Conservation – The Getty Conservation Institute has received a $5 million gift to support its international work from media executive Louise Bryson and former utility company executive John Bryson. In recognition of the endowment, the head of the institute will be renamed the John E. and Louise Bryson Director, the Getty’s first named directorship. (Press release)
Chubb Donates Historic Sculpture – Chubb Insurance has donated a damaged Yves Klein sculpture to the artist’s archive so it can be studied by conservation experts. The work, based on one of Michelangelo’s prisoners, had been damaged beyond repair in transit; the company considered the artist’s archives a good alternative to the trash heap. (Insurance Business Weekly)
See Pete Souza’s New Photography Book on Obama – Obama’s official photographer has released Obama: An Intimate Portrait, which documents his years in office through highlights of the just under two million photographs Souza took of the former president over his two terms. The photographer has gained a lot of Instagram attention for his cheeky and poignant posts that juxtapose Obama and Trump’s administrations. (TIME)