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, November 20.

NEED-TO-READ

Inside the Art Collections of Big Banks – Bloomberg takes a look at the art collections of major financial institutions, which have become big-time players in the art industry. Many of the works held by banks are bought on the primary market, and even during the pandemic, nearly 8 in 10 members of the International Association of Corporate Collections of Contemporary Art have continued to acquire art. “Bankers stepped in like the new Medici,” cultural policy professor Arnold Witte says. (Bloomberg)

Berlin Museum Vandals Had a Dress Rehearsal in Potsdam – The vandals who mounted a large-scale attack on Berlin’s Museum Island in October practiced their attack at a museum in Potsdam two weeks before, according to a report. The perpetrators targeted a sculpture by Louis Tuaillon a the Cecilienhof Palace in the city, and left traces of the oily substance they used in Berlin in other rooms. In mid-July, similar damage was reported on around 50 objects in the Wewelsburg museum in North Rhine-Westphalia. (DeutschlandFunk)

UK’s National Gallery Adapts to the World Online – With London museums closed until at least December 2, the National Gallery is making its blockbuster Artemisia Gentileschi exhibition more widely available—while picking up a bit of cash—by selling £8 tickets for virtual tours. The tours, led by the show’s curator, Letizia Treves, offer a 30-minute overview of the artist’s life and work. (The Art Newspaper)

Angelina Jolie to Direct Biopic of Acclaimed War Photographer – Actress and philanthropist Angelina Jolie is bringing the life of acclaimed war photographer and photojournalist Don McCullin to the big screen, with actor Tom Hardy set to play the starring role. Working primarily for the Sunday Times Magazine, McCullin earned praise for his harrowing coverage of conflicts beginning in the 1960s in Vietnam and Northern Ireland. McCullin agreed to work with Jolie after seeing her directorial turn in After By the Sea (2015), which she adapted from the memoir First They Killed My Father. “I was very impressed at how she made such a powerful and accurate representation of the place at that time,” McCullin said of the film, which was based in Cambodia. In 2019, Tate Britain opened an exhibition of more than 250 of McCullin’s wartime photographs, as well as contemplative landscapes around his home in Somerset. (Guardian)

ART MARKET

The Armory Show Names 2021 Curators – The New York fair has named the organizers of its special sections at its next edition. Wassan Al-Khudhairi, chief curator of the Contemporary Art Museum in St. Louis, will organize the Focus section; Claudia Schmuckli of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco will steer the Platform section; and Valerie Cassel Oliver, curator of Modern and contemporary art at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, will direct next year’s curatorial leadership summit, which coincides with the fair. (Press release)

Miami Nonprofit Launches Virtual Sales Platform – The Martin Margulies Foundation has gifted 50 photographs to the nonprofit Bakehouse Art Complex in Miami, which plans to sell the works through a new online sales platform that will help it expand its programming. The platform, called Fresh Goods, launches on November 30, ahead of the now largely virtual Miami Art Week. Proceeds from the first sale will also help fund the conversion of a portion of Bakehouse’s campus into affordable artist housing. (TAN)

Painting by Leonardo da Vinci Collaborator Sells Big – The Paris auction house Artcurial sold a painting of Mary Magdalene attributed to Leonardo da Vinci’s pupil, Gian Giacomo Caprotti, known as Salaì, for $2 million. The work sold to a US collector after a bidding war helped it soar past its upper estimate of $178,000. (TAN)

COMINGS & GOINGS

The Carolee Schneemann Foundation Adds Staff – The Carolee Schneemann Foundation has named Rachel Churner as its new director. Churner, a professor at the New School University, formerly ran Churner and Churner art gallery in New York, and her art criticism has appeared in leading publications. The foundation has also named the financial educator and writer Alvin Hall, and the owner of media-management company SMV Media, Sara Vance Waddell, as board members. (Press release)

Levy Gorvy x Salon 94 Design Pop Up in Miami – Just in time for virtual Art Basel Miami Beach, Lévy Gorvy and Salon 94 Design are teaming up to launch a pop-up location in Miami’s Design District. The joint venue is set to open November 27 with a curated selection of works by Lévy Gorvy artists, including Alexander Calder, George Condo, and Michelangelo Pistoletto. Salon 94 Design will show pieces by artists including Tom Sachs, Donald Judd, and Max Lamb. Works will be available online through Lévy Gorvy’s online Art Basel booth. (Press release)

Marianne Boesky Adds Suzanne McClelland to Roster – Marianne Boesky Gallery now represents the painter Suzanne McClelland. The artist, who is know for her large-scale canvases, as well as for collaborative books and prints, will have her first show with the gallery at its Art Basel Miami Beach online viewing room. (Press release)

Former Sotheby’s PR Chief Teams Up With Art Lawyers – Lauren Gioia, the former longtime head of press at Sotheby’s, is joining forces with veteran art-market lawyers Jon Olsoff, John Cahill, and Paul Cossu as part of her consultancy’s offerings to provide communications and legal counsel for museums and cultural institutions embarking on deaccessions and sales. (Press release)

FOR ART’S SAKE

The EU Funds a New Database for Nazi-Looted Art – The European Union’s culture fund, Creative Europe, has given €490,000 to support the Jewish Digital Cultural Recovery Project, a new database for Jewish collections that were looted by Nazis. The registry’s first project will focus on the collection of Adolphe Schloss, whose collection of Dutch Old Masters was seized by the Gestapo. One third of the collection remains to be recovered. (TAN)

Derek Fordjour’s New Approach – The artist, who counts Beyonce and Jay-Z among his collectors, has become known for his intricate paintings of Black athletes and performers. But while most of his figures are imaginary, his inaugural show at Petzel Gallery in New York includes a rare portrait of real people: 14 Black women, from Mamie Till-Mobley to Tamika Palmer, who have been forced to grieve in public. “This year, I feel like memorial is important,” the artist said. (NYT)

“Donald Trump” Sells a Commemorative Plaque – For $2,020, you can now supposedly buy a plaque proclaiming Trump as “the greatest American president since Abraham Lincoln.” The listing notes that “despite fighting in the courts, we are being evicted [from the White House] in January 2021” and describes the seller as “a recent COVID survivor, a senior” who has “been totally persecuted, almost worse than the slaves were.” The plaque is the handiwork of artist Adrian Wilson, known for altering New York City subway signs to pay homage to late celebrities. (Craigslist)