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 Wednesday, November 3.

NEED-TO-READ

Peek Inside Alicia Keys and Swizz Beatz’s Art Collection – If you’d like to engage in a real-estate and art-collecting fantasy, take a gander at the latest Architectural Digest spread featuring the L.A. home of Alicia Keys and  Kasseem Dean (also known a Swizz Beatz). Their 2,000-plus art collection includes work by Kwame Brathwaite, Kehinde Wiley, Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, and Barkley L. Hendricks. “When [our son] Egypt is practicing piano, he has a Basquiat behind him and the Toyin [Ojih Odutola] in front of him,” Keys said. “Without even knowing it, he gets to absorb this excellence.” (Architectural Digest)

Mexico Seeks to Halt Two Paris Auctions – Mexican officials are seeking to block two auctions of pre-Columbian artifacts coming up this month at Artcurial and Christie’s. Despite pushback from the Mexican government, the Artcurial sale has opened online and several pieces have already sold. Christie’s sale on November 10 could yield upwards of a €41 million ($47 million) for its 78 lots. Neither auction house has publicly responded to the Mexican government. (ARTnews)

A Strategy for the Wealthy to Donate Art and Get a Tax Break – How can the wealthy have their art and get a tax break, too? The answer is fractional ownership. The strategy of donating a portion of an artwork and sharing custody with a museum has become increasingly popular as the wealthy look for new strategies to shield their fortunes from the IRS. It’s particularly useful for those who are splitting their time between two homes: “You won’t even miss the art,” one accountant noted. (Bloomberg) 

A Monet Could Fetch $40 Million at Sotheby’s – Sotheby’s has lined up Coin Le Bassin aux Nymphéas (1918) for its Impressionist and Modern sales in New York later this month. The work last surfaced at auction in 1997, when it sold for $6.7 million at Christie’s to an American collector. Similar water lilies works offered in recent years have exceeded their estimates. (ARTnews)

MOVERS & SHAKERS

Tupac Gets a Touring Exhibition – The estate of Tupac Shakur is organizing a touring exhibition set to debut in a new 20,000-square-foot complex in Los Angeles on January 21, followed by a national and international tour. The show is “a story about race in America using Tupac as a proxy,” said organizer Arron Saxe. (New York Times)

Lehmann Maupin Names New Director – Allie Card is joining the gallery as a senior director after 20 years at Metro Pictures, which announced its closure earlier this year. She will focus on artist management and sales. (Press release)

Fine Arts Paris Opens in an Expanded Locale – The fifth edition of the fair will run from November 6 to 11 at Carousel du Louvre with more than 60 exhibitors, 21 of which are first-timers. The fair is also expanding to offer new areas of expertise including jewelry, rare books, and art from Asia and the Pacific. (Press Release)

FOR ART’S SAKE

Murakami Is Back on the NFT Train – Takashi Murakami—who dove head-first into NFTs in March only to pull back when he realized he didn’t totally understand them yet (#relatable)—is dipping his toe back into the virtual waters. The Japanese artist is collaborating with the metaverse brand RTFKT on an NFT avatar project called Clone X avatars. The 3D files for sale—a total of 20,000—can be used in Zoom meetings, social-media profiles, and elsewhere. (Colossal)