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, March 19.
NEED-TO-READ
Met Admission Fees Deliver $2.5 Million to New York Cultural Organizations – More than 175 cultural organizations will get a share of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s increased admissions fees. El Museo del Barrio, the Studio Museum, and the Bronx Museum of the Arts are among the institutions that benefit from 30 percent of the extra revenue (up to a cap of $3 million). The sharing arrangement was a condition of the deal the Met made with the city when it began charging visitors from out of state $25 last year. After four months of the new policy, the Met’s admission revenue rose to $48.2 million in the fiscal year of 2018, up $5.4 million from 2017. (New York Times)
La Scala Gives Back $3.4 Million to Saudi Arabia – The famed Milan opera house has had second thoughts about accepting money from Saudi Arabia. Milan’s mayor, Giuseppe Sala, announced that La Scala now plans to return the $3.4 million it received, the first chunk of a total of $17 million pledged by the kingdom. Saudi Arabia’s culture minister will also no longer be joining the board, although the orchestra says it may still go ahead with planned concerts there. The concert hall’s decision to accept funding was widely criticized after numerous cultural organizations distanced themselves from the state following the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. (AP)
Las Vegas Is Getting Its First Permanent Banksy – Vegas is really going all-out on the crowd-pleasing art, isn’t it? After a spree of Hirst acquisitions, the Palms Casino resort in Las Vegas opens its new street art-themed restaurant with Banksy’s spray-painted work Smiley Coppers Panel I on the wall. (One images this is not exactly what Banksy envisioned when he created the work.) The city’s first permanent Banksy hangs alongside other works by Kenny Scharf, Cleon Peterson, VHILS, Pose, Martha Cooper, DabsMyla, and Slick. The Green Street Kitchen, which guests enter through a tunnel spray-painted by CES, is the brainchild of the Palms creative director Tal Cooperman. (Las Vegas Review Journal)
Vessel Updates Photo Policy After Outcry – The Internet was not pleased to find out that Hudson Yards was claiming the rights to every photograph and video taken of New York’s $200 million tourist trap, Vessel. Tucked into the venue’s terms and conditions, which visitors agree to when they secure a ticket to the shiny behemoth, is a clause that states the company has the right to license and use any content related to the structure. A spokesperson for Related, the real estate company that owns Hudson Yards, says it will be revising the language to clarify the intended use for the photos, which it claims is simply to re-share images already shared on social channels. (Gothamist, Bloomberg)
ART MARKET
Fyre Festival Merch Goes on Sale – The US Marshals Service’s Manhattan office expects demand to be brisk for official Fyre Festival merch when it offers two boxes of T-shirts, shorts, sweatpants, sweatshirts, hats, wristbands and medallions in an online auction. The proceeds will go toward paying back some of the $26 million owed to those cheated by the failed “luxury” music festival. (Vulture)
Art Dubai Prepares to Open After a Rocky Year – The Gulf fair, which lost its sponsor and main prize after the Abraaj Group went into liquidation, returns to the UAE with a new co-director, Chloe Vaitsou, who joined from Frieze last summer. The event runs from March 20 to 23. (The Art Newspaper)
Lehmann Maupin Will Open a London Office – Isabella Kairis Icoz, who was recently promoted to senior director, will open an office and viewing room for Lehmann Maupin gallery in London’s South Kensington neighborhood next year. The gallery currently operates spaces in New York, Seoul, and Hong Kong. (ARTnews)
COMINGS & GOINGS
Alserkal Avenue Opens Dubai Foundation – The founder of the Alserkal Avenue arts district in Dubai, the real estate magnate Abdelmonem bin Eisa Alserkal, is launching the Alserkal Arts Foundation. The nonprofit organization will support creatives making work in or about Dubai and the regional art scene with a grant program and residency. (Art Asia Pacific)
Wanda de Guébriant, Expert on Matisse, Dies at 69 – The leading Henri Matisse authenticator, who began her career as an assistant to the artist’s daughter, died last Thursday. De Guébriant took over from Matisse’s daughter Marguerite Duthuit after she died in 1982 as the only official expert on the artist’s work. In her later years, she sought to trace hundreds of missing Matisse works that mysteriously disappeared from a Paris storage unit in the ’70s. (The Art Newspaper)
Stedelijk Announces Female Artist Acquisition Fund – Two new special acquisition funds are helping the Amsterdam museum increase the number of works by female artists in its collection. Currently, just four percent of the museum’s 100,000 works are by women. The Stedelijk’s interim director Jan Willem Sieburgh says he’s committed to redressing the balance. The museum recently acquired works by Amsterdam artists Raquel van Haver and Jacqueline de Jong with support from the BankGiro Loterij. (Art Daily)
The UK’s Largest Bronze Sculpture Touches Down – A 23-foot-tall sculpture of a crouching woman called Messenger has been installed in Plymouth, on England’s south coast. The nearly £500,000 ($660,000) bronze, created by Cornish artist Joseph Hillier and paid for by the Theatre Royal Plymouth, depicts an actress. Locals’ opinions are divided, but the artist says he felt it was important to offer a counter to all the monuments to men in Plymouth and other cities. (Guardian)
FOR ART’S SAKE
Takashi Murakami Directs Billie Eilish’s New Music Video – Following projects with musicians Kanye West and Kid Cudi, the Japanese artist has collaborated on the video for Eilish’s new single, “you should see me in a crown.” The video uses special motion-capture technology and animated versions of Murakami’s trademark smiling flowers. (Hypebae)
Palazzo Pitti Plans Men’s Fashion Extravaganza – The annual men’s fashion showcase, Pitti Uomo, is staging a 30-year retrospective of men’s fashion from June 11 through September 29 at the Palazzo Pitti’s Museum of Fashion and Costume in Florence. The exhibition will feature looks from around 150 designers including Giorgio Armani, Valentino, Versace, and Vivienne Westwood. (WWD)
The Prado Teams Up With… Zara? – To celebrate its bicentenary year, the national museum has collaborated with an unlikely partner: the fast fashion retailer Zara. The new Prado x Zara menswear collection features designs inspired by some of the museum’s most famous paintings by masters including Leonardo, Velazquez, and Rubens. The capsule collection of sweatshirts and T-shirts is titled “Becoming a Work of Art.” (El Confidencial)