Art World
From the Highlights of Frieze Week to Jeff Koons’s Snapchat Collab: The Best and Worst of the Art World This Week
Plus, surprise trends at Frieze in London, and we remember publishing magnate SI Newhouse as an avid and discerning collector.

BEST
- David Geffen is donating $150 million to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, making it the largest cash gift in the history of the museum. That’s a lot of money!
- From pronouncing “Egon Schiele” to wielding an auction paddle, actress Julia Stiles told artnet News all about the challenges of playing a curator on her new Sundance series, Riviera.
- Frieze Week did it’s thing in London, with a spotlight on subversive feminist artworks, plus a push to reintroduce Julian Schnabel’s artwork to the market at Frieze Masters. Here’s the best of Frieze, Frieze Masters, Sunday, and 1:54.
- Sotheby’s auction saw mixed results in London: records were broken for artists Josef Albers and Thierry de Cordier, but big-ticket lots went unsold as well. In Hong Kong, meanwhile, a rare Ru Bowl fetched $37.7 million following a heated bidding war.
- An artist claims to have found a secret in Marcel Duchamp’s final work, so he built a replica of it to make his case. We visited the otherworldly installation, housed in the New York studio where Duchamp worked.

Marina Abramovic. Photo: courtesy Kreemart, ©2017.
WORST
- Thanks to a new augmented-reality collaboration with Snapchat, Jeff Koons’s famous sculptures can be conjured around the world with just a click of the app. It’s the perfect marriage of cutting-edge and obvious.
- After the opening of Frieze London, collector Stefan Simchowitz posted a rant on Facebook directed at “gallery idiots” who he says are lying about why they supposedly can’t sell artwork to him.
- President Trump finally released his proposed tax reform plan, but experts in the field delivered a range of opinions on whether high-net-worth individuals (like collectors) will really be pleased with the results.
- documenta’s CEO finally broke her silence and addressed the show’s financial troubles, citing air conditioning and hotel tabs as two sources contributing to the deficit.
- What does Marina Abromović taste like? The performance artist has partnered with Ladurée to create a macaron based on her life.
- The publishing magnate SI Newhouse, chairman of Condé Nast, passed away this week, and we looked back at his storied art collection.
Follow Artnet News on Facebook:
Want to stay ahead of the art world? Subscribe to our newsletter to get the breaking news, eye-opening interviews, and incisive critical takes that drive the conversation forward.
Share
Article topics