Our weekly news roundup is an extension of Paint Drippings, which drops first in The Back Room, our lively recap funneling only the week’s must-know art industry intel into a nimble read you’ll actually enjoy. Artnet News Pro members get exclusive access—subscribe now to receive this in your inbox every Friday. 

Art Fairs

– After an exciting and eventful Frieze Week in London, the art world’s attention now shifts just a Eurostar train ride away to Paris. As we gear up for another art-filled week, Artnet’s Editor-in-Chief Naomi Rea spoke with Clément Delépine, director of Art Basel Paris, to discuss what’s in store for the fair ahead of its debut at the newly-renovated Grand Palais. (Artnet News)

– Sales at Frieze London weren’t exactly rolling in on VIP day on Wednesday, but the 21st edition of the fair sparked some small thrills with a refreshed layout that favors emerging galleries. Major sales within the opening hours included a $2.2 million Lisa Yuskavage painting at David Zwirner, 10 paintings by Billy Childish ($50,000 to $100,000 each) at Lehmann Maupin, three pastels on paper by Bani Abidi that were acquired by Tate from Experimenter’s booth, and a swiftly sold-out suite of new works by Charlotte Edey (priced between $13,000 and $17,000) at Ginny on Frederick. (Artnet News)

– Meanwhile, across Regent’s Park at Frieze Masters, Hauser and Wirth sold an 1865 canvas by Édouard Manet, which had an asking price of $4.9 million, as well as an Arshile Gorky painting for $8.5 million. As always, the fair provided a valuable platform for overlooked historical artists: The Gallery of Everything placed a $39,200 painting by the Czech painter and author Eva Švankmajerová with Tate and had two more on hold, while the Australian gallery D’Lan Contemporary hauled in $1.3 million from its presentation of Australian First Nations artist Paddy Bedford, including two paintings for $250,000 apiece—a record for the artist. (Artnet News)

Installation view of “Paddy Bedford; Spirit & Truth” at D’Lan Contemporary at Frieze Masters, London. Photo: Dan Weill. Courtesy D’Lan Contemporary.

– Sydney Blumenkranz has been tapped as FOG Art and Design’s inaugural director after leading the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art’s events team for six years. The 2025 fair will be held January 23–26 with 59 exhibitors, including Venus Over Manhattan, Charles Moffett, and Lisson. (Press release)

Auction Houses

– Christie’s sale of Impressionist, Modern, and contemporary in London netted £82 million ($107 million), led by Jeff Koons‘s Balloon Monkey (Blue), 2006–13, which sold for £7.56 million (about $9.88 million). (Artnet News)

– Sotheby’s evening sale of 20th- and 21st century art in London brought in £37.6 million ($49.2 million), a drop from the same sale last year. The top lot was a 1968 David Hockney set in the French Riviera, which made a zesty £13.1 million ($17.2 million). (Artnet News)

– Phillips brought in £15.1 million ($19.8 million) at its Modern and contemporary art evening sale, with David Hockney, Yayoi Kusama, and Andy Warhol responsible for the top three lots. (Artnet News)

– The first auction solely dedicated to the work of playful sculptor François Xavier Lalanne has proved a strong success netting $58.9 million at a Christie’s sale in New York on October 10. (Artnet News)

Galleries

– The market for African art in the U.K. has been growing steadily, despite global downturn and an embattled business landscape post-Brexit thanks to several new galleries and art firms dedicated to Modern and contemporary art from the continent. Artnet’s Vivienne Chow delves deeper into what’s fueling this boom. (Artnet News)

Oluwole Omofemi, co-founder of new artist agency PieceUnique, which supports contemporary artists working in Africa. Courtesy of the artist.

– Eva Helene Pade has joined Thaddaeus Ropac, Bridget Donahue now represents Mary Helena Clark and former David Lewis artist Greg Parma Smith, Kendra Jayne Patrick has added André Magaña to her roster, Joseph Yaeger has joined Gladstone Gallery, Hollis Taggart now represents the estate of Rafael Soriano, and Marianne Boesky Gallerynow reps Thalita Hamaoui. (Press releases)

Institutions and Organizations

– Artnet’s Art Detective Katya Kazakina reveals the unparalleled loans that have helped launch the critically acclaimed “Siena” show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The show reunites, for the first time in 250 years, eight panels that were part of Duccio’s most famous work, the Maestà, among other priceless treasures from 14th-century Italy. (Artnet News)

– Socrates Sculpture Park in Queens, New York, is transitioning to a new co-directorship model with Katie Dixon, formerly of Powerhouse Arts, and Shaun Leonardo, formerly of Recess Art, at the helm. (Press release)

– Qatar Museums has announced the appointment of Fahad Al Obaidly as acting director of Design Doha. (Press release)

Legal News

– An early Claude Monet pastel on paper that was forcibly seized from a Jewish family by the Gestapo in 1940 is set to be returned to the original owner’s heirs after the intervention of the FBI’s Art Crime Team. Attention was first raised when Bord de Mer surfaced at an auction in New Orleans in 2021. Authorities acted in 2023, when the work was again listed for sale at a Houston art gallery. (Artnet News)

Claude Monet, Bord de Mer (1865). Courtesy of M.S. Rau.

– According to a recent batch of legal documents from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, 13 ancient Egyptian artifacts were seized by officials at New York’s JFK airport between 2020 and 2021. An ancient limestone funerary statue with an estimated value of $6 million was also seized in Anchorage, Alaska. (Artnews)

– The creator of a digital image of Kamala Harris set against the shadow of civil rights activist Ruby Bridges is suing a vendor on Etsy for selling the picture in their online store. The original artwork, produced by the artist collective Good Trubble, went viral in 2020, shortly after Harris was installed as vice president of the United States. (Artnet News)

Acquisitions 

– TEFAF announced the acquisitions of artworks from its Maastricht and New York editions earlier this year. These include German artist Johann Richard Seel’s Josefine Jacobine Bloem und Friderike Luisa Bloem Betty (1841), which was sold to the Louvre in Paris by the Texas-based Gallery 19C; Italian sculptor Giambologna’s Striding Mars, sold by the London dealer Stuart Lochhead Sculpture to the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in Hartford, Connecticut; and Primary Fields (2001) by U.S. abstract artist Joan Snyder, going to the Longlati Foundation in Shanghai via Thaddaeus Ropac. (Press release)

– At Frieze London and Frieze Masters, Tate acquired pieces by Naminapu Maymuru-White from Sullivan and Strumpf—the artist’s first work to enter an institution outside her native Australia—as well as two paintings by the young London-based artist Mohammed Z Rahman (brought by Phillida Reid). Other acquisitions included a trio of drawings by Bani Abidi and a painting by the Czech Surrealist Eva Švankmajerová (see above). (Press release)