Paint Drippings is excerpted from 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

–The Armory Show will feature 235 galleries, up from 225 last year, for its 30th anniversary event this fall at the Javits Center in New York from September 6 to 9.  Now under Frieze ownership, several galleries are returning to the fair after a hiatus, including BANK, Marianne Boesky, and Jeffrey Deitch. New participants include Chicago’s Corbett vs. Dempsey, Wilding Cran of L.A., and LABOR out of Mexico City. (Press release)

– Nikola Dietrich will helm Liste Art Fair Basel, taking over from Joanna Kamm, who stepped down after five years in February. Dietrich begins her new role on September 1. (Artnet News)

– Citing “market conditions,” Photofairs has canceled its second New York edition, which was due to take place in tandem with the Armory Show in September. (Artnet News)

– Easyfairs, the parent company of Art Brussels, is now majority-owned by private equity firms after receiving investment from Cobepa and Inflexion. (Press release)

– PAD London will return to Berkeley Square this October, featuring 62 exhibitors, among them first-timers like Gallery B.R., Tristan Hoare, Movimento, Pradier-Jeauneau, and Yoomota. (Press release)

– Sanford (Sandy) Smith has died at the age of 84. He was known for managing and producing fairs like Salon Art + Design, the ABAA New York International Antiquarian Book Fair, and The Art Dealers Association of America Art Show. (Press release)

Auction Houses

– Phillips Hong Kong‘s sale of modern and contemporary art reached a hammer total of HK$172.65 million ($22.1 million), led by a Basquiat painting that sold for HK$98.7 million ($12.6 million). (Artnet News)

– Also in Hong Kong, Christie’s hosted back-to-back sales of 20th-century and 21st-century art, netting HK$743 million ($95.6 million). The 20th-century sale saw several high-quality works sold such as a Magritte painting for HK$42.7 million ($5.5 million) and a piece by Chen Yifei for HK$35.5 million ($4.5 million). (Artnet News)

– Sotheby’s is considering layoffs that could affect as many as 50 people at its London base. (Artnet News)

– Christie’s is now the target of a class action suit alleging negligence, breach of implied contract, unjust enrichment, and violation of the New York deceptive trade practices act following the hack that brought down its website in May. Last week, the auction house had sent clients a letter detailing the client information that was compromised in the hack and notified the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the British police about the attack. (Artnet News, Artnet News)

Laetitia Catoir. Photo: Charles Duprat.

Galleries

– Cheim and Read, which closed in December after 26 years in business, is selling its home in Manhattan’s West Chelsea neighborhood for $15 million. (Artnet News)

– Laetitia Catoir has joined Ropac as senior director in Paris with global leadership of the gallery’s secondary market department. (Press release)

– Meyer Riegger will open a new location in Seoul in September, which will be helmed by Tom Woo. The gallery currently has branches in Berlin, Karlsruhe, and Basel, as well as a temporary collaboration in New York. (Press release)

– New York dealer Simone Subal announced that she will close after 13 years in business. (Artnet News)

– Kiang Malingue has announced representation of Carrie Yamaoka, Massimo De Carlo has tapped the representation of Dominique Fung, Greene Naftali now represents Paul P., Pace has added Jiro Takamatsu and Emily Kam Kngwarray to its roster, Lisson Gallery now represents Oliver Lee Jackson, and Mire Lee has joined Sprüth Magers. (Press releases)

Institutions and Organizations 

– São Paulo’s Fundação Bienal’s next edition has tapped co-curators Alya Sebti, Anna Roberta Goetz and Thiago de Paula Souza, as well as Keyna Eleison as co-curator at-large and strategy and Henriette Gallus as communication advisor. (Press release)

– Kerry Walk, the president of the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, has resigned her post after the renowned school announced it would soon close its doors. (Artnet News)

– Friederike Fast has been named deputy director of the Kunstmuseum Bonn in Bonn, Germany. (Monopol)

– The British Museum may face a £1 million bill over the stolen items from the museum. (Evening Standard)

Tech and Legal News

– Ansel Adams’s estate has gone after Adobe for selling A.I. images in the style of the late photographer in a public statement on Threads. (Artnet News)

– The Dutch police have announced the recovery of two diamonds following a shocking heist at one of Europe’s most prestigious art fairs,TEFAF Maastricht, in 2022. (Artnet News)

– A jury in Los Angeles has convicted art dealer Douglas Chrismas on three counts of embezzling money from Ace Gallery, which he founded and ran for more than a half-century. (Artnet News)

– The German government will cut value-added tax (VAT) for art sales to a reduced rate of 7 percent, meeting a long-standing demand of dealers who said they suffered a disadvantage relative to competitors in other countries under the current rate of 19 percent; the reduction will go into effect in January 2025. (The Art Newspaper)

– The European Central Bank has cut interest rates to 3.75 percent. It is the first cut in five years and represents a milestone in the fight against inflation after the biggest surge in prices for a generation. Central banks in the U.S. and U.K. have not yet replicated the measure. (Financial Times)