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

– MCH Group, the Swiss parent company of Art Basel, announced that it made a profit of 15.3 million Swiss francs (about $18 million) in the first half of 2024, following a loss-making year in 2023. The company began posting losses 2017. (Blue News)

–  Speaking of MCH: Art Basel Paris, which will bring 195 galleries to the Grand Palais next month. A new sector called Premise, will feature curatorial presentations from nine. It is also partnering with a number of high-end fashion brands, like Miu Miu and Guerlain, which is concocting a bespoke perfume for the fair. (Press release)

– Paintings by Nicolas Party, George Condo, and Yoo Youngkuk were some of the most expensive works sold at Frieze Seoul and Kiaf Seoul. Find out what else sold—and for how much. (Artnet News)

Auction Houses

– Gooding and Company, a leading international auction house in the collector car market, has entered into an agreement to be acquired by Christie’s. At the close of the transaction, the house will become known as Gooding Christie’s. (Press release)

– The art collection of the late Kasper König, the former head of the Museum Ludwig in Cologne, is going to be auctioned off at the Van Ham auction house in the city this October. On Kawara, William N. Copley, Nicole Eisenman, and Claes Oldenberg are among the artists whom the late curator held in his collection. König died in August. (Press release)

William Nelson Copley’s Lady Be Good, from the collection of Kaspar König, will be offered at Van Ham. The work is estimated at $77,000 to $100,000.

– Christie’s is set to offer La Femme tatouée (1894) by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec in its 20th-and-21st-century evening sale this October in London. Featuring a tattooed courtesan, the work draws inspiration from Japanese ukiyo-e brothel scenes. It has an estimate of £2.5 million to £3.5 million ($3.3 million to $4.6 million). (Artnet News)

– Also at the upcoming Frieze Week auctions in London, Christie’s will offer a major Jeff Koons sculpture, Balloon Monkey (Blue), 2006–13, with an estimate of about $8.4 million to $13 million. Backed by a guarantee, it reportedly hails from the collection of Damien Hirst. (Artnet News)

– Artworks from the inventory of disgraced art advisor Lisa Schiff may be heading to the auction block as part of bankruptcy proceedings in New York. Bankruptcy trustees have retained Phillips to sell some 220 pieces, starting in November, according to a motion filed last month with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. The proposed sales need to be approved by the court; the hearing is set for September 25. (Artnet News)

– Bonhams has announced the relocation of its New York headquarters to Steinway Hall at 111 West 57th Street. The new location is set to open by late 2025 and will increase the U.K.-based auction house’s square footage in the Big Apple by 30 percent. (Press release)

Evelyn Lin, Pace’s new president of Greater China. Photo by Akira Yamada. Courtesy of Pace Gallery.

Galleries

– Pace Gallery named Asian art auction veteran Evelyn Lin as its president of Greater China, succeeding former Asia president Leng Lin. Evelyn Lin was Asia head of contemporary art at Sotheby’s from 2004 to 2017, before joining Christie’s as deputy chairman in 2018, where she worked until this spring. (Artnet News)

– Elizabeth Denny, a former partner in New York’s Denny Dimin gallery (now just Dimin), has joined Eric Firestone Gallery as its head of sales. (Press release)

– David Lewis, who recently closed his eponymous gallery in New York, has joined Hauser and Wirth as senior director. (Artnews)

– Sprüth Magers has announced representation of Arthur Jafa, Hauser and Wirth now represents artist Michaela Yearwood-Dan in collaboration with Marianne Boesky Gallery, Nicelle Beauchene Gallery has taken on co-representation of David Benjamin Sherry with Morán Morán, Anders Davidsen has joined Grimm, and Anat Ebgi now represents Meeson Pae. (Press releases)

Museums and Institutions

– Glenn Lowry, the longtime director of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, is set to step down next year, and Artnet’s Katya Kazakina named some of the likely contenders for his job, including Thelma Golden, Melissa Chiu, and Franklin Sirmans. (Artnet News)

– The Art Institute of Chicago has received a $75 million donation from collectors Aaron I. Fleischman and Lin Lougheed that it will use to support future building plans. It’s the largest single naming gift in the museum’s history. (Press release)

The Art Institute of Chicago, with Edward Kemeys’s iconic Lions sculptures (1893) standing guard at the entrance. Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago.

– The Fenimore Art Museum in Cooperstown, New York, announced that it has acquired a whopping $33.8 million worth of art from the Eugene V. and Clare E. Thaw Charitable Trust. The acquisition encompasses 27 major works of American art by James McNeill Whistler, Max Weber, and other key figures. (Press release)

Tech and Legal

– Thieves stole a print of Banksy’s famous Balloon Girl image from a London gallery over the weekend. Fortunately, the artwork has since been recovered and police have charged two men with burglary in connection with the theft. Court documents price the Girl With Ballon print at $354,000. (Artnet News)

– A New York judge dismissed a lawsuit brought against the Helen Frankenthaler Foundation by one of its former board members Frederick Iseman, a nephew of the artist. Iseman was on the foundation’s board for 20 years along with Clifford Ross, also a nephew of the artist, Lise Motherwell, her stepdaughter, and the board’s director Michael Hecht. He alleged that his family members took advantage of the artist’s legacy and exploited the foundation “to advance their own personal interests and careers.” (Artnews)

Real Estate

– The late-lamented Marlborough Gallery’s former space in London’s Mayfair neighborhood is on the market with a price in excess of £25 million($32.8 million). Named Scandia House, the 10-floor building had housed the gallery since 1946. (Financial Times)

– That’s not the only prime piece of property up for sale this week, as Roy and Dorothy Lichtenstein‘s five-bedroom home in the Hamptons hit the market for $19.9 million, and an early Frank Lloyd Wright home in the Chicago suburbs is up for sale for $1.9 million. (Artnet News; Artnet News)

Richard Pettibone after Roy Lichtenstein, ‘Seductive Girl’, 1964, Yellow-Purple (2009). Photo courtesy of FLAG Art Foundation.

RIP 

– Richard Pettibone, a major figure in Pop and appropriation art, has died at the age of 86. The American artist was known for creating small-scale replicas of iconic masterpieces by artists ranging from Marcel Duchamp to Roy Lichtenstein. (Statement)

– English pop artist Derek Boshier, who curated the controversial “Lives” group exhibition at London‘s Hayward Gallery in 1979, has died at age 87. (The Guardian)

– German artist Rebecca Horn died last week at age 80. “Rebecca was a heroic, pioneering artist whose fierce independence, energy, and spirit touched everybody who came into her orbit,” said Sean Kelly, Horn’s gallerist for nearly four decades. We rounded up a list of some of her most pivotal works that changed contemporary art. (Artnet News)

Awards and Gifts

– This year’s St. Moritz Art Film Festival Award winners are Aura Satz (best feature film), Eduardo Williams (best short and experimental film), and Young-jun Tak (“Love at First Sight” prize). Each winner received an artwork titled Cow Dung by Swiss artist Not Vital. (Press release)

– Hauser and Wirth raised over £1 million ($1.32 million) for Hospital Rooms, which supports art projects in NHS mental health hospitals across the U.K. A charity auction benefitting the organization at Bonhams last week featured works by Nengi Omuku, Rana Begum, Thomas J Price, and Frank Bowling, among other artists. (Press release)