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

– New Delhi‘s India Art Fair will introduce an edition in Mumbai next year called India Art Fair Contemporary. Running from November 13 to 16 at Jio World Garden, the fair will showcase contemporary art and design from South Asia. (Artnet News)

– The Winter Show, which focuses on art, antiques, jewelry, and design, named the more than 70 dealers that will exhibit at the Park Avenue Armory in New York for its 71st edition, from January 24 to February 2. First-time participants include Zebregs&Röell, Kunsthandel Nikolaus Kolhammer, and São Roque. (Press Release)

Auction Houses

– Christie’s announced that it is expanding its presence in the Middle East with an outpost in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia. Led by Nour Kelani, it will be the house’s second location in the region, alongside its Dubai office, which opened in 2005. (Art Market Minute)

– Beauty mogul Sydell Miller’s collection will lead Sotheby’s marquee sales in New York in November; the top-estimated lot among the 90 works will be a Monet water lilies canvas, expected to sell in the region of $60 million. (Artnet News)

Claude Monet, Nymphéas (1914–17) from the collection of Sydell Miller. Courtesy of Sotheby’s.

– Meanwhile, Sotheby’s has pushed its Hong Kong sales from late September to November, with a $30 million to $45 million Rothko to lead its evening sale. Sources told Artnet’s Vivienne Chow that securing consignments has been difficult for the house, especially since it changed its fee structure in May. (Artnet News, The Asia Pivot)

– Bonhams will hold its first 20th- and 21st-century art evening sale in its London headquarters on October 10. Surrealist pieces by René Magritteand Paul Delvaux each carry a high estimate of £1.8 million ($2.4 million). (Press release)

– Additionally, Bonhams has also made several new appointments. Marina Ruiz-Colomer has been tapped as head of Post-War and Contemporary art in the U.K. and Europe and Otto Billström is now head of 20th-century decorative arts; both are based in London. Emmanuelle Leclerc has been appointed as head of valuations and commissaire-priseur in Paris. (Press release)

Galleries

– Deli Gallery is the latest in a recent rash of New York galleries to announce its closure. It had a reputation as a hothouse for emerging talent, having championed artists like Devin N. Morris, Ficus Interfaith, and Lila de Magalhaes. (Artnet News)

– Lehmann Maupin has hired Shlomi Rabi as sales director. Rabi, who will be based in New York, comes from an auction background. He worked at Phillips and Christie’s, opened up his own house, Greenhouse Auctions, and headed the auctions division at Artsy until early this year. (Press release)

– Mirella Roma has been named CEO of Hauser and Wirth after 27 years at the gallery. She started as an executive assistant to co-president Marc Payot and became a partner in 2020. Iwan Wirth said in a statement, “Mirella’s leadership skills will be invaluable as we continue to evolve and create new avenues for our vision of what a gallery can do and be in the future.” (Artnews)

– Arthur Jafa is now repped by Sprüth Magers in collaboration with Gladstone Gallery, Charles Moffett has picked up C’naan Hamburger, Yancey Richardson has added Omar Barquet, Kaufmann Repetto now represents Elene Chantladze, and Timothy Taylor now reps Alice Tippit in collaboration with Nicelle Beauchene in New York and Patron inChicago. (Press releases)

Alice Tippit. Photo: Evan Jenkins.

Institutions and Organizations

– United Talent Agency (UTA) has quietly paused all of its fine art endeavors, including gallery spaces in Los Angeles and Atlanta. The move follows the departure of the division’s director, Arthur Lewis. (The Art Newspaper)

– New York’s Frick Collection has tapped Axel Rüger as its next director, succeeding Ian Wardropper, who held the role for 14 years. The Frick will be the third museum Rüger has run, after helming the Royal Academy of Arts in London since 2019 and the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. (Artnet News)

– The Los Angeles County Museum of Art announced that it will be moving the reopening of its David Geffen Galleries from May 2025 to 2026. The postponement follows news that the museum has terminated its plans to create a satellite campus at the South Los Angeles Wetlands Park. (Los Angeles Times; Artnews)

– The J. Paul Getty Museum and the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism announced the return of an ancient bronze funerary couch from ca. 530 BCE. The object was acquired in 1982 from a Swiss dealer who provided false provenance records indicating that the piece had been in European collections since the 1920s. Research conducted by the Turkish ministry and the Getty determined that this was false, and that the artifact was illicitly excavated in the early 1980s from an ancient tomb in the region of modern-day Manisa. (Press release)

– The Smithsonian has launched a two-year, $2.5 billion fundraising campaign—the largest in the institution’s history. (Blooloop)

Tech and Legal

– The New York Supreme Court tossed former Helen Frankenthaler Foundation board member Frederick Iseman’s lawsuit against the organization for lack of standing. Iseman alleges that the foundation is mismanaging the artist’s legacy and that it improperly failed to reelect him to the board. He told Artnet News he plans to fight the decision. A foundation rep called the suit a “vengeful vanity exercise.” (Artnet News)

– The University of the Arts in Philadelphia filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy after closing this summer with one week’s notice. The process will allow the school to sell its real estate holdings, which are valued at $87 million, in an effort to cover $46 million in bond debt. (Artnet News)

– An anonymous buyer purchased CryptoPunk #2386 for 10 ETH ($23,500), which is considered a “steal” in the NFT community, especially since this CryptoPunk is a rare example that depicts an ape. (Artnet News)

An exterior view of the Rubin Museum of Art. Photo: Ben Hide. Courtesy of the Rubin Museum of Art

Prizes and Awards

– New York’s Rubin Museum of Art has revealed that Tibetan artist Tenzin Gyurmey Dorjee has won its new Rubin Himalayan Art Prize—an unrestricted $30,000 grant that is now the largest source of direct financial support available to contemporary Himalayan artists working in the region and beyond. (Artnet News)

– William Kentridge is this year’s recipient of the International Folkwang Prize of the Folkwang-Museumsverein in Essen, Germany. Since 2010, the museum has been awarding the prize to personalities who have rendered outstanding services to the promotion and communication of art. (Press release)

– Artes Mundi, the U.K.’s biggest prize for contemporary art, has announced the shortlist for its biennial 11th edition, which will be presented at multiple venues across Wales in 2025–26. The six nominees for the £40,000 ($53,000) prize include Jumana Emil Abboud, Anawana Haloba, Antonio Paucar, Kameelah Janan Rasheed, Sacintya Mohini Simpson, and Sawangwongse Yawnghwe. (Press release)