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
– The Gallery Climate Coalition has formed an alliance with 13 organizations encompassing over 40 art fairs, including Frieze, Art Basel, TEFAF, ARCO, the Armory Show, Untitled Art, and the Liste Art Fair Basel. All have pledged to adhere to an “Art Fair Co-Commitment Statement,” which aims to reduce emissions by at least 50 percent by 2030. (Artnet News)
– Artbo‘s 20th anniversary edition showcased Colombia‘s rich contemporary art history and vibrant gallery system. The fair—Latin America’s second largest—featured 39 exhibitors this year, 24 of which hailed from Colombia. (Artnet News)
Auction Houses
– Christie’s 20th- and 21st-century art evening sale in Hong Kong at its new headquarters at The Henderson netted HKD 1 billion ($133.2 million), led by Van Gogh‘s Les canots amarrés (1887) that realized HKD 250 million (about $32 million). Overall, the sale fell short of the lower end of its presale estimate. Ultra-contemporary figures were largely absent, and its Post-Millennium Sale, launched in 2022 to sell emerging names, has vanished from this year’s auction calendar. (Artnet News)
Vincent van Gogh, Les canots amarrés (1887). Courtesy Christie’s Image Ltd.
– Phillips’s New Now modern and contemporary art auction brought in $7.5 million over 248 lots. The leading lot was George Condo’s Stepmonk’s Diary (1996), which sold for $279,400, including fees. Artnet’s Art Detective, Katya Kazakina, noted many works with very low estimates and being sold with no reserve. (Artnet News)
– A painting billed as an Albrecht Dürer self-portrait recently sold at the Düsseldorf auction house Hargesheimer for €26,000 (about $28,900), quadrupling its estimate, although the authenticity of the work is contested. (Artnet News)
Galleries
– The Art Dealers Association of America has appointed Kinsey Robb as its new executive director. Robb, formerly the executive director of Florida’s Art Center Sarasota, has been an artist liaison at Gagosian and Lehmann Maupin. (Artnet News)
– David Zwirner has hired two up-and-coming players in the Asian art market, Yao Ma and Laura Shao, as directors of its Hong Kong outpost. The hires come shortly after the surprise departure of Leo Xu, the space’s former senior director. (Artnet News)
– Ames Yavuz plans to open a 2,600-square-foot gallery in the heart of London’s Mayfair in early 2025. It will be the first European space for the gallery, which has locations in Singapore and Sydney. (Press release)
– This past weekend, amid Warsaw Gallery Weekend, Polish outfit Import Export inaugurated its new space in the city’s Aleja Szucha neighborhood. (Press release)
– Kasmin Gallery announced global representation of Jackson Pollock through the Pollock-Krasner Foundation, marking “an artistic reunion” between the Abstract Expressionist’s work and that of Lee Krasner, which has been represented by Kasmin since 2016, Pace now reps Li Hei Di, White Cube has taken on global representation of Alia Ahmad, Thomas Dane Gallery will co-represent Salman Toor with Luhring Augustine in New York, Roberts Projects now represents Wendy Red Star, Reba Maybury has joined Company Gallery’s roster, Daniel Correa Mejía is now jointly represented by P.P.O.W and Mor Charpentier, and Seventeen Gallery has brought on Bex Massey. (Press releases)
Museums and Organizations
– The New York-based arts organization International Foundation for Art Research (IFAR) will shutter after 55 years in operation. The nonprofit education and research organization provides “information on authenticity, ownership, theft, and other artistic, legal, and ethical issues concerning art objects,” according to its website. It also offers research services on art authentication and provenance, and hosts databases such as the Catalogue Raisonné Database and the Art Law & Cultural Property Database. (Artnews)
A panel on Modigliani authentication hosted by IFAR. From left to right: Dr. Kenneth Wayne; Isabelle Duvernois; Lena Stringari; and Marc Restellini. Photo by Stephen Tucker. Courtesy IFAR
– Curator Fanny Hauser has been appointed director of the Kunsthalle Zürich. She will start in January. Previously, she was deputy director of the Ludwig Forum für Internationale Kunst in Aachen, Germany. Hauser succeeds Daniel Baumann, who held the high-profile post for a decade. (Press release)
– The Louvre has announced plans to start a department dedicated to Byzantine and Eastern Christian Art in 2027. (Greek Reporter)
Tech and Legal
– Three climate activists have been arrested after throwing soup over two Van Gogh paintings at London’s National Gallery, just hours after two Just Stop Oil (JSO) protesters were given prison sentences for the same action. The three protesters have been charged with criminal damage and will appear in court on September 30. (Artnet News)
A Just Stop Oil activist throws soup at Van Gogh’s Sunflowers paintings at the “Lovers and Poets” exhibition at the National Gallery in London on February September 27. Photo: Just Stop Oil.
– Following a confidential settlement, curator Virginia Brilliant has dropped her lawsuit against her former employers, Edmondo di Robilant and Marco Voena, the co-founders of Robilant + Voena, whom she accused of verbal harassment and other inappropriate behavior. They had denied the claims. (The Art Newspaper)
Collectors
– Mega-collector Adrian Cheng has stepped down as CEO of New World Development (NWD)—one of Asia’s leading property development firms, founded by his grandfather—amid reports about its financial woes. A third-generation scion of one of Hong Kong’s wealthiest families, the 44-year-old is well known for his creation of the K11 brand that fuses art and culture with commerce; the brand’s operations will be restructured as NWD repositions its core business. (Artnet News)