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

– Frieze will return to Santa Monica Airport for the sixth edition of its Los Angeles fair, to be held February 20–23, 2025. Among the 101 exhibitors are returning galleries Marian Goodman, Kukje, and Max Hetzler, as well as 14 newcomers, such as Southern Guild, Mariane Ibrahim, and Timothy Taylor. (Press release)

– The organizers of the Untitled Art fair have announced plans to expand to Houston, starting in September 2025. (Artnet News)

– VIMA, the first international contemporary art fair in Cyprus, will debut in the city of Limassol in May. (Press release)

– Senior members from the Art Basel team were spotted attending Abu Dhabi Art this year as rumors swirl that the Swiss fair may be in talks to take over the long-running UAE event. The 16th edition of the fair, which runs through November 24, is its largest yet. (Artnet News)

Auction Houses

– Listen to this week’s episode of Art Market Minute: Everything you need to know about last week’s New York auctions in less than three minutes. (Artnet News)

– Here is a breakdown of Sotheby’s evening sale of modern art, which totaled $93.1 million—a 58 percent drop compared to the same event last year. (Artnet News)

– Meanwhile, the sale of beauty industry mogul Sydell Miller‘s collection of Modern art and high-end furnishings was led by Monet’s Nympheas, which sold for $65.5 million. The auction’s $215.9 million total is 46 percent less than the same sale last year. (Artnet News)

Nympheas by Claude Monet, from the collection of Sydell Miller, is on display at Sotheby’s New York Marquee Sales on November 08, 2024 in New York City. Photo: John Lamparski/Getty Images.

– Though, naturally, those sales were outshone by the auction of Maurizio Cattelan’s notorious Comedian (2019) for $6.2 million at Sotheby’s. The $112.3 million total marks a 63 percent drop from last year’s equivalent sales, which raked in $305.7 million but had a third more lots on offer.(Artnet News)

– An eight-figure painting by René Magritte and a seven-figure painting by Ed Ruscha carried Christie’s back-to-back auctions of 20th-century art to a $486 million finish. Still, the equivalent sales in 2023 totaled $640.8 million, or 24 percent more. (Artnet News)

– Meanwhile, Phillips’s evening sale of Modern and contemporary art netted $54.1 million and featured a brief appearance by the FDNY. That’s a 64 percent dip from last year’s same sales, albeit the auction house sold 30additional works from the Triton Collection Foundation then. (Artnet News)

Galleries

– Timothy Taylor is now working with the Paul and Suzanne Jenkins Foundation to oversee the legacy of painter Paul Jenkins. (Press release)

– Stuart Lochhead Sculpture will open a new gallery on London’s Old Bond Street next month. (Press release)

Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns at Louis and Fance Stevenson’s home “somewhere up the Hudson,” 1954. Photo: Rachel Rosenthal, Courtesy Robert Rauschenberg Foundation

Institutions and Organizations

– The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation announced a series of grant-making initiatives, with 22 institutions set to receive support for programming, scholarship, and restoration, including Guild Hall in East Hampton, N.Y., the Honolulu Museum of Art, Stockholm’s Moderna Museet, and the Vancouver Art Gallery. The foundation has also helped organize major exhibitions of his work at seven institutions across five countries. The first of these is “Five Friends,” opening at the Museum Brandhorst in Munich, Germany in April 2025, which will highlight Rauschenberg’s collaborations with other major artists of the time, including Cy Twombly, John Cage, Jasper Johns, and Merce Cunningham. (Artnet News)

– The Smithsonian Institution moved the director of its Smithsonian American Art Museum, Stephanie Stebich, into another role this summer, after staff complaints. She is now the senior advisor to the undersecretary for museums and culture. (Artnet News)

– The ICA Boston has tapped Nora Burnett, the director of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Denver, as its new director. Succeeding Jill Medvedow, she takes up the role in May. (Artnews)

– Rodrigo Moura, the chief curator of El Museo del Barrio, will step down from his position in March 2025. He leaves to join the Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires (MALBA) as artistic director. (Press release)

– The Thomas Cole National Historic Site in Catskill, N.Y., said that, after 21 years as its director, Betsy Jacks will step down at the end of the year. She will be succeeded by Maura O’Shea, its deputy director. (Press release)

Artist Yto Barrada in her installation, “Yto Barrada: Agadir” at The Curve Barbican Centre. Photo: by Tristan Fewings/Getty Images.

 Biennials and Events

– French-Moroccan artist Yto Barrada has been chosen to represent France at the 61st Venice Biennale in 2026. (Artnet News)

Tech and Legal News
– Italian authorities have seized an illegal excavation site of an Etruscan necropolis between the Tuscan towns of Chiusi and Città della Pieve, recovering an estimated $8.5 million worth of objects bound for the black market. (Artnet News)

– A Berlin court has convicted Edwin Nasr, a Lebanese curator and writer based in the city, of criminal activity over social media posts they shared in the immediate aftermath of Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7, 2023. (Artnet News)

– Clarisse Yeung, an artist and former elected member of a Hong Kong district council, has been sentenced to six years in prison on charges of “subversion.” She is one of 45 Hong Kong pro-democracy figures who were sentenced following a mass trial, as Beijing’s crackdown on dissent in the city continues. (Artnet News)