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
– Hollywood entertainment firm Endeavor is exploring selling some of its events and assets, including Frieze‘s art fairs, magazine, and London-based exhibition space, No. 9 Cork Street. The firm has retained the investment and merchant bank the Raine Group to assist with the exploratory process; there is no timeline for the review. It follows news that the firm agreed to sell three other businesses to TKO Group, the newly listed company that it controls, in a $3.25 billion deal announced on Thursday. (Press release)
– A $20 million Louise Bourgeois spider! Mysterious Clare Rojas works on paper for $16,000! Delights sold at (almost) every price point at Art Basel Paris. Read our breakdown of everything that found a buyer. (Artnet News)
– Post-Brexit customs procedures kept works by Hanne Peeraer, Anne Carney Raines and Alanna Hernandez from arriving in Barcelona in time for the city’s Swab Art Fair, where they were being presented by London’s Soho Revue Gallery. Owner India Rose James says she is still waiting for some of the works to come back to the U.K. from Spain. (Financial Times)
Auction Houses
– The banana is back! Maurizio Cattelan’s most famous work, a banana attached to the wall with duct tape, is heading to Sotheby’s next month with an estimate of $1 million. The controversial artwork was first sold for $120,000 by Perrotin gallery at Art Basel Miami Beach in 2019. (Artnet News)
Maurizio Cattelan’s Comedian presented by Perrotin Gallery and on view at Art Basel Miami 2019 at Miami Beach Convention Center on December 6, 2019 in Miami Beach, Florida. Photo:Cindy Ord/Getty Images
– Sotheby’s white glove Surrealism auction in Paris totaled $25.1 million. A painting by Kay Sage went for $1.1 million and a drawing by František Muzika sold for $260,688, a new record in France for the Czech artist. Both works will enter the collection of the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne, Australia. (Artnet News)
– Later this month, Sotheby’s is set to sell a work by Ai-Da, a “humanoid robot artist,” at its digital art day auction. The piece, estimated at between $120,000 to $180,000, is titled AI God and depicts the famed computer scientist Alan Turing. (Artnet News)
Galleries
– Gagosian has added Tyler Mitchell to its roster, Fort Gansevoort has announced representation of the estate of Aminah Brenda Lynn Robinson, Venus Over Manhattan has taken on representation of Seth Becker, and Iran do Espírito Santo will be represented by Mazzoleni in England and Italy. (Press releases)
Institutions and Biennials
– The Whitney Museum of American Art is extending an offer of free admission to anyone under 25 years old, beginning in mid-December. Two board members—artist Julie Mehretu and Susan Hess, whose husband, John, is the CEO of the oil and gas company the Hess Corporation—have donated the funds to make it possible. (Artnet News)
The Whitney Museum of American Art. Photo: Nic Lehoux.
– The Smithsonian Institution has received $40 million from the Lilly Endowment, which will be used for programming throughout its museums, zoo, and the Smithsonian Castle, as well as for the temporary reopening of its Arts and Industries Building. (The Art Newspaper)
– The Kunstsilo Foundation, which opened this year in Kristiansand, Norway, has appointed Maria Mediaas Jørstad as its director for a five-year term that starts in January. (Press release)
– Before the 60th edition of the Venice Biennale has even closed, countries have started to announce representing artists for the 2026 event. Canada has selected Iranian-born, Montreal-and-Berlin-based artist Abbas Akhavan while Merike Estna, a painter based in Tallinn and Mexico City, has been selected to represent Estonia in 2026. (Artnet News, Press release)
Tech and Legal News
– More than 26,000 artists and creatives, including sculptor Joel Shapiro, painters Amoako Boafo and Joanna Pousette-Dart, and photographer Lynn Goldsmith, have signed an open letter warning A.I. companies that the unlicensed use of artists’ work is an “unjust” threat to their livelihoods. (Artnet News)
Libbie Mugrabi in Bridgehampton, New York. Photo: Jared Siskin/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images
– Art-collecting socialite and fashion designer Libbie Mugrabi is locked in heated litigation with the lending company Art Capital Group and its executives, Ian Peck and Terence Doran, over an art-backed loan that was never made. (Artnet News)
– The Swiss Federal Prosecutor’s office has closed its criminal investigation into Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev, according to his lawyers. The inquiry had stemmed from his epic, multi-continent legal battle with Yves Bouvier, who once facilitated his big-money art buys. (Artnet News)
Prizes and Awards
– President Biden awarded National Medals of Arts to artists Alex Katz, Mark Bradford, and Carrie Mae Weems. (Press release)
– South Arts has announced the winner and finalist of its Southern Prize for Visual Arts: Birmingham, Ala.-based Anthony Tony Bingham and New Orleans-based Macon Reed, who will be awarded $25,000 and $10,000, respectively, alongside with a residency. (Press release)
– The Smithsonian will honor artists Senga Nengudi and Richard Tuttle, along with former Hammer Museum director Ann Philbin, with prestigious awards from the Archives of American Art this week. (Artnet News)