THE HEADLINES

JUMPING SHIP? Smack bang in the middle of the Bronx Museum’s very expensive renovation project, its executive director has decided to leave. Klaudio Rodriguez, who has led the museum since 2020, is moving to Florida to take charge of the Museum of Fine Arts (MFA) in St. Petersburg. He was instrumental in getting the $33 million expansion and facelift off the ground so his departure may come as a surprise to some. “It has been an honor and a pleasure to work with the staff and board of the Bronx Museum over the past seven years,” Rodriguez said in a statement. “I am leaving the museum in great hands and with a great team.” Shirley Solomon, the museum’s deputy director, and its chief advancement officer, Yvonne Garcia, will serve as interim co-leaders until the next director is signed up. Rodriguez will take the MFA reigns from Anne-Marie Russell, who quit on March 1. Her departure was announced in November 2023, just over 12 months after she first joined the museum as interim director. He short tenure came right after controversy linked to an exhibition of Greek antiquities at the MFA, many of which were revealed to have suspect provenance documentation. 

DAVID AND GOLIATH. A lawsuit filed by a cohort of artists against Midjourney, Stability AI, and other companies dabbling in AI has been green-lighted by a judge, despite some claims being dismissed. The artists claim that the popular AI services broke copyright law by training on a dataset that included their work and, in some cases, their users can directly reproduce copies of their work. Last year, a judge allowed a direct copyright infringement complaint against Stability, which operates the Stable Diffusion AI image generator. However, he binned a load of other claims and asked the artists’ lawyers to add more detail to them. In the most recent, though, the revised cases have convinced the judge to approve another claim of induced copyright infringement against Stability. Who will win, artist or AI corps?

THE DIGEST

How do you choose which museums to visit in Paris? A safe bet is to ask the director of Art Basel Paris, Clément Deléphine. He’s in the know. [FT]

A museum in Tel Aviv is hiding its most valuable works in the basement as Israel fears the wrath of Iran. Paintings by Pablo Picasso and Gustav Klimt are among the works being secured underground by the Tel Aviv Museum of Art in case Tehran fires missiles at the Israeli city as regional tensions flare. [The Times of Israel]

Find out how one of Japan’s most revered contemporary artists, Yoshitomo Nara, and others are subverting the country’s cute “kawaii” aesthetic to question the world we live in. [BBC]

A solitary gold coin may fetch more than $1 million at auction as an ancient coin hoard goes under the hammer after a century of secrecy. [Business Insider].

THE KICKER

ONE FELL SCOOP. The Museum of Ice Cream in Manhattan is being sued by a man who injured himself in the sprinkle pool. Described by The Art Newspaper as “the millennial-pink, dessert-themed ‘experium’ that promises to help visitors ‘reimagine the way [they] experience ice cream,’” the museum looks like it’s made for Instagram. Jeremy Schorr was visiting the joint with his daughter in 2023 when he suffered “severe and permanent personal injuries,” according to the lawsuit. He claims the museum “failed to warn… visitors that it is unsafe to jump or plunge into the sprinkle pool, while encouraging them to do so through its advertising, marketing and promotional materials.” Schorr, who is represented by the Staten Island-based personal injury firm Perrone, also argues that there weren’t enough sprinkles in the pool. We’ve all been there, when the ice cream man is a little tight with the hundreds and thousands. [Artnet News]

On October 7, Hamas led on an attack on Israel that involved killing 1,400 citizens, wounding 3,500 more, and taking more than 200 hostages. (Just a few have been released.) Israel’s military responded by cutting off food, water, and electricity, and launched sustained airstrikes that have killed more than 3,000 people in Gaza, according to its health ministry. Last week, Israel ordered more than 1 million Palestinians who live in northern Gaza to evacuate the region, a move that the United Nations said is “not feasible” and “could transform what is already a tragedy into a calamitous situation.”

Against the backdrop of these events, some have called on art institutions to release statements in support of both Israel and Palestine.

Earlier this month, Katya Kazakina published an Artnet column in which she condemned the art world for its “deafening silence after the Hamas attack in Israel.” Meanwhile, an array of artists and art professionals signed an open letter that was circulated by Artforum and e-flux and called for and end to “institutional silence around the ongoing humanitarian crisis that 2.3 million Palestinians are facing in the occupied and besieged Gaza Strip be broken immediately.” (After Artforum ran the letter, dealers Dominique Lévy, Brett Gorvy, and Amalia Dayan wrote a response in which they said they “condemn the open letter for its one-sided view,” since the original letter did not include mention of the Hamas attack.)

In the past week, statements have begun to emerge from institutions across the globe. Several based in the Middle East came out in favor of Palestine.

The United Arab Emirates–based Sharjah Art Foundation, which organizes the prestigious Sharjah Biennial, wrote on Instagram that it “firmly in solidarity with Palestine in the face of devastating genocide being carried out on Gazans and the 75 yeas of ongoing illegal Israeli occupation.”

The Jameel Arts Centre in Dubai wrote on Instagram that its team “mourns the loss of all the innocents lives and stands with Palestinians colleagues their friends and families, and all those affected by the devastating assault on Gaza.” The center is managed by Art Jameel, an organization which also oversees Hayy Jameel, an arts complex in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

The Qatar Museums has not explicitly condemned the siege of Gaza, but it did appear to throw their support behind Palestine, projecting its flag onto the facade of the Museum of Islamic Art shortly after the Hamas attack. “Oh Allah, we entrust Palestine and its people to you,” wrote Sheikha Al-Mayassa, the sister of Qatar’s ruling Emir and chairperson of Qatar Museums, in an Instagram post featuring images of the projection.

Most museums in the US have not commented at all on the situation. New York’s El Museo del Barrio, one of the few institutions to have done so, issued a statement in which it wrote, “During these fraught times, we continue to host visitors and artists of diverse and differing beliefs and viewpoints.” The museum said its “sympathies go out to those who are directly, or indirectly by way of diaspora or heritage, affected by the conflict.” 

The Jewish Museum in New York took a less ambiguous stance, writing, “We stand in solidarity with the people of Israel during this challenging time and express our heartfelt condolences to the families who have lost their loved ones or who have been taken hostage in these senseless acts.”

Meanwhile, the director of every major museum in Israel signed an open letter calling on the International Council of Museums (ICOM) to condemn Hamas “with the utmost fervor.” The open letter was published on October 22 by the Israeli division of ICOM, an affiliate organization of UNESCO which suggests ethical standards for museums worldwide.

That auction, staged in May, raked in more than $200 million, becoming the most expensive private jewelry sale ever. (In addition to buying jewelry, Horten, who died in 2022 and formerly ranked on the ARTnews Top 200 Collectors list, amassed a rich art collection that can be seen in a recently opened private museum in Vienna.) But the Christie’s sale, which totaled some 700 lots, including a $14.5 million Cartier ring, faced controversy over the late collector’s source of income.

Some organizations, including the American Jewish Committee, issued statements in the run-up to the auction claiming that Horten’s wealth had been been accrued through the disenfranchisement of Jews during World War II. The American Jewish Committee said that her husband, Helmut Horten, “took advantage of aryanization laws and the desperate needs of Jews fleeing the Nazis.”

Despite calls for the sale’s cancelation, Christie’s forged onward. Anthea Peers, president of Christie’s Europe, Middle East, and Africa, told the New York Times, “We are aware there is a painful history. We weighed that up against various factors,” including Horten’s philanthropy.”

Now, it seems that the auction has continued to haunt Christie’s.

In a statement to Israel Hayom, the Tel Aviv Museum of Art said it had canceled the conference, due to happen this December, amid the bitter condemnation Christie’s had faced. Titled “Reflecting on Restitution,” the conference was intended to mark 25 years of restitution-related efforts on Christie’s behalf.

“The Tel Aviv Art Museum is attentive to criticism and bound by public sentiment and has decided not to host the ‘Reflecting on Restitution’ conference with Christie’s,” the museum told Israel Hayom.

In a statement, a Christie’s spokesperson said, “We respect the Tel Aviv Museum of Art’s decision to cancel the long-planned programme on restitution, scheduled to take place at the museum in December. Christie’s global series of year-long events in our Reflecting on Restitution programme has been planned over the past few years in collaboration with many organizations and individuals to mark the 25^th anniversary of the Washington Principles, and we believe deeply in its goal of bringing together historians, researchers, scholars, legal experts, families, artists and many others touching the world of restitution in cities all over the world to share and discuss important stories, ideas and perspectives. These exchanges and public discourse are vital to encourage greater awareness and understanding of the complex issues relating to the restitution of Nazi-looted art and the essential work being done in this field.”

The criticism to which the museum referred had been fielded by Jewish groups last week. The Jerusalem Post reported that the Holocaust Survivors Foundation USA has sent a letter to the museum, claiming that the conference would offer “a platform within the Jewish State for Holocaust profiteers to justify their plunder and marginalize Holocaust survivors around the world.”

Adding further complications to the matter were allegations of conflict of interest spurred by Marc Porter, a senior executive at Christie’s who is also a board member of the Tel Aviv Museum’s American Friends group. A Christie’s spokesperson said there was no conflict of interest and that Porter had not been involved in the planning of the conference. The museum said that the American Friends group “is not involved in any of the content or decision-making processes at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art.”

Update, 7/4/23, 8 p.m.: This article has been updated with a statement from Christie’s.

The Headlines

CONTROVERSY IN ISRAEL. The Tel Aviv Museum of Art said that it has nixed a conference on the restitution of Nazi-looted art that it had planned for December with Christie’s, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reports. The partnership had generated criticism because of the auction house’s recent $202 million sale of jewelry owned by the late collector Heidi Horten, whose husband, Helmut, acquired Jewish firms sold under duress in Nazi Germany. The Holocaust Survivors Foundation USA said that the event would be “a platform within the Jewish state for Holocaust profiteers to justify their plunder,” according to the JTA. Christie’s has defended the auction, saying that the funds from the jewelry, purchased from the 1970s on, were going toward philanthropic causes and that it would give “a significant portion” of its commission to Holocaust education groups. (Some have reportedly rejected the donations.) The museum said it had planned the conference before the Horten sale, and that it is canceling it because of the controversy, saying it “is attentive to criticism and bound by public sentiment.”

CONTROVERSY IN AUSTRALIA. A firm specializing in financial investigations has requested information from the National Gallery of Australia and other museums in the country about art they may have purchased from John Wayne Millwood, a businessman convicted of child sexual abuse, ArtAsiaPacific reports. Millwood, who was sentenced to four years in prison in 2016, has been accused of divesting himself of assets and declaring bankruptcy to avoid paying some AU$5.3 million (about US$3.52 million) in compensation to the abuse survivor.  The inquiring firm, Sheahan Lock Partners, has been serving as bankruptcy trustee; the Australian has reported that it has been attempting to claw back funds from material that that Millwood sold, in order to compensate the survivor. The NGA has said it acquired works from him before he was charged. According to Australia’s ABC News, Millwood told a court that he sold and gave away parts of his fortune because he was diagnosed with terminal cancer.

The Digest

It’s official: Five years after President Donald J. Trump pulled the United States out of UNESCO, alleging that the organization had an anti-Israel bias, the nation was readmitted. The vote by its members was 132 in favor, 15 abstaining, and 10 opposed, including China, Russia, and Iran. [AFP/France24]

Artist Cho Yong-ik, a key figure in the development of the Dansaekhwa, monochrome painting, movement in South Korea, died on Sunday at the age of 89. [The Chosun Ilbo]

Since 2006, the All England Club, which runs the Wimbledon tennis championships, has been commissioning artists to create works. The latest in the series is a 12-foot-tall bronze sculpture by Mark Reed of a tree that resembles a player mid-serve. It took almost 6,000 hours to complete. [The New York Times]

Three of nine defendants have entered guilty pleas on charges related to their involvement in what federal officials say was a burglary ring that stole art and sports memorabilia over many years. A Jackson Pollock and an Andy Warhol the group is said to have taken remain missing. [The Associated Press]

AESTHETIC EXPERTISE.Graham Coxon, of the band Blur, shared some of his “cultural highlights” with the Guardian, including David Hockney’s current show at Lightroom in London and the Alhambra in Granada, Spain. Meanwhile, Jessica Bell Brown, curator for contemporary art at the Baltimore Museum of Art, discussed some of her touchstones, like a classic David Hammons book, a Simone Leigh ceramic, and Greek yogurt—and the best advice she ever received.

The Kicker

BUYER’S GUIDE. The revered New York collector Neda Young is in the pages of Cultured, discussing her friendships with artists and what makes her decide to make an acquisition. One key quote: “You have to have some knowledge, but it always comes from the stomach and the heart for me.” How has she built her collection over the years? “Every time I had any money, I would just buy art,” she said. “Friends would go buy gorgeous leather pants—but, you know, T.J. Maxx didn’t exist then.” [Cultured]

Mitchell-Innes & Nash Opens Seasonal Aspen Space
Mitchell-Innes & Nash in New York has opened a seasonal exhibition space in Aspen, joining a wave of galleries, from Almine Rech to White Cube, that have recently opened pop-ups in the Colorado city. Located near the Aspen Art Museum, Mitchell-Innes & Nash’s 1,000-square-foot space will be open to the public from June 18–August 15. It will be inaugurated with a show of new works by Keltie Ferris, Gerasimos Floratos, Karl Haendel, Chris Johanson, Eddie Martinez, and Jessica Stockholder, in addition to a series of thematic presentation of gallery artists. The first thematic show will be trio of Pictures Generation artists: Jack Goldstein, Annette Lemieux, and Cindy Sherman.

Thursday, June 10

Kasmin Now Represents vanessa german
vanessa german, whose practice spans installation, photography, performance, sculpture, assemblage, and more, has joined Kasmin, which will present her work at Art Basel OVR: Portals and its High Line Nine space in New York this month. german examines the histories and legacies of white supremacy, heteropatriarchy, and misogynoir in her art, and her work can be found in the collections of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, the Spelman College Museum of Fine Art in Atlanta, the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas, and other institutions.

Museum of Arts and Design Names New Director
The Museum of Arts and Design in New York has appointed Timothy R. Rodgers as its next director. Rodgers currently serves as the director and CEO of Phoenix Art Museum and previously served as director of the Wolfsonian-Florida International University in Miami. Prior to the Wolfsonian, he served concurrent terms as director of the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art and vice president of the Scottsdale Cultural Council. Rodgers will assume his new position on September 15.

Harvard Art Museums Appoints New Curator of American Art
Horace D. Ballard will join the Harvard Art Museums in Cambridge, Massachusetts, as curator of American art on September 1. Ballard is currently curator of American art at the Williams College Museum of Art, where he worked as assistant curator from 2017 to 2019. Among his curatorial credits at the Williams College Museum of Art are the exhibitions “Sam Gilliam In Dialogue” (2018) and “James Van Der Zee: Collecting History” (2019).

MoMA Appoints First Director of Institute Focused on Built and Natural Environment
The Museum of Modern Art in New York has named Carson Chan as the inaugural director of the Emilio Ambasz Institute for the Joint Study of the Built and the Natural Environment. Additionally, Chan will serve as a curator in the museum’s department of architecture and design, where he will oversee initiatives focused on ecology and sustainability in collaboration with each of the museum’s curatorial divisions. Chan will begin his new position this summer, and among his first projects is an exhibition centered on the growing importance of ecological thinking in architecture, which is currently planned for 2023.

Lulani Arquette.

Wednesday, June 9

United States Artists Announces 2021 Berresford Prize Winners
United States Artists has named the winners of the 2021 Berresford Prize, an annual award recognizing “cultural practitioners who have contributed significantly to the advancement, wellbeing, and care of artists in society,” according to a release. This year’s winners are Lulani Arquette, president and CEO of the Native Arts and Culture Foundation, and Roberto Bedoya, cultural affairs manager for the city of Oakland. Arquette and Bedoya will each receive $25,000.

Veronica Terriquez to Lead UCLA’s Chicano Studies Research Center
Veronica Terriquez has been named director of the Chicano Studies Research Center at the University of California, Los Angeles, which supports the research, scholarship, programming, and advocacy related to Chicanx, Latinx, and Indigenous communities. Terriquez will be the first woman to lead the institution in its 51-year history. Terriquez will also hold joint appointments in UCLA’s Urban Planning and Chicana and Chicano and Central American Studies departments. She is currently an associate professor of sociology at UC Santa Cruz.

Sobey Art Award Releases 2021 Shortlist
The Sobey Art Foundation and the National Gallery of Canada have announced the five artists hailing from Canada’s five regions who have been shortlisted for the 2021 Sobey Art Award. They are Rémi Belliveau (Atlantic); Lorna Bauer (Quebec); Rajni Perera (Ontario); Laakkuluk Williamson Bathory (Prairies and North); and Gabi Dao (West Coast and Yukon). Each artist will receive $25,000 and be featured in an exhibition opening in October at the National Gallery of Canada.

Almine Rech Now Represents Haley Josephs 
Almine Rech, which maintains spaces in New York, London, Paris, Aspen, Shanghai, and Brussels, now represents Haley Josephs in Europe, the United Kingdom, and China. Her vivid paintings present fantastical environments that explore notions of transformation, power, and femininity. Josephs has been exhibited in  group shows at Almine Rech’s New York and London locations. She will have her first solo show with the gallery, which will feature new paintings, at its Brussels location in September.

Danielle Mckinney, Sixth Sense, 2021.

Tuesday, June 8

Night Gallery, Marianne Boesky Gallery Now Represent Danielle Mckinney
Night Gallery in Los Angeles and Marianne Boesky Gallery, which has locations in New York and Aspen, have announced their co-representation of artist Danielle Mckinney. Her stark figurative paintings play with dramatic lighting to create dreamlike vignettes of intimate moments among individuals and groups. Mckinney’s work has been featured in group exhibitions at Half Gallery in New York and the FLAG Art Foundation in New York. Her exhibition “Smoke and Mirrors” is currently on view at Night Gallery through June 19. An exhibition of new works at Marianne Boesky Gallery in Aspen will open later this month.

Counterpublic Annouces Curatorial Team for 2023 Edition
St. Louis’s Counterpublic, a triennial that launched in 2019, has announced the curatorial team for its next iteration, which will take place in summer 2023. The team includes Allison Glenn, associate curator at Crystal Bridges; Diya Vij, associate curator at the public art organization Creative Time; Dream the Combine, a collaborative practice between Jennifer Newsom and Tom Carruthers centering art and architecture; New Red Order, an Indigenous collaborative collective led by artists Zack and Adam Khalil, and Jackson Polys; and curator Risa Puleo. The event is organized by the nonprofit arts platform the Luminary and will take place in commercial and public venues across St. Louis.

LeRoy Neiman Foundation Donates $100,000 to New York City Arts Nonprofits
The LeRoy Neiman and Janet Byrne Neiman Foundation will give four surprise grants of $25,000 each to arts nonprofits serving youth in New York City. The organizations that will receive funds are Publicolor, Creative Art Works, ProjectArt, and Free Arts NYC. The announcement coincides with what would have been LeRoy Neiman’s 100th birthday today.

Bonahms in Paris.

Monday, June 7

Five Nepalese Sculptures Withdrawn from Bonhams Auction
According to a report by the Art Newspaper, a consignor has pulled five gilded bronze Nepalese sculptures from an online auction of Himalayan and Buddhist art at Bonhams that runs through June 10. The works, which depict Hindu gods and date to the 18th century, were reportedly stolen from the Taleju Bhawani Temple in the Kathmandu Valley. The estimates for the works ranged from €3,000 to €5,000 (about $3,700 to $6,100). The sculptures were looted along with seven other works from the temple gate, where they had been part of a frieze 40 years ago.

Tel Aviv Museum Receives $15 M. Gift
In honor of the institution’s 90th anniversary, the Tel Aviv Museum of Art has received $15 million from the Paulson Family Foundation in support of a renovation of its main building. The gift will fund the installation of environmentally efficient systems within the 270,000-square-foot space, as well as expand programming. It will also fund an endowment for the museum.

Hannah Hoffman Gallery Now Represents Puppies Puppies
Puppies Puppies, an elusive artist known for pondering issues related to the LGBTQ2S+ community and pop culture in her installations and performances, has joined the roster of Los Angeles’s Hannah Hoffman gallery. Past works have dealt with mortality, trans identity, and forms of power. In one of her most well-known works, shown at the 2017 Whitney Biennial, the artist, who also goes by the name Jade Kuriko Olivo, had men dress up as the Statue of Liberty and pose for extended periods. Her first show at Hannah Hoffman will take place in 2022.

Joy Bivins Named Director of Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture
Curator Joy Bivins has been named director of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem, the New York Times reports. In 2020, Bivins joined the Schomburg, a part of New York Public Library network and an archive repository for materials related the history and culture of the African diaspora, as an associate director of collections and research services. She will begin her tenure on June 21, becoming the first woman to lead the center since 1980. Before that, Bivins had served as the chief curator of the International African American Museum in Charleston and the director of curatorial affairs at the Chicago History Museum.

News

A street artwork that locals in Leicester, England, thought was by a famous artist is, indeed, not a Banksy. [Leicester Mercury]

Doron Rabina, chief curator at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, has unexpectedly quit. He is set to return to his studio practice as an artist. [Haaretz]

A newly published series of chats from the Sacklers reveal how the family used museums to help clear their names. [Hyperallergic]

Art Spaces

Michelle Jacques will be the new chief curator of Remai Modern in Saskatchewan, Canada. She comes from the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria. [Saskatchewan StarPhoenix]

Renée Brummell Franklin will be the first chief diversity officer of the Saint Louis Art Museum. She was formerly its director of audience development. [The St. Louis American]

The MIT Media Lab, a center known in part for its art-and-tech projects, has named a new director: Dava Newman, who formerly served as deputy administrator of NASA. [TechCrunch]

Art & Artists

Augusta Savage made huge strides for Black artists during the first half of the 20th century. The first artist elected to the National Association of Women Artists, she created art for the 1939 World’s Fair. [Gothamist]

“As an artist, it is difficult to discern whether something is culture or spectacle,” says painter Josh Smith in a new interview. [The Art Newspaper]

Collecting

Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi, a major collector based in the United Arab Emirates, has spent a year acquiring works by Arab women artists. The results are now on view at the Sharjah Art Museum—and not everyone is happy with them. [The National]

See inside the walls of a $33 million home in California’s Silicon Valley that’s filled with art. [Robb Report]

Correction, 12/23/20, 12:35 p.m.: A previous version of this article misstated where the Barjeel artworks are on view. It is the Sharjah Art Museum, not the Sharjah Art Foundation.