In the Instagram post, Chan, seen sipping from a mug that matches the statue’s color, playfully commented, “The more of me the better?” The statue’s design, with its flowing silver garment, looks like a mashup of ancient Roman Sculpture and the T-1000 from Terminator 2. According to Zuckerberg, the inspiration came from the former: he captioned the photo “bringing back the Roman tradition of making sculptures of your wife.”

The sculpture features a reflective silver robe wrapped around a blueish green figure that brings to mind a photoshop-smooth version of the weathered and oxidized copper of the Statue of Liberty in New York. The statue’s striking color and size led to a flurry of online comparisons to characters from “Avatar” and jokes about Zuckerberg being the ultimate “wife guy.”

Zuckerberg and Chan met in 2003 while both were students at Harvard. They have been married since 2012 and share three daughters.

Arsham has worked across sculpture, architecture, drawing and film to explore his concept of “fictional archaeology” He most recently opened the exhibition “Phases” at Fotografiska New York earlier this year and he has long been represented by Perrotin. Last month, Arsham was accused of violating national labor laws by employees of his studio, according to a complaint filed with the National Labor Relations Board.

The mural, created by the street artist Laika, featured Egonu, an Italian citizen and key figure in Italy’s historic gold medal win at the Paris Olympics, along with the words “stop racism.” Vandals spray-painted Egonu’s skin pink and erased the anti-racist message, sparking widespread condemnation from politicians and Egonu’s teammates.

The mural, titled Italianità, was Laika’s response to a controversial passage in a book by Roberto Vannacci, a far-right Italian delegation to the European parliament, who questioned Egonu’s representation of Italy based on her physical features. Vannacci reiterated his stance after Egonu’s standout performance in the Olympic final against the USA, during which she earned the title of top scorer.

The defacement of the mural was condemned across Italy’s political spectrum. Deputy Prime Minister Antonio Tajani expressed solidarity with Egonu, calling the act “vulgar racism,” while Elly Schlein, leader of the opposition Democratic Party, reiterated the need for legal reforms to grant citizenship at birth to children born in Italy to foreign parents. Rome’s mayor, Roberto Gualtieri, and Italian men’s volleyball player Simone Giannelli also denounced the vandalism, describing it as a “vile insult” and an act of “heartlessness.”

Egonu, who was born in Italy to Nigerian parents, has previously faced racial abuse. Following a loss to Brazil during the world championship semi-finals in 2022 she temporarily stepped away from the national team after she was barraged with racial abuse online.

In an interview with Al Jazeera she said the worst attack of the lot questioned whether or not she was truly Italian. “It was devastating,” Egonu said.

The partnership is in its third consecutive year and represents part of the fourth iteration of The Armory Show’s public artworks project, Armory Off-Site.

“We’re thrilled to again partner with the US Open to showcase artworks by artists of underrepresented backgrounds. Both The Armory Show and the US Open are defining parts of New York’s fall calendar, and this partnership comes during an exciting cultural moment for New York City,” Kyla McMillan, director of The Armory Show told ARTnews via email. “Through our partnership, we hope to reach new and familiar audiences by providing an opportunity to discover artists and artworks, perhaps even forming a lasting connection with the fair.”

The projects on view during the US Open include the installation Tetl Mirror I (2024) by Claudia Peña Salinas, presented by Embajada, which explores Aztec and Mayan mythology; Eva Robarts’ sculpture, Fantasy of Happiness (2022), which uses discarded tennis balls caught within the chain-link of a reclaimed gate and is presented by the gallery Ruttkowski;68; Taiwanese-Canadian sculptor An Te Liu’s bronze-casted Venus Redux (2018), presented by Blouin Division; and Tomokazu Matsuyama’s Runner (2021), presented by Kavi Gupta.

The works will be on view throughout the tournament, from August 19 to September 8. As part of US Open Fan Week, access to Billie Jean King National Tennis Center is free from August 19 through August 25.

The Armory Off Site program includes performances across New York City. The artist María Magdalena Campos-Pons’s recent work Procession of Angels for Radical Love and Unity (2024) is comprised of visits to seven historically significant New York City communities, from Harlem Art Park to Madison Square Park, with poetry readings at each site and a workshops and performances at the end of the route. 

Oliver Herring will present 20-minute performance that serves as an homage to “queer icons whose creative forces and visionary careers were tragically and prematurely interrupted” on the Bowery, and a new work by David Salle with grace Times Square as part of the Midnight Moment program.

This year The Armory Show will celebrate its 30th anniversary. More than 235 galleries are expected to participate in the fair, scheduled to run from September 6–8, with a VIP preview day on September 5, at the Javits Center in Manhattan.

The arrest comes two years after French customs agents in Modane, near the Italian border, confiscated the work, thanks to an expired export license that the man presented. He was en route to sell the faux Leonardo for around €1.3 million ($1.4 million) to a buyer in Milan.

The export license was authentic, because it was expired, authorities grew suspicious. Eventually, the man was charged with smuggling and arrested.

The expired license prompted a call to Spain’s Policía Nacional in 2022. After recovering the work, which depicts the Italian military commander and aristocrat Gian Giacomo Trivulzio, from the French border, authorities opened an investigation into the matter and sent to the painting to the Museo Nacional del Prado in Madrid for analysis. 

“The experts’ report concluded that the work was a copy of the Milanese portraits painted around the end of the 15th century and the beginning of the 16th century,” Spanish authorities said in a statement. “The painting was probably painted, with fraudulent intent, at the beginning of the 20th century. As such, its value is between €3,000 and €5,000 ($3,200 and $5,400) and the painting can categorically be ruled out as a being by Leonardo or any other Italian artist of the time.”

According to a press release, the capital infusion from the investment reflects Sotheby’s interest in the burgeoning economic diversification of the Abu Dhabi region. It’s likely that some of the funds will be earmarked for strengthening Sotheby’s finances and supporting the company’s ambitious and real estate expansion plans.

Earlier this year, the auction house announced a radical new fee structure.  It also announced new retail-minded locations such as the recently opened Maison in central Hong Kong, a new building on Rue de Faubourg in Paris set to open in October, and the iconic Breuer Building in New York, which is scheduled for completion in 2025.

“The additional capital and investment expertise will enable us to accelerate our strategic initiatives, expand our commitment to excellence in the art and luxury markets, and continue to innovate to better serve our clients around the world,” Sotheby’s CEO Charles Stewart said in a press release.

ADQ is a prominent sovereign wealth fund based in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.  It was established in 2018 as Abu Dhabi Developmental Holding Company (ADDH) and rebranded to ADQ in 2020. The partnership marks ADQ’s first venture into the cultural sector, reflecting its strategy of diversification and its commitment to bolstering arts and culture domestically. The involvement of ADQ, a major Middle Eastern player, is expected to further solidify Sotheby’s presence in the region, which is one of the fastest-growing markets for art and luxury.

The transaction is anticipated to close by the end of the year, pending regulatory approvals. 

Then part of the work quickly disappeared. According to photographs of the site, the dish has been removed and was allegedly stolen.

This new series of Banksy works, each of which portrays on animals, seems have begun on Monday, when a stenciled goat was found precariously balanced on the buttress of a wall new Kew Bridge in Richmond, a town in southwest London. Rocks tumble from the goat’s feet in full view of a surveillance camera on the wall pointing directly at the long horned bovine, which looks down onto the street. On Tuesday, two elephants reached their outstretched trucks toward one another from appears to be boarded up windows in Chelsea. And yesterday, three monkeys were spotted, in mid-swing, on Brick Lane. 

In each case, the enigmatic street artist has claimed the work as his own via Instagram. There has not yet been any explanation for his recent burst of productivity or the meaning behind the Ark’s worth of animals.

Some have speculated on what these works may signify anyway. Three of the four pictures on Banksy’s Instagram account show humans blissfully unaware of the stenciled animals near them. That led one user to posit, “There’s definitely a sense that including the people in all these pics is giving off a sense of ignorance to the wild around them.”

Some take an overtly pessimistic view of Banksy’s new work. “Humanity is not going to last… animals will be taking over 🖤,” one user posted to Instagram. Others see a narrative building in the series: “One animal, isolated and helpless; Two animals, watching out for each other; Three animals, overcoming difficulties together?”

Theories range from support of the Palestinian struggle—“a lot of people asking him to paint about Palestine, the gap in the legs is the shape of what’s left isn’t it,” one user said of the goat mural—to the need to reconnect to nature and the importance of family and community. The only thing for certain is that the public wants more. “Same time again tomorrow? ⏳,” one user posted.

This year’s auction, which took place both live and online, brought in $4.5 million for the Aspen Art Museum’s year-round curatorial and educational programs, easily surpassing last year’s total of $3.8 million. It was the highest earning ArtCrush Gala auction to date. 

This year’s auction featured works by Jacqueline Humphries, Allison Katz, Emma McIntyre, Jason Moran, Naudline Pierre, Marina Pérez Simão, Emmi Whitehorse, Kennedy Yanko, Marley Freeman, and Delcy Morelos—donated by the artists or the galleries that represent them. 

For the first time, Christie’s led the live auction, which had a total of twelve lots. The house’s global head of private sales and co-head of Impressionist and Modern Art, Adrien Meyer, surely cemented Christie’s roll in future ArtCrush galas. Dynaimc in a crisp white shirt open at the neck, navy blue suit, and dark Oxford shoes, he’d throw his note cards into the air behind him once they’d been read. He jogged across the stage or walked though the seated crowd as people jumped up from their chairs to bid, swiftly moving from one side of the expansive room to the other. 

Once a lot seemed ready to go, he was tableside, gavel in his hand. “No regrets! Anyone else? Very well, congratulations madam … its yours!” he’d say, then bang the gavel on the table to the delight of the guests seated around the winner. In between lots, Fleetwood Mac, Eurythmics, and other Top of the Pops hits blared through the speakers. It was one-part benefit auction, one-part rock concert, and one-part church revival in a massive tent, decorated red and gold, at the foot of a mountain halfway between Snowmass and Aspen.

The museum’s Collector Committee, co-chaired for the second year by Abigail Ross Goodman and Molly Epstein, organized the auction while the gala was co-chaired by Sarah Arison and Thomas Wilhelm, Jen Rubio and Stewart Butterfield, Charlie Pohlad and Jack Carter, and Eleanore and Domenico De Sole. The event marked the museum’s 45th anniversary and the 10th anniversary of its Shigeru Ban-designed building.

“I am energized by the enthusiastic response to this year’s special anniversary edition of Aspen ArtWeek,” Nicola Lees, Nancy and Bob Magoon Director of Aspen Art Museum, said in a release, “and to have welcomed visitors from all over the world to participate in the program we have been building and growing since we first staged it four years ago.”

The week’s programing included artist talks, Audience Plant 2024, a concert staged in partnership with Aspen Skiing Company, featuring music by Michael Beharie, Lizzie Fitch, Ashland Mines, Aaron David Ross, and Ryan Trecartin—another performance featuring Jason Moran, and a hike led by the artist Lena Henke. At the museum and free to the public was an excellent group exhibition organized by Allison Katz in collaboration with the Archaeological Park of Pompeii “In the House of the Trembling Eye.”

That kind of invitation is characteristic of Aspen, which seems to be a through-the-looking-glass version of Miami’s art week in December. The wealth is the same, but you trade humid beach weather for mountain air and all-nighters, guest-lists, and exclusive clubs for hikes and yoga. Everyone is invited to everything, with the caveat that you have to make it there first. And whereas Miami centers around the spectacle of Art Basel, Aspen ArtWeek’s home base is the Aspen Art Museum, where every couple of hours there’s another event. There are also artist talks and artist walks and tours of collectors’ homes. But the overall atmosphere, even with the busy schedule, is relaxed, in no small part because the entire town of just over 7,000 residents is eminently walkable.

The quick plunge in the gentle river of “snow melt,” as I was told, is a pleasant if prickly jolt to the system (translation: f—king cold). After the short drive back to town, I was treated to a walk-through of Allison Katz’s extraordinary and expansive group show, “In the House of the Trembling Eye,” at the museum. The Aspen Art Museum has a history of artist-curated shows. In December, it staged an exhibition of John Chamberlain’s work, “The Tighter They’re Wound, The Harder They Unravel” curated by Urs Fischer, and in 2022–23, the artist Monica Majoli organized a museum-wide survey exhibition of Andy Warhol called “Lifetimes.” 

The Katz show is special for a number of reasons. First, it marks the museum’s 45th anniversary and a decade in its current location. Second, the exhibition is made up of works from private collections in and around Aspen, as well as Katz’s own work and ancient Pompeian fresco fragments, the first time such relics of antiquity have been juxtaposed with contemporary art in North America, according to the museum.

“It’s been quite an interesting challenge, an enjoyable one,” Stella Bottai, a senior curator at large who helped research and organize the exhibition, told me during the tour. “Allison wanted to take Pompeii and the domus (essentially an ancient Roman townhouse) as an inspiration and organizing principle for the show, the reason being that the moment you engage with domesticity and personal collections—and many of these works are lived with in private homes—something quite interesting happens in terms of how the boundaries between private and public overlap.”

The show consists of nine galleries, with more than 100 works by 50 artists including Marlene Dumas, Lucio Fontana, Jeffrey Gibson, Ellsworth Kelly, Kerry James Marshall, Julie Mehretu, Joan Mitchell, Elizabeth Peyton, and Alice Neel. Interspersed throughout are 10 strikingly fresh, almost modern segments of fresco. The exhibition starts as if you were placed on Pompeii’s main road, Via dell’Abbondanza, and moves through the “rooms” of the domus, with the architectural principles of the home providing the framework for the different galleries. The second room is striking, its trellised walls mimicking the domus’s atrium. In the center of the room is Nancy Lupo’s round mixed-media piece made of Burger King Crowns and lighters; it mimics the sunken basin built to collect rainwater from the domus’s skylight. 

Just above and behind is the show’s first fragment of fresco, depicting Narcissus, gazing as ever at his reflection. Flanking the relic is Katz’s Eternity (2023) and Amy Sillman’s 2008 picture I. Narcissus’s posture is cleverly shadowed in Eternity, which depicts two construction workers installing a skylight and looking into the room below, while the vivid blue of Sillman’s geometric abstraction handles the work of representing both the skylight and the “water” in the basin below it. Such little coincidences and happy resonances spring up throughout the exhibition. For Katz, painting is a conversation, between narrative and time, shape and space. Each room is named after a section of the Pompeian domus, until the penultimate one, “Eruption,” where the ancient city’s demise is illustrated by violently red, energetic works by Karen Kilimnik, Jacob Issacszoon van Swanenburg, Jill Mulleady, and Lisa Yuskavage, among others.

Following the tour, Katz spoke with James Meyer, the writer, art historian, and curator of modern art at Washington’s National Gallery, in front of nearly 100 people on the museum’s open-air roof. Meyer read a harrowing description of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD by Pliny the Younger and then probed Katz’s long-held interest in Pompeii and architecture. 

Among the more talked-about events during Aspen Art Week are the two fairs, Intersect Aspen, which returns to the mountain enclave for its 14th edition, and the inaugural Aspen Art Fair. While both are billed as art and design fairs, their locations, lists of exhibitors, and general atmosphere are different enough that they seem to be staying far out of each other’s way. 

Intersect Aspen is heavy on photography, whimsically hung booths, animal figures, and a relaxed atmosphere. Stunning black-and-white photos by National Geographic photographers Cristina Mittermeier and Paul Nicklen stand out at Hilton Contemporary’s booth, as do a pair of tapestries by Alexander Calder at Boccara Gallery. There’s a marked presence of local galleries as well. Aspen Collective has a wonderful series of works by Thomas Benton promoting Colorado transplant Hunter S. Thompson’s famed campaign for Sheriff of Aspen in 1970. Intersect is held at the Aspen Ice Rink, a short 10-minute walk from the Aspen Art Museum (7, if you’re a New Yorker). 

The Aspen Art Fair, meanwhile, is staged at the historic Hotel Jerome, filling nearly the entirety of the hotel’s ground floor, excluding the all-important J-Bar and Library Bar. Among the pleasantly filled hotel room presentations, Denver’s K Contemporary, Praise Shadows, and Rusha & Co are definitely worth stopping by. Nearby, the ballroom has been built out with traditional white walls. There, you can find stunning work at Southern Guild’s booth, including a few stunning works by Zanele Muholi, and very fun paintings by Vera Girivi at James Barron. Gmuyerzynska, Perrotin, and El Apartamento give an international flair. Neither fair is very large, which makes it them all the more palatable when compared to the ever growing mega-fairs, like two separate tasting menus as opposed to one massive pie-eating competition.

Too much has been made of a supposed rivalry between the fairs. That word wouldn’t cross the mind of anyone who’s been, and both are worth visiting. If you’re the sort that salivates for conflict, take a stroll through each fair, pick your favorite works, and whichever has the most you can declare your favorite. Ultimately, the fairs are welcome additions to the week in which the Museum, its programming, and its scheduled events are the primary attraction.

Following an afternoon spent booth-strolling, it was back to the museum for a piano performance by Aspen Award for Art recipient, the artist and composer Jason Moran. A Steinway grand piano was brought in and Moran played for the better part of an hour. His music was percussive, melodic, funky, soulful, and abstract, sometimes all at once. An aggressively staccato piece with an ever-present rumbling on the bass side of the keyboard turned into a Jelly Roll Morton-esque swing. A piece dedicated to his barbershop in Harlem was aggressively rhythmic and drew charged yeahs and ooos from the crowd. Toward the end he professed his admiration for the High Priest of Jazz, Thelonius Monk, and played a piece originally written for Joan Jonas.

“It’s a great use of space,” Bortolami director Evan Reiser told me after the performance, as guests spread out on the patio. On the walls were works from the forthcoming ArtCrush benefit auction—there are pieces on every floor of the museum—and, before and after the performance, people were taking in the works, then walking over to a booth to place silent bids.

The evening ended with a garden party and dinner at the home of collectors Melony and Adam Lewis. Nearly everyone I’d seen throughout the day was there. Collectors swarmed Zanele Muholi, who was wearing all black and a fabulous bowler hat. Each one pulled out a phone and showed her a picture of her work hanging in their home in Aspen or Miami or New York. Debi Wechsler sat next to the sculptor and installation artist Kennedy Yanko, who just left New York City for Miami. The meal was as good as that in any restaurant in Aspen, simple and elegant: chicken piccata, roast beef, and a fresh local pear and mozzarella salad. By 10:30, people were moving toward the exit, ready to walk, cycle, or scooter back to their homes or hotels.

Another full day tomorrow and here, in Aspen, things start bright and early. That is, if you’re lucky enough to make it here.

Central to the debate is a voguing performance featuring drag queens on a long catwalk, which some observers interpreted as a reference to Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper (1495). The accusation of blasphemy, fueled by high-profile figures like Elon Musk and House Speaker Mike Johnson, quickly spread on social media.

Critics claim that the performer wearing a star crown in the middle of the catwalk represents Jesus, with dancers around her symbolizing the disciples. But the catwalk, covered in a red carpet, differs significantly from Leonardo’s depiction of a table, and the number of performers does not match the 12 disciples. Meanwhile, the star crown—a symbol often associated with Mary rather than Jesus—complicates the comparison.

Voguing is a dance style that originated in New York’s queer subculture. It often incorporates religious imagery, playing with themes of ecstasy and redemption.

The Olympics performance featured allusions to Bacchus, the Roman god of wine, leading some to say the reference point was not actually The Last Supper.

Dutch art historian Walther Schoonenberg highlighted the resemblance to Jan van Bijlert’s Festival of the Gods (1635), which depicts a feast among Roman deities. This aligns the performance more with ancient mythology than with Christian traditions, even though van Bijlert was likely inspired by Leonardo’s painting.

The ceremony, directed by Thomas Jolly, featured a range of art allusions, including a film where the Mona Lisa was stolen by the Minions of the “Despicable Me” franchise.

At a press conference on Sunday, Anne Descamp, a spokesperson for the 2024 Olympics, said, “There was clearly never an intention to show disrespect to any religious group. On the contrary, I think we tried to celebrate community, tolerance. We believe this ambition was achieved. If people have taken any offense, we’re of course really sorry.” 

Jolly, in an interview with a CNN affiliate, said The Last Supper did not inspire the sequence, but rather “the idea was to create a big pagan party in link with the God of Mount Olympus — and you will never find in me, or in my work, any desire of mocking anyone.”

Activists have condemned Toyota’s sponsorship of the upcoming Olympic Games with over 100 guerrilla advertisements in key locations in Paris and five other major French cities, the Art Newspaper reports, drawing attention to the automaker’s greenhouse gas emissions. 

These guerrilla artworks, coordinated by Paris-based Résistance à l’Agression Publicitaire (RAP) and the Brandalism collective, criticize the Olympic organizing committee for partnering with organizations that they say are polluting the environment. The posters, installed in bus stop ad spaces between July 22 and July 25 in Paris, Lille, Lyon, Saint-Étienne, Strasbourg, and Rennes, highlight Toyota’s emissions.

“As the world shifts away from fossil fuels, Toyota stubbornly continues to produce millions more oil-powered vehicles every year,” activist Sonnie Bird said in a statement posted to the Brandalism blog. “If Toyota were a country its greenhouse gas emissions would outrank all but eleven of the countries participating in this year’s Games, many of which are already on the front lines of climate breakdown.”

One of the artworks, created by Michelle Tylicki, depicts a gold medal with the Toyota logo dripping in oil. The work states, “Toyota, proud to be the most polluting sponsor of the 2024 Olympic Games.”

In 2022, Toyota’s emissions totaled 575 million tons of carbon dioxide, surpassing France’s national emissions and accounting for 1.5 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions. Other posters reimagine famous artworks, like Leonardo’s Mona Lisa and Van Gogh’s Starry Night, to include Toyota vehicles and their pollution. They are accompanied by the text reading, “Art belongs in Paris. Giant polluters do not.”

The 33rd Olympic Games have faced criticism from climate groups over sponsorship by companies such as Toyota, Air France, and steelmaker ArcelorMittal. A recent report predicted that this year’s Olympics will be the hottest on record, featuring testimonies from athletes who have experienced extreme heat in sports.

The UK-based Badvertising campaign calculated that the combined carbon emissions from the sponsorship deals of the three most polluting sponsors are equivalent to eight coal power plants operating for a year.

A Toyota representative did not immediately respond to request for comment.