Banksy’s stencil of the Greek goddess Niobe, part of a recent body of work in Gaza (via Banksy.co.uk)
Art Movements is a weekly collection of news, developments, and stirrings in the art world.
Rabie Darduna, a Gaza Strip resident whose home was reduced to rubble during last year’s 50-day war with Israel, claimed he was duped into selling a work by Banksy. The street artist stenciled an image of the Greek goddess Niobe on a door among the rubble of Darduna’s home. According to Darduna, a group of men claiming to represent the artist purchased the work for 700 shekels (~$175); “They made me sign a paper. It said I agreed on 700 shekels. They pressured me and I accepted because I need the money.”
Andrew Getty, the grandson of J. Paul Getty and heir to the Getty oil fortune, was found dead at his Hollywood Hills home. A law enforcement official told the Los Angeles Times that Getty had suffered from blunt-force trauma. The cause of death has yet to be determined.
Ed Vaizey, the UK’s Culture Minister, placed an export ban on the 4,000-year-old Egyptian statue that was controversially sold by Northampton Borough Council for £15.8 million (~$24.5m) at auction. The two museums managed by the Northampton Borough Council — the Northampton Museum and Art Gallery and Abington Park Museum — had their Art Council accreditation rescinded as a result of the sale. Ten UK organizations, including funding bodies such as The Art Fund and the Heritage Lottery Fund, have since teamed up to oppose the “unethical sale of items from museum collections.”
The International Digital Photo Archive Consortium hopes to make over 30 million art historical images available online. Members include the Frick Art Reference Library, the Paul Mellon Centre, and the Courtauld Institute of Art’s Witt Library.
Prolific street artist COST (aka Adam Cole) appeared in Manhattan Criminal Court to face charges of “vandalism, criminal mischief, making graffiti, and possession of a graffiti instrument.”
Michelangelo Buonarroti, “The young Saint John the Baptist” (ca. 1495 -1496). Original pieces in marble and reconstruction in resin, 140 x 40 x 43 cm, Fundación Casa Ducal de Medinaceli (via museodelprado.es)
The Prado Museum will exhibit Michelangelo’s “The Young Saint John the Baptist” for three months. It is the only sculpture by the artist in Spain.
Pope Francis invited 150 homeless guests to a reception at the Sistine Chapel. According to the Catholic News Agency, the Pope stated “this is everyone’s house, and your house. The doors are always open for all.” Last October, the Vatican announced that it would cap the number of annual chapel visitors to 6 million. In the same month, the Vatican rented the chapel to automaker Porsche for a private corporate event.
Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is to pay artist Mehmet Aksoy 10,000 Liras (~$3,860) in moral indemnities. In 2011, Erdoğan publicly described Aksoy’s statue, “Monument to Humanity,” as a “freak.”
Trustees at the Tate temporarily reversed their decision to restitute John Constable’s “Beaching a Boat, Brighton” (1824) to a spoliation claimant. A Tate spokesman told the Art Newspaper that the museum’s trustees were reviewing new information. The UK’s Spoliation Advisory Panel recommended that the painting be returned to the heirs of its pre-war Hungarian owner last year.
Cooper Union’s Board of Trustees briefly approved of new charges to students taking extra credits. The charges were scrapped following complaints from the student body. Bill Mea, Cooper Union’s Vice President for Finance and Administration, stated in an email: “Having seen yesterday’s reaction to the overload charge, I can say that I am still learning about the culture of Cooper Union.”
A crane truck tipped over outside the Dallas Museum of Art, narrowly missing Mark di Suvero’s steel sculpture, “Ave.” A passerby jokingly told the Dallas Morning News that the incident was the DMA’s “latest exhibit.”
Klaus Albrecht Schröder, the director of the Albertina Museum in Vienna, called for a time limit on Nazi-loot restitution claims on art in public collections.
California’s District Court ruled that the statue of limitations does not apply to the legal battle regarding the ownership of Lucas Cranach the Elder’s life-size “Adam and Eve”.
The German culture ministry determined that Camille Pissarro’s “La Seine vue du Pont-Neuf, au fond le Louvre (The Seine seen from Pont Neuf)” (1902), discovered at the home of Cornelius Gurlitt, is to be returned to the heiress of its former owner.
A painting purchased by the Dutch royal family is to be returned to the heirs of its original owner. The work by Joris van der Haagen was purchased by Queen Juliana in 1960. The painting was seized from a Jewish collector by the Nazis in 1942.
A museum devoted to filial piety opened in China.
A proposal to transform Edinburgh’s Old Royal High School (erected 1826–1829) into a luxury hotel was met with fierce criticism. Designed by Thomas Hamilton, the building is an icon of Greek Revival architecture.
New Parliament House (commonly known as The Old Royal High School), Calton Hill, Edinburgh (via Flickr/ Dave & Margie Hill/ Kleerup)
A major retrospective of Robert Mapplethorpe’s work is set to open in Los Angeles in 2016. The exhibition, a joint project by the J. Paul Getty Museum and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, was first proposed four years ago.
A rendering of what could become the European Union’s tallest building sparked intense criticism online. Thom Mayne of Morphosis Architects conceived of a 1,250-foot-tall glass tower for Vals, a small village in the Swiss Alps.
The Whitney Museum announced revised opening hours and admission prices for its new location at 99 Gansevoort Street.
Technicians at the Rhode Island School of Design went on strike following the school’s rejection of a union proposal.
Professor Francis Thackeray called for the exhumation of William Shakespeare’s remains in order to learn more about the playwright’s life and habits. The epitaph on Shakespeare’s gravestone reads: “Good frend for Jesus sake forebeare/ To digg the dust encloased heare/ Bleste be the man that spares thes stones/ And curst be he that moves my bones.”
The Nasher Sculpture Center launched the Nasher Prize for Sculpture.
The International Center of Photography unveiled its new website.
Transactions
Barkley L. Hendricks, “Steve” (1976), oil, acrylic and magna on canvas (courtesy Swann Auction Galleries)
“Steve,” a 1976 painting by Barkley L. Hendricks, sold for $365,000 at Swann Auction Galleries, setting a new auction record for the artist.
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art acquired a long-lost work by Miguel Cabrera, which for years was kept rolled up underneath the previous owner’s couch.
The Honolulu Museum of Art transferred seven antiquities to the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement after Homeland Security Investigations determined that the objects had been looted from India and illegally smuggled to the US.
The T-D Bank Group donated CAN$500,000 to the Winnipeg Art Gallery. The donation will go towards the construction of a center dedicated to Inuit art.
The Library of Congress acquired 540 Civil War stereographs from the Robin G. Stanford collection.
Transitions
Penelope Curtis stepped down as the director of Tate Britain. Curtis will assume directorship of the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum in Autumn 2015.
Five members of staff from the Orange County Museum of Art, including chief curator Dan Cameron, were laid off.
The Guggenheim Foundation appointed two new members to its board of trustees — David Shuman, a private investor, and Goldman Sachs senior partner Valentino D. Carlotti.
Marianne Boesky will open a gallery space and artist-in-residency program in Aspen, Colorado.
The Walker Art Center, Minneapolis (via Wikipedia)
A $75 million renovation of the Walker Art Center’s campus is expected to be completed by spring of 2017.
Art historian Arturo Galansino was appointed director general of the Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi in Florence.
Fredric M. Bell resigned as executive director of the New York chapter of the American Institute of Architects.
Norah Diedrich was appointed executive director of the Newport Art Museum.
C.D. Dickerson III was appointed curator and head of sculpture at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC.
Linda Ying-chun was appointed the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation conservator for Asian art at the Newark Museum.
The Andy Warhol Museum abandoned its plans for a New York City branch.
Accolades
Artist and cultural theorist Hito Steyerl was awarded the inaugural Eye Prize.
Obituaries
Betty Churcher (1931–2015), former director of the National Gallery of Australia.
Robert Clatworthy (1928–2015), sculptor.
Albert Irvin (1922–2015), artist.
Roger L. Mayer (1926–2015), chairman of the National Film Preservation Foundation.
Manoel de Oliveira (1908–2015), filmmaker.
Michael Rush (1949–2015), curator, critic, and founding director of the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum at Michigan State University.
Robert Clatworthy, “Bull” (1956-57), Alton Estate, London (via Wikipedia)
