Art Movements
A new Van Gogh painting is revealed, a strange turn to the Rotterdam Kunsthal case, DIA changes its donor policy, NASA joins Instagram, a flurry of museum appointments and funding, and more.
The biggest story this week was that a new van Gogh painting was confirmed by the Van Gogh Museum. Called “Sunset at Montamajour,” it dates to 1888 during his time in Arles, but had long been believed a fake. It is currently on view in the Van Gogh at Work exhibition at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.
In an effort to keep its collection safe in the future, the Art Newspaper reported, the Detroit Institute of Arts altered its donor policy so that sales of donated work could only be spent on other art.
The foundation that owned the paintings by artists including Picasso and Matisse that were stolen from the Rotterdam Kunsthal has decided to forgo the search and collect the $24 million in insurance.
Ralph E. Lerner, a leading lawyer in the art world, was charged this week with fraudulently taking money from the Cy Twombly Foundation, the New York Times reported.
In response to the situation in Syria, Florence’s Uffizi Gallery has decided to delay the trip to the Israel Museum in Jerusalem that was planned for Sandro Botticell’s “The Annunciation of San Martino alla Scala.”
Following a massive raid at dawn around the United Kingdom, nineteen people were arrested as part of an investigation into rampant thefts from museums and auctions houses, the Telegraph reported.
The Cleveland Museum of Art and Case Western Reserve University are splitting a $15 million gift from Nancy and Joseph Keithley that will be aimed at reinforcing a graduate program in art history.
The National Museum of Women in the Arts reached its goal of adding another $25 million to its $25 million endowment by its 25th anniversary.
The Contemporary Austin museum announced a gift of $9 million from the Edward and Betty Marcus Foundation, the amount of which is aimed at setting up a sculpture garden.
The Smithsonian’s Arthur M. Sackler Gallery and the Freer Gallery of Art were given a $1 million grant from the Mellon Foundation aimed at endowing an assistant Chinese painting conservator.
Since their current home in 5Pointz will soon be demolished, nonprofit gallery Local Project Art Space is campaigning for a deposit on a new space.
At auction this November, Jeff Koons’s “Balloon Dog (Orange)” is estimated between $35 million and $55 million, potentially beating his $33.6 million record set by “Tulips” at Christie’s last year.
A lot of over 150 pieces that were part of Jan Krugier’s collection, a dealer based in Geneva who sold Picasso’s family’s art, is estimated to fetch $170 million, with a huge chunk of it from one Kandinsky valued at between $20 and $24 million.
Helen Koh has stepped down as executive director of the Museum of Chinese in America due to personal reasons.
Diana Craig Patch, who has been acting as head of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Department of Egyptian Art, was officially named Curator in Charge of the department.
Also at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Joanne Pillsbury joined as the Andrall E. Pearson Curator in the Department of the Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas, and Ronda Kasl joined as a Curator in the American Wing.
Allegra Pesenti, a curator at the Hammer Museum, has been named the chief curator for the Menil Drawing Institute, which has not yet been built at the Menil Collection.
Brian Sholis, who has been an Artforum editor and Aperture Foundation editor, was named associate curator of photography at the Cincinnati Art Museum.
The Dallas Morning News has a new art critic: art historian Rick Brettell, who is former Dallas Museum of Art director and Unversity of Texas at Dallas chair of art and aesthetics.
The American Museum of Natural History joined the New York Genome Center as an associate member, adding its samples to the research organization.
Dutch composer and tech artist Dick Raaijmakers, considered a pioneer in electronic music and music-based art installations, passed away on September 4.
The 2013 National Arts Awardees were announced by Americans for the Arts and include Dakota Fanning, B.B. King, John and Mary Pappajohn, Joel Shapiro, and Alberto Carvalho, who will all be honored in New York City in October with awards designed by Jeff Koons.
A man who was growing marijuana on the property of a Virginia museum was given a suspended five-year jail sentence, the News Virginian reported.
Applications for the World Press Photo and Human Rights’ 2013 Tim Hetherington Grant, named for the late photographer, are now open to photojournalists focused on human rights.
Submissions are open for the Fellowship for Utopian Practice, where two fellows will get a year-long tenure to “help them develop big ideas with real world applications” with Culture Push.
After his skeleton was displayed in a Connecticut museum for decades, a slave who died in 1798 was finally giving a burial.
A 60-foot-tall stick figure mural by London street artist STIK has been completed in the East Village in collaboration with Dorian Grey Gallery.
NASA has joined Instagram, posting real-time photographs of launches as well as archival images.
