| | The First Art Newspaper on the Net |    | Established in 1996 | Tuesday, August 9, 2022 |
| | Investigators say collector had suspect art and lots of chutzpah | |
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In an undated image provided via Manhattan District Attorneys Office, an antiquity known as the Palmyra Stone and thought to have been looted from that ancient Syrian city, is among the items seized from Georges Lotfi. There is now a warrant out for the arrest of Lotfi, who is charged with criminal possession of stolen property and who investigators say was himself involved, for decades, in trafficking stolen antiquities. Via Manhattan District Attorneys Office via The New York Times.
by Julia Jacobs and Tom Mashberg
NEW YORK, NY.- For years, Georges Lotfi made himself a valuable source of information to prosecutors investigating the global trafficking of looted antiquities. A tip from Lotfi led to the seizure of the gold Coffin of Nedjemankh from New York Citys Metropolitan Museum of Art, where it had been on display before law enforcement determined it had been looted from a tomb and returned it to Egypt, according to court papers. His diagram of how international smuggling networks operated was used as a teaching tool, one federal agent said in the papers, an outline that helped the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in its pursuit of traffickers. But now there is a warrant out for the arrest of Lotfi, who is charged with criminal possession of stolen property and who investigators say was himself involved, for decades, in trafficking stolen antiquities. In what is characterized in court papers as an act of hubris, Lotfi, 81, is said to have invited authorities to inspect antiquities that he ... More |
The Best Photos of the Day Afro 1950-1970. From Italy to America and Back, which highlights Afro Basaldella, one of the leading exponents of Italian painting in the second half of the 20th century. The exhibition traces a history, still little known, of the connections between Italian and American art, exploring exchanges and collaborations between Afro and artists such as Pollock, De Kooning and Gorky.
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| 'What a horrible place this would have been' | | Roland Auctions NY rounds out summer series of auction with August 13th multi-estates sale | | Olivia Newton-John, sweet-voiced pop singer and 'Grease' star, dies at 73 | 
A cast of a human jaw found during the archaeological dig at the Red Bank Battlefield site where the remains of Hessian soldiers killed in 1777 were found, in New Jersey on Tuesday, Aug. 2, 2022. Michelle Gustafson/The New York Times.
by Zach Zorich
NEW YORK, NY.- This spring, a team of archaeologists and volunteers began painstakingly digging into the history of Fort Mercer, a Revolutionary War fortification on the Delaware River that is now the centerpiece of Red Bank Battlefield Park in National Park, New Jersey. During the war, Continental Army soldiers were stationed at the fort to keep the British and their Hessian mercenary allies from resupplying troops in nearby Philadelphia. On Oct. 22, 1777, the army repelled a major assault by Hessian forces. Little-known today, the Battle of Red Bank was brief and ferocious, marking one of the worst defeats the Hessians suffered in the war. The archaeologists were focused on excavating a trench that had been used to defend the fort during ... More | | 
Pair of Chinese Framed Porcelain Plaques. Estimate: $7,000 - $10,000.
GLEN COVE, NY.- Roland Auctions NY in Glen Cove, NY will present their latest in a summer series of specially curated multi-estates auctions on Saturday, August 13th at 1pm (EST) features hundreds of lots of Fine and Contemporary Art, Silver, Decorative Arts, unique Asian items, Antique & Vintage Furniture, jewelry and lighting. Previews will be held on Thursday, August 11th & Friday, August 12th, 10am - 6pm. Art highlights this month include a Portfolio of 5 Screenprints by Romare Howard Bearden (American, 1911-1988), including "Salome", "Delilah", "In The Garden", "Prologue to Troy", and "Noah, Third Day" produced by Cordier & Ekstrom and Iver-Sillman, Inc.; numbered HC 2/37, printed by Sirocco Screenprinters, 1974, each pencil signed by Bearden, dated '74, each matted and framed (three in metal frames, two in silver gilt frames). Literature: "From Process to Print: Graphic Works by Romare Bearden", San Francisco, 2009, pp 95-99. [Image: 36 ... More | | 
Olivia Newton-John and Kenny Loggins at HBO's "Divorce" afterparty in New York, Oct. 4, 2016. Nina Westervelt/The New York Times.
by Jim Farber
NEW YORK, NY.- Olivia Newton-John, who sang some of the biggest hits of the 1970s and 80s while recasting her image as the virginal girl next door into a spandex-clad vixen a transformation reflected in miniature by her starring role in Grease, one of the most popular movie musicals of its era died Monday at her ranch in Southern California. She was 73. The death was announced by her husband, John Easterling. Newton-John amassed No. 1 hits, chart-topping albums and four records that sold more than 2 million copies each. More than anything else, she was likable, even beloved. In the earlier phase of her career, this English-Australian singer beguiled listeners with a high, supple, vibrato-warmed voice that paired amiably with the kind of swooning middle-of-the-road pop that, in the mid-1970s, often passed for country ... More |
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| Rescuing art in Ukraine with foam, crates and cries for help | | U.S. returns 30 looted antiquities to Cambodia | | Eight works by four African American photographers and a photographs by Manuel Ãlvarez Bravo enter collection | 
At the Johann Georg Pinsel Museum in Lviv, Ukraine, works by the sculptor are shrouded in simple black tarps on June 27, 2022. Emile Ducke/The New York Times.
by Jason Farago
LVIV.- A month after the Russian army invaded Ukraine, photographer Roman Metelskiy stood on the platform of this western citys domed art nouveau railway station, watching trains full of women and children evacuating from the east. But he was waiting for a carriage from the other direction. This one, from the west, was full of Bubble Wrap. Few Ukrainian cultural institutions had prepared for a full-scale invasion. Museums, churches, castles and libraries had neither materials nor guidance on how to preserve the countrys valuable art. We had to start from scratch, Metelskiy said. We were asking for packaging materials. For financial support. For advice on how to preserve and package things. So with the government ... More | | 
Skanda on a Peacock is displayed at an event that celebrated the return of 30 antiquities to Cambodia, in New York, Aug. 8, 2022. Jeenah Moon/The New York Times.
by Julia Jacobs and Tom Mashberg
NEW YORK, NY.- American and Cambodian officials urged museums and private collectors Monday to investigate the origins of their Khmer art to determine whether it had been looted, and the officials demonstrated the pervasiveness of such thefts at an event that celebrated the return of 30 antiquities to Cambodia. Lined up behind the officials were seven masterpieces of the countrys ancient heritage, including a 10th-century sandstone statue known as Skanda on a Peacock that investigators say was stolen from a temple by a Khmer Rouge conscript and self-described looter in 1997. The Cambodian government will also welcome back a 5-foot-tall sculpture of a Hindu god, Ganesha, but the 4-ton sculpture was represented only in a poster Monday for fear that it would break elevators at the Manhattan offices of the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York. Both objects were said to have been plundered from the archaeological site at Koh Ker, capital of the ancient Khmer empire. The an ... More | | 
Manuel Ãlvarez Bravo, Retrato de lo Eterno (Portrait of the Eternal), 1935. Gelatin silver print. Image/sheet: 24.13 x19.37 National Gallery of Art, Washington. Nancy Rutter Clark Collection.
WASHINGTON, DC.- The National Gallery of Art has acquired eight works by four modern and contemporary African American photographers: Adger Cowans (b. 1936), Chester Higgins Jr. (b. 1946), Herman Howard (19421980), and Herb Robinson (b. unknown). Encouraged by Gordon Parks (19122006) and Roy DeCarava (19192009), they represent an important achievement in the history of photographythey empowered themselves to represent their own Black communities during the civil rights movement of the 1960s and 1970s. Cowans, Howard, and Robinson were all early members of the Kamoinge Workshop, a group of Black photographers formed in 1963 to study together and share their work and ideas. Their images join those of fellow Kamoinge ... More |
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| Like bees of the seas, these crustaceans pollinate seaweed | | MoMA PS1 opens exhibition on art and public space in New York City | | Koestler Arts announces details of its annual UK Exhibition to be curated by Ai Weiwei | 
In an undated image provided by Wilfried Thomas/Station Biologique de Roscoff, the spermatia, in green, are observed especially on the parts of the animal that are in contact with the algae the setae of pereiopods. Wilfried Thomas/Station Biologique de Roscoff via The New York Times.
by Annie Roth
NEW YORK, NY.- Move over, birds and bees. There is another pollinator on planet Earth, and it lives in the sea. In a study published late last month in the journal Science, scientists found that a tiny crustacean, Idotea balthica, plays the role of pollinator for a species of seaweed. They do this by inadvertently collecting the algaes sticky spermatia, its equivalent of pollen, on their bodies and sprinkling it around as they move from frond to frond in search of food and shelter. This is the first time an animal has been observed fertilizing algae. This discovery not only extends the scope of species ... More | | 
Tom Burr. A Ramble in Central Park (two). 1992. Wood, model building materials, and plexiglass. 22 x 22 x 25 3/8 in (56 x 56 x 65.4 cm). Courtesy the artist and Bortolami, New York.
LONG ISLAND CITY, NY.- This summer, MoMA PS1 presents Life Between Buildings, an exhibition that explores how artists have unlocked the communal potential of New York Citys interstitial spacesvacant lots, sidewalk cracks, traffic islands, and parks, among others. Inspired by the vibrant history of community gardens, Life Between Buildings brings together work by 14 artists and collectives, and features drawings, photographs, sculptures, multimedia works, and performances created from the 1970s through the present day. On view from June 2, 2022 to January 16, 2023, the exhibition includes work by Tom Burr, Mel Chin, Danielle De Jesus, Niloufar Emamifar, Becky Howland, David L. Johnson, Gordon Matta-Clark, Margaret Morton, Aki Onda, Poncili Creación, ... More | | 
Ai Weiwei. Photo: Ai Weiwei Studio.
LONDON.- Koestler Arts announced that their fifteenth Annual UK Exhibition in partnership with the Southbank Centre this October will be curated by Chinese contemporary artist, documentarian, and activist, Ai Weiwei. 2022 marks the 60th anniversary of the Koestler Awards and Ai Weiwei wants this landmark exhibition to be the most ambitious yet. The vision for the exhibition is inspired by the artists visit to the Koestler Arts building, which currently holds over 6,500 artworks entered into this years Awards. Taken aback by the quantity of artworks and the range of categories on display, Ai Weiweis concept evolved; to be as inclusive as possible and to let the artwork show how humanity responds when put in extreme circumstances. This year, the exhibition space at the Southbank Centre will be transformed physically to realise this vision, which will help to preserve the environment within which the artwork ... More |
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| Bellmans' August auctions proof that bidders don't take time off during the summer | | Gazelli Art House presents the debut solo exhibition of gallery represented artist Khaleb Brooks | | Jess T. Dugan joins CLAMP | 
Top lot of the auction was an early 20th Century diamond twin cluster jabot pin with a total carat weight of approximately 12.40cts. It had been estimated at £5,000 - £7,000 but the hammer finally came down at £16,000 (£20,224 including Buyer's Premium and VAT) and went to a bidder on Bellmans Live.
LONDON.- Bellmans saw this year's August auctions soaring ahead. Most of Bellmans' specialist departments contributed to this auction week held from 2nd to 5th August 2022 and included some lots from the Shakenhurst Hall estate, which is being sold over several auctions this summer and autumn (see separate release for more info). Lots included from the estate in the August auctions made over £90,000. The furniture auction also surprised with a return to higher prices for brown furniture, in particular mahogany of all styles and periods;and in the Asian sale, blue- and pink-ground bowls did particularly well. Bidders participated from all over the world, including Australia and there was active bidding in the room. Top lot of the auction was an early 20th Century diamond twin cluster ... More | | 
Khaleb Brooks, Love In Her Eyes: The Self Inflicted Pressure to Be Pro- found, 2018. Oil and leather on cotton, 147.3 Ã 147.3 cm. 58 Ã 58 in.
LONDON.- Gazelli Art House announced Can I Get A Witness, the debut solo exhibition of gallery represented artist Khaleb Brooks. Brooks is an interdisciplinary artist, researcher and writer exploring blackness, transness and collective memory. Rooted in personal experience, Can I Get A Witness offers a new range of mixed media, oil paintings, installations and sound-based works that chart the various angles and journeys of the artists life. An intimate display of medical scans that memorialise the artists body before undergoing gender-affirming surgery is placed alongside mixed media imagery grappling with the historical policing of black women exploring empowerment as a tool of survival. Informed by and reflective of Brooks characteristically multifaceted approach, the exhibition weaves themes such as femininity, girlhood, queerness, family, and the black church through these elements. ... More | | 
Jess T. Dugan, Self-portrait (blue room), 2021, Archival pigment print. © Jess T. Dugan.
NEW YORK, NY.- CLAMP announced that photographer Jess T. Dugan has joined the gallery's roster of artists. The artist's first solo show with the gallery will open on November 3, 2022. The exhibition will feature photographs from Dugan's new book titled Look at me like you love me from MACK. The photographs in Look at me like you love me come from the recent series "Every Breath We Drew," which explores the power of identity, desire, and connection through portraiture. Working within the framework of queer experience, the portraits examine the intersection between private, individual identity and the search for intimate connection with others. Rather than attempting to describe a specific identity or groupthe gender identity and sexual orientation of the subjects varies"Every Breath We Drew" asks larger questions about how identity is formed, desire is expressed, and intimate connection is sought. Jess T. Dugan received their MFA in Pho ... More |
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EP 7. Designing the exhibition | Unpacking the Universe: The Making of an Exhibition
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| More News |
 Cherokee Museum granted land use permit for future collections facilityCHEROKEE, NC.- The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI) has issued a land use permit allowing the Museum of the Cherokee Indian to operate an offsite facility housing Museum collections, archives, and Tribal artifacts. The permit follows a February resolution that designated a piece of land in Swain County, near Bryson City, for the future building. The MCI Board of Directors is pleased to have completed this next step in the process of constructing an off-site Museum collections and archives facility, Museum of the Cherokee Indian Board President Samantha Ferguson said. We are grateful to Chief Sneed, Vice Chief Ensley, and Tribal Council for their continued support in the development of a state-of-the-art home for the Museums object and paper archives. The locationjust over seven miles from Cherokees Cultural District ... More  The Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp will reopen on 24 September 2022ANTWERP.- On 24 September 2022, the Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp (KMSKA) will reopen its doors to the public. For the past 11 years, Flanders leading museum has been undergoing a radical rebuilding and expansion gaining 40% more exhibition space. The exceptional art collection has also been given a complete restoration and conservation treatment. The masterpieces will once again resume their place in the museum, and in September, the public will be able to explore seven centuries of outstanding art in a completely new scenography. The KMSKA hosts the largest art collection in Flanders: seven centuries of art from Flemish Primitives to Expressionists with world-famous masters including the largest collection in the world of James Ensor and Rik Wouters. The renewed KMSKA focuses on looking at art and also on experiencing art: it is ... More  In defense of 'Diana,' the show we didn't deserveNEW YORK, NY.- Broadways comeback season was a hurricane. Not even the heavily awarded revival of a Stephen Sondheim favorite such as Company could withstand shaky ticket sales brought on by a pandemic-wary theatergoing community. There was still much to praise, and much that will be seared into memory. But more than most other musicals that opened last season, the one whose songs and sheer audacity stand the best chance to live on in my heart and on my shower playlists is the one that shone briefly, amid a deluge of vitriol. The one that played a mere 59 performances, and whose Netflix presentation won five Razzie Awards: the ill-fated Diana, the Musical. This week, Roe Hartrampf, the shows nefarious Prince Charles, will play a two-night engagement at 54 Below, joined by Jeanna de Waal (who portrayed Princess Diana ... More  At Mostly Mozart concerts, casual vibes and high musical valuesNEW YORK, NY.- The Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra bears the name of a festival that no longer exists, but over the last three weeks, it played 12 concerts that showed it still has a place in the new creative landscape at Lincoln Center. In April, Lincoln Center announced a newly streamlined festival for this year, Summer for the City, that subsumed (or really replaced) a sprawling collection of offerings, including the Mostly Mozart Festival and Midsummer Night Swing. Lincoln Centers chief artistic officer, Shanta Thake, has said that the organization plays a civic role, so while the updated lineup still sprawls, its emphasis is squarely on community. Social dances, celebratory gatherings for Pride and Juneteenth and a tribute to Brooklyn-born hip-hop star Notorious B.I.G. have filled the schedule, with many events at no cost. Classical music, a longtime ... More  High scores abound as $384,000 copy of 'Legend of Zelda' drives Heritage's Video Game Auction to $4.46 millionDALLAS, TX.- Its a secret to everyone except those paying attention over the weekend: The Legend of Zelda again reigns supreme among collectors of classic video games. The single highest-graded copy of The Legend of Zelda with its original round seal of quality sold Friday for $384,000 to top Heritage Auctions three-day Video Games Signature® Auction. This example of the 1987 NES Nintendo classic is something of a holy grail: the sole known Round SOQ copy graded Wata 9.6 A+, and one of only six known 9.6s of any variant, including the Classic Series re-release in 1992. Which explains the bidding war over the title and the rupees needed to claim the prize offered during this spectacular, completely sold-out ... More  David McCullough, bestselling explorer of America's past, dies at 89NEW YORK, NY.- David McCullough, who was known to millions as an award-winning, bestselling author and an appealing television host and narrator with a rare gift for re-creating the great events and characters of Americas past, died Sunday at his home in Hingham, Massachusetts, southeast of Boston. He was 89. The death was confirmed by his daughter Dorie Lawson. No specific cause was given. McCullough won Pulitzer Prizes for two presidential biographies, Truman (1992) and John Adams (2001). He received National Book Awards for The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal (1977) and Mornings on Horseback (1981), about the young Theodore Roosevelt and his family. Deep research and lively readability were hallmarks of his books and so was their tendency to leap off the shelves. Truman ... More  Rakajoo opens his first solo exhibition in China at Danysz ShanghaiSHANGHAI.- Rakajoos Paris is the one of the Moulin Rouge and Montmartre, those popular neighborhoods with festive nightlife. With City of Lights, his first solo exhibition in China at Danysz Shanghai, the Parisian artist paints an intimate portrait of his city: a realistic Paris, the Paris known for its spectacular parties and its café terraces, which could be described as a restful asylum, like a reassuring case that allows one to take the time to observe the world through the prism of a glass. Rakajoo's Paris is also the link he maintains with the masters of modern art such as Picasso and Toulouse-Lautrec, to whom he pays a penetrating tribute. Inspired by the image of the City of Lights drawn up before him by these illustrious painters who have marked the history of art and who have fed his inspiration, Rakajoo opens the doors of his intimacy, painting the places that are familiar to him, those in which he grew up, those ... More  RISD Museum opens 'Helina Metaferia We've Been Here Before'PROVIDENCE, RI.- This installationpresented in the cafe and on the courtyard wall just outside the museums entrancefeatures portraits of BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and people of color) women and femmes, or people who adopt a feminine appearance, manner, or persona. Metaferia, an Ethiopian American artist based in New York City, photographed these and other local people in a 2021 workshop with the museums Education Department. She then conducted research at libraries and archives at RISD and Brown University to source historical images. Each subject wears a headdress largely composed of images from protests that relate to an aspect of their identity, as well as their own family photographs. The designs framing the portraits were drawn from Jamaican, Japanese, and Peruvian objects in the museums collection, ... More  Firetti Contemporary presents a collective exhibition including ten women artists from the UAEDUBAI.- Firetti Contemporary is presenting Eyes Wide Shut, a collective exhibition including ten women artists from the UAE, Iran, Armenia, Ukraine, Palestine, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon and Kuwait. The exhibition embodies a visual exploration of a wide range of socio-political issues through multidisciplinary mediums, such as painting, collage, video, and installation. Eyes Wide Shut is a dialogue of individual styles by women artists belonging to three different generations (Generation X, Millennials and Generation Z) who, whilst navigating their own path, question familiar narratives and shed light on pressing issues. Collectively, the artists in Eyes Wide Shut investigate a variety of themes, including cultural and gender identity; interpersonal relationships; and more broad sociopolitical dynamics, both in their locale and beyond. Individually, their probing investigations ... More  'The Devil Wears Prada' review: An adaptation that needs tailoringNEW YORK, NY.- A movie-to-musical that wants to have its cake and eat it, too, and still fit into a sample size, The Devil Wears Prada, opened at the James M. Nederlander Theater on Sunday. With music by rock god Elton John and lyrics by off-Broadway sweetheart Shaina Taub (Suffs), it had seemed poised to set a trend or two. Though the show takes place at a fashion magazine, its creative team doesnt seem to have agreed on a style. Is this a sincere story of a young womans education sentimental, professional, sartorial or a Fashion Week party? An inquiry into toxic workplace culture or an excuse to put an Eiffel Tower (technically, two Eiffel Towers) onstage? This is a show that has tried on everything in its closet. Nothing fits. Adapted from the 2006 film, itself adapted from Lauren Weisbergers 2003 roman à clef of her year at Condé Nast, it follows Andy Sachs (Taylor Iman Jones), a recent journalism graduate. Andy has big dreams. The Big Apple ... More  Alexander and Bonin presents an exhibition of works by NEW YORK, NY.- Alexander and Bonin and Brooke Alexander, Inc. are presenting (Re)Frame, a collaborative group exhibition that is organized to highlight the consideration of new contexts between artists that have extensive histories with each gallery. The exhibition is composed of both unique and editioned works made with varied media, from 1933 to the present, from Albers to Zaugg. Alexander and Bonin's current exhibition, (Re)Frame, was organized to instigate conversations between artists which are not usually in dialogue with one another. Sylvia Plimack Mangold and Robert Mangold are often associated biographically, but over the course of their long and influential careers, their work has rarely been exhibited together. Sylvia Plimack Mangold has concentrated on the landscape surrounding her upstate New York home since the 1970s. The Maple Tree (1990) depicts the tree standing just outside the artistâs studio window, a long-time subje ... More |
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Flashback On a day like today, American fashion designer Michael Kors was born August 09, 1959. Michael Kors (born Karl Anderson, Jr.; August 9, 1959) is an American fashion designer. He is best known for designing classic American sportswear for women. In this image: Heidi Klum, Nina Garcia and Michael Kors pose for a photograph while doing an interview promoting the launch of the new season of Project Runway in Times Square on Thursday, July 19, 2012.
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