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THE HEADLINES
TITIAN FOR SALE. An early 16th century Titian painting once looted by Napoleon’s troops, and stolen again in the 1990’s, when it was left at a bus stop in a plastic bag, now heads to Christie’s where it is expected to fetch nearly $32 million. Lofty past owners in the painting’s tumultuous history include Empress Maria-Theresa of Austria, and the first Duke of Hamilton. This will be the first time in 150 years that Rest on the Flight into Egypt, painted around 1508, goes up for sale.
PRISON TIME. A Pennsylvania court has sentenced Earl Marshawn Washington, 61, to four years in prison for selling 15th century European woodcuts falsely attributed to Renaissance masters such as Albrecht Dürer, reports Francesca Aton for ARTnews. French and American collectors were among those duped into paying hundreds of thousands for the fakes. Washington was also helped by his then-wife Zsanett Nagy, and was sentenced for conspiracy to commit wire fraud and mail fraud, while ordered to pay $203,240.90 in restitution fees. Nagy received a two-year prison sentence and was ordered to pay about $107,159.25.
THE DIGEST
Endeavor Group, the Hollywood talent company that owns the art fair and media company Frieze, is being taken private for a value of $13 billion, after a drab performance as a listed company. On Tuesday, the private equity firm Silver Lake said it has agreed to pay a 55 percent premium on Endeavor’s stock, compared to its late October value, at $27.50 per share. [Financial Times]
The Artemis Gallery in Louisville, Colorado has rebuffed demands from the Mexican government to stop the sale of historic artifacts “that belong to the culture of Mexico,” per a social media post by Mexican culture minister Alejandra Frausto Guerrero. However, a co-owner of the auction house, Teresa Dodge, defended the ongoing sale. “Just because any country says ‘you can’t sell this’ does not mean what we … sell is illegal. It’s not,” she said. [Artnet News]
Houthi rebel attacks in the Red Sea have impacted museum exhibitions, which can no longer ship through the Suez Canal. Artworks including 72 porcelain bubbles for an Ai Weiwei show in Bad Ischl, for instance, had to change course and sail around South Africa instead, according to Alfred Weidinger, managing director of the OO Landes-Kultur art institution. [Der Standard]
Kim Conaty has been named the Whitney Museum’s Chief Curator. She succeeds Scott Rothkopf, who was promoted to serve as the museum’s director in November. [ARTnews]
More than 300 artists and cultural workers have penned an open letter calling for the reinstatement of an April literary event in Manchester called, “Voices of Resilience,” that was canceled following claims its featured writer and Palestinian Authority culture minister, Atef Abu Saif, had made antisemitic remarks. [The Guardian]
UK archaeologists have discovered a Roman villa while preparing to build a housing development complex in Oxfordshire. The villa “complex” includes painted plaster, mosaic decorations, a trove of Roman artifacts, and a monumental “aisled building” measuring 500 square meters. [Euronews]
The Portland Art Museum is on track to open in 2025, following an expansion. The museum has raised 86.5% of its $141 million goal to revamp its facilities. [The Art Newspaper]
The Art Paris fair opens at the Grand Palais Ephèmère today, with 136 exhibiting galleries from 25 countries, including 60 percent from France. This edition’s curated theme focuses on the Arts & Craft movement and features a large selection of textile and ceramic works. [Le Quotidien de l’Art]
THE KICKER
THE NEW NUDE. A wave of exhibitions in New York this spring gives “fresh interpretations of the nude,” writes Julia Halperin for The New York Times. From the unsentimental, to a “warts-and-all approach,” contemporary artists are depicting “a more fluid, more inclusive and fuller understanding of the body,” while historic, previously excluded artists who explored this area are being re-examined. Along with mentioning current shows, from Gagosian’s exhibit of photographer Francesca Woodman, to Clarity Haynes at New Discretions, Halperin takes readers on a short, art-historical tour of the nude body as a subject. By looking back at Greek and European Renaissance renditions, Manet’s Olympia, and the exclusion of women from Western life drawing classes, it’s easier to see why today, “the nude, with all its art-historical baggage, is an efficient means for artists to telegraph how their own perspective is distinct,” she writes.