Art Movements is a weekly collection of news, developments, and stirrings in the art world.
The Academy of Art University agreed to a $60-million settlement with the city of San Francisco. A lawsuit filed by the city stated that 33 of the 40 buildings owned by the school were out of compliance with zoning, signage, and historic preservation laws. According to City Attorney Dennis Herrera, the Academy illegally converted 160 affordable residential units into student housing.
The Manhattan District Attorney’s office charged art dealer Nancy Wiener with trafficking illegal antiquities. The complaint alleges that Wiener provided fake paperwork for antiquities smuggled illegally from archaeological sites in Asia between 1999 and 2016.
Adventures in Moominland, the first UK exhibition dedicated to the Moomins and their creator, Tove Jansson, opened at the Royal Festival Hall in London. The show includes more than 40 original drawings by the Finnish artist, illustrator, and novelist.
Kimberley Motley, the American attorney representing Cuban dissident artist, Danilo “El Sexto” Maldonado Machado, was arrested in Havana according to the Human Rights Foundation.
David Schendowich, the marketing director of the Breman Museum in Atlanta, Georgia, accused Google of profiting from Holocaust denial. According to Schendowich, the museum is paying “up to $2 a click” to direct searchers to its website via AdWords, Google’s pay-per-click advertising service, so as to ecplise a right-wing website that recently began appearing as the top result for a Google search of “did the Holocaust happen.”
The New York State court dismissed a claim of wrongful termination by a former employee of the Dedalus Foundation — the organization founded by artist Robert Motherwell. According to The Art Newspaper, Joan Banach, a former member of the foundation’s catalogue raisonné committee, sold several of the artist’s work — which she claims were gifts from the artist — without informing the foundation of their existence. The court previously dismissed claims by Banach that she was entitled to lifetime employment under Motherwell’s will and that she was fired because she was a woman.
The Villa Namazee, Gio Ponti’s only building in Iran, will be demolished in order to make way for a new five-star hotel.
Columbia University filed a challenge over a recent vote by graduate assistants to unionize.
A court of appeal upheld the two-year suspended prison sentence for Pierre Le Guennec — Picasso’s former electrician — and his wife, Danielle. The couple hid 271 works stolen from the artist for over 40 years.
Jean-Louis Goldwater Bourgeois, the son of artist Louise Bourgeois, transferred the deed for his $4 million townhouse in the West Village to a non-profit organization run by the Lenape tribe.
The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden announced a long-term partnership with the US Department of State’s Office of Art in Embassies.
An eight-year-old girl from West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, received a message from the Louvre Museum after posting a letter marked “somewhere in Paris, any house.”
Transactions
The Amon Carter Museum of American Art acquired George Bellows’s “The Fisherman” (1917).
The J. Paul Getty Museum acquired a 1st-century carved gem depicting a nude woman and man. The scene, which is carved on translucent quartz, is thought to depict Aphrodite and Adonis.
The Van Gogh Museum acquired Paul Signac’s “The ‘Ponton de la Félicité’ at Asnières (Opus no. 143)” (1886).
The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation acquired six black-and white-vintage prints by photographer Berenice Abbott.
The Rijksmuseum acquired Jean-Étienne Liotard’s “A Dutch Girl at Breakfast” (1756).
The Stedelijk Museum and Museum of the Image in Breda jointly acquired 17 works of digital art. The acquisition includes works by Constant Dullaart, Rafaël Rozendaal, Floris Kaayk, JODI, Vuk Ćosić, and Olia Lialina.
A pastel by Claude Monet, “Etretat, L’Aigulle et La Porte d’Aval” (c. 1885), was allocated to the Scottish National Gallery through the Acceptance in Lieu scheme.
The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens acquired Charles Reiffel’s “Bit of Silvermine – The Old Farm House (1916), Henrietta Shore’s “Clivia” (1930), and Gaston Lachaise’s bronze sculpture, “The Peacocks” (1918).
The Saint Louis Art Museum acquired Rachel Whiteread’s “Detached III” (2012).
Transitions
Barbara Jatta was appointed the Vatican Museums’ first female director.
Lorenzo Benedetti was appointed director of the Kunstmuseum St. Gallen.
Priscilla Lovat Fraser was appointed director of the MAK Center for Art and Architecture in Los Angeles.
Magnus af Petersens was appointed director of the Bonniers Konsthall.
Aurélien Lemonier was appointed director of the National Museum for the History of Immigration in Paris [via email announcement].
Ronald S. Lauder joined the J. Paul Getty Museum’s board of trustees.
Marjorie E. Wieseman was appointed curator of European paintings and sculpture, 1500–1800, at the Cleveland Museum of Art.
Eugenio Viola was appointed senior curator of the Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts.
Robin Veder was appointed editor of American Art, the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s journal.
Cindy Bolton was appointed CFO of the Seattle Art Museum.
Nicholas Cohn was appointed director of development at A Blade of Grass.
The Morbid Anatomy Museum permanently closed.
Accolades
Lowery Stokes Sims will receive ArtTable’s Distinguished Service to the Visual Arts Award next year. The organization’s New Leadership Award will be presented to Lauren Cornell.
The Fleishhacker Foundation announced the grantees of its Eureka Fellowship Program.
Obituaries
Richard Bertoia (1954–2016), antique toy expert.
Howard L. Bingham (1939–2016), photographer.
Francis Huxley (1923–2016), anthropologist.
China Machado (1928–2016), first non-caucasian model to appear in an American fashion magazine.
Rachel Owen (1968–2016), artist and lecturer.
Claudio Pavone (1920–2016), historian.
John Wright (unconfirmed–2016), painter.
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