Art Industry News: Banksy Reveals What He Had Planned for His Post-Brexit Mural + Other Stories

Art Industry News is a daily digest of the most
consequential developments coming out of the art world and art
market. Here’s what you need to know on this Friday, September
13.

NEED-TO-READ

Bahamas’s National Gallery Recovers From Storm –
The director of the National Art
Gallery of the Bahamas in Nassau says its priority is helping those
who were displaced by Hurricane Dorian, although the museum itself
was damaged by the storm.
“We’re dealing with people first,” said director Amanda Coulson.
She has teamed up with the artist Angelika Wallace-Whitfield to create “Bahamas
Strong” T-shirts, with the proceeds from sales going to support the
worst affected. The art museum has also launched the “We Gatchu”
campaign, working with mental health professionals to support
survivors of the storm. People housed in shelters can catch a free
bus to visit the museum and attend meetings and meditation
sessions. “The whole country is traumatized,” Coulson says.
(ARTnews)

Ex-British Museum Director Warns Against Restitution –
Former British Museum director
Neil MacGregor has pushed back against the Sarr-Savoy
report recommending
the restitution of African art looted during the colonial era.
MacGregor, who has played a key role in shaping Berlin’s
new Humboldt
Forum, which will house
its ethnography collection, called the report “extreme,” and
criticized the French President Emmanuel Macron, who commissioned
it. MacGregor restated his preference for loans of disputed
artifacts, warning that even these could have unintended
consequences. He claimed the director of the National Museum of Iran Azedah Ardakani fired and jailed because of
political controversies that followed the British Museum’s loan of
the Cyrus cylinder to Tehran in 2011. (Times)

Banksy Speaks Out After Anti-Brexit Mural Is Censored –
Banksy was naturally upset when his
anti-Brexit mural was whitewashed in Dover. He has now posted an image to show how he had planned
to update that mural the day Britain leaves the European Union,
should Brexit happen on October 31. It shows the EU flag lying
crumpled on the floor as a workman on a ladder keeps chipping away
at Britain’s gold star. Banksy dismissed his mural being
mysteriously censored, writing: “Never mind. I guess a big white flag says it
just as well.” Dover’s
local MP, who is a Conservative Leave supporter, said the
mural Banksy
painted on an empty hotel building in 2017 should have been protected by Historic England.
A spokeswoman for the heritage agency said that the work of art was
too new to qualify for listed status. (Kent Online)

Nan Goldin Protests the Sacklers’ “Fake Settlement” –
The activist-artist and
the campaign group P.A.I.N. staged a die-in protest at Purdue Pharma’s HQ
in Connecticut. In a statement, the group denounced the Sacklers’
proposed deal to avoid a court case over the company’s marketing of
the addictive opioid drug Oxycontin as a “fake settlement” and a
“hoax.” Goldin and P.A.I.N. allege that the Sacklers “fraudulently
transferred” $4 billion from Purdue Pharma into offshore accounts
to protect it from litigation. “They shamelessly offer billions in
Oxycontin, their drug that ignited this crisis, to pay off their
debt,” it added. The protest came as the company holds talks with
US attorney generals in an attempt to strike a possible $12 billion
deal. (Press release)

ART MARKET

The “Last” Botticelli Comes to Frieze Masters –
The Old Master painting, which has
been on loan to the Prado museum in Madrid for more than a decade,
will go on sale at Frieze Masters next month at Trinity Fine Art’s
booth. The Botticelli has been consigned by the Spanish collector Dona Helena Cambo de
Guardans and her family, who are hoping the work will sell for at
least $37 million. (The Art Newspaper)

Johann König Criticizes Berlin Art Week – The German
art dealer told Monopol magazine that the annual
Berlin Art Week, which
is government-supported and currently taking place
across the German city, is of no benefit to the local art
market. “Art Week doesn’t work at all as an instrument for
promoting the economy,” he said. “There are numerous small project
spaces, but not a single commercial gallery [is involved]. The
auction house Grisebach, an important player in the art trade in
Berlin, is also not involved. I don’t understand why the money from
the economic development agency is being used for
this.” (Monopol)

COMINGS & GOINGS

Photographer Fred Herzog
Has Died at 88 – The esteemed Canadian photographer has
died at 88, according to his art dealer, Equinox
Gallery. Herzog was a master of color photography before the
medium was technically well understood or respected as an art
form. (Art Daily)

The Biennale of Sydney
Releases Its Artist List – The Australian biennial
has revealed its artist list for the 2020 edition, which will run
from March 14 to June 8 next year. The show will include 98 artists
and collectives and focus on “unresolved past
anxieties and hidden layers of the supernatural,” according to
curator Brook Andrew. Participants include Arthur Jafa, Huma
Bhabha, and Nicholas Galanin, one of the artists who pulled out of the
Whitney Biennial. (ARTnews)

Tiananmen Square
Tank Man Photographer Has Died – Charlie Cole
photographed the unforgettable image of a man standing in front of
a line of military tanks at the 1989 pro-democracy protests in
Beijing. The Indonesia-based photographer was 64.
(BBC)

FOR ART’S SAKE

Pushkin Museum Absorbs
Regional Institutions – The Pushkin State Museum of Fine
Arts in Moscow is planning to take over Russia’s National Centre
for Contemporary Arts, which has nine branches that span all the
way from Kaliningrad to Tomsk, 4,000 kilometers away. The major
merger of institutions is inspired by the Tate Modern’s franchise
in London. (TAN)

Findings on Why People
Go to Museums – VisitBerlin and
Leading Culture Destinations
released their findings on how much of a driver culture
actually is as a boost to tourism. According to the
study, 67 percent of tourism professionals believe that cultural
organizations like museums and and tourism boards need to work
together on a single digital strategy. Most tourism professionals
believe that cultural institutions and museums are the prime
drivers in communicating a city’s unique identity, yet almost 80
percent of arts and culture organizations do not have a dedicated
person to manage their tourism strategy. (Press
release)

John Lennon’s Strawberry
Fields Will Open to the Public – A Salvation
Army children’s home near where Lennon grew up in Liverpool was
immortalized by The Beatles’ famous song Strawberry Fields
Forever. Now, the venue will open its gates to the public
as a tourist attraction and youth centre. (BBC)

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Planned for His Post-Brexit Mural + Other Stories appeared
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