Art Industry News: A Smooth-Talking Art Thief Gives Advice on Where to Hide Your Loot + 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 Thursday, May
28.

NEED-TO-READ

Baltimore Museum Redirects Funds to Local Galleries –
The Baltimore Museum of Art is
redirecting funds totaling $100,000 from a cancelled speaker series
to boost the local community. Money from the series will be
diverted to three new initiatives designed to aid galleries,
artists, and its audience. BMA Salon invites 20 local galleries to
present a weeklong exhibition on the museum’s website; BMA
Screening Room will offer 50 artists a licensing fee in exchange
for the right to screen their work for four months online; and BMA
Studio will distribute 1,400 art-making kits to members of the
community. (The Art Newspaper)

Ai Weiwei Creates 10,000 Masks for Charity
– The Chinese artist and
activist has printed 10,000 face masks emblazoned with images of
his best-known artworks to be sold for charity through eBay. The
masks, which were silk-screened by hand at Ai’s Berlin studio (the
artist is based in Cambridge, UK), will be sold for $50 each, $300
for a pack of four, and $1,500 for a collection of 20. All the
proceeds will go to coronavirus humanitarian efforts led by Human
Rights Watch, Refugees International, and Médecins Sans Frontières.
(Guardian)

An Art Thief on Where to Hide Your Loot – Octave Durham, who went to prison for stealing
two paintings by Vincent van Gogh in 2004, served 25 months behind
bars before the works he stole were found inside a kitchen wall
near Naples. “My no. 1 rule is talk smooth, be cool, have a fast
car, and never touch anyone,” Durham says. He did not have a buyer
before he stole the works, though he quickly found interested
parties. “It’s not like doing a bank job… I understand now that
people really like art and if you steal it people are going to get
mad and get hurt. I understand that now, even if I still don’t have
that feeling myself.” (New York Times)

P.A.I.N. Offers to Help
Opioid Crisis Victims File Claims Against Purdue
–  The artist Nan Goldin and her activist group
P.A.I.N. (Prescription Addiction Intervention Now) have launched a
new initiative, OxyJustice.org, to help victims of the
opioid crisis file claims with US Bankruptcy Court against the drug
manufacturer Purdue Pharma. The goal is to increase the number of
personal injury claims filed against Purdue in an effort to provide
aid to victims and capture the impact of the damage caused by
Purdue. (TAN)

ART MARKET

This Boston Dealer Started a Gallery During Lockdown –
Dealer LaiSun Keane opened her
eponymous gallery this April—a bit of an unusual move. The art
dealer had recently split with former business partner Lucy Lacoste
and did not want to wait to launch her new venture. Her gallery’s
virtual-forward approach includes online receptions as she runs the
business from her house outside of Boston until the global health
situation subsides. (Boston Globe)

Sotheby’s Offer African Sculpture in a Contemporary Sale
– Continuing the trend of mixing genres in
contemporary sales, the auction
house will include a Fang-Betsi reliquary head alongside
postwar masterpieces by Francis Bacon and Richard Diebenkorn
in its June 29 auction. The reliquary, from the holdings of
prominent New York collectors Sidney and Bernice Clyman, is
estimated at $2.5 million to $4 million. Other works from the
Clymans’ African art collection will be offered in a dedicated sale
on June 30. (Art Market Monitor)

Chart Art Fair Plans a Socially Distanced Event
– Denmark’s Chart Art Fair is planning a
decentralized format for its eighth edition, to be held from August
28 to 30. The 28 participating galleries in Copenhagen and across
four other Nordic capitals—Helsinki, Oslo, Reykjavik, and
Stockholm—will install their planned booths in their galleries
instead of at the Kunsthal Charlottenborg. (The difference between
this and regular gallery shows is… still slightly unclear.) In
another novel move, the fair will direct galleries to show only
work by women artists, an effort to address the ongoing gender
imbalance in the art market. (Financial
Times)

Hauser & Wirth Snaps Up the Estate of Sophie Taeuber-Arp
– The Swiss avant-garde artist
will be the 30th estate to be taken on by the gallery. Known for
her role in the Dada and Surrealist movements, she has long been
overlooked due in part to her status as Hans Arp’s first wife and
her early death from accidental carbon monoxide poisoning at age
53. A major retrospective of her work is planned for March 2021 at
Kunstmuseum Basel before traveling to Tate Modern and
MoMA. (Financial Times)

COMINGS & GOINGS

Sculptor Peter Alexander Has Died – The Los Angeles-based artist Peter Alexander
has died at age 81. The sculptor was best known for the captivating
work he made as part of the 1960s California Light and Space
movement. “Whether through resin sculpture or velvet painting,
Alexander actively sought to capture light through environmental
sensation,” his galleries said in a statement. (ARTnews)

The High Museum Reveals Reopening Plans – The High Museum of Art in Atlanta will reopen
to the public on July 18 with exhibitions dedicated to the Ghanaian
fantasy coffin-maker Paa Joe, female artists in the collection, and
European prints. Before that, it will offer special access to its
members and frontline workers from July 7 through 17.
(Press
release)

FOR ART’S SAKE

Canada Announces Curator for Its Venice Biennale Pavilion
– The Vancouver- and Los
Angeles-based artist Stan Douglas, who was previously selected to
represent Canada at the (now 2022) Venice
Biennale, has chosen curator Reid Shier to organize the exhibition.
The director of Polygon Gallery has worked with the artist on
various shows since the ’90s. (North Shore News)

Art Dealer Donates €5 Million Painting to the Rijksmuseum
– The art dealer and collector
Bob Haboldt has donated a painting by a Flemish Old Master to the
Rijksmuseum in memory of the victims of coronavirus. The work by
the 16th century painter Bartholomeus Spranger, called
Dead Christ Supported by
Angels (1587), is
estimated to be worth around €5 million ($5.5 million).
(Le Figaro)

Artist Behind the 13-Foot Kookaburra Sculpture Explains
Himself – The artist who made a
giant sculpture of a laughing Kookaburra during lockdown explains
why he did it. Farvardin Daliri’s creation has stolen the hearts of
Twitter users (including New York
Times art critic Roberta Smith). The artist, who is
an Iranian immigrant, said he views birds as a symbol of arrival in
a foreign land. “This is the common ground,” he said, “the land and
habitat, owned by indigenous people for thousands of years. That’s
what it is. In this land, birds laugh at us.” The work will soon be
shown at the Townsville Cultural Festival in Australia.
(The Cut)

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Advice on Where to Hide Your Loot + Other Stories appeared
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