Art Industry News: Ai Weiwei Says He Moved Out of Germany Because Germans Can Be ‘Very Rude’ + 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 Wednesday, January
22.

NEED-TO-READ

Former Italian Diplomat Convicted in Cairo for Antiquities
Smuggling – A criminal court in
Cairo has convicted the former honorary consul of Italy in Luxor,
Cav. Ladislav Otakar Skakal, for smuggling Egyptian antiquities out
of the country. He has been embroiled in the smuggling of 21,855
artifacts from the port of Alexandria, which were uncovered in a
diplomatic shipping container. Skakal, whose whereabouts are
unknown, was not present for the trial in which he was sentenced to
15 years in prison. (ARCA
Blog)

Artist Ann Hirsch Accuses Vimeo of Censorship –
The feminist artist Ann Hirsch has
called out the video-sharing platform Vimeo for deleting her
channel. Hirsch says Vimeo told her that her videos were deleted
because they contained content that provided “sexual stimulation.”
She had more than 50 art videos on the site, which often contain
representations of women and sexuality in the digital realm. The
story has a reasonably happy ending, however: yesterday evening,
Vimeo restored her account. “Excited that Vimeo is still a friend
for artists and especially women artists,” Hirsch wrote on Twitter.
(ARTnews, Twitter)

Ai Weiwei Slams Germans’ Bad Manners –
The dissident Chinese artist Ai
Weiwei has left Germany, the country that gave him asylum after he
fled China in 2015, and has been living in Cambridge in the UK for
the past four months. In a new interview, he explains why he
relocated: He found Germany to be intolerant, bigoted, and
authoritarian. He expressed his unhappiness at having been urged to
speak German in Germany. “In Britain they are colonial,” Ai said.
“They are polite at least. But in Germany, they don’t have this
politeness. They have been very rude in daily situations. They
deeply don’t like foreigners.” (Guardian)

Alleged Bronzino Seized
in Old Master Forgery Scandal – A work owned
by the Alana Collection in New Jersey has been seized by French
authorities from an exhibition at the Musée Jacquemart-André in
Paris, where the painting was on loan. Saint Cosmas dates
to around 1544 and is thought to be by Italian painter Agnolo di
Cosimo, better known as Bronzino. But the work is suspected to
have been owned by French art collector Giuliano Ruffini, who
is at the center of a forgery scandal that has embroiled a number
of Old Masters now under investigation.
The painting was purchased by the Alana Collection in 2011 an an
undisclosed sum. (The Art
Newspaper) 

ART MARKET

Koenig & Clinton Gallery Closes – The Brooklyn-based gallery owned by Leo Koenig
and Margaret Liu Clinton, which has worked with artists
including Olivier Mosset, American Artist, and Maria
Hassabi, is closing after seven years. In an email sent to friends
and clients, the partners say they have decided to pursue
independent endeavors. Leo Koenig Inc. will continue to focus on
secondary market activities though the gallery Century Pictures.
(Press
release)

CalArts Alumni Contribute to Fundraising Auction –
The artists Tony Oursler, Carrie
Mae Weems, and the late John Baldessari have contributed art to
help fund student scholarships at their alma mater, the California
Institute of the Arts. The university has recruited 50 alumni to
make work that will be sold to finance an endowment dedicated to
scholarships. The works will be produced as limited editions and
released 10 at a time over the next five years. (The Art
Newspaper)

Christie’s Modern British Sale Totals $10 Million –
Christie’s Modern British Art sale
in London generated $10.1 million, selling 76 percent by lot. The
auction house says there was a particularly “spirited” response to
works from the Dr. Jeffrey Sherwin Collection, the Jeremy Lancaster
Collection, and the Richard L. Weisman Collection.
(Press
release)

COMINGS & GOINGS

Portland Art Museum Gets
the Largest Gift in Its History – Philanthropist
Arlene Schnitzer has gifted the Portland Art Museum $10 million,
the largest personal donation ever made to the institution. The
money will go toward the construction of the
Rothko Pavilion, a glassed-in area that will connect its two
main buildings. (Portland
Tribune)

Museu de Arte São Paulo
Acquired 296 Works by Women Last Year – The
Brazilian institution dedicated its entire program last year to
women artists (sound familiar?) with
shows including a survey by Laure Prouvost and thematic exhibitions
on women in art history. During that time, it also acquired 256
artworks by artists who identify as female, including Ruth Buchanan
and Leonor Antunes. (Artforum)

Francis Alÿs Honored by
the Whitechapel – The Belgian artist was
honored as the 2020 Whitechapel Gallery Art Icon at a benefit
dinner last night. Ticket sales for the event helped raise
£235,320 ($307,215) for the institution’s education and community
programs. There was also a silent auction of works by artists
including rising star Alvaro Barrington,
William Kentridge, and Alÿs. (Press release)

New Director of MUAC
Announced – Amanda de la Garza will lead the National
Autonomous University of Mexico’s University Museum of Contemporary
Art in Mexico City. De la Garza joined MUAC—Mexico’s first museum
dedicated solely to contemporary art—as an adjunct curator in 2012.
(Artforum)

FOR ART’S SAKE

A German Court Will Rule
on Appeal to Remove Anti-Semitic Relic – A court in
Naumburg, Germany, has suggested that it will probably rule against
a bid to have an anti-Jewish relief removed from the side of a
14th-century church and placed into a museum context. The court
said the public is unlikely to view the relic as an expression of
the church’s current beliefs. The relief, called “Jewish Pig,”
depicts a rabbi looking inside a pig’s rectum and Jewish people
suckling on its teats. (Courthouse
News)

US Supreme Court Delays
Guelph Treasure Appeal – The court has delayed deciding
whether to hear an appeal from Germany’s state museums against the
descendants of a group of German Jewish art dealers who claim they
are the rightful owners of the Guelph Treasure, which
is valued at around €200 million ($222 million). The items are
currently at Berlin’s Applied Arts Museum. The Berlin state
museums maintain that because the Jewish dealers negotiated the
sale with Germany for over a year, the pieces were not sold under
duress, and therefore their ownership is not a matter of
international law. (The Art
Newspaper)

KFC, Panda Express, or
Frieze LA? – Los Angeles arts reporter and filmmaker
Eric Minh Swenson got some laughs on social media for his sarcastic
query: Los Angeles out-of-towners (particularly those from outside
the US), what are you most excited about: the upcoming Frieze art
fair or fantastic fast food? (Facebook)

The post Art Industry News: Ai Weiwei Says He Moved Out of
Germany Because Germans Can Be ‘Very Rude’ + Other Stories
appeared first on artnet News.