Art Industry News: Australia’s Prime Minister Is Eliminating Its Federal Art Department + 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, December
6.

NEED-TO-READ

Science Museum Is Accused Covering
Up Its $2.6 Million Gift  – London’s Science Museum plans to hang on to a
£2 million ($2.6 million) donation from the Sacklers. The activist
group Culture Unstained has accused the museum of trying to hide
the “dirty money.” It has not spent the gift on its intended
purpose—new galleries about medical history—but plans instead to
spend the money on other projects. A museum spokesperson say says the gift “would
be most effectively applied to support work across the
museum.” (Guardian)

French Strikes Shutter Museums
– Museums across France shut or
reduced their opening hours on Thursday because of strikes, and they’re still going on
today. The mass walkout of workers is a protest against
president Emmanuel
Macron’s plan
to overhaul France’s pension
system. The Louvre has shut some galleries while the Musée d’Orsay,
Palais de Tokyo, and Musée Guimet remain closed in Paris. The major
El Greco show at the Grand Palais has stayed open, however.
Monuments that are closed include the Eiffel Tower.
(ARTnews)

Australia Cuts Its Federal Arts
Department – Prime minister Scott
Morrison of Australia has announced that he will ax the country’s
federal Communications and Arts Department as of February 2020. The
move marks “a massive backwards step culturally for Australia,”
according to Esther Anatolitis, executive director of the
National Association for the Visual Arts, who added that she was
“gobsmacked” by the decision. The old body will now be part of a
new federal agency called Infrastructure, Transport, Regional
Development and Communications. It remains unclear how the arts
resources will be affected. (SBS News)

Artists Apologize for Use of Holocaust Victims’ Ashes –
A German collective has apologized
for incorporating an urn containing Holocaust victims’ ashes in a
temporary memorial. The group, called the Centre for Political Beauty (ZPS), unveiled its anti-Nazi
installation on Monday in Berlin. It was immediately condemned
as insensitive and tactless by some Jewish leaders and the 
International Auschwitz Committee. The ZPS issued a statement
regretting hurt caused to Jewish institutions, associations or
individuals “who feel that our work disturbed the peace required
for the dead.” The memorial stands opposite the Reichstag in
Berlin. (BBC)

ART MARKET

London Old Master Sales Lack
Sparkle – Sotheby’s Old Master
sales in London totaled £14.2 million ($18.6 million), which is less
than half the equivalent sale last year. Christie’s managed better
with a sale totaling £24.2 million ($31 million) this week.
(The Art
Newspaper)

$150,000 in Stolen Art Returned to a Toronto
Woman – A Canadian auction house discovered that
six paintings consigned for sale were listed as stolen in art
databases and returned the works to their rightful owner, a woman
in Toronto. A thief had broken into the woman’s storage unit and
made off with works by artists David Alexander, Casey McGlynn,
Merdie MacPhee and Oscar Lakeman. (Claims
Journal)

Master Drawings New York Reveals 2020
Highlights – For the 14th edition of the
week-long gallery event, 25 dealers will present drawings,
paintings, watercolors, sculptures, and oil sketches created
between the 14th and 21st centuries. David Tunick  will
show a pastel by Odilon Redon, Didier Aaron has a drawing
of a monk by Domenico Tiepolo, and Jill Newhouse
Gallery
will show a watercolor by Paul Cézanne, among many other
works. (Press release)

COMINGS & GOINGS

US College Removes the Sackler Name
– Tufts University is stripping
the Sackler name from its buildings and programs because of “the
human toll” of the opioid epidemic. The activist artist Nan Goldin,
an alum of Tufts, welcomed the news, posting on Instagram: “My alma mater is the
first to do the right thing… Tell your schools to follow their
lead.” A lawyer for the Sackler family has criticized the
decision. (TAN)

Houston Contemporary Names Director
– The Contemporary Arts
Museum Houston has named
Hesse McGraw as its new director. He succeeds Bill Arning, who
abruptly resigned last year. McGraw is a former head of exhibitions
at the San Francisco Art Institute who is currently a partner in a
design firm. (ARTnews)

FOR ART’S SAKE

Civil War Soldiers Used Hair Dye
for Their Selfies – Archeologists have discovered bottles
containing dye used by soldiers during the American Civil War to
darken their hair when they sat for their portrait photographs
because light colored hair appeared gray or white in early
photography. The discovery was made at the site of a fort in
Kentucky. (Smithsonian)

Experts Reveal Egyptian Mummies’
Hidden Body Art – Ancient
Egyptian women were fans of body art. Using infrared images,
experts have discovered tattoos, which are nearly invisible to the
human eye, on ancient mummified bodies. Anne Austin of the
University of Missouri, St. Louis, says that discovering the
crosses, baboons, and hieroglyphics
on the bodies was “quite magical.” (Smithsonian)

Pantone Declares 2020 the Year of
Classic Blue – The company’s
annual color forecast is “Classic Blue.” After a year of coral
pink, Pantone has declared that a dark shade of blue fits the
anxious mood on the eve of 2020. It has even commissioned an
installation in the topical hue. Leatrice Eiseman, the executive director of the
Pantone Color Institute, says think of the “color of blueberries, a
Pepsi can, and the sky” at the end of a beautiful day. The company
denied that its choice was a sly political endorsement.
(New York Times) (Instagram)

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Eliminating Its Federal Art Department + Other Stories appeared
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